Theresa May has formally launched her election campaign with an attack on “European politicians and officials”, whom she accused of threatening Britain and trying to sabotage her attempt to win re-election. Standing on the steps of Number 10, Mrs May set out to inflame Brexit tensions, claiming that events of recent days showed that “there are some in Brussels who do not want these talks to succeed”. […]
The law justifying Britain’s Brexit bill is hotly contested, the variables in the calculation are legion and the negotiation has yet to start. But there can be no doubt that the EU’s €100bn demand to settle Britain’s exit dues is one of the biggest political dangers in the Brexit process. The Financial Times estimated the bill using the EU’s negotiating guidelines, the more detailed draft mandate for […]
News from the FT that the UK may face an initial Brexit bill of up to €100bn has dented sterling this morning. The currency fell by 0.2 per cent against the dollar to $1.29, nibbling into some of its eye-catching recent gains before recovering slightly. Against the euro, the pound is also down by 0.14 per cent to €1.1823. Broadly, the path for sterling since the general […]
Abu Dhabi // The prime minister of Libya’s UN-backed government and the country’s most powerful military commander met in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for direct talks on ending Libya’s conflict. The meeting came after months of international pressure and a failed attempt at negotiations in Cairo in February. The rival figures met face to face “thanks to international and Arab mediation”, according to Libya’s Lana news agency. […]
Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron have each promised to bring renewal to French politics. Still, the two insurgent candidates, who will go head to head in the second round of the presidential election on Sunday, have clashed over how to handle the challenges facing France. Ms Le Pen, of the National Front, is running on a populist, anti-immigration platform but has spurned economic liberalism in favour […]
Oman Air plans to move ahead with a multi-billion dollar order for wide-body jets early next year even though it won’t now break even in 2017 as the low oil price curbs growth in the Gulf. The carrier is now aiming to end losses by the end of next year, contingent on demand not deteriorating further, Chief Executive Officer Paul Gregorowitsch said in an interview on Tuesday. […]
By Nichola Saminather | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Asian stocks followed global indexes higher on Wednesday, as strong earnings and manufacturing data boosted risk appetite, while expectations that the Federal Reserve will signal a June rate increase later in the session lifted the dollar. Oil prices pulled higher after a sharp fall on Tuesday on technical selling in a market already worried about oversupply and following a rise in […]
By Andreas Rinke and Denis Pinchuk | SOCHI, Russia SOCHI, Russia German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on a rare visit to Russia, said that Berlin and Moscow had to keep talking despite their disagreements, but those same differences overshadowed her talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. At a news conference following a meeting in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, diverging positions were aired over […]
A forest with beetle-killed trees as seen from Mt. Fraser, British Columbia. Credit: Themightyquill/Wikimedia Commons The mountain pine beetle has destroyed more than 40 million acres of forest in the western United States. That amounts to an area the size of Washington state that is strewn with conifers left for dead. The beetles introduce a fungus that prevents critical nutrients and water from traveling within a tree. […]
SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER VALLETTA (AFP) – Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on Monday called a snap general election for June 3, bowing to pressure over his family being embroiled in the Panama Papers scandal. “Everybody knows about the attacks made in the past few days on me and my family. I have nothing to fear because I am clean,” Muscat told a large crowd in Valletta for […]
LONDON In his first day as a newspaper editor, former finance minister George Osborne taunted British leader Theresa May over her snap election strategy and “unrealistic” Brexit stance. Carrying a bundle of newspapers as he arrived at the offices of the Evening Standard, London’s daily metropolitan newspaper, Osborne said his editorship would provide “the straight facts and the informed analysis”. Osborne, 45, was dismissed last year as […]
Brussels is rushing out proposals to impose EU control on the City of London’s lucrative euro-clearing market, forcing UK operators to either relocate or be policed by European authorities. In a provocative regulatory salvo fired as Brexit talks begin, the European Commission is preparing to issue legislative proposals in June that would heavily restrict London’s ability to host one of its flagship financial businesses. The commission’s power […]
Greece has wrapped up a deal with creditors on details of reforms that must be enacted before the country can receive the next disbursement from its €86bn bailout programme. The deal, which covers a wide range of fiscal and structural measures, from fresh cuts in pensions to liberalising Sunday trading, was completed during intensive talks over the past week after months of wrangling between Greek finance ministry […]
PARIS Aides of French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Tuesday brushed off criticism of her use of phrases lifted straight from a speech by conservative rival Francois Fillon in her May Day address to supporters. Florian Philippot, deputy leader of Le Pen’s anti-European Union, National Front (FN) party, said the party “completely owned up” to the fact that the speech resembled one by Fillon a […]
Tuesday 06:00 BST Overview Stocks across Asia were mixed on Tuesday as investors grappled with Wall Street’s lowest level of volatility since before the financial crisis amid a holiday-interrupted week. European bourses are expected to open higher, with spreadbetters predicting the UK’s FTSE 100 will climb 26 points to 7,230 and Germany’s Dax to gain 22 points to 12,460. US index futures suggest the S&P 500 will […]
PANAMA CITY (AFP) – The co-founder of the law firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal says the fallout has set off a “thriving” boom in the creation of tax shelters in the United States. Juergen Mossack, who partnered with Ramon Fonseca to create the Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca, said in a document obtained on Thursday (April 21) by AFP that after the Panama Papers […]
US stock markets climbed higher on Monday, as bipartisan agreement over a US budget deal overpowered weak manufacturing data in the US and China, with European markets closed for the May bank holiday. The benchmark S&P 500 climbed 0.3 per cent by midday in New York on news of the budget deal, shrugging off an initial tumble when data from the Institute for Supply Management showed America’s […]
Hamas, the militant Islamist group, on Monday dropped a call for Israel’s destruction and endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state inside 1967 borders, in a rhetorical shift that analysts said reflected the group’s political ambitions and changing priorities in a new Middle East. A policy paper released in Doha by Khaled Meshaal, Hamas’s political leader, described the creation of an interim Palestinian state in the 1967 […]
By Michel Rose and Sudip Kar-Gupta | PARIS PARIS Centrist presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen attacked each other’s visions of France and the role it should play in Europe on Monday against a background of May Day rallies and protests. Macron sought for a third successive day to paint National Front (FN) candidate Le Pen as an extremist, while she portrayed […]
LONDON Europeans took to the streets on Monday, celebrating the international workers’ holiday of May Day with an assortment of rallies and demonstrations, which in France turned violent as protesters threw petrol bombs at police. One Paris police officer was seriously burnt and two others injured in confrontations with protesters. In Turkey, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up demonstrations and arrested hundreds. A […]
A club of top bankers, investors and Treasury officials will this week meet at the venerable Hay-Adams hotel in downtown Washington to discuss the US government’s borrowing plans. It could be a blockbuster meeting. The Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee meets quarterly to discuss with senior government officials the best way for the US to finance its budget deficit. It is made up of senior executives from hedge […]
Theresa May’s critics have attacked the British prime minister for having “no plan” over Brexit in the wake of a leaked account of a private dinner that heightened tensions between Brussels and London. A report published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung portrayed last Wednesday’s dinner between Mrs May and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker as a disaster. According to the FAZ, commission officials were astonished at Mrs […]
Besides the upcoming FOMC meeting on May 2-3, and French & Italian politics – the decisive runoff round of the French election takes place this Sunday – this week’s releases are dominated by US payrolls expected to come around 170k. The busy release calendar continues with Norges bank and RBA meetings as well as global manufacturing PMIs. The market’s focus during the week of 5/1 will begin […]
22 February 2016 – Journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia posted the first major hint that the biggest scandal in Maltese history was about to break. “It’s traditional to eat lamb on Easter Sunday, so Konrad Mizzi and his estranged wife Sai Mizzi Liang will be getting theirs from New Zealand, courtesy of their fixer Brian Tonna, who has a desk at the Auberge de Castille”. […]
