Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, has become one of the first chief executives to openly challenge President Donald Trump, criticising an executive order that pledges “extreme vetting” of immigrants and a ban on Syrian refugees. Responding to the order on Facebook, Mr Zuckerberg wrote that the US should be proud to be a nation of immigrants and focus on excluding only people who actually pose a threat. He […]
Europol praised international cooperation for having a big role in taking down the cybercriminals. Image: iStock Five members of an international organised cybercrime group have been arrested and three of them convicted so far as a result of a investigation by law enforcement agencies from Europe and Asia. The group used a variety of different cyberattacks to infect ATMs and force them to dispense money. Tactics included […]
WARSAW Poland wants to convince German Chancellor Angela Merkel during her trip to Warsaw in February to support its ideas for reforming the European Union, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said on Saturday. Poland’s year-old government, led by the conservative and eurosceptic and Law and Justice (PiS) party, believes that central EU institutions in Brussels wield too much power and is lobbying for reforms that would strengthen […]
But in interviews with dozens of officials, analysts and ordinary citizens across Muslim-majority countries, there was overwhelming agreement that the order issued Friday signaled a provocation: a sign that the American president sees Islam itself as the problem. Continue reading the main story “I think this is going to alienate the whole Muslim world,” said Mouwafak al-Rubaie, a lawmaker and former Iraqi national security adviser in Iraq. […]
Finance Minister Edward Scicluna. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi Finance Minister Edward Scicluna snubbed an invitation to appear before a Panama Papers inquiry committee meeting held in Brussels yesterday. Speaking during the committee meeting, Greens MEP Sven Giegold lamented that the European Council had effectively made an agreement not to cooperate with the committee. Mr Giegold, a fierce critic of Malta’s tax regime, theorised that Prof. Scicluna’s decision […]
By Steve Holland and Elizabeth Piper | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May, who share an unusual bond as the products of anti-establishment uprisings, will sit down on Friday for what could be a difficult search for unity on NATO, Russia and trade. The meeting will mark Trump’s first with a foreign leader since taking power a week ago, and it […]
Donald Trump will wade into the most contentious foreign policy issue of his tumultuous young presidency on Saturday, when he speaks to Russian President Vladimir Putin as he considers whether to lift Obama-era sanctions against the Kremlin. The call to Mr Putin, scheduled the same day as Mr Trump’s first White House calls with the leaders of Germany and France, will be his first chance to make […]
Mi dispiace, ho sbagliato numero* Well, what did BT’s chief executive, smouldering Gavin Patterson, expect? Italy is ranked 60th out of 176 countries in Transparency International’s corruption index, worse than Romania or Hungary. The “improper” management behaviour there had been going on for years, and would probably be going on still but for the call from a whistleblower. The BT board must now decide how far up […]
PARIS Britain is becoming subservient to a United States that will be extremely difficult to cooperate with judging by President Donald Trump’s “serious and worrying” first acts, French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron said on Friday. British Prime Minister Theresa May, who will hold talks with Trump later on Friday, wants a renewal of the “special relationship” between London and Washington at a time her conservative government redraws […]
BERLIN Germany’s population grew by some 600,000 last year to reach a record high of 82.8 million people due to the number of migrants who have arrived in the country, the Federal Statistics office said on Friday. In a preliminary estimate for 2016, the statistics office said the population had eclipsed the previous record high of 82.5 million recorded at the end of 2002, even though the […]
By Vikram Subhedar | LONDON LONDON The dollar extended its recovery against a basket of other currencies on Friday, while banks dragged European shares slightly lower following underwhelming results from Swiss major UBS. The two-day recovery comes after the dollar suffered a 4 percent drop in the three weeks from Jan. 3 reflecting doubts about how U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies will play out for the currency, […]
UBS finished a tough 2016 on an upbeat note, with an unexpectedly strong increase in fourth-quarter profits, and has predicted improved US investor confidence would this year boost its wealth management businesses. However, Sergio Ermotti, chief executive, warned the more positive US trends were not mirrored globally, and UBS’s shares fell 1.2 per cent in early trading as analysts raised concerns about unexpected fourth-quarter outflows of clients’ […]
“Strange how in the Middle East making peace looks so similar to waging political war,” he lamented in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times in 1989. In 1986, Mr. Cohen was the catalyst for the first three clandestine sessions in Paris and Brussels between Israeli and Palestinian representatives, two from each side. Ostensibly, those talks were limited in scope to missing or captured soldiers, but […]
Friday 08:25 GMT Overview The US dollar is in the ascendancy as the currency once again benefits from hopes for a stronger US economy — optimism that also has helped push Wall Street to record levels. European bourses are mixed after a holiday-thinned Asian session. Commodities are muddled, with oil firmer but gold on the back foot. Hot topic The US dollar is in focus as it […]
Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat speaks during a debate on the priorities of the first-ever Maltese presidency at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on January 18, 2017 | Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images Ministers avoid answering difficult questions. By Harry Cooper 1/26/17, 7:03 PM CET Updated 1/26/17, 10:14 PM CET Konrad Mizzi — the only sitting minister in Europe to be named in the Panama Papers scandal last […]
BEIRUT: The Trump administration’s expressed interest in setting up safe zones for civilians in Syria was greeted Thursday with caution by Russia and Turkey, who have taken the lead in the latest peace efforts to end the Mideast country’s devastating six-year war.Turkey said it had always supported the idea, but both Ankara and Moscow said such plans would require careful consideration while a senior European Union official […]
Some of hedge fund billionaire George Soros’ short positions dating back to 2012 were published on the Dutch financial market regulator’s website this week due to “human error” according to the regulator AFM, according to Bloomberg. Dutch bank ING is among the positions exposed and its stock price is tumbling… As Bloomberg notes, the short positions, bets on a stock declining, were “between 0.2 percent and 0.5 […]
By Luiza Ilie | BUCHAREST BUCHAREST The hermetically-sealed heavy steel door to the bunker of Romania’s late communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu opens with a squeak, releasing a burst of cool air. The bunker sits two levels beneath a lavish villa in an upmarket neighbourhood in Bucharest, Ceausescu’s private residence through the 24 years he ruled Romania, one of Eastern Europe’s most repressive Cold War-era regimes. “It is […]
“She’s my toughest opponent,” said Serena Williams, who holds a 16-11 edge in their rivalry. “No one has ever beaten me as much as Venus has. She has a pretty good record against me, and we have a good record against each other. I just feel like, no matter what happens, we’ve won. She’s been through a lot, and I’ve been through a lot. And to see […]
It is difficult to understand why Donald Trump’s campaign promise to “make America great again” resounded so deeply with so many. True, the threat of terrorism, rising inequality and job-killing digitalisation have been breeding anxiety for some time. However, on most metrics the US economy has been doing just fine and certainly better than Europe. While the median US household’s real income still stands below peak of […]
Konrad Mizzi offered no new information on his involvement in the Panama Papers scandal today when he briefed a European Parliament committee on the Maltese EU presidency’s priorities for the energy sector. Only one non-Maltese MEP, Reinhald Butikofer of the Greens, mentioned the scandal, despite several MEPs asking technical questions about Dr Mizzi’s energy portfolio. The only other Panama Papers-related questions came from Nationalist MEPs David Casa […]
United Arab Emirates-based military vehicles maker NIMR Automotive is teaming up with Czech state defence equipment company VOP CZ to try to break into European markets in the coming years, the head of NIMR said in an interview. NIMR, a subsidiary of state-owned Emirates Defence Industries Company (EDIC) and a leading military vehicles manufacturer in the Middle East, is on a push to expand its global reach […]
By Antonio Denti and Isla Binnie | FARINDOLA, Italy FARINDOLA, Italy Rescuers pulled more bodies on Wednesday from the ruins of an Italian hotel which was flattened by a wall of snow last week, raising the death toll from the avalanche to 25. No one has been found alive since early Saturday and hopes of finding more survivors are fading. Using pickaxes and mechanical diggers, the rescuers […]
By Julia Edwards Ainsley | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump was to start signing directives on Wednesday to begin building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico and crack down on U.S. cities that shield illegal immigrants, moving quickly on sweeping and divisive plans to curb immigration and boost national security. The Republican president is also expected to take steps in the coming days to curb […]
