Donald Trump has appointed Mike Pence, his running mate, to head his transition team as he prepares to start naming people to fill top posts in his administration. Mr Trump also appointed four members of his family, including his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, along with the financiers Anthony Scaramucci and Steven Mnuchin. The team will also include Stephen Bannon, his campaign chief executive, Reince […]
Opponents of a Donald Trump presidency are fuelling a surge in donations to non-profit organisations and charities over fears that a Republican-controlled government will roll back progressive initiatives concerning the environment, immigrants, women and gay marriage rights. The Sierra Club, a 125-year-old environmental group, and the American Civil Liberties Union have reported record donation rates, while dozens of other groups have also issued new marketing campaigns to […]
Just like the bulk of political pundits and mainstream media commentators, opportunistic internet entrepreneurs were caught off guard by the shock result of Tuesday’s United States presidential election. The day after Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States it was still possible to find “Don’t blame me, I voted for Trump” T-shirts and hoodies online. But the full story of the shock sustained by […]
ABU DHABI // Mass extinction of species, how to boost economic growth without harming the planet and the effects of mass agriculture are all issues to be addressed at the Cop 22 summit. The meeting in Morocco, which began this week, follows last year’s Paris Agreement, where 196 countries committed to reducing global warming to less than 2°C. One of the major discussion points is that the […]
The United Nations implored all sides in the Syria conflict on Thursday to allow food deliveries to rebel-held eastern Aleppo, where roughly 250,000 residents, under siege for months, just received their last rations. Russia appeared to reject the plea. “I don’t think anybody wants a quarter of a million people to be starving in east Aleppo,” Jan Egeland, the United Nations official in charge of a humanitarian […]
DUBAI // Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid met the Armenian president on Thursday for a meeting in which their countries signed agreements in security, science, emergency response and commerce. In his meeting with Serzh Sargsyan at Zabeel Palace in Dubai, the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai said the UAE welcomes countries that support peace and human values. Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of […]
During the long 2016 election season, now-President-elect Donald Trump spent far more time talking about immigration, terrorism and the economy than he did about information technology issues. Over the past several years, though, he has occasionally taken to Twitter to bash net neutrality as a “top-down power grab” or say during a Fox & Friends television interview that Apple should be boycotted for fighting an FBI order […]
WASHINGTON — The United States has killed 119 civilians in Iraq and Syria since it began military operations against the Islamic State there in 2014, military officials said Wednesday. In each case, the American military followed the proper procedures and it did not violate laws of armed conflict, officials said. “Significant precautions were taken, despite the unfortunate outcome,” said Col. John J. Thomas, a spokesman for United […]
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Much about Yasir Arafat remains an enigma, in death as in life. The man who came to embody the Palestinian national cause was variously born in Jerusalem, or Gaza, or Cairo. It was never entirely clear what led to his death in a French military hospital in November 2004. The Yasir Arafat Museum will proffer answers to these questions when it opens to […]
AJMAN // A fabrics warehouse caught fire in Ajman industrial area on Tuesday afternoon. No injuries were reported in the blaze and the firefighters prevented it from spreading to nearby warehouses, said Col Nasser Al Zari, director of media and public relations at Ajman Civil Defence. The fire was reported at 5pm and civil defence crews from three stations spent five hours putting it out and cooling […]
TEHRAN — For all of Iran’s attractions — breathtaking scenery and numerous World Heritage sites, among other things — there are plenty of downsides to vacationing in the Islamic republic. Alcohol is forbidden. There is very little night life, at least in public. All women, including visiting foreigners, are obliged to wear a head scarf. Then there are Iran’s politics: its strident anti-Western stance; seemingly random arrests […]
I took this video while on what often felt like a surreal bus ride through war-torn Syria. The video begins on the edge of the city of Aleppo, its western, government-held half. The area we drove through is all government held but has been intensely fought over, again and again, and has changed hands several times. The route we took connects the city to a key supply […]
By Julia Fioretti | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS Britain’s privacy watchdog said on Monday that Facebook (FB.O) has agreed to suspend using data from UK users of its WhatsApp messaging app for advertisements or product-improvement purposes after the watchdog said consumers weren’t properly protected. The watchdog said the social media giant faces action if it uses such data without valid consent. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) had said in […]
By ERIC SCHMITT November 6, 2016 A joint Kurdish-Arab militia has begun a new phase in the operation to dislodge the Islamic State from its stronghold in Raqqa, Syria, moving to encircle the city and largely cut off the resupply of arms, supplies and fighters, American military officials confirmed on Sunday. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said on Sunday that he welcomed the start of the militia’s operation. “The […]
|By Matein Khalid| The fall in oil prices since 2014 has triggered a liquidity crunch and higher funding costs in the UAE banking system. EIBOR is almost double the London interbank rate LIBOR. Non-performing loan (NPL) have begun to rise as property prices have fallen 20% from their peak and corporate/SME borrowers are hit by a sharp downturn in the business cycle. DIB shares reflect these macro […]
|By Abdullah Aljunaid|The Alliance of Iran, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda and the attacks of September 11th 2001 Judicial rulings have shown that the calamitous and tragic events of September 11 were bourn of a relationship between Iran and Hezbollah and al-Qaeda. Will the coming days reveal a similar relationship with Daesh too? Hezbollah is widely known for its support of terrorism, forinciting sectarian strife in the Arab countries, and for the cooperation of its members with drug dealers in Europe, North and South America, Africa, as a means to finance […]
WASHINGTON — The United States formally suspended talks with Russia about the protracted Syria conflict on Monday because of the Russian military’s role in the assault on the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo. The United States also shelved plans with Russia for the joint military targeting of jihadists in Syria, the State Department said in a statement. The American step reflected aggravated tensions with Russia on a […]
The Interpreter By AMANDA TAUB It is a truth universally acknowledged by every war correspondent, humanitarian aid worker and Western diplomat: Some wars, like Syria’s, receive tremendous public attention, which can translate into pressure for resolution. But many others, like Yemen’s still raging but much ignored conflict, do not. Some of the reasons are obvious; the scale of Syria’s war is catastrophic and much worse than Yemen’s. […]
By Andrew Chung | NEW YORK NEW YORK A federal jury in Texas on Friday night ordered Apple Inc to pay more than $302 million in damages for using VirnetX Holding Corp’s patented internet security technology without permission in features including its FaceTime video conferencing application. The verdict came in a new trial in Tyler, Texas that had been ordered by the judge in the case, Robert […]
By Alexandria Sage | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO California will allow companies more leeway in testing self-driving cars on public roads while restricting how the nascent technology is advertised under revised draft regulations released on Friday. In one of the biggest changes, the new regulations would allow for the absence of a driver in some instances, provided there is two-way communication with the vehicle. The […]
By HWAIDA SAAD and NICK CUMMING-BRUCE September 30, 2016 BEIRUT, Lebanon — An array of groups allied with the Syrian government pressed an assault on rebel-held eastern Aleppo on Friday, as the World Health Organization said heavy bombardment of the area by Russia and Syria had killed 338 people in the last week, including more than 100 children. With more of the city’s already limited hospitals destroyed in the latest offensive, […]
By PETER BAKER September 30, 2016 JERUSALEM — From across the ocean and across the Green Line, they came on Friday to the mountaintop sanctuary of Mount Herzl to bid farewell to Shimon Peres, marking what one called the “end of the era of giants.” But the question of the moment was whether it was a funeral for a man or for his dream. Twenty-three years after Mr. Peres […]
Reports of unruly passengers disrupting airline flights have soared almost 17 per cent worldwide in 2015, with incidents such as passengers being verbally abusive or refusing to obey cabin crew occurring on one out of every 1,205 flights, the international trade association for airlines said on Wednesday. Some 10,854 plane rage incidents were reported to the International Air Transport Association by airlines last year, up from 9,316 […]
DUBAI // A 22-year-old Pakistani shepherd has admitted to breaking his compatriot’s leg and leaving him with a five per cent permanent disability, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Thursday. He confessed to a physical assault charge relating to the incident on March 12, when he had a fight with his countryman at a farm in Al Marmoum. “He pushed me and I fell then he left the […]
