After everyone from Jesse Jackson, to the terrified mainstream media to prominent Congressional Democrats have called upon Obama to issue a blanket pardon for Hillary Clinton, he finally admitted that it’s not possible to pardon someone who hasn’t yet stood trial for a crime. And while Obama was referencing a potential pardon of Edward Snowden with his comments, one could assume that the law should be applied […]
1979: A threatening revolution Saudi Arabia, a young country pieced together only in the 1930s, has built its legitimacy on religion. By promoting its stewardship of the holy sites at Mecca and Medina, it could justify its royal family’s grip on power. Continue reading the main story Iran’s revolution, in 1979, threatened that legitimacy. Iranians toppled their authoritarian government, installing Islamists who claimed to represent “a revolution […]
It may not get the international acclaim of Dubai or the media attention of Doha, but Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) is quietly making its mark. Famed largely for bringing the world RAK Ceramics, the northern UAE emirate is forging a serious reputation on the global business stage. Be it in tourism, free zones, property or infrastructure, everywhere you look in RAK, something new is springing up. And […]
Video Russia Begins New Offensive in Aleppo Russia’s defense secretary, Sergei K. Shoigu, revealed some details of the renewed military strikes on Syria after a relatively calm few weeks. By THE NEW YORK TIMES on Publish Date November 15, 2016. Photo by Abd Doumany/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images. Watch in Times Video » BEIRUT, Lebanon — Warplanes resumed airstrikes on the besieged rebel-held sections of Aleppo, Syria, […]
By Dan Burns and Jennifer Ablan | NEW YORK NEW YORK With President-elect Donald Trump promising to spend as much as half a trillion dollars on infrastructure and slash taxes – initiatives that could add dramatically to the U.S. debt and balloon the budget deficit – Wall Street is far more focused on who will next head the U.S. Treasury than it was in the previous selection […]
Donald Trump has begun putting together his transition team and naming the cabinet members who will come to power in Washington after the inauguration on January 20. Follow the FT’s guide to the main players he has already picked — and the positions yet to be filled — here. Trump’s choices: MIKE PENCE Vice-president © AFP Mike Pence, the Indiana governor and former congressman, was picked as Donald […]
By Patrick Rucker | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON A leading U.S. bank regulator on Friday reversed course and positions the agency to claw back pay of former executives at Wells Fargo & Co after a phony-accounts scandal. The lender must also now seek prior approval before naming new bank leadership, said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the main regulator for federal banks. Friday’s move puts executive […]
Photo Iraqi forces watched television coverage of President-elect Donald J. Trump in the village of Arbid on the southern outskirts of Mosul last week. Credit Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images ERBIL, Iraq — Many Muslims in the Middle East have reacted with a mix of caution, suspicion and scorn to Donald J. Trump’s election victory and his appointments of aides with hostile views toward Islam. Struggling […]
Neel Kashkari picked a bad day to try to fix the financial system. As the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis unveiled a plan to safeguard the biggest banks on Wednesday morning, shares in the likes of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup were coming off five days of frantic gains. Analysts, meanwhile, were still pumping out research notes, trying to guess what a […]
The market interpretation of the US election result can be expressed in just three letters, repeated several times: “USA! USA! USA!” Amid the noise that followed last week’s election victory for Donald Trump, one signal was clear — whatever the outcome will be the US, it will be far worse for the rest of the world in general, and emerging markets in particular. Outside of financial crises, […]
“I need that moment when I think, ‘This sucks,’” is how he put it. When he first started running, Engle did it as a form of penance — “I was feeling badly about myself and wanted to punish myself,” he said. Then, as he realized he was good at running long distances, ultramarathons — and other, even more extreme events — became a way to test his […]
Every autumn, Hong Kong restaurants serve a seasonal delicacy: hairy crabs, shipped the same day from lakes around the Chinese city of Suzhou. But the territory’s food safety inspectors recently made a shocking discovery: some crabs in this year’s consignment contained dangerous levels of cancer-causing chemicals. Even worse, the crabs appeared to come from Lake Tai, a model in China’s fight against pollution after a multiyear, multibillion-dollar […]
For much of the last decade the derivatives industry has been caught in the gravitational pull of the Dodd-Frank act, the sweeping piece of legislation meant to contain the risk of another financial crisis. Six years after its passage, US president-elect Donald Trump wants to dismantle the law. The industry, however is not racing to join him. At this week’s Global Financial Leadership Conference, a gathering of derivatives traders, […]
Rising market expectations for growth and inflation were not the only things behind the selling pressure on US Treasuries after the US election. One gauge of long-term Treasury market risk known as the term premium has also climbed. The day after the election of Donald Trump as the next US president, the 10-year term premium made its biggest single-day jump since 2011. The move was within the […]
Photo Nusra Front fighters in Idlib Province, Syria, in 2015. In what analysts say is a calculated move to hide ties to Al Qaeda, the Nusra Front recently rebranded itself and changed its name to Jabhat Fath al-Sham, or the Levant Conquest Front. Credit Ammar Abdullah/Reuters American officials accuse him of being part of the “inner leadership circle” of Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, most widely known as […]
Amid all the attempts to guess what Donald Trump’s election means for Europe’s trade, security and populist politicians, one conclusion stands out: his administration may be good news for the European Central Bank. The reason is not any particular act by the president-elect; rather, it is the reaction of markets, which could help the European economy and give the central bank more room to act. Foreign exchange […]
Photo An Israeli settlement surrounded by a defensive wall near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Credit Thomas Coex/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Right-wing Israeli politicians see Donald Trump’s election as helpful toward their goal of burying the prospect of a Palestinian state. On Wednesday, Israeli lawmakers gave preliminary approval to a bill that would retroactively legalize settlements built on private Palestinian land in the West Bank. […]
“When the economic crisis hits the elite, it means the suffering is all over the place,” said Malak Rostom, the vice president of the student union. “If we can’t afford it, we can tell how much other people are suffering.” Continue reading the main story Some Egyptians may sneer at the problems of the children of middle- and upper-class families, worried about tuition increases that dwarf the […]
BAGHDAD/BASHIQA: Iraqi militias said on Wednesday they had driven ISIS terrorists from an air base west of Mosul, a victory which would threaten its supply route from Syria to its last major stronghold in Iraq. “The airport of Tal Afar has been liberated,” Yusif Al-Kallabi, a spokesman for Popular Mobilization, a coalition of mainly Iranian-backed militias, told Iraqi state TV.The capture of the base, if confirmed, could […]
Global investor expectations of inflation have surged to their highest level in more than a decade, according to a survey of money managers that underlines how Donald Trump’s election as US president has electrified financial markets. More than 80 per cent of those surveyed this month by Bank of America Merrill Lynch believe that the global level of prices will rise over the next 12 months. Although […]
Photo Destroyed buildings in the Syrian village of Kfar Jales, near Idlib, on Wednesday, following air strikes by Syrian and Russian warplanes. Credit Omar Haj Kadour/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images LONDON — President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, in his first remarks since the American election, has called President-elect Donald J. Trump “a natural ally, together with the Russians, Iranians and many other countries” in the struggle against […]
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Suez Crisis that shocked the western world with its tangles of politics and nationalism, greed and opportunism, imperial manoeuvring and Cold War brinkmanship. Michael Doran, former White House Middle East adviser and a deputy assistant secretary in the department of defence under President George W Bush, in his new book Ike’s Gamble: America’s Rise to Dominance in the Middle […]
Russia launched its long-awaited offensive across Syria on Tuesday just hours after Vladimir Putin discussed the conflict with Donald Trump amid growing questions about how the incoming American president will deal with his Russian counterpart. Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, said the air strikes were targeting Isis and Syrian jihadis, their ammunition depots and training camps, in the provinces of Idlib and Homs. Opposition activists said the […]
|By Matein Khalid| Donald Trump’s shock win will have a profound impact on the GCC economic constellation via multiple feedback loops. His economic policies mean a much higher US dollar, anathema to GCC economies since it correlates with stock/property market crashes, banking stress and oil slumps. This is the macroeconomic linkage due to the GCC US dollar peg whose lessons the region learnt the hard way in […]
