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John Lee

US labels Venezuelan vice-president a drug kingpin

The United States on Monday labelled Venezuela’s vice-president an international drug trafficker, freezing millions of dollars worth of his US-based wealth as it accused him of facilitating multiple one-ton narcotics shipments to Mexico and the US from a Venezuelan air base and the country’s ports.The US Department of the Treasury formally designated Tareck El Aissami a drug kingpin for “playing a significant role in international narcotics trafficking” [...]

Courts likely to probe Trump's intent in issuing travel ban

By Andrew Chung and Mica Rosenberg | NEW YORK NEW YORK Washington state’s attorney general has promised to uncover "what truly motivated" President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration, an approach that could prompt a rare public examination of how a U.S. president makes national security decisions. The presidential order imposed a temporary ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, but a federal judge has barred [...]

Did Dodd-Frank really hurt the US economy?

Jeb Hensarling did not hold back last week, when asked on CNBC about the flaws of Dodd-Frank.“It clogs the arteries of capitalism in our system. It hurts working people. It hurts consumers. It needs to go,” said the chair of the House Financial Services Committee, about the signature piece of financial regulation of the Obama era.“You can’t get a healthy economy as long as you have Dodd-Frank [...]

Adele sweeps board at politically charged Grammys

Many of Prince’s most popular songs returned to digital streaming platforms as the music industry paid tribute to the late musician in a politically charged Grammy Awards ceremony on Sunday night. Singer Adele, whose music is distributed by Sony Music, swept the biggest awards of the night, winning album, song and record of the year for 25, the best-selling album last year. She beat Beyoncé, who is also [...]

Feature: The Preacher and the Sheriff

The Louisiana State Police never did tell White what happened to his son. He learned of their account through a news release posted online that evening, March 3, 2014. The police said that Victor White III, while detained in the back seat of a locked police car, his hands shackled behind his back, had committed suicide by shooting himself in the back with a handgun that an [...]

US vetoes UN job for former Palestinian prime minister

February 11, 2017 by: John Reed — Jerusalem The US administration of Donald Trump has blocked the appointment of Salam Fayyad, the former Palestinian prime minister, to a senior United Nations post in a decision Palestinian officials said was based solely on his nationality. Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, announced the decision on Friday, saying that Washington was disappointed by a letter written by António [...]

Bank of England upgrades UK growth forecasts

The Bank of England upgraded UK growth forecasts significantly for the second time in six months on Thursday in the latest indication the central bank’s once-dire outlook for the economy after June’s Brexit vote has been proven overly pessimistic.The bank said it now predicts gross domestic product will grow 2 per cent this year, the same as last year and up from 1.4 per cent forecast in [...]

Deutsche Bank posts €1.9bn loss in Q4

Deutsche Bank posted a €1.9bn net loss for the fourth quarter, as its performance was weighed down by the cost of its $7.2bn mortgage mis-selling settlement with the US Department of Justice.Germany’s biggest bank took €1.6bn of litigation charges in the final three months of the year, the bulk of which related to the DoJ settlement, which chief executive John Cryan had made one of his priorities.The [...]

Reckitt and Mead Johnson in $16.7bn deal talks

Reckitt Benckiser, the maker of household goods including Cillit Bang and Dettol, is in advanced talks to acquire Mead Johnson in a deal that could value the maker of infant formula at about $16.7bn.The British-based company said on Wednesday evening it had offered to pay $90 per share in cash to acquire the US nutritional products maker, a near 30 per cent premium on Mead Johnson’s closing [...]

Self-driving car prototypes need less human help, data show

This May 13, 2014, file photo shows a row of Google self-driving Lexus cars at a Google event outside the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. California regulators release safety reports filed by 11 companies that have been testing self-driving car prototypes on public roads on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017. The papers report the number of times in 2016 that human backup drivers took control from [...]

Fed stays the course on rates as outlook improves

The Federal Reserve signalled it remains on course for further increases in short-term interest rates this year as inflation heads back towards target, even as it avoided giving strong indications on the timing of the next move.The US central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee left the federal funds target range at 0.5 per cent to 0.75 per cent in a unanimous decision, following a quarter-point increase at [...]

Not Safe for Children? Football’s Leaders Make Drastic Changes to Youth Game

Worries about the future of youth football are mounting as evidence of long-term cognitive dangers of playing the game grows. Continue reading the main story For years, the sport’s top officials have played down the science and insisted that tackle football could be played safely. Neurologists have found a degenerative brain disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, in an alarming number of former football players, and last year the [...]

Republicans torn by claims of White House chaos

Republicans are struggling to advance their policy agenda in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s confused rollout of a ban on refugees and all travellers from seven Muslim nations entering the United States.The escalating reaction to Mr Trump’s executive order on immigration is also raising concerns about the workings of his White House staff less than two weeks into the presidency. In private conversations, some establishment Republicans [...]

How The New Yorker brought the soul of the magazine to the web

Nick Thompson was on his way to the subway when he got an email from his boss, New Yorker Editor David Remnick. The subject line? "Morning piece." It was 8:17 a.m. on Sept. 8, and Remnick had just watched libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson ask "what is Aleppo?" live on national television. "I wrote back and said, 'great!'" said Thompson, the former digital editor at The New [...]

Papers Offer a Peek at ISIS’ Drones, Lethal and Largely Off-the-Shelf

In the past two months, the Islamic State has used more than 80 remotely piloted drones against Iraqi forces and their allies. About one-third of the aircraft, some as small as model airplanes, dropped bombs or were rigged with explosives to detonate on the ground, said Col. John L. Dorrian, the spokesman for the American-led operation against the Islamic State in Baghdad. Continue reading the main story [...]

Iran Launches a Missile, Testing Trump’s Vows of Strict Enforcement

WASHINGTON — Iran conducted its first missile test since President Trump took office, American and Israeli officials said Monday, posing an early test of whether the Trump administration will make good on its promises to strictly enforce all aspects of the Iranian nuclear deal and a side agreement on missile testing.The Iranian missile traveled about 600 miles, but its re-entry vehicle reportedly exploded before the flight was [...]

Washington state to sue over travel ban, pressures on Trump grow

Pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump grew on Monday over his order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority nations, as the state of Washington announced a legal challenge and former President Barack Obama took a swipe at his successor.The leader of the Democrats in the U.S. Senate, Chuck Schumer, said he would bring legislation on Monday evening seeking to end the ban, although his effort stood little chance [...]

Trump fights back over travel ban criticisms

President Donald Trump has attacked airlines, the media and Democrats over the protests and criticism of his administration that emerged over the way he executed a ban on people from seven Muslim-majority nations entering the US.In a series of tweets and comments at the White House, Mr Trump tried to shift the blame for the chaos that ensued after more than 100 refugees and migrants from seven [...]

US embassies contradict UK’s claim of Trump travel ban concessions

Boris Johnson’s claim to have extracted concessions from Donald Trump over his travel ban was thrown into confusion on Monday after embassies around Europe, including London, issued statements contradicting the UK foreign secretary. Amid a public storm over the issue, the UK Foreign Office said on Sunday evening that the extreme vetting programme would apply to fewer than expected dual-nationality Britons going to the US. It said [...]

Trump’s Immigration Order Jolts Iraqis, U.S.’s Top Allies Against ISIS

Mr. Faily has been directly affected by the order. Though he holds dual British and Iraqi citizenship, he said information he had received from the American Embassy in Baghdad indicated that he would not be allowed to travel to the United States in the coming weeks to participate in a long-planned conference, he said in a telephone interview from Iraq. Continue reading the main story The edict [...]

Trump immigration curbs cause worldwide chaos, panic, anger

President Donald Trump's most far reaching action since taking office plunged America's immigration system into chaos on Saturday, not only for refugees but for legal US residents who were turned away at airports and feared being stranded outside the country. Immigration lawyers and advocates worked through the night trying to help stranded travellers find a way back home. Lawyers in New York sued to block the order, [...]

Trump fights criticism, protests, legal challenges over travel bans

By Doina Chiacu and Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump fought back on Sunday amid growing international criticism, outrage from civil rights activists and legal challenges over his abrupt order for a halt on arrivals of refugees and people from seven Muslim-majority countries.He and senior aides sought to defend the policy and play down the chaos sparked by Friday's order. But confusion persisted over [...]

Lawyers try to win detained travellers’ release

A day after protesters descended on John F Kennedy airport in New York and a judge stayed the executive order temporarily banning entry into the US for people from seven majority Muslim countries, a number of travellers were still being held in custody on Sunday.There were confused scenes at JFK airport, with immigration officials unclear on how the orders should be implemented, according to lawyers helping detainees. [...]

Here Are The Latest Updates On Trump's Refugee Ban

Less than 48 hours after announcing his executive order on refugees, global opposition to Trump intensified on Sunday as world leaders, US (mostly tech) companies and civil rights groups condemned the move to temporarily limit entry from predominantly Muslim countries. Here are the latest updates in the ongoing saga as of noon on Sunday: Global government lash out at order. Governments from London and Berlin to Jakarta [...]