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John Lee

Trump acts fast to reduce ‘burden’ of red tape

Donald Trump launched a promised assault on “burdens” imposed by government within hours of becoming US president on Friday by moving to loosen rules tied to Obamacare and halting the introduction of any new regulations.Between the end of the daytime inaugural parade and the start of evening balls, the Trump administration took its first major policy moves by ordering government agencies to do all they could within [...]

Donald Trump’s inauguration in pictures

President Trump signs his first executive order in the redecorated Oval Office of the White House© APAnti-Trump protestors confront police in Franklin Square, Washington DC, not far from the White House© EPAPresident and Mrs Trump walk a short part of the inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue© APPresident Trump’s limousine moves along the route of the inaugural parade flanked by security© EPAPresident Trump signs his cabinet nominations into [...]

Jubilant Trump awaits inauguration as US president

Donald Trump vowed to make America "greater than ever before" as he stood framed by Washington’s Lincoln Memorial and addressed a crowd of supporters on the eve of his inauguration as the 45th president of the United States. “It’s a movement like we've never seen anywhere in the world,” the former property developer and reality television star declared before fireworks lit up the sky above the National Mall [...]

Trump picks owner of New York Jets as UK ambassador

Donald Trump has chosen Woody Johnson, the billionaire owner of the New York Jets American football team and veteran Republican political donor, as his ambassador to Britain.Speaking to Republicans at a lunch in Washington ahead of his inauguration on Friday, Mr Trump revealed that he had chosen the owner of the sports team as ambassador, as he kept his penchant for announcing appointments of his team in [...]

The Stone: Bernard-Henri Lévy: Jews, Be Wary of Trump

This love is precisely what is required of an American president in dealings affecting Israel.In such circumstances, and contrary to the adage that applies in most ordinary circumstances of life, that law says that demonstrations of love count for less, paradoxically, than love itself. It says, to be precise, that gestures of friendship, when they do not come from the bottom of the heart and are not [...]

Asian stocks regain momentum after Yellen remarks

Thursday 02.10 GMTOverviewAsian equities regained upward momentum after comments from Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen gave wings to a broad recovery for the dollar, weakening regional currencies.Hot topicThe dollar index, which measures the US currency against a basket of peers, was up 0.4 per cent after the Fed chair warned that if the US waited too long to continue raising rates, it risked a “nasty surprise”. Ms [...]

McCartney sues Sony unit over rights to Beatles hits

Sir Paul McCartney has sued Sony’s publishing arm as he looks to reclaim US rights to songs he co-wrote with John Lennon in the 1960s and 70s. Sony owns the publishing rights, last year buying out the Michael Jackson estate’s 50 per cent stake in Sony/ATV, the music publishing group, for $750m. The Lennon-McCartney catalogue represents one of Sony/ATV’s crown jewels, spanning the bulk of Beatles’ songs written [...]

Hall of Fame Admits Tim Raines, Jeff Bagwell and Ivan Rodriguez

Photo Tim Raines debuted on the ballot in 2008 with just 24.3 percent support from the writers, but that rose to 86 percent this year — his final time on the writers’ ballot. Credit Otto Greule Jr./Getty Images The Baseball Hall of Fame announced three new members on Wednesday, opening its doors to Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines and Ivan Rodriguez. Bagwell, a slugging first baseman for the [...]

UK ministers warn EU against ‘punitive’ Brexit deal

Senior British ministers struck a combative note on Brexit negotiations a day after Theresa May’s speech on the UK’s objectives, with Boris Johnson likening François Hollande to a world war two prison guard. The foreign secretary was responding to comments by an adviser to the French president that Britain could not have a better deal outside the EU than it currently enjoys. “If Mr Hollande wants to [...]

Waymo self-driving minivan will start test drives this month

John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo, the autonomous vehicle company created by Google's parent company, Alphabet introduces a Chrysler Pacifica hybrid outfitted with Waymo's own suite of sensors and radar at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) Waymo, Google's self-driving car division, will start testing its new fleet of minivans on public roads in California and Arizona later this [...]

Investors turn wary as Brexit, Trump uncertainty grows

By Nigel Stephenson | LONDON LONDON Investors sold sterling and stocks on Monday, seeking shelter in gold and the Japanese yen as uncertainty over Britain's departure from the European Union and the policies of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump curbed appetite for risky assets.U.S. markets were closed for the Martin Luther King Day holiday, crimping market activity and potentially exacerbating price moves.The dollar .DXY rose, except against the [...]

World Leaders Push Israel and Trump to Forge a 2-State Deal

France held the first session of the conference in June, after the United States and others effectively gave up. Talks had broken down, and Mr. Netanyahu’s government had drawn international anger with its continued settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, a red line for the process set out years before by Secretary of State John Kerry and other leaders. Continue reading the main story [...]

Carnival Ocean Medallion: 5 takeaways from one of 2017's premier IoT projects

Image: Carnival The cruise industry is following the high-tech wave with the introduction of a new machine-learning wearable device for passengers that Carnival CEO Arnold Donald announced at CES 2017. A lot has been written about the move and it's shaping up to be one of the most significant Internet of Things projects of 2017. We've covered it extensively on ZDNet and TechRepublic and here we've broken [...]

Investors in Fiat ignored warning signs

Investors in Fiat, the carmaker under investigation for violating emissions laws, have been accused of ignoring clear signs of corporate governance failings at the Italian-US business. Fiat Chrysler’s share price fell 16 per cent on Thursday immediately after the US environmental watchdog warned the company could face a fine of up to $4.6bn. It is accused of breaking emissions laws in 104,000 diesel vehicles. The US regulator [...]

Drugmakers alarmed by Trump pricing threat

Before Donald Trump accused them of “getting away with murder”, the mood among pharmaceutical executives was buoyant as they gathered in San Francisco for the industry’s biggest annual gathering last week. Not even the torrential rain could damp their spirits as they darted between meetings with investors and presentations in the historic Westin St Francis hotel, the venue for the JPMorgan healthcare conference. The bull case was [...]

Donald Trump attacks civil rights icon John Lewis

Donald Trump has attacked civil rights icon John Lewis on the weekend that the US celebrates the life of Martin Luther King Jr, sparking another controversy for the president-elect just days before he is due to take office.Mr Trump took to Twitter to criticise Mr Lewis after the long-serving Democratic congressman spoke out against Jeff Sessions, Mr Trump’s nominee for attorney-general and alleged that he did not [...]

Wells Fargo sets out plans to close 400 branches

Wells Fargo has laid down plans to close at least 400 branches over the next two years as part of a push to cut costs as the US bank tries to recover from the scandal over sham accounts.The San Francisco-based lender, which operates more than 6,000 branches across the country, is accelerating closures as it aims to reduce about $2bn in expenses by the end of 2018.The [...]

Is Tillerson Willing to Go to War Over the South China Sea?

Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon chief, didn’t get where he is by being nice to China. When Beijing tried to force his company to abandon a gas exploration project in the waters off Vietnam in 2008, ExxonMobil showed it the finger. BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and several others caved to Chinese pressure. ExxonMobil is still there, drilling on a Vietnamese license in waters also claimed by China. Is [...]

US ends ‘wet-foot, dry-foot’ policy for Cubans

Barack Obama has ended a longstanding US policy that allowed Cuban nationals who reached the US to be eligible automatically for residency, putting a final stamp on his foreign policy legacy.“Effective immediately, Cuban nationals who attempt to enter the United States illegally and do not qualify for humanitarian relief will be subject to removal, consistent with US law and enforcement priorities,” the White House said in a [...]

Obama administration ends special immigration policy for Cubans

By Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The Obama administration on Thursday announced the repeal of a measure granting automatic residency to virtually every Cuban who arrived in the United States, whether or not they had visas, ending a longstanding exception to U.S. immigration policy.The end of the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, which allowed any Cuban who reached U.S. soil to stay but returned any picked up [...]

DoJ and FBI officials face US election probe

The US Department of Justice inspector general said on Thursday that he is investigating actions taken by DoJ and FBI officials, including FBI director James Comey, during the 2016 presidential election. The surprise probe was launched in response to calls from Congress and members of the public, who have questioned whether Mr Comey’s statements in the final weeks of the campaign were politically motivated, according to a statement [...]

Mattis calls Putin a threat to global order

Vladimir Putin is trying to break the north Atlantic alliance and his policies represent one of the key threats to the global order that has prevailed since the second world war, James Mattis, the retired general nominated to be secretary of defence, has told a Senate committee.In testimony that struck a notably harder line on Russia than that of Donald Trump, Mr Mattis said the US should [...]

Flawed US recovery splits Trump and Obama camps

Having publicly trashed the US economy’s performance during the presidential campaign, Donald Trump has become its most prominent cheerleader. The president-elect has in recent weeks claimed credit for surging consumer confidence, stellar equity prices and stronger end-of-year household spending, arguing there was “no hope” before he arrived on the scene.To Barack Obama’s supporters, claims from Mr Trump that the US was cloaked in economic gloom before November [...]