|By Matein Khalid|So Pearson PLC has sold the FT Group (with its flagship Financial Times newspaper) to Japan’s Nikkei Inc for $1.32 billion. Pearson will use the cash proceeds to increase its investment in education publishing businesses in the US and Canada, now 75% of revenues. This deal is a milestone in the history of newspaper publishing and my own life as an investor/financial journalist. I discovered […]
The Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey on Monday. Turkey and the United States agreed on a plan that would create what officials are calling an Islamic State-free zone, which the Turks say could also be a “safe zone” for displaced Syrians. By ANNE BARNARD, MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT July 27, 2015 BAGHDAD — Turkey and the United States have agreed in general terms on a plan that envisions American warplanes, […]
JERUSALEM — The two issues with perhaps the broadest consensus and resonance in Israeli politics are opposition to the Iran nuclear deal and support for the release of Jonathan J. Pollard, the convicted Israeli spy, from a North Carolina prison. Now the two could be tied together, as some in Washington appear to be highlighting Mr. Pollard’s likely parole in November in hopes of quieting the vigorous […]
A redesign of YouTube’s mobile platform was one of a number of key announcements made by Susan Wojcicki (pictured), the company’s CEO, yesterday. Wojcicki gave the keynote address at VidCon in Anaheim, Calif., for the second straight year. She was greeted as a hero at the annual online video conference, receiving numerous rounds of applause during her talk. She said mobile video is the top priority for […]
Video | Kerry Defends Nuclear Deal to Senate Secretary of State John Kerry defended the Iran nuclear deal on Thursday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, meeting resistance from Republican members of the group. By JONATHAN WEISMAN and MICHAEL R. GORDON July 23, 2015 WASHINGTON — After four and a half hours of contentious questioning, three cabinet secretaries deployed Thursday by President Obama to the Senate to defend his nuclear deal with […]
Shepherding livestock in the West Bank village of Susiya. Residents have been displaced three times in the last 30 years and are faced with ejection once again. By DIAA HADID July 23, 2015 SUSIYA, West Bank — Yousef Nawajaa strode between the tents bedecked with Palestinian flags, scattered through parched orchards and rocky hills, shouting delightedly to a man nearby: “Hey, did you hear? John Kerry spoke about Susiya!” […]
VIENNA — One by one, the roadblocks to a nuclear accord between Iran and the United States had been painstakingly cleared. But as the negotiations went into their third week in the neoclassical Coburg Palace hotel this month, a major dispute lingered over whether a ban on Iran’s ability to purchase conventional weapons and missile technology would remain in place. The American delegation, led by Secretary of […]
|By Matein Khalid| Last week was a roller coaster and the Nikkei Dow closed at 19,800. Abenomics has had a seismic impact on Japan’s economy, financial markets and banking system. The yen has fallen from 76 on the eve of the election in 2012 to 122 against the US dollar. Corporate profits have exploded. Land price rises, job growth, bonuses, capex and consumer spending have lifted Japan […]
A worker works on a Samsung outdoor advertisement installed atop an office building in central Seoul March 23, 2015. Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji/Files SEOUL With four days to go in a landmark proxy battle, a Samsung firm is going all out to coax a legion of undeclared investors into backing an $8 billion merger with a sister company that is key to the future of the country’s biggest family-run […]
Secretary of State John Kerry in Vienna on Sunday. By MICHAEL R. GORDON and DAVID E. SANGER July 12, 2015 VIENNA — Negotiators from Iran and six world powers are getting closer to a landmark agreement that would limit Tehran’s nuclear ability for more than a decade in return for sanctions relief, diplomats said on Sunday. Although the talks adjourned for the day with no agreement, negotiators said they would renew their efforts […]
VIENNA — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday that there were still “difficult issues to resolve” before a landmark nuclear accord with Iran could be completed. Mr. Kerry, who is in his 15th day of talks here, posted that message on Twitter after a meeting with Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, and Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief. Iran’s insistence on the […]
TEHRAN — As nuclear negotiations in Vienna grind on through deadline after deadline, Iranian officials have begun a public campaign to blame the United States in the event that the talks fail. Iran’s public diplomacy has long been geared toward selling a possible deal to hard-liners at home. But as an interim agreement between Iran and the West was extended on Friday to give negotiators more time, […]
VIENNA — The talks to complete a landmark accord limiting Iran’s nuclear program have been extended for several days after negotiators acknowledged that they would be unable to meet a Tuesday deadline. To give negotiators more time to pursue a final accord, the diplomats agreed to extend through Friday an interim nuclear accord called the Joint Plan of Action. That interim agreement, which had been set to […]
Mohammad Javad Zarif, center, the foreign minister of Iran, sat next to Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief as they meet with other foreign ministers in Vienna on Tuesday. By DAVID E. SANGER and THOMAS ERDBRINK July 6, 2015 VIENNA — With foreign ministers from around the world arriving here in hopes that the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program are entering their final hours, a senior Iranian official said on […]
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and THOMAS ERDBRINK July 5, 2015 VIENNA — Secretary of State John Kerry warned Iran on Sunday that hard choices were still needed to seal a landmark nuclear accord, and that the United States was prepared to walk away if a sound agreement could not be reached. “We are not yet where we need to be on several of the most difficult issues,” Mr. Kerry said in a […]
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, during a meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry as part of nuclear negotiations in Vienna on Friday. By MICHAEL R. GORDON and DAVID E. SANGER July 4, 2015 VIENNA — The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday that, with Iranian cooperation, his agency could complete an assessment on Iran’s suspected past nuclear work by December, potentially removing a major obstacle to a […]
Open Source By ROBERT MACKEY Apparently undeterred by the backlash over its last venture into cartoon diplomacy, Israel’s government released an animated video on Tuesday that equates the threat from Islamic State militants to that of a nuclear-armed Iran. The 28-second animation, uploaded to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official accounts on social networks, attempts to erase the distinction between the Sunni Muslim extremists of the Islamic State […]
VIENNA — Iran’s top nuclear negotiator was heading back to Tehran on Sunday to consult with his nation’s top leadership, as negotiators remained divided over how to limit and monitor Tehran’s nuclear program and even on how to interpret the preliminary agreement they reached two months ago. With all sides now acknowledging the talks would need to continue beyond what was once considered the absolute deadline for […]
VIENNA — Secretary of State John Kerry began on Saturday what the Obama administration hopes will be the final push for a nuclear accord with Iran, just three days before a deadline for concluding an agreement. However, American officials have almost discounted the notion that a deal will be made by Tuesday’s deadline. Their goal is to bridge a number of technical and political divides over the […]
WASHINGTON — The State Department issued a dismal assessment of Iran’s record on human rights on Thursday, saying that the Iranian authorities had stifled dissent and engaged in “unlawful killings.” The assessment, part of a broad overview of human rights practices around the world, was published one day before Secretary of State John Kerry is to leave for Vienna to try to conclude a nuclear accord with […]
Five former members of President Obama’s inner circle of Iran advisers have written an open letter expressing concern that a pending accord to stem Iran’s nuclear program “may fall short of meeting the administration’s own standard of a ‘good’ agreement” and laying out a series of minimum requirements that Iran must agree to in coming days for them to support a final deal. Several of the senior […]
WASHINGTON — Iran continued its “terrorist-related” activity last year and also continued to provide broad military support to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, the State Department said Friday in its annual report on terrorism. The assessment suggests that neither the election of President Hassan Rouhani nor the prospect of a nuclear accord with the United States and its negotiating partners has had a moderating effect on Iran’s […]
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT June 19, 2015 WASHINGTON — Iran continued its “terrorist-related” activity last year and also continued to provide broad military support to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, the State Department said Friday in its annual report on terrorism. The State Department’s assessment suggests that neither the election of President Hassan Rouhani nor the prospect of a nuclear accord with the United States and its negotiating partners […]
Trevor Tasin with three of his sons: John, 11; Ben, 13; and Dominic, 2. Mr. Tasin, a pilot who retired as a major in 2014 after flying Predator drones and training new pilots. By CHRISTOPHER DREW and DAVE PHILIPPS June 16, 2015 CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. — After a decade of waging long-distance war through their video screens, America’s drone operators are burning out, and the Air Force is being […]
WASHINGTON — In a major shift of focus in the battle against the Islamic State, the Obama administration is planning to establish a new military base in Anbar Province and send 400 American military trainers to help Iraqi forces retake the city of Ramadi. Although a final decision by the White House has yet to be announced, the plan follows months of behind-the-scenes debate about how prominently […]
WASHINGTON — President Obama has authorized the deployment of up to 450 more American troops to Iraq to train and assist the Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State, the White House announced on Wednesday, signaling a major shift of focus in the fight against the Sunni militant group. The United States forces will use Al Taqqadum, an Iraqi base near the town of Habbaniya in eastern Anbar […]
In an image taken from a video on a militant website, the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, addressed followers last year in Mosul, Iraq. New insights yielded by a seized trove of materials in Syria include how he operates and tries to avoid being tracked by coalition forces. By ERIC SCHMITT June 8, 2015 WASHINGTON — American intelligence agencies have extracted valuable information about the Islamic State’s leadership structure, financial […]
By ALISSA J. RUBIN June 5, 2015 Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi foreign minister and deputy prime minister who for decades was the most public face of Saddam Hussein’s government on the world stage, died on Friday in Nasiriya, Iraq, where he had been imprisoned. He was 79. Adel Aldikhaly, the deputy governor of Nasiriya, said Mr. Aziz had had a heart attack after “a long-term incurable disease” and was transferred […]
Tariq Aziz, left, in 1992 at the United Nations as deputy prime minister of Iraq, talking with Chinmaya Rajaninath Gharekhan, the Indian delegate, at a meeting of the Security Council. By ALISSA J. RUBIN June 5, 2015 Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi foreign minister and deputy prime minister who for decades was the most public face of Saddam Hussein’s government on the world stage, died on Friday in Nasiriya, Iraq, where […]
June 4, 2015 Open Source By ROBERT MACKEY While many Israelis were enraged by comments from the chief executive of the French telecommunications company Orange, who told journalists in Egypt that he would like to cut ties to an Israeli cellphone service provider that operates in the occupied West Bank, pro-Palestinian activists working to isolate Israel argued that the statement was insufficient. The Orange chief executive, Stéphane […]
