December 13, 2016 by: Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington Donald Trump is poised to name Rex Tillerson, chief executive of ExxonMobil, as his secretary of state, ignoring criticism that the oil and gas man is too close to Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin. Mr Trump tweeted on Monday that he would formally unveil his choice for the high-profile cabinet position on Tuesday morning. US media reported […]
By Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump will announce Exxon-Mobil Corp’s Rex Tillerson as his choice for secretary of state on Tuesday, a senior transition official said, confident that the oil executive can get past questions about his ties to Russia. Trump is to make the announcement on Tuesday morning, going with a business leader whose experience in diplomacy is from making deals with foreign […]
The top Republican in the US Senate has backed an investigation into allegations that the Kremlin engaged in a hacking campaign to influence November’s presidential election. It is the most serious break yet between President-elect Donald Trump and his party’s traditional leaders in Washington. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, said that Congress would probe the allegations following the disclosure of a Central Intelligence Agency report which […]
For the last 28 years, I have written a prediction column for the new year. I study our research and look for trends that provide hints of what might impact the tech industry in the near future. In 2017, be on the lookout for augmented reality products (more so than VR), the further development of autonomous vehicles and smart cities, and the impact of the […]
During the gradual rapprochement between the US and Muammer Gaddafi’s Libya in February 2007, Rex Tillerson visited the country and met its leader in his traditional tent. As chief executive of ExxonMobil, the world’s largest listed oil company, Mr Tillerson had an interest in opening up access to Libya’s vast reserves, but his visit was also a milestone in the progress towards normal relations with the US. […]
President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday rejected as “ridiculous” a CIA report that Russia had intervened in the presidential election in order to help him win. Mr Trump called the intelligence assessment, which rocked Washington this weekend, “just another excuse” for Hillary Clinton’s surprise loss. “I don’t believe it,” he told Fox News. The interview aired shortly after a bipartisan Senate quartet called for a congressional investigation of […]
In a move that is certain to infuriate those who see Trump as nothing more than a puppet of the Kremlin, moments ago NBC reported that Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil and late entrant into the SecState race after his first meeting with the president elect this past Tuesday at the Trump Tower, has been picked by Trump to serve as his next Secretary of State. […]
ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson has emerged as the strong favourite to be Donald Trump’s secretary of state, US media reported on Saturday, potentially placing a businessman with global dealmaking experience at the heart of US foreign policy. After a 41-year career at the oil giant, Mr Tillerson has no direct diplomatic background but he has close ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin who awarded him the […]
PARIS: US Secretary of State John Kerry and leading diplomats are trying to find solutions for Syria’s desperate opposition, as Syrian government forces squeeze rebels out of Aleppo after a devastating blitz.With tens of thousands of civilians fleeing, Kerry said he is working to ensure their safety and to save Aleppo “from being absolutely, completely destroyed.”Kerry and European and Arab diplomats are meeting members of Syria’s opposition […]
Ghana re-established its reputation as one of Africa’s cleanest democracies on Friday when authorities proclaimed opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo, 72, a British-educated lawyer and veteran statesman, as the next president. The victory by Mr Akufo-Addo’s centre New Patriotic party, after eight years of rule by the left-leaning National Democratic Congress, triggered wild celebrations across much of the country. It follows the surprise electoral defeat last week of […]
By Laila Bassam and Lisa Barrington | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT The Syrian army pressed an offensive in Aleppo on Friday with ground fighting and air strikes in an operation to retake all of the city’s rebel-held east that would bring victory in the civil war closer for President Bashar al-Assad. “The advance is going according to plan and is sometimes faster than expected,” a Syrian military […]
Barack Obama has ordered US intelligence agencies to conduct a “full review” of alleged Russian hacking into this year’s election and to issue a report before he leaves office next month. Lisa Monaco, White House counter-terrorism adviser, said that the review, which would be sent to Congress but which might not be made public, would look at both what happened during the election and would consider “some […]
By Asad Hashim | ISLAMABAD ISLAMABAD Pakistan on Thursday mourned the 47 victims of its deadliest plane crash in four years, among them a famed-rockstar-turned-Muslim evangelist, two infants and three foreigners, as officials sought to pinpoint the cause of the disaster. Engine trouble was initially believed responsible, but many questions remain, stirring new worries about the safety record of money-losing state carrier Pakistani International Airlines. […]
Donald Trump is planning to hand responsibility for immigration and the US-Mexico border to John Kelly, a retired general who led US military operations in Latin America. The president-elect has chosen the former Marine general to be secretary of homeland security, head of the department that oversees immigration policy, US media reported on Wednesday. The job would give Mr Kelly, 66, a pivotal role in implementing border […]
News stories are released on weekdays. 2 hours ago Vatican confirms ban on homosexual candidates for priesthood The Vatican has confirmed that homosexual men should not be ordained to the priesthood. In a new instruction for the training of seminarians, entitled The Gift of the Priestly Vocation, the Congregation for the Clergy says that the Church “cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those […]
Fresh from touting a deal to save hundreds of jobs at the Carrier plant in Indiana as proof he would hold to his election pledge to protect American workers, it appears to have escaped Donald Trump that his attack on Boeing’s contract to replace Air Force One would endanger the employment of thousands of highly skilled aerospace workers. After claiming this week that the “$4 billion” cost […]
This article by David Haggith was published first on The Great Recession Blog: I risked losing my fellow anti-establishment readers in September by suggesting Trump may be an establishment Trojan horse. After seeing Trump choose Pence as VP and a Goldman Sachs exec as campaign finance manager, I was concerned the establishment knew a citizen’s revolt was brewing and made sure that even the road to revolt led back to […]
Microsoft has unveiled a new chatbot named Zo, but this time, she’s available on Kik, instead of Twitter, where earlier this year, her predecessor—known as Tay—went on a rather racist tirade before being shut down. I’ve never heard a clear explanation as to why Microsoft is making chatbots, and I have to assume the worst: They are on track to deliver ads. If you ever […]
Submitted by Daniel Cloud “Donald Trump is either too incompetent to understand that his foolish phone call threatens our national security, or he’s doing it deliberately because he reportedly wants to build hotels in Taiwan to pad his own pockets.” – (Democratic National Committee Spokesperson) Is that true? Did “incompetent” President-Elect Donald Trump’s “foolish” telephone conversation with Taiwan’s President Cai Yingwen actually “threaten American’s […]
If you set out to make a positive investment case for Italy 20 years ago, the best hope was to play down the myriad structural inefficiencies that blighted the corporate sector and argue that this was a good economy burdened by an unworkable state. Now, after years of no growth accompanied by stubbornly high public debt, a positive case looks even harder to make, especially after the […]
Yet now, on the eve of his second season as the coach at the Patrick School, Rice may be well positioned to continue his career rehabilitation in a major way: with a job on a much bigger stage. His Patrick School team, which opens the season Dec. 16 at the City of Palms tournament in Florida, is loaded with talent and will appear in several nationally televised […]
Photo Destroyed buildings dominate an eastern Aleppo neighborhood as pro-government troops advanced toward the area on Monday. Credit George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images BEIRUT, Lebanon — With the Syrian rebel enclave of eastern Aleppo shriveling, Russia said on Monday that it would start talks with the United States this week on a deal for holdout insurgents to leave, and that any who refused would be regarded […]
MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday he was confident Moscow and Washington can reach a deal in talks this week on the withdrawal of all rebels from the eastern part of the Syrian city of Aleppo.He told a news conference once the deal was reached, rebels who stay in the besieged eastern part of the city will be treated as terrorists and Russia will […]
In the United States, too, I found resistance to the idea that Brexit was a harbinger of a Trump victory. I was assured over and over by liberal friends that Trump would never be president. American voters were too sensible to fall for his hateful demagogy. Trump, I was told, was a product of peculiarly American strains of populism that flare up periodically, like the anti-immigrant nativism […]
