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John Lee

Trump slams CIA claims on Russia election hacking

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 Russian election [...]

Trump Picks Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson As Secretary Of State

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 emerges as favourite for US 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 Order [...]

Western, Arab diplomats meet to find solutions for Syria opposition

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 [...]

Akufo-Addo wins Ghana presidential election

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 Gambia’s [...]

Syrian government forces press attack in east Aleppo

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 source [...]

Obama orders probe of Russia election hacking claims

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 after-action”. [...]

Pakistan mourns 47 killed in air crash, as investigators seek answers

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.The [...]

Retired US general to be tapped for homeland security

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 policies for [...]

Christian governor to face blasphemy trial in Indonesia next week – Catholic Culture

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 [...]

Trump speaks to Boeing head on Air Force One costs

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 of [...]

Trump: Trojan, Traitor, or Tried and True?

 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 [...]

The Future of the Chatbots: Sales

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 spend [...]

Trump’s Shot Across China’s Bow

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 [...]

Italy stuck between fiscal grip and ailing banks

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 [...]

The Rehabilitation of a Coaching Outcast

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 [...]

Russia Says It’ll Discuss With U.S. a Deal on Exit for Insurgents in Aleppo

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 [...]

Russia: Opposition fighters who refuse to leave Aleppo to be treated as terrorists

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 [...]

Feature: The End of the Anglo-American Order

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 [...]

John Key helped transform New Zealand into resilient, vibrant economy: PM Lee – Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE: As Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key has helped transform the country into a "resilient and vibrant economy", said Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, expressing surprise at Mr Key's resignation announcement on Monday morning (Dec 5)."As PM, Mr Key and his team dealt with some major challenges, including the global financial crisis and the 2011 Christchurch earthquake," PM Lee wrote in a Facebook post [...]

In Harsh Terms, Kerry Says Israel Is Undermining Peace Efforts

Photo Secretary of State John Kerry with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in New York in September. At the Saban Forum in Washington on Sunday, Mr. Kerry called the building of Israeli settlements an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians. Credit Darren Ornitz/Reuters Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday accused right-wing Israelis of deliberately thwarting efforts to broker a peace deal with the Palestinians.In unusually [...]

John Key resigns as New Zealand prime minister

John Key has resigned as New Zealand’s prime minister, saying it felt like “the right time to go” and that he wanted to leave on his own terms ahead of next year’s general election. Mr Key, a former Merrill Lynch banker who won three consecutive elections and whose National party is ahead in opinion polls, said he would vote for Bill English, deputy prime minister, in a caucus [...]

Trump criticises Beijing as he defends call to Taiwanese leader

Two days after Donald Trump created a diplomatic dispute with China over Taiwan, the president-elect took to Twitter on Sunday evening to criticise Beijing and defend his decision to speak with the Taiwanese president.China issued a protest on Saturday after Mr Trump spoke on the phone with Tsai Ing-wen, the first such contact with a Taiwanese leader since the US severed diplomatic ties in 1979.Although vice-president elect [...]

Lib Dem victory will raise fears of Brexit sellout

It has been a bad week for Conservative Eurosceptics, their worst since their EU referendum victory in June. The sight of Zac Goldsmith, a leading Brexiter, losing his 23,000 majority in a by-election to the pro-European Liberal Democrats capped it.“The result doesn’t change anything,” said a Conservative spokesman, pointing out that Theresa May was still committed to starting Brexit by the end of March 2017, whatever the [...]