By Balazs Koranyi | FRANKFURT FRANKFURT Two of the world’s biggest central banks are likely to find themselves with a bigger policy gap by the end of the coming fortnight The European Central Bank on Thursday will resist calls to start tightening policy against surging inflation but robust U.S. jobs data on Friday could seal the case for another Federal Reserve hike the week after. So, let’s […]
François Fillon put his future as French presidential candidate for the centre right in the hands of party leaders after mobilising tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in Paris. Mr Fillon said he was the victim of a “manhunt” but notably omitted to tell the crowd — mobilised as show of strength among grassroots Republicans — that he would fight on as Republican candidate despite […]
When Paul Ryan, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, talks of social mobility, about helping struggling Americans move out of impoverished areas to give them greater opportunity, Shiva Daniels is the kind of person he has in mind. A federal housing voucher allowed Daniels to escape her crime-plagued neighborhood in Dallas, Texas, and move her four children to the suburb of Garland. That move helped Daniels […]
China’s banking system has surpassed the eurozone’s to become the world’s largest by assets, a sign both of the country’s increased influence in world finance and its reliance on debt to drive growth since the global financial crisis. While China’s gross domestic product surpassed the EU’s economic bloc in 2011 at market exchange rates, its banking system did not take over the top spot until the end […]
By Jussi Rosendahl | HELSINKI HELSINKI Finnish foreign minister Timo Soini said on Sunday he would step down as leader of the nationalist and eurosceptic Finns party in June, a move which could challenge the future of the country’s three-party government. The departure of Soini paves the way for a more hard-line leadership, surveys have suggested, as many of its core voters bridled at compromises he made […]
A historic change in party rules has handed Shinzo Abe the possibility of becoming Japan’s longest-serving prime minister in more than half a century. The revision, which would allow Mr Abe to stay in power until 2021, marks a stunning turnaround for a country long known for its revolving door of prime ministers to becoming one of the most stable governments among the group of seven leading […]
Nearly 70 percent of employers in the UAE are planning to hire new staff in the next 12 months, according to the latest Middle East Job Index Survey. Compiled by Bayt.com and YouGov, the survey results showed that within the next three months, more than half of UAE employers (52 percent) said that they are “definitely” or “probably” going to hire. Among UAE companies that plan to […]
There is good news that the sickle cell anemia, which is a slow killer that induces immense pain, is curable with gene therapy. This was disclosed by doctors at the Necker Children’s Hospital in Paris, where a boy afflicted with sickle cell disease attained complete cure after genetic engineering therapy treatment on a trial basis. Globally, 275,000 infants are born carrying sickle cell disease and in the […]
China has lowered its annual economic growth target to “around” 6.5 per cent, as Beijing plans to focus on risk control in the final year of President Xi Jinping’s first term. The figure, down from the government’s target growth range of 6.5 to 7 per cent for 2016, was revealed on Sunday morning by Premier Li Keqiang in his annual “work report” to China’s parliament, the National […]
Ras Al Khaimah has continued to outperform the wider UAE and regional tourism markets, according to real estate consultancy firm CBRE. Its latest Ras Al Khaimah MarketView report noted that the emirate’s hospitality market soared last year by recording a 10.9 percent increase in full year visitor arrivals and a 9.8 percent growth in the average occupancy rate, taking the annual occupancy to 71 percent. According to […]
Via Nicholas Eberstadt of CommentaryMagazine.com, On the morning of November 9, 2016, America’s elite—its talking and deciding classes—woke up to a country they did not know. To most privileged and well-educated Americans, especially those living in its bicoastal bastions, the election of Donald Trump had been a thing almost impossible even to imagine. What sort of country would go and elect someone like Trump as president? Certainly not […]
By Kevin Yao and Xiaochong Zhang | BEIJING BEIJING China has cut its growth target this year as the world’s second-largest economy pushes through painful reforms to address a build-up in debt and strives to keep a lid on risks in its financial sector. China aims to expand its economy by around 6.5 percent in 2017, Premier Li Keqiang said at the opening of the annual meeting […]
In the 19th century, English poet and artist William Blake saw the factories of the industrial revolution as dark, satanic mills churning up the countryside and signalling a new, ominous era of human existence. Fast forward 200 years and Sophia Al Maria, a Qatari-American artist and writer, believes those dark mills have been replaced by the bright, fluorescent lights of shopping malls. Both places, she says, “are […]
Standard Life is in late-stage discussions to acquire Aberdeen Asset Management in an all-stock deal that would create the UK’s largest money manager with £660bn of assets and be worth around £11bn. The companies confirmed the talks on Saturday evening in a joint statement that said a deal would “leverage Standard Life and Aberdeen’s combined strengths to create a world class investment company”. They added that Standard Life […]
04 March 2017 Bahrain – Investcorp, a global provider and manager of alternative investment products, today announced the completion of its acquisition and integration of the debt management business of 3i (“3iDM”) from 3i Group plc. The business, now recognized as Investcorp Credit Management (“ICM”), adds $11 billion of assets under management, bringing the total to approximately $21.4 billion. Investcorp Credit Management is a leading global credit […]
Mustafa Sanalla, the chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corporation, has called for “concrete steps” to protect the country’s oil assets as fresh fighting that has erupted near crucial oil facilities threatened to reverse recent increases in the Opec member’s output. Forces from eastern Libya carried out on Saturday air strikes around the oil ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf on the country’s Mediterranean coast in order […]
The calendar may have only just flipped into March, but it has already felt like a long year for dollar bulls. They have been frustrated with the wait for detail from Donald Trump on the proposed tax and fiscal policies that started their run at his election in November. It is a rally that has faded in 2017, with the US currency down 0.25 per cent this […]
Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary and Armed Services Committees, has issued the following statement after President Trump accused former President Obama of wiretapping his phones in 2016 and Obama’s spokesman said that was false. Sasse raises several key points: if the wiretap was authorized by a FISA Court, Trump should demand to see the application, find out on what grounds it was […]
By Ayman al-Warfalli | BENGHAZI, Libya BENGHAZI, Libya East Libyan forces carried out air strikes around major oil ports on Saturday as they sought to regain control of the area from a rival faction, a military spokesman said. The eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) and allied forces retreated on Friday from Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, two of Libya’s largest export terminals, as a faction known as […]
LONDON Scottish fund manager Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN.L) and insurer Standard Life (SL.L) are exploring a possible merger, the two companies said in a statement. Aberdeen shareholders would own 33.3 percent of the combined group under the terms of the potential merger, with Standard Life shareholders owning the other 66.7 percent, the companies said. “Further to the recent press speculation the boards of Standard Life and Aberdeen […]
Giant pandas have the scientific community’s attention not only because of the animal’s cuteness but because it has been on the endangered species list for the past decade. Only having been removed in September 2016 — when its population finally increased by 17 percent between 2004 and 2014 — pandas are still considered vulnerable. China, however, disagrees with the removal. Despite the roller-coaster ride concerning its endangered species status, […]
In Jerusalem — where the governor will spend most if not all of his time outside the airport — he will meet with the mayor, Nir Barkat, and a group of business leaders. Continue reading the main story The impromptu nature of Mr. Cuomo’s trip is not accidental. With a rash of anti-Semitic threats and racist vandalism occurring in New York and nationwide, the governor said he […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. So what have you heard more often: “Fox & Friends” shilling for President Trump or sophisticated people confiding their real reason for reading The New Yorker is the cartoons? Ah, if only Bob Mankoff had long ago negotiated some piece […]
Plot twists, accusations and 25,000 pages of evidence — a snapshot of the case that will determine Nawaz Sharif’s fate. Panama Papers leaked; Sharif family under spotlight — Feica/Dawn. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) makes 11.5 million secret documents available to the public for the very first time. The documents, coming from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, contain confidential attorney-client information for more than 214,488 […]
