When that ultimately did not stop the Council from acting, Mr. Netanyahu’s team expressed blistering anger at Mr. Obama. An Israeli official, insisting on anonymity to maintain the veneer of diplomatic protocol, gave a statement to multiple reporters on Friday blasting Mr. Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry, by name. Continue reading the main story “President Obama and Secretary Kerry are behind this shameful move […]
By Aaron Ross | KINSHASA KINSHASA Political parties in Democratic Republic of Congo paused talks on Saturday, close to a deal under which President Joseph Kabila would leave power in 2017 and elections would be held the same year, participants at the talks said. The talks between the ruling coalition and opposition parties mediated by a conference of Catholic bishops broke up at around 5.30 a.m local […]
A recent want ad for a job at a professional services companies had this interesting description: Photo: Joe McKendrick “Robotic Process Automation Analyst: Key responsibilities include: work with business teams to simplify and improve operations by analyzing as-is processes and create end-to-end automation solution designs… Work with process owners/SMEs and technology teams to analyse and assess automation feasibility… Document business requirements, processes and work instructions…. Operate as […]
On April 7, 14 large blue letters quietly disappeared from the outer walls of an office building in an exclusive neighborhood in northern San Salvador. One by one, the letters came down from the blue and beige stucco walls, leaving behind faint traces of the name of the law firm that had been working there just days before: M-O-S-S-A-C-K-F-O-N-S-E-C-A. Employees of the El Salvador branch of Mossack […]
A hundred years ago, an arms race between the dominant global superpower the (British Empire) and a rising power (Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany) culminated in the mass slaughter of World War One. The deep mistrust between the United States and the People’s Republic of China has all the potential to spawn a traumatic chapter in international relations. Despite its “pivot” to Asia, the Obama White House was cautious […]
That longstanding principle has largely collapsed since the victory by Mr. Trump, who campaigned on a strategy of breaking all the rules and has continued to speak in unmodulated tones. Continue reading the main story “In some ways, Trump is neutering the Obama administration,” said Douglas G. Brinkley, a professor of history and a presidential historian at Rice University in Houston. “They’ve avoided personally attacking each other, […]
The renminbi’s seemingly endless grind lower against the US dollar has been one of the financial stories of 2016, triggering a wave of capital outflows from China that Goldman Sachs estimates may have totalled $1.1tn since August 2015. The once closely controlled Chinese currency has tumbled 6.5 per cent to an eight-year low of Rmb6.945 against the greenback this year, taking its slide since August 2015 to […]
Submitted by Federico Pieraccini via Strategic-Culture.org, Understanding the objectives and logic that accompany the expansion of nations or empires is always of paramount importance in helping one draw lessons for the future In this series of four articles I intend to lay a very detailed but easily understandable foundation for describing the mechanisms that drive great powers. To succeed, one must analyze the geopolitical theories that over […]
By Warren Strobel and Arshad Mohammed | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has asked two Cabinet departments for the names of government officials working on programs to counter violent extremism, according to a document seen by Reuters and U.S. officials. The requests to the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security involve a set of programs that seek to prevent violence by extremists […]
By Jeffrey Dastin | ALLENTOWN, Pa. ALLENTOWN, Pa. A cargo plane emblazoned with “Prime Air” descended from an empty sky at Lehigh Valley International Airport on Tuesday, ninety minutes from the bustle of New York City, loaded with crates of goods during the peak holiday shopping season. It’s one of 40 jets leased by Amazon.com Inc for a new cargo service to meet delivery demand from the […]
By Michelle Nichols | UNITED NATIONS UNITED NATIONS The Obama administration on Friday allowed the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements, defying pressure from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump as well as Israel and several U.S. senators who urged Washington to use its veto. The resolution was put forward at the 15-member council for a vote on Friday by New Zealand, […]
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. Most of us can feel unavoidably like Mongo in Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles,” meaning a self-perception that “Mongo only pawn in game of life.” (YouTube) Yes, we all try to be philosophical but can lapse into merely being dim-witted, like […]
The man suspected of attacking a Berlin Christmas market has been shot dead by police near Milan in Italy, closing a chapter on one of Germany’s worst terrorist incidents. Anis Amri, a 24-year-old Tunisian with links to Italy, died after being confronted by police near the Italian city early yesterday. Isis later released a video of Amri pledging allegiance to the militant group and promising to “slaughter” […]
Christmas is almost here (and so is Hanukkah), and so it is time for the Long View to revisit the offices of Hindsight Capital LLC once more. Hindsight Capital, for the uninitiated, is the hedge fund that beats all others year in and year out because it is endowed with 20/20 hindsight; it can see the future. The returns to clairvoyance are potentially infinite, so it has […]
Good morning. A media A-list’s favorite books of 2016 Jake Tapper, the CNN reporter-show host, needed far less time than even a hyperactive wire service rewrite guy to answer a question about his favorite book this year: “‘Moonglow’ by Michael Chabon.” Bam, that didn’t take long. But it’s why amid a Trump- and-terrorism-centric moment, I asked busy and smart journalists to go high when so many others […]
For 15 years, Chandran Nair led a top Asian environmental consultancy that was active in China. In 2006, he founded the Global Institute for Tomorrow, a Hong Kong think tank focused on a shift of global power from the West to Asia, at a time when China’s rise is changing the geopolitical balance. Mr. Nair, who was born in Malaysia to a large South Indian family, is the […]
It was Obama who set the rulemaking in motion more than three years ago with an executive order urging the agency to take action, just three months after a fatal fertilizer explosion in West, Texas. The changes ordered by the new rule focus on coordination of emergency response efforts as well as local preparedness, but leave it up to companies to decide whether or not to implement […]
Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse have agreed to pay out billions to resolve a probe into the alleged mis-selling of mortgage-backed securities at the height of the US housing bubble, striking deals before the Trump administration takes power. The deals came as federal prosecutors announced they were suing Barclays and two of its executives over the issue of allegedly fraudulent residential mortgage-backed securities. The suit followed the breakdown of talks […]
Nearly a decade ago, Warren Buffett bet Protege Partners, a fund of hedge funds, that over the course of 10 years the S&P would outperform Protege’s returns net of all fees, costs and expenses. To make it real, the loser agreed to pay $1 million to the charity of the winner’s choice. At this past year’s annual meeting, Warren Buffett provided an update on the now […]
Automotive technology is rapidly advancing on all fronts. This past year saw several massively important developments ranging from vehicle-to-vehicle communication to the advent of 48-volt electrical systems. To be sure, self-driving cars dominated the automotive news over the last 12 months. Hardly a week went by without a significant autonomous vehicle announcement from an automaker, tech company, ride-sharing service, or other player in the increasingly […]
By Lisa Maria Garza | DALLAS DALLAS A video showing a white Fort Worth police officer in an escalating argument with a black woman he took into custody along with the woman’s daughters touched off a social media storm on Thursday, stoking a debate on race and U.S. policing. The woman identified by relatives as Jacqueline Craig, 46, was put on the ground and the officer held […]
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. It could be a dinner akin to the disastrous ones in “Meet the Parents,” “Talladega Nights” and “Wedding Crashers.” Or maybe “American Beauty,” where newly unemployed Kevin Spacey turns to his wife (Annette Bening) and daughter (Thora Birch) and says […]
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s legal news: VW buy-back: Volkswagen agreed to pay around $1 billion to repurchase or fix an additional batch of diesel-powered vehicles tainted with emissions-cheating software, resolving what had become a sticking point more than a year into Volkswagen’s diesel-emissions crisis. [WSJ] Unrevealing: A newly unsealed search-warrant application in the Clinton probe confirms the FBI found thousands of emails potentially linked to […]
By David Stanway | SHANGHAI SHANGHAI China has publicly named more than 20 enterprises it says broke environmental rules during this week’s outbreak of hazardous smog in the country’s north, its latest attempt to bring lawbreaking firms to account by shaming them. The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) accused steel and paper mills, cement plants, power generators and chemical producers of a range of offences, including ignoring […]
