By Jeff Mason and Doina Chiacu | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday denied being misleading about a U.S. carrier strike group’s push towards the Korean peninsula, saying it never gave an arrival date and that the ships were still on their way. When Trump boasted early last week that he had sent an “armada” as a warning to North Korea, the USS Carl Vinson […]
“O’Reilly Factor” host Bill O’Reilly has been ousted from Fox News amid a growing furor over sexual harassment allegations and multiple confidential settlements with former employees at the network. O’Reilly, whose perennial ratings success over multiple decades earned him the moniker “the King of Cable News,” will not be returning to the network from a vacation to Italy announced last week after a New York Times article […]
By Lesley Wroughton | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday accused Iran of ‘alarming ongoing provocations’ to destabilise countries in the Middle East as the Trump administration launched a review of its policy towards Tehran. Tillerson told reporters the review, which he announced on Tuesday, would not only look at Tehran’s compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal but also its behaviour in the […]
By Eyanir Chinea and Anggy Polanco | CARACAS/SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela CARACAS/SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela Two Venezuelan students died on Wednesday after being shot during protests against unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro, increasing turmoil in the volatile nation amid a crippling economic crisis. Opposition supporters protested in Caracas and other cities in what they called “the mother of all marches,” denouncing Maduro for eroding democracy and plunging the oil-rich […]
Qualcomm beat Wall Street’s sales and profit forecasts for its second quarter as the mobile chipmaker’s performance was boosted by the launch of new smartphones including Samsung’s Galaxy S8. However, the company on Wednesday warned of greater uncertainty in its outlook for the next quarter because of its legal battle with Apple, some of whose contract manufacturers have withheld about $1bn in royalty payments to Qualcomm in […]
The defense secretary said Iranian support for the Houthis was destabilizing Yemen, and he talked up the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Relations are enjoying salad days in the Trump administration after years of friction between the Obama administration and the Saudi leadership, which thought Obama officials were too friendly with Iran. Continue reading the main story Mr. Mattis’s two-day visit, the start of […]
By Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump may add a visit to Saudi Arabia to a trip to Europe in May in what will be his first overseas journey since becoming president, a senior administration official said on Wednesday. Such a trip is “being discussed,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Trump is already planning to attend a NATO summit in Brussels […]
Emirates will cut flights to five of US cities as demand deteriorated after US restrictions on travel and on-board electronics affecting Middle East carriers and passengers. The world’s biggest international airline will reduce capacity to Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale in the coming weeks, the Dubai-based company said in a statement. Emirates will re-deploy the capacity to serve demand on other routes across its […]
Bill O’Reilly, the biggest star at Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel, is leaving the cable news network after an independent investigation into claims that he sexually harassed several women. “After a thorough and careful review of allegations against him, the company and Bill O’Reilly have agreed that Bill O’Reilly will not return to the Fox News Channel,” 21st Century Fox, Fox News’ parent company, said in a […]
By Anna Mehler Paperny and Rod Nickel | TORONTO/WINNIPEG TORONTO/WINNIPEG Canadian police on Wednesday said they charged a woman with human smuggling offences in connection with the asylum seekers who have been streaming over the border from the United States in growing numbers in recent months. Royal Canadian Mounted Police they intercepted a 43-year-old woman driving nine people across the U.S. border into the prairie province of […]
Photo The Monastery of St. Catherine, near Mount Sinai in Egypt, where a policeman was killed and four others were wounded on Monday. Credit Pedro Costa Gomes/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images CAIRO — Gunmen attacked a checkpoint near the iconic St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai, one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world, killing one police officer and wounding four others on Tuesday evening, Egypt’s Interior […]
Theresa May received overwhelming backing from MPs for a snap UK election that the prime minister said would give her more room for manoeuvre in Brexit negotiations if her Conservative party wins the poll. The prime minister won a vote in the House of Commons on Wednesday by 522 to 13, allowing her to press ahead with an early general election on June 8. The motion overrode […]
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has certified that Iran continues to comply with a 2015 nuclear agreement that President Trump denounced during the campaign as “the worst deal ever.” The certification decision, announced late Tuesday night, means that the administration has extended relief from sanctions given to the Iranian government in exchange for constraints on its nuclear program. But the certification was grudging, delivered just 90 minutes […]
MANILA Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte warned on Wednesday he might “invade” an island stronghold of the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf to “finish the game” following a thwarted attempt by the group to kidnap tourists on a resort island last week. Duterte offered cash rewards for the capture, dead or alive, of six Abu Sayyaf militants still at large following a day-long clash last week on Bohol island, […]
KHAN SHEIKHUN: A suspected chemical attack killed at least 58 civilians in opposition-held northwestern Syria on Tuesday, a monitor said, prompting global outrage and calls for international action.The attack in the town of Khan Sheikhun also left dozens suffering respiratory problems and symptoms including vomiting, fainting and foaming at the mouth, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.Hours later, airstrikes hit a hospital in the town […]
Henin Beaumont, a mining town in northern France, voted socialist for decades but is now a model for the way Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front party is capitalising on economic hardship. Anne-Sylvaine Chassany visited the region to find out why. Filmed by Steve Ager. Produced by Daniel Garrahan. Additional editing by Richard Topping. Graphics by Russell Birkett. Colour grade by Rory Cantwell. Editorial Assistants: Domitille Alain, […]
Photo On Tuesday, the Islamic State released its first official statement on President Trump, though he was not called out by name. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times Although members and supporters of the Islamic State have frequently commented on President Trump and his policies, analysts have been puzzled by the terrorist group’s official silence about him. Mr. Trump had not been mentioned in any of the […]
Terrorism and declining oil prices affected the regional hospitality sector especially in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt, according to Mark Willis, Vice president Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group. Willis is however optimistic about the results of the Saudi economy during the first quarter of 2017 while stressing that the most difficult performance for their Radisson Blu hotels was in Turkey and Egypt. “We […]
North Korea has fired a missile into the Sea of Japan, with the latest provocative gesture from Pyongyang coming just days before US President Donald Trump meets his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The Pentagon said North Korea had fired the missile at 6.42am local time on Wednesday and that it had landed in the sea nine minutes later. It said the rocket, believed to be a medium-range […]
At the hospital in Reyhanli, a small Turkish border town that took in many of the victims, the mourners gathered outside mostly came from just two extended families, Mr. Youssef’s and the Abu Amash family. Continue reading the main story The families are connected by marriage and both come from Khan Sheikhoun, the village in rebel-held Idlib Province that residents said been hit with chemical weapons earlier […]
By Phil Stewart | QAYYARA WEST AIRFIELD, Iraq QAYYARA WEST AIRFIELD, Iraq President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, voiced optimism about the long-term U.S. alliance with Iraq’s military and its campaign to retake Mosul from Islamic State on Tuesday, as he visited a base about 10 miles (16 km) from the city. Kushner was on the last day of a two-day trip to Iraq as the guest […]
Americans are highly aware that President Trump and the media have locked swords, and nearly three-quarters think those tensions are suppressing their access to important political news. Those are the findings of a new two-question survey the Pew Research Center released today. Hardly surprising, Pew researchers found that 83 percent of a survey panel of more than 4,000 believe Trump’s relationship with the media “is generally unhealthy.” […]
Fox News is facing fresh legal and financial challenges after a third employee joined a racial discrimination lawsuit while a dozen brands stopped advertising on Bill O’Reilly’s top-rated programme following new allegations of sexual harassment and verbal abuse. The allegations that the cable network knew of complaints from black employees two years ago and failed to investigate them, coupled with the news of advertisers distancing themselves from […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The United States blamed the Syrian government and its patrons, Russia and Iran, on Tuesday for one of the deadliest chemical weapons attacks in years in Syria, one that killed dozens of people in Idlib Province, including children, and sickened scores more. A senior State Department official said the attack appeared to be a war crime and called on Russia and Iran to restrain […]
