By Cindy Silviana and Eveline Danubrata | JAKARTA JAKARTA Supporters of the governor of Indonesia’s capital are hoping their checkered shirts in red, white and blue will help galvanize the vote in a city election on Wednesday and win a second term for their leader. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama is Jakarta’s first ethnic Chinese and Christian governor, and the election in the city of 10 million people has […]
PARIS Independent Emmanuel Macron will easily beat far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a runoff in the French presidential election, but the outcome of a knockout between her and conservative Francois Fillon would be closer than before, a poll showed on Monday. The Opinionway poll showed Le Pen would get 42 percent of votes compared to 58 percent for Fillon if the scandal-hit Fillon made it through […]
BANGUI A top militant and three others were killed in Central African Republic when a U.N. helicopter fired on fighters advancing towards the town of Bambari, a rebel group said on Sunday. The UN’s mission known as MINUSCA shot at fighters from the Popular Front for the Renaissance of Central African Republic (FPRC), on Saturday after they crossed a “red line” it had set north of the […]
Here are the big questions facing investors ahead of a new trading week. How long does a reprieve for French bonds last? After a burst of selling early last week, French debt was granted a reprieve with the 10-year benchmark yield easing back below 1.10 per cent. In turn, the divergence over 10-year Bund yields also pulled back from a four-year plus high. Traders remain nervous after […]
The European government bond market had what is known in technical circles as a minor freak-out this week. Yet as yields in eurozone bonds diverged sharply, the markets for stocks, corporate debt and currencies carried on regardless. The Cac 40 index of large French-listed companies was barely changed on the week. The euro weakened per cent against the US dollar, but at the same time the dollar […]
A man who attacked a soldier at the Louvre museum in Paris on Friday cried “Allahu akbar” before he was shot. French police said they believed the man, who was seriously wounded in the incident, intended to carry out a terrorist attack. The man who had two backpacks shouted “God is great” in Arabic and lunged at the soldier at the entrance to the museum shortly after […]
By Tom Westbrook and Jane Wardell | SYDNEY SYDNEY Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull might receive a short-term boost after his infamous phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump but is likely to be the long-term political loser, analysts and rights advocates said on Friday. Languishing in opinion polls and vulnerable to attacks from within his own conservative party, Turnbull at least woke on Friday to domestic […]
By David Ljunggren and Rod Nickel | OTTAWA/WINNIPEG OTTAWA/WINNIPEG Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking a low key approach to dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump, seeking to avoid clashes while indirectly signalling the two leaders’ differences to a domestic audience. Insiders acknowledge the cautious strategy could anger progressives whose support helped bring Trudeau to power in 2015 but say for now, he has no choice […]
La Villette, a corrugated iron convention hall on the northern rim of Paris, was meant to be François Fillon’s launch pad towards the French presidency after winning the centre-right nomination in a landslide. But on Sunday he stood in the packed venue, days after claims emerged that the Republican candidate had allegedly employed his wife in a fake parliamentary job for years and, suddenly, victory seemed to […]
PARIS French investigators have widened a probe into allegations that presidential candidate Francois Fillon paid large sums of money to members of his family for work they may not have done, to include two of his children, sources said on Thursday. The sources, who are close to the inquiry, said the investigation was being extended to look at work carried out by Marie and Charles Fillon for […]
Investors demanded a higher premium to hold France’s debt instead of Germany on Wednesday, reflecting a combination of political uncertainty and concerns over the outlook for inflation and central bank debt purchases. A series of upcoming elections in Europe, combined with worries that inflation pressures are picking up, have pushed down eurozone bond prices since the start of the year, with France becoming a notable laggard. The […]
Millions of Indians are preparing to vote in the biggest test of public opinion since prime minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetisation of 500 and 1,000-rupee notes three months ago – a move which has plunged the country into an unprecedented cash crisis and sent the economy into a tailspin. Over the next four weeks, starting today, a series of regional elections will be held across India […]
Photo A construction site in the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in the West Bank, near Jerusalem. Credit Dan Balilty for The New York Times JERUSALEM — Israel approved 3,000 more housing units in the occupied West Bank late Tuesday, the largest number in a wave of new construction plans that defy the international community and that open a forceful phase in the country’s expansion into land […]
By Emile Picy and Chine Labbé | PARIS PARIS French police searched presidential candidate Francois Fillon’s office in parliament on Tuesday as an inquiry into alleged fake work by his wife threatened his campaign and party leaders began to consider a ‘Plan B’ without him. Fillon had been favourite to win the presidency for the conservative Republicans party until a week ago, when it was reported that […]
Pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump grew on Monday over his order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority nations, as the state of Washington announced a legal challenge and former President Barack Obama took a swipe at his successor. The leader of the Democrats in the U.S. Senate, Chuck Schumer, said he would bring legislation on Monday evening seeking to end the ban, although his effort stood little […]
European, Asian stocks and S&P futures all drop after traders were left with a sour taste from the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s order halting some immigration and ahead of central bank decisions from the U.S. and Japan. Markets in Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam are all shut due to the Lunar New Year public holiday, leading to a quiet Asian session. Oil […]
JERUSALEM: When Benjamin Netanyahu sent a tweet in support of President Donald Trump’s plan for a wall along the Mexican border, the Israeli prime minister can barely have expected it would be retweeted 40,000 times and cause a backlash at home and abroad.Already under arguably the greatest pressure he has faced in his 11 years as prime minister, with police questioning him in two criminal probes into […]
The president detailed his intentions during an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network on Friday, saying his administration is giving priority to Christians because they had suffered “more so” than others, “so we are going to help them.” Continue reading the main story But if Mr. Trump had hoped for Christian leaders to break out in cheers, that is, for the most part, not what he has […]
By Holger Hansen and Andrea Shalal | BERLIN BERLIN Former European Parliament President Martin Schulz vowed on Sunday to shake up German elections and unseat Chancellor Angela Merkel with a campaign aimed at overcoming “deep divisions” that he said had fueled populism in Germany in recent years. Schulz, nominated to lead the Social Democratic Party (SPD), told over 1,000 people at its Berlin headquarters he would fight […]
LISBON French President Francois Hollande said on Saturday the new U.S. government was encouraging “populism and even extremism”, as he and fellow southern European leaders urged unity to face an increasingly uncertain world. “We have to stand together in Europe,” Hollande said during the meeting in Lisbon. “What is at stake is populism. The kind of discourse now coming from the United States encourages populism and even […]
By Christine Murray | MEXICO CITY MEXICO CITY Billionaire Carlos Slim said on Friday that Mexico should not fear Donald Trump, seeing opportunities for his country in the U.S. president’s economic policies, and praising Mexicans for uniting behind their government in talks with the northern neighbor. In a rare news conference, the telecommunications and construction mogul called Trump a negotiator, “not Terminator” and said his repeated attacks […]
Greece faces what is likely to be an “explosive” surge in its public debt levels that within decades will mean it will owe almost three times the country’s annual economic output unless given significant debt relief, the International Monetary Fund has warned in a confidential report. The new report was prepared by IMF staff ahead of a February 6 board meeting to discuss the fund’s participation in […]
Good morning. Is it the “opposition party?” Shortly after Steve Bannon, President Trump’s strategic and cultural Svengali, called the American press the “opposition party,” the opposition calmly sat on a Chicago stage and suggested the best path forward. Their response? Reasoned and tough-minded indifference. It’s a de facto prescription that might drive the new tweeter-in-chief and his sledgehammer-wielding sycophants daffy in their search for a Jacksonian revival. […]
PARIS Britain is becoming subservient to a United States that will be extremely difficult to cooperate with judging by President Donald Trump’s “serious and worrying” first acts, French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron said on Friday. British Prime Minister Theresa May, who will hold talks with Trump later on Friday, wants a renewal of the “special relationship” between London and Washington at a time her conservative government redraws […]
