PARIS Turnout figures for the second round of the French presidential election showed a 28.23 percent participation rate by midday local time, lower than five years ago, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday. The participation rate figures compared with a comparable figure of 30.7 percent at the same time during the last election in 2012, 34.1 percent in 2007, and 26.2 percent in 2002. (Reporting by Sybille […]
Police have ruled out terrorists being behind twin bomb blasts in Manila that killed two people and injured six others. Blasts ripped through shops and pavement stalls on Saturday night in the historic Quiapo district near the Golden Mosque, a well known landmark in the city. A member of the Philippine National Police secures the area following two overnight explosions in Manila’s Quiapo district. Photo: AP Police said on Sunday […]
Monday UN focus on migrants The UN will meet in Geneva to address the “human rights of all migrants, social inclusion, cohesion and all forms of discrimination, including racism, xenophobia and intolerance”. Organisers say they are working towards an ambitious global policy on migration, an issue high on the political agenda after the Mediterranean migrants’ crisis and US President Donald Trump’s clampdown on migration into the US […]
By Anthony Esposito | MONTERREY, Mexico MONTERREY, Mexico Engineers from across Mexico streamed into a cramped hotel lobby in the industrial city of Monterrey for a chance of a job with the U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), which is looking south of the border for talent in short supply at home. The fair was held at a delicate time for American firms hiring abroad as […]
MILAN Pope Francis on Saturday criticised the naming of the U.S. military’s biggest non-nuclear explosive as “the Mother of All Bombs”, saying the word “mother” should not be used in reference to a deadly weapon. The U.S. Air Force dropped such a bomb, officially designated as the GBU-43 Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) on suspected Islamic State fighters in eastern Afghanistan last month. The nickname was widely […]
By Ingrid Melander | PARIS PARIS After a tumultuous election campaign filled with scandal and surprises, the French public began to vote on Sunday on whether a pro-European Union centrist or an anti-EU, anti-immigration far-rightist will lead them for the next five years. Opinion polls indicate they will pick Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old ex-economy minister who wants to bridge the left-right divide, resisting an anti-establishment tide that […]
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. The image of power was simple: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump walking off Marine One Thursday, hand-in-hand, and boarding Air Force One for a short trek to New York City with Kushner’s father-in-law. Yes, Jared Kushner, trusted power broker, to […]
PARIS Voting stations opened in France for the second round of the presidential election, with opinion polls indicating Emmanuel Macron was likely to beat Marine Le Pen. Macron wants to deregulate the economy and deepen European Union integration, in contrast to the anti-EU and anti-immigration National Front candidate Le Pen. Forecasts proved to be accurate for the presidential election’s first round last month and financial markets have […]
Invesco’s move to snap up Source, the London-based exchange traded fund provider, has thrust the US asset manager into the centre of an increasingly ferocious battle across Europe’s passive investment industry. European fund managers now face another formidable US competitor in addition to the existing heavyweights BlackRock and Vanguard, which are pursuing a cut-throat ETF price war as they expand their presence in Europe. Atlanta-based Invesco already […]
By Jonathan Cable | LONDON LONDON The fate of the European Union and the euro could hang on the outcome of Sunday’s French presidential election. The expected victory of centrist, pro-EU candidate Emmanuel Macron would be taken by markets as a sign that political risk in Europe is receding; a surprise win for far-right candidate Marine Le Pen would raise the risk that the euro zone’s number […]
By Andreina Aponte and Andrew Cawthorne | CARACAS CARACAS Dressed in white and chanting “Liberty!”, tens of thousands of women opposed to Venezuela’s socialist President Nicolas Maduro marched on Saturday, proffering roses to security forces who blocked their way. The women’s marches, which took place in most major cities around the South American oil producer, were the latest in five weeks of sustained protests against Maduro whom […]
May 7, 2017 by: Harriet Agnew and Michael Stothard in Paris The French go to the polls on Sunday to vote for their next president in a run-off election where they will pick between independent centrist Emmanuel Macron and Front National leader Marine Le Pen. They face a choice between two radically different visions for the eurozone’s second-largest economy. Mr Macron, a 39-year old rookie politician whose […]
WASHINGTON U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt has recused himself from several court cases that he pursued against the agency when he was Oklahoma attorney general, according to a recusal statement. Pruitt, who had sued the environmental agency more than a dozen times when he was the oil- and gas-producing state’s top legal officer, had pledged during his Senate confirmation that he would step aside from […]
By Joseph Sipalan and Praveen Menon | KUALA LUMPUR KUALA LUMPUR Malaysia’s 1.6 million public servants have long been one of the most reliable vote banks for Prime Minister Najib Razak’s ruling coalition, but as he prepares to seek re-election he faces warnings that soaring living costs risk eroding that support. Prices have risen sharply since Malaysia cut state subsidies and launched a national goods and services […]
Apart from a promise to “show the world what’s next”, this image of Shanghai and the May 23 event date are all Microsoft has explicitly revealed so far, but it’s been dropping some heavy hints. Image: Microsoft Microsoft has teased a new event on May 23 in Shanghai where it promises to “show the world what’s next”. Microsoft’s newly launched event page doesn’t reveal anything more than […]
By Ann Saphir | PALO ALTO PALO ALTO San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams on Saturday reiterated his view that the U.S. central bank should begin trimming its massive balance sheet later this year, in part so the Fed has more tools at the ready when the next recession hits. He was the fourth Fed official in two days to suggest the Fed may need […]
Hamas announced on Saturday that it had chosen Ismail Haniyeh, a longtime leader of the militant Islamist group in Gaza, as its new political chief, after signalling a more pragmatic line in a new policy document. Mr Haniyeh served as a deputy to Khaled Mashal, the outgoing political leader of Hamas, and is expected to continue his policies. As head of the group’s political bureau, Mr Mashal […]
Korea expert Robert Kelly says the ‘real concern’ for the Philippines is being on the flight path of North Korea’s missile tests MANILA, Philippines – Remember the dad whose children barged in during his live video interview with the BBC? The man now known as the “BBC dad” is Robert Kelly, a political science professor at Pusan National University in South Korea. Kelly, an expert on Korea, […]
Authored by Daniel Lang via SHTFplan.com, For several weeks Venezuela has been rocked with protests and riots as the Maduro regime increasingly tightens its grip on the population. It seems as if security forces are brutally cracking down on dissidents on a daily basis now. Wednesday in particular, saw some incredibly tense clashes between protesters and government forces in the capital city of Caracas. According to Bloomberg: […]
France could play Test matches in the coming two seasons in the United Arab Emirates, French federation president Bernard Laporte said Saturday. Talking after signing a memorandum of understanding with the UAE rugby federation, Laporte said staging France matches overseas would “help develop rugby in the UAE and the region”. Emirati federation general secretary Qais al-Dhalai, quoted by Gulf News, said: “A proper Test match between France […]
The U.S. job market saw a strong rebound in April, driving the unemployment rate to the lowest level in a decade. The economy saw 211,000 jobs added in April, according to new government data released on Friday, May 5. The job market boost dropped the unemployment rate to 4.4 percent, the lowest level since May 2007. The latest stats should calm some fears about the state of the […]
Tens of thousands of Poles took part in an opposition protest in Warsaw on Saturday, accusing the ruling nationalist Law and Justice party of curtailing freedoms in the biggest show of popular discontent so far this year. As many as 90,000 marched chanting “We will defend democracy” and “Here is European Poland!” in the three-hour protest, organised by the opposition Civic Platform party, in conjunction with other […]
America First Policies Group type: 501(c)(4) nonprofit Why it matters: America First Policies grew out of Trump’s political operation. Headed by Brad Parscale, who ran the digital and data portion of Trump’s campaign, and featuring a coterie of former aides, it was meant to serve as a quasi-independent outside group providing support for the president’s initiatives. Parscale has said America First Policies had raised around $25 million. […]
CAIRO: The head of Egypt’s Al-Azhar university, one of the world’s leading Islamic seats of learning, has been replaced after labelling a controversial Muslim reformer an apostate, the institution said.The development came as Al-Azhar is pressured by critics who say the venerable Sunni Muslim authority has not done enough to counter Islamist extremism.Ahmed Hosni Taha, the acting university president, had been forced to apologize on Thursday after […]
