By Roberta Rampton and Colin Packham | SYDNEY SYDNEY Denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula can still be achieved peacefully because of Washington’s new engagement with China, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Saturday, despite growing fears North Korea could soon conduct a new nuclear test. South Korea is on heightened alert ahead of another important anniversary in the reclusive North that could be the trigger for […]
By Angela Moon | NEW YORK NEW YORK Social media did not take kindly to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions referring to the country’s 50th state of Hawaii as just “an island in the Pacific.” Using the hashtag #IslandinthePacific, many on Twitter reminded Sessions that Hawaii is in fact part of the country, the birthplace of former President Barack Obama and home to Pearl Harbor. Sessions told […]
SYDNEY U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Saturday the United States would honour a controversial refugee deal with Australia, under which the United States would resettle 1,250 asylum seekers, a deal President Donald Trump had described as “dumb”. Pence told a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in Sydney that the deal would be subject to vetting, and that honouring it “doesn’t mean […]
Why Lower Manhattan? The bottom tip of Manhattan island was where New York began – with Dutch fur trappers finding it a handy harbour and trading site. Today, the trading is done on the New York Stock Exchange and in the giant office towers that compete for skyline space. But among the gleaming glass are remnants of a past that goes back much further than it does […]
Photo A woman laid flowers at a makeshift memorial in front of the Reina nightclub in Istanbul in January. On April 6, United States Special Operations forces carried out a ground raid in Syria that killed Abdurakhmon Uzbeki, an ISIS militant who had helped plot the attack on the nightclub. Credit Ozan Kose/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images WASHINGTON — United States Special Operations forces carried out a […]
General counsel from 185 companies are joining the chorus of voices supporting the Legal Services Corp., a major benefactor of civil legal aid that’s at risk of being completely eliminated under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget. The group of top corporate lawyers, from companies including Google Inc., , and , signed on to a letter delivered to all […] (via WSJ)
By Dan Levine and Mica Rosenberg | SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK President Donald Trump’s travel ban on citizens of six Muslim-majority nations faces its second challenge at a U.S. appeals court next month, and this time more Republican states are backing the measure, while one Democratic state attorney general dropped out of the legal fight this week. Some legal experts say the states’ realignment could […]
By Lindsay Dunsmuir | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The United States has strongly signalled it will continue to support Ukraine, Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk said on Friday, adding that the war-torn country had a “good, pragmatic” relationship with Washington. Ukraine has previously expressed some nervousness about the possibility the Trump administration might try to cut a deal with Russia over Crimea and the eastern part of Ukraine that has […]
Two pillars — Trump and China — have supported a bounteous few months for global portfolio investors. But the hope invested in both is starting to fade, casting a bearish tinge over what nevertheless remains a largely optimistic picture. In the case of Donald Trump, expectations that the US president would act swiftly to push though tax reforms, deregulation and bold infrastructure investments are starting to ebb […]
A Qatari hunting party kidnapped in southern Iraq in 2015 has been freed and was being handed over to a Qatari delegation in Baghdad on Friday, a senior interior ministry official told AFP. Sources close to the negotiations said their release was part of a far-reaching regional deal involving the release of prisoners and the evacuation of civilians in neighbouring Syria. “The interior ministry has received the […]
By David Morgan | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Friday promised a big announcement about tax reform next week and ordered an administration review of Obama-era tax rules written to discourage U.S. companies from relocating overseas to cut their tax bills. “We’ll be having a big announcement on Wednesday having to do with tax reform. The process has begun long ago, but it really formally begins […]
ABU DHABI // Etihad Airways will donate one dirham from every flight ticket sold in the UAE this year towards the UAE’s Year of Giving causes, the airline announced yesterday. The move is one of many initiatives by Etihad Aviation Group, including free cargo space for humanitarian causes. Each month, the airline will donate proceeds to Emirates Red Crescent’s local and international projects, including For Your Sake, […]
After a surly first conversation between the two leaders in January that rattled the United States and Australia’s long-standing alliance, Pence will take a more amiable approach and try to focus on cooperation on trade, defence and more. Trump reportedly exploded and cut short the call when he was told about a deal to move some refugees from Australia to America. That left some in Australia questioning […]
MOSCOW Russia has told the United States it regrets Washington’s opposition to letting its inspectors take part in an investigation into a chemical weapons attack in Syria earlier this month, the foreign ministry said on Friday. It said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the two sides agreed to consider one more time an “objective investigation into the […]
TEL AVIV U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday that Syria had dispersed its warplanes in recent days and that it retained chemical weapons, an issue he said would have to be taken up diplomatically. The United States launched dozens of missiles earlier this month against a Syrian air base in response to a chemical attack that killed 90 people, including 30 children. It says the […]
Photo President Trump met with Aya Hijazi in the Oval Office on Friday. Credit Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times WASHINGTON — President Trump welcomed Aya Hijazi, an American aid worker detained for three years in Egypt, to the Oval Office on Friday after quietly working to secure her release this week. “We are very happy to have Aya back home and it’s a great honor […]
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP has a lost client because of its work for another client: President Donald Trump. Wallace Global Fund, a left-leaning private foundation, has terminated its relationship with Morgan Lewis as a protest against Mr. Trump and the firm’s handling of his business conflicts. The fund’s decision was “out of profound disagreement […] (via WSJ)
By Eyanir Chinea and Efrain Otero | CARACAS CARACAS Eight people were electrocuted to death during a looting incident in Caracas, a firefighter said on Friday, amid violent protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by opponents accusing him of seeking to create a dictatorship. The accident occurred when a group of looters broke into a bakery in the working class neighborhood of El Valle, according the firefighter, […]
Just when you thought it was over – after Trump ‘Tomahawks’ Putin’s pal Assad, and Tillerson trounces Lavrov – and the media had stopped the constant “Russia did it” narrative, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (which seems like as big an oxymoron as can occur) has called numerous current (and former) officials to testify once again on Russia’s “active measures during the 2016 election.” As […]
International law firm and lobbying shop Squire Patton Boggs is getting cozy with one of President ‘s most trusted advisers. The firm said this week that it’s formed an alliance with Michael D. Cohen, a personal lawyer to Mr. Trump who has served as his fixer for many years and credits himself as the originator of the […] (via WSJ)
WASHINGTON The U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russia’s involvement in the 2016 U.S. election, said on Friday it had invited the directors of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency to appear at a closed hearing on May 2. Apparently ending a dispute between Democrats and Republicans over who would testify as it investigates possible links between President Donald Trump’s campaign […]
Investor sentiment is leaning towards a market-friendly outcome ahead of Sunday’s first round of voting in the French presidential election. The euro was on course for its best week in three months near $1.07, while a key proxy of election risk, the premium demanded by investors to own French government bonds over German Bunds, has narrowed sharply. “The most likely outcome is for a second round run-off […]
CARACAS A man was killed in a protest in the Venezuelan capital on Thursday night, an official said on Friday, marking the ninth death in a wave of sometimes violent demonstrations against President Nicolas Maduro’s government. Melvin Guaitan died of a bullet wound in the slum of Petare, municipal mayor Carlos Ocariz said via Twitter. Local media reported looting and street clashes with security forces in poor […]
ANKARA Turks approved by a narrow margin an April 16 referendum to change the constitution and hand President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping powers. The opposition and overseas observers say the vote was riddled with irregularities, including the electoral board’s decision to accept ballots that had not been officially stamped by authorities at polling stations. The following is a timeline of events on the day of the vote. 6:01 […]
