ABU DHABI // French President Francois Hollande arrived in the UAE on Friday evening to take part in the conference on Safeguarding Endangered Cultural Heritage, which began earlier that day at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi. Hollande, along with an accompanying delegation, was welcomed by Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs, Madhed Hareb Al Khaili, the UAE Ambassador […]
Donald Trump has named Stephen Schwarzman, chief executive of Blackstone, as chairman of a new council of strategic advisers, capping a week that has seen Wall Street veterans installed at the heart of the incoming US administration. The president’s strategic and policy forum, which will meet for the first time in February, also includes JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon and Larry Fink, founder of BlackRock, among […]
By Michelle Nichols | UNITED NATIONS UNITED NATIONS The United Nations General Assembly began talks on Friday on a draft resolution that would demand an end to fighting in Syria amid frustration by some states and rights groups over U.N. Security Council deadlock on the nearly six-year conflict. More than a third of the 193-member General Assembly this week asked for a formal meeting to be held […]
UAE rulers gathered together on Friday to open Dubai’s new $136 million museum, launched as part of the country’s 45th National Day celebrations. Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan were joined by leaders from the other emirates at the Union House, in the same hall where the UAE’s founding fathers gathered 45 years ago. […]
MANILA Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte spoke of his sadness on Friday at having to forfeit his beloved motorcycles in becoming president, and offered tips on handling two wheels and why a Honda was better than a Harley. The 71-year-old reminisced about touring the Philippines by motorbike and how as a city mayor he used to ride every week on a motorcycle that his security team made him […]
By Parisa Hafezi | ANKARA ANKARA Iran threatened on Friday to retaliate against a U.S. Senate vote to extend the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) for 10 years, saying it violated last year’s deal with six major powers that curbed its nuclear programme. The ISA was first adopted in 1996 to punish investments in Iran’s energy industry and deter its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. The extension was […]
By Alastair Macdonald | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS Islamic State will attack Europe again, security chiefs warned on Friday, and may add car bombs, cyber and chemical warfare to its local arsenal as European militants drift home after reverses in Syria and Iraq. Gilles de Kerchove, the European Union’s Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, said it was impossible to know for sure how many militants were already in Europe plotting. A report […]
By Lucia Mutikani | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. employers boosted hiring in November and the unemployment rate dropped to a more than nine-year low of 4.6 percent, making it almost certain that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later this month. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 178,000 jobs last month after increasing by 142,000 in October, the Labor Department said on Friday. The solid employment gains likely reflect […]
ABU DHABI // “Building nations is not complete without safeguarding heritage,” Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed told the Safeguarding Cultural Heritage Conference in the capital on Friday. The deputy chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council was addressing the first day of the conference, where attendees heard reports of past atrocities as a prompt to forging meaningful outcomes for the future. The conference concludes Saturday, with the adoption of […]
By Emily Stephenson | NEW YORK NEW YORK U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was set to interview more candidates for top jobs in his administration on Friday and said he expected to have most members of his Cabinet announced next week. Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, is still weighing who to choose as secretary of state. The Republican president-elect said on Thursday he had chosen retired […]
Eight new rural solar energy projects are now operational across the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in western North Africa, doubling the UAE’s total contribution to the country’s clean energy capacity to 31.6 megawatts (MW). Delivered by Masdar, the Abu Dhabi clean energy company, the 16.6MW of additional solar power will supply up to 30 percent of the electricity demand of the remote communities of Boutilimit, Aleg, Aioune, […]
December 2, 2016 by: Maggie Fick, West Africa correspondent Voters in the tiny nation of Gambia appear to have unseated their president of more than two decades, who had pledged to rule for “a billion years”, an unexpected result after a year of elections that have cast doubt on the state of democracy in Africa. The Gambian electoral commission on Friday declared that Adama Barrow, the main […]
BEIRUT: Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called for an immediate cease-fire in Syria on Friday, describing the situation in Aleppo as critical and saying that President Bashar Assad was unfit to rule.Asked about Assad at a news conference in Beirut, Cavusoglu said it was undeniable that the Syrian leader was responsible for 600,000 deaths and that somebody with that record should not be running a country. Source
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s legal news: SCOTUS list: President-elect says he’s narrowed his list of potential Supreme Court nominations “down to probably three or four” candidates and said an announcement would come “pretty soon.” [Fox News] Immigration court backlog: Weighed down by a backlog of more than 520,000 cases, U.S. immigration courts are increasingly […] (via WSJ)
BEIJING Chinese President Xi Jinping told former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger on Friday that China was watching U.S. politics “very closely” following the presidential election won by Republican Donald Trump. Trump lambasted China throughout the U.S. election campaign, drumming up headlines with his pledges to slap 45 percent tariffs on imported Chinese goods and to label the country a currency manipulator. A few days after […]
December 2, 2016 by: Mamta Badkar in New York The US economy added 178,000 jobs in November while the unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since 2007, suggesting the US Federal Reserve is on track to raise interest rates this month. The jobs tally was just shy of economists’ expectations for 180,000. That compared to the 142,000 jobs it created in October. While the data showed […]
WASHINGTON Donald Trump’s transition team is examining proposals for new non-nuclear sanctions on Iran, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing congressional sources who have been in contact with the president-elect’s team. Officials with Trump’s team have been in touch with fellow Republicans in Congress, where they hold the majority, to discuss possible sanctions separate from last year’s Iran nuclear deal that could focus on its ballistic […]
Pérez made it clear that Benítez was safe as long as he picked what the president felt was his strongest team: an adventurous lineup that included the Colombian midfielder James Rodríguez. Such a selection ran against Benítez’s cautious instincts. He would have preferred the more defensively minded Brazilian Casemiro as a bulwark against Barcelona’s formidable attack, but eventually Benítez relented. Continue reading the main story Rodríguez started; […]
On the heels of Jeff Gundlach‘s “there’s going to be a buyer’s remorse period” warnings yesterday, the other ‘bond king’ has raised similar fears that the Trump rally is overdone (as are the prospects for growth behind it). Putting aside the book-talking as their bond portfolios suffer, Gross echoes Gundlach’s “Trump’s not the wizard of oz” comments, noting that the next president faces serious structural headwinds and […]
By Matthias Inverardi and Harro Ten Wolde | FRANKFURT FRANKFURT Aixtron (AIXGn.DE) will have to take action to balance income and costs, including potential job cuts, if U.S. President Barack Obama blocks its takeover by China’s Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund (FGC). Shares in the German semiconductor equipment maker fell more than 5 percent on Friday following a report by Bloomberg, citing sources, that said Obama was […]
BRASILIA Brazil’s President Michel Temer will travel on Saturday morning to the stricken town of Chapecó for a collective wake in the soccer stadium for the players and club members killed in the air disaster in Colombia, a spokesman said on Friday. The Brazilian Air Force said three Hercules C-130 transport planes were ready to fly from Manaus to Medellin in Colombia to pick up the coffins […]
Good morning. Here’s our daily summary of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. Since Jim VandeHei and John Harris proved most everybody to be idiots, VandeHei can only hope that reflexive suspicion of his new gambit again proves to be entrepreneurial bliss. The two journalists famously pitched the notion of an all-politics digital […]
Manila Bulletin 4 convicted Communists get pardonManila BulletinPresident Rodrigo Duterte has granted presidential pardon to four communist rebels convicted for murder and kidnapping, government peace panel chief and labor secretary Silvestre Bello III said Friday. Bello, in a statement, said the president has …Duterte pardons 4 convicted communist rebelsABS-CBN NewsDuterte gives pardon to 4 rebels convicted of murder, kidnappingInquirer.netDuterte grants pardon to 4 RedsSun.StarUpdate Philippines –Rapplerall 6 news […]
Investors poured money into US equity funds and pulled it from European ones in a week dominated by hopes for an acceleration in US economic growth and anxiety over Italy’s referendum on constitutional reform this weekend. European equity funds lost $2bn in the week to November 30, according to data from EPFR, while US funds attracted $4.4bn. That takes the total inflow for US equity funds since […]
