Monday 21:56 GMT Overview Global equities sold off on Monday, encouraging flows into sovereign debt, after Asian markets were rattled by North Korea firing missiles into the Sea of Japan and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate meeting drew nearer. US President Donald Trump’s latest spat with the country’s security services may also be damping the mood somewhat as markets continue to price in a rate rise by […]
By Sophie Louet and Claude Canellas | PARIS/BORDEAUX PARIS/BORDEAUX Francois Fillon fought off a rebellion that had threatened to end his candidacy for the French presidency on Monday as party leaders swung behind the centre-right former prime minister despite allegations that he had misused public funds. Hours after party heavyweight Alain Juppe ruled out challenging Fillon, the conservative Republicans’ party leadership unanimously backed their beleaguered candidate, Senate […]
President Donald Trump is siding with rightwing news outlets over his own FBI director in a dispute over unsubstantiated claims that former President Barack Obama ordered the wiretapping of Mr Trump during last year’s election. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said on Monday that the president does not accept FBI director James Comey’s dismissal of Mr Trump’s weekend claim that Mr Obama had tapped the […]
By Lawrence Hurley | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court avoided a ruling on transgender rights by sending a closely watched case involving bathroom access at a Virginia high school back to a lower court on Monday after President Donald Trump rolled back protections for transgender students. Lawyers for a transgender student named Gavin Grimm, who was born female and identifies as male, had asked the justices […]
BELFAST Talks to save Northern Ireland’s devolved government ran straight into an obstacle on Monday as Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein repeated its demand that Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster not return as first minister. A snap election on Friday saw Sinn Fein surge to within one seat of the DUP and deny pro-British unionist politicians a majority in the British province’s local assembly for […]
By Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump will remove Iraq from a list of countries targeted in a U.S. travel ban when he is expected to sign a new executive order on Monday after his controversial first attempt was blocked in the courts, a White House source said. The senior White House official said the new executive order would keep a 90-day ban on travel […]
Alain Juppé has ruled out a French presidential bid, putting an end to speculation that the former prime minister could have replaced François Fillon, his party’s embattled centre-right nominee. The decision ends intense party manoeuvring to try to persuade Mr Juppé to salvage the Republicans’ presidential campaign which has been battered by Mr Fillon’s deepening legal woes and dwindling support among the rightwing electorate and senior party […]
BORDEAUX, France Former prime minister Alain Juppe said on Monday he would not run in France’s presidential election and harshly criticised his party’s beleagured candidate, Francois Fillon. Juppe, who came second to Fillon in the party’s primaries in November, had been touted as a potential replacement for Fillon, engulfed by a financial scandal. “I confirm once and for all that I will not be candidate to the […]
WASHINGTON Republican U.S. lawmakers expect to unveil this week the text of long-awaited legislation to repeal and replace the Obamacare healthcare law, one of President Donald Trump’s top legislative priorities, a senior Republican congressional aide said on Sunday. Since taking office in January, Trump has pressed his fellow Republicans who control Congress to act quickly to dismantle former Democratic President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act and pass […]
Muslim students visiting an Oklahoma lawmaker’s office in the state capitol were required to fill out a form that asked if they beat their wives and other questions that offended them, an Islamic advocacy group said. The two-page form from Republican state Representative John Bennett’s office, which was shared by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), also asked whether they believed an adherent to Islam should be […]
François Fillon put his future as French presidential candidate for the centre right in the hands of party leaders after mobilising tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in Paris. Mr Fillon said he was the victim of a “manhunt” but notably omitted to tell the crowd — mobilised as show of strength among grassroots Republicans — that he would fight on as Republican candidate despite […]
When Paul Ryan, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, talks of social mobility, about helping struggling Americans move out of impoverished areas to give them greater opportunity, Shiva Daniels is the kind of person he has in mind. A federal housing voucher allowed Daniels to escape her crime-plagued neighborhood in Dallas, Texas, and move her four children to the suburb of Garland. That move helped Daniels […]
PARIS Embattled French presidential candidate Francois Fillon has pulled out of a Monday morning radio appearance that was to discuss his campaign, the show’s host said on Sunday. “Francois Fillon has officially cancelled his appearance on Europe 1’s morning programme,” presenter Thomas Sotto said on Twitter. Once the frontrunner, Fillon is under growing pressure to withdraw as the candidate for the right-wing Republicans party. He is mired […]
By David Shepardson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The White House budget director confirmed Saturday that the Trump administration will propose “fairly dramatic reductions” in the U.S. foreign aid budget later this month. Reuters and other news outlets reported earlier this week that the administration plans to propose to Congress cuts in the budgets for the U.S. State Department and Agency for International Development by about one third. “We […]
PARIS The political committee of French party The Republicans will meet on Monday to discuss the situation of its presidential candidate Francois Fillon, the party said in a statement on Saturday. “Given the evolution of the political situation just seven weeks from the presidential election … the political committee, which includes notably the candidates of the (party) primaries, has been brought forward by 24 hours to Monday […]
Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary and Armed Services Committees, has issued the following statement after President Trump accused former President Obama of wiretapping his phones in 2016 and Obama’s spokesman said that was false. Sasse raises several key points: if the wiretap was authorized by a FISA Court, Trump should demand to see the application, find out on what grounds it was […]
By Sophie Louet and John Irish | AUBERVILLIERS, France AUBERVILLIERS, France Embattled French presidential candidate Francois Fillon defended his political plans on Saturday as the only credible future for the country and vowed to stay in the race, a day before a Paris rally called to demonstrate the strength of his support. Once the frontrunner, conservative Fillon is mired in a scandal over his wife’s pay, and […]
Donald Trump accused Barack Obama of tapping his phones before the November presidential election and compared the situation to the Watergate scandal that forced Richard Nixon to resign. “How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” Mr Trump tweeted. In an early morning tweet storm, Mr Trump claimed without providing evidence that Mr Obama […]
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. So what have you heard more often: “Fox & Friends” shilling for President Trump or sophisticated people confiding their real reason for reading The New Yorker is the cartoons? Ah, if only Bob Mankoff had long ago negotiated some piece […]
A photo of former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton glancing at a newspaper headline about U.S. Vice President Mike Pence using private email has gone viral on social media, with thousands of people commenting on it. Pence and others involved in the Republican presidential campaign last year criticized Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as U.S. Secretary of State. Clinton was on an airplane […]
(Image: file photo) The clock is ticking for a controversial surveillance provision, which is is set to expire at midnight at the end of the year. But the Trump administration has signaled that it will support its clean reauthorization. Passing a clean version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, is “necessary to protect the security of the nation,” according to a White House official speaking […]
Speaking to American state governors this week in the state dining room of the White House, Donald Trump hit on a point that is of no surprise to investors: healthcare is “an unbelievably complex subject”. The Affordable Care Act, one of the two key pillars of the healthcare reform signed into law by former US President Barack Obama in 2010, is 906 pages long — the table […]
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin used his first senior staff meeting last month to tell his new aides he would not tolerate leaks to the news media, three sources familiar with the matter said. Current and former officials said that in a departure from past practice, access to a classified computer system at the White House has been tightened by political appointees to prevent […]
WASHINGTON U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Friday said there was “no comparison whatsoever” between his use of a private email account for state business while he was governor of Indiana and the email woes of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time in government became a major point of criticism against her as the Democratic nominee during […]
