The great American corporate buyback party was expected to fizzle out next year, leaving a hangover of debt and remorse. Instead, the boom may soon find renewed succour if US companies bring their pile of foreign-based cash back home. A tax holiday for US companies looms under president-elect Donald Trump, with some seeing this wave of cash as the catalyst of an investment boom and faster US […]
A parliament packed with lawmakers who oppose wage cuts and taxes, and who want to keep Kuwait’s sumptuous welfare state intact, is threatening the government’s attempts to close a gaping budget deficit. Opposition candidates won about 24 out of 50 seats last month in a parliamentary election seen by Kuwaitis as a referendum on austerity measures aimed at dealing with the 2016/17 shortfall, forecast at 9.5 billion […]
By Roberta Rampton and Ben Blanchard | WASHINGTON/BEIJING WASHINGTON/BEIJING The White House said on Monday it had sought to reassure China after President-elect Donald Trump’s phone call with Taiwan’s leader last week, which the Obama administration warned could undermine progress in relations with Beijing. The statement from a spokesman for U.S. President Barack Obama highlighted concerns about the potential fallout from Trump’s unusual call with Taiwan President […]
Wall Street rose on Monday, with the Dow Jones industrials setting fresh record highs, as services sector data gave further evidence of strength in the domestic economy. U.S. services sector activity hit a one-year high in November, with a surge in production boosting hiring, following on the heels of Friday’s employment report that showed strong job gains last month. U.S. stocks have climbed since the Nov. 8 […]
By Sebastien Malo NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – California lawmakers planned on Monday to introduce legislation that would help protect undocumented immigrants under the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who campaigned on hard-line promises of mass deportations. The bills, if passed, would provide free legal services to undocumented immigrants facing deportation and assist them in criminal court, according to the California Democratic lawmakers introducing the proposals. […]
Italy’s president has asked Matteo Renzi to stay on as Italy’s prime minister until the country’s budget law is passed in parliament, extending his stay at the helm of the Italian government for possibly a week. At a meeting in the presidential palace in Rome, Mr Renzi expressed his intention to resign after suffering a bruising defeat in a constitutional reform referendum held on Sunday. But Sergio […]
By Michelle Nichols | UNITED NATIONS UNITED NATIONS Russia and China on Monday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have demanded a seven-day truce in Syria’s Aleppo, with Russia arguing it would allow rebels to regroup and that time was needed for talks between Washington and Moscow. It was the sixth time Russia has vetoed a Security Council resolution on Syria since the conflict started […]
Islamic finance experts have developed new rules for gold transactions, they said on Monday, potentially opening the way for Islamic institutions to trade gold and silver much more actively. Gold transactions must be fully backed by physical metal and settled on the same day, the developers of the new guidance said, to observe Islam’s distinction between real economic activity and speculation. Traditionally, gold has played a very […]
20 years, to the day, after Greenspan’s iconic speech that warned of the unintended consequences of “irrational exuberance,” we find ourselves, yet again, in the midst of perhaps the largest asset bubble in history. In fact, Greenspan’s warning, previously made in a speech on Dec. 5, 1996, eerily reflects many of the same concerns surrounding the market today with low interest rates and lower risk premiums driving […]
December 5, 2016 by: Anjli Raval, Oil and Gas Correspondent Oil rose to its highest level since mid-2015, topping $55 a barrel, as traders bet on supplies tightening after Opec struck a deal last week to cut production for the first time in eight years. The 13-member cartel has now invited producers from outside the cartel to Vienna this week, as it looks to secure their backing […]
By Dominic Evans and Ahmed Rasheed | BAGHDAD BAGHDAD Western-backed Iraqi forces have begun shelling parts of west Mosul, residents said, in preparation for a new front against Islamic State seven weeks into a difficult campaign to drive the militants from the city. Federal police forces, stationed a few miles (km) south of Mosul, on the west bank of the Tigris river that divides the city, have […]
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. Fake news is not the sole province of slimeball digital practitioners in faraway lands enabled by the righteous souls at Facebook and Google. There’s also — as has ever been so — the government. “Police investigating a notorious gang in […]
By Jonathan Spicer | NEW YORK NEW YORK The U.S. election of Donald Trump has created “considerable” uncertainty over the policies he will pursue so it is too soon for the Federal Reserve to judge whether its plan for gradual interest rate hikes needs adjusting, one of the most influential Fed policymakers said on Monday. In a speech that stepped well into fiscal policy, including a nod […]
By Michael Holden | LONDON LONDON The British government’s appeal against a legal ruling that it needs parliamentary approval to trigger the formal process of leaving the European Union is being heard in the country’s top court this week. Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that she will invoke “Article 50” of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty by the end of March and begin the formal Brexit negotiations […]
OPEC’s oil output set another record high in November ahead of a deal to cut production, a Reuters survey found on Monday, helped by higher Iraqi exports and extra barrels from two nations exempted from cutting supply – Nigeria and Libya. The latest rise in supply means the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will have a bigger task in complying with a plan to cut supply […]
Shinzo Abe will make a historic visit to Pearl Harbor later this month where he will remember the dead of World War Two alongside outgoing US president Barack Obama. The visit will make Mr Abe the first sitting Japanese prime minister to visit Pearl Harbor since his country’s surprise attack on the Hawaiian port began the Pacific war 75 years ago. Following Mr Obama’s visit to the […]
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduces a new messenger platform at the F8 summit in San Francisco, California, on March 25, 2015 Facebook on Monday began letting interactive “bots” inside its Messenger service tap into analytic capabilities once reserved for the social network, ramping up the potential to earn money from e-commerce. The move comes as Facebook is under pressure to profit from services such as Messenger, WhatsApp […]
MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday he was confident Moscow and Washington can reach a deal in talks this week on the withdrawal of all rebels from the eastern part of the Syrian city of Aleppo.He told a news conference once the deal was reached, rebels who stay in the besieged eastern part of the city will be treated as terrorists and Russia will […]
Monday 14.40 GMT Overview Italy’s stock market and much of the country’s banking sector is back under pressure, as investors refine their response to the No vote in the country’s referendum on constitutional reform that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. The yield on the country’s benchmark sovereign debt yield remains higher as investors continue to sell Italian government bonds. Italy’s 10-year government debt […]
In the United States, too, I found resistance to the idea that Brexit was a harbinger of a Trump victory. I was assured over and over by liberal friends that Trump would never be president. American voters were too sensible to fall for his hateful demagogy. Trump, I was told, was a product of peculiarly American strains of populism that flare up periodically, like the anti-immigrant nativism […]
The 19th-century Soham House was purpose-built for entertaining race-day guests of the Johnstone family in 1892. It was designed by CJ Harold Cooper, a prominent architect of the Arts and Crafts movement, which married traditional craftsmanship with medieval, romantic and folk styles of decoration. Despite changing hands several times, the house retains Cooper’s original carved-oak staircase and vast fireplaces. A stained-glass window featuring illustrations of The Brownies […]
Nissan Motor Co.’s Leaf, with no one inside, scoots during a demonstration of their Intelligent Vehicle Towing system at Nissan Oppama plant in Yokohama, near Tokyo Monday, Dec. 5, 2016. Nissan Motor Co. is testing out self-driving cars at one of its plants in Japan to tow vehicles on a trailer to the wharf for loading without anyone behind the steering wheel.(AP Photo/Koji Sasahara) Nissan Motor Co. […]
To commemorate Zelda‘s 30th anniversary, Nintendo released Legend of Zelda Amiibo today, including figures for 8-bit Link, Ocarina of Time Link, a Toon Link and Zedla herself from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. To complement the release of these four special figures, Nintendo has now specified each Amiibo’s functionality when paired with the forthcoming Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Scanning the Amiibo will fundamentally gift […]
05 December 2016 The CEO of Imdaad, a leading provider of integrated facilities management solutions in the GCC, has once again been named the most influential individual in the Middle East’s facilities management (FM) sector. For the fifth year in a row, Jamal Abdullah Lootah topped the fmME Power 50 list in yet another prestigious recognition bestowed on Imdaad’s top official renowned for his outstanding leadership style […]
