WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump’s defense secretary plans to visit Japan and South Korea next week, choosing the two close U.S. allies for his debut trip abroad as Pentagon chief, a U.S. official said on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. James Mattis, a retired Marine general, was sworn into the Pentagon’s top job shortly after Trump’s inauguration on Friday. (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Tom […]
BEIJING China wants dialogue with the new U.S. administration to manage disputes and promote bilateral relations, but only on the basis of respecting each other’s core interests, like the “one China” principle, China’s foreign minister said. U.S. President Donald Trump, who was inaugurated on Friday, upset Beijing before taking office by casting doubt on the “one China” principle, under which Washington acknowledges Beijing’s position of sovereignty over […]
Investors are signalling a stronger US economy and the risk of rising inflation under the Trump administration, as robust price gains for precious and industrial metals have this month spurred a rise in miners’ shares. MSCI’s ACWI Metals & Mining index, a broad barometer that tracks companies around the world, has rallied nearly 15 per cent in 2017, the strongest year-to-date showing in more than a decade, […]
During his campaign, President Donald Trump assailed a skilled-worker visa program used to send foreigners to the U.S., and in his inaugural speech Friday he said the country would “follow two simple rules; buy American and hire American.” Indian outsourcing firms are already preparing for potential changes to visa rules, which could present a challenge because they send thousands of workers to the U.S. every year via […]
Nancy Gibbs, the editor of Time magazine, issued an apology on Tuesday for an error that the Trump administration has repeatedly used to criticize the press in the last week. In doing so, she pushed back against claims from the administration that the magazine made a deliberate error when reporter Zeke Miller incorrectly reported that the White House had removed a bust of civil rights hero Martin […]
WASHINGTON The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to be President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday, clearing the way for what is expected to be an easy confirmation in the full Senate. Haley was approved overwhelmingly, but two Democrats voted against her, citing concerns about her lack of experience in foreign policy and international affairs. (Reporting by Patricia […]
Trading on Wall Street was dominated by earnings announcements from blue-chip companies on Tuesday, while big carmakers rose off the back of a meeting with President Donald Trump. Results from the likes of DuPont, Verizon and Lockheed Martin pushed the broad market slightly higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6 per cent to 19,912, while the S&P 500 gained 0.7 per cent to 2,280. The […]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to speak with U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday in a conversation that will set the tone for future relations between the world’s largest democracies. New Delhi hopes it can begin to decipher what the country’s top diplomat, S. Jaishankar, last week called a world in 2017 filled with “known and unknown unknowns”—a reflection on the rapidly-changing global landscape marked […]
President Donald Trump has quickly moved to reverse another of Barack Obama’s signature policies, backing two multibillion-dollar oil pipeline projects that became test cases for Washington’s commitment to addressing climate change. Mr Trump said the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines would help to meet his campaign promise of producing new blue-collar jobs at home, insisting that any portions built in the US would have to use […]
By John Irish and Andrew Osborn | ASTANA/MOSCOW ASTANA/MOSCOW Peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition in Kazakhstan were a coup for their international sponsors, but exposed the limits of what Russia, Turkey and Iran can achieve in their efforts to resolve the six-year-old war. It was the first time in nine months the two sides had come together, albeit briefly and unhappily, and the first […]
By Steve Holland and Valerie Volcovici | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Tuesday to move forward with construction of the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, rolling back key Obama administration environmental policies in favor of expanding energy infrastructure. While oil producers in Canada and North Dakota are expected to benefit from a quicker route for crude oil to […]
Of the many quandaries investors must grapple with this year, high on their list is Donald Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin. Not far behind is this — should they throw off their instinctive caution about Russia and its president, and push the rouble a lot higher? The turnround in the Russian rouble’s fortunes largely reflects the recovery in the price of oil, the country’s biggest export. That […]
BAGHDAD Iraq’s oil is the property of Iraqis, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday, in reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump who argued that the United States should have taken possession of the nation’s crude reserves. In a speech to CIA officials on Saturday, Trump suggested the United States should have taken Iraq’s oil in reimbursement for the 2003 invasion that put an end to Saddam […]
Donald Trump is now president. This challenges many of us, not least members of the press. Countless reporters are still shaken and stunned by how he singled out a CNN reporter, one of the most respected news outlets in the world, to attack and humiliate him during his first press conference since winning the elections. Worryingly, none of his fellow journalists in the room stood up for […]
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. A fashionista friend in the White House press corps answered this lingering question after Sean Spicer’s much-anticipated first briefing: What exactly was the glaring color of that jacket worn by Kellyanne Conway? “Tomato?” she guessed. Well, it was especially vivid […]
Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest healthcare company, blamed a stronger dollar as it forecast that 2017 profits and sales would fall below Wall Street expectations, sending the group’s shares down by more than 2 per cent. Dominic Caruso, chief financial officer, said it appeared that many Wall Street analysts had not updated their models to account “for the negative impacts of currency movement” as J&J became […]
Photo Construction in the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim on Sunday. The Israeli government is showing signs that it is increasingly willing to disregard international condemnation of its settlements. Credit Mahmoud Illean/Associated Press JERUSALEM — Israel on Tuesday approved the construction of 2,500 housing units for Jews in West Bank settlements, throwing off diplomatic restraint just a few days into the beginning of the Trump administration. […]
Authored by Paul Craig Roberts, “Racist” is the favorite epithet of the left. Every white person (except leftists) is a racist by definition. As we are defined as racists based on our skin color, I am puzzled why we are called racists a second, third, and fourth time due to specific acts, such as favoring the enforcement of immigration laws. For example, President Donald Trump says he […]
A wave of about 25 African, European and South American countries is set to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank this year, reinforcing Beijing’s determination to push a global agenda even as US President Donald Trump rails against the ills of economic globalisation. Jin Liqun, president of the AIIB, said on Monday that an expanded membership would help boost lending by the $100bn multilateral organisation, which […]
Center for Public Integrity: What are your aspirations for a Trump presidency? Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher: A strong economy and a strong military and more security for the American people. One of the big promises that Trump has made is “draining the swamp.” What does that mean to you and how do you think he’s going to do that? That means getting rid of some career […]
ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN: Syrian opposition vowed Monday to keep fighting if the peace talks fail with the war-torn country’s government in Kazakhstan, as the two sides opened indirect negotiations.The talks had been billed as the first time armed opposition groups would negotiate directly with President Bashar Assad’s regime since the conflict erupted in 2011.“If the negotiations succeed, then we are with the negotiations,” opposition spokesman Osama Abu Zeid […]
By Luke Baker and Matt Spetalnick | JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s team spoke often about moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. But since taking office, the contentious issue has become more nuanced and may already be moving to the backburner. In a statement issued before a first post-inauguration phone call between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu […]
The picture that lit up social media and unsettled the White House began with a trek up 50 flights of stairs, nearly to the top of the Washington Monument, for a bird’s eye view of Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday as the 45th U.S. president. Reuters had asked the U.S. National Park Service in an email on Jan. 13 whether a photographer could be posted on the […]
BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that openness, not populism, polarisation or isolation, was the answer to the world’s challenges of globalisation and digitalisation. “I think that, a quarter of a century after German unification, after the end of the Cold War, a new historical era will perhaps be replaced by another one,” Merkel said in a speech to church leaders in Wuerzburg. Even though […]
