WASHINGTON: One of the Middle East’s richest nations said Tuesday it would host its annual Washington party at Donald Trump’s new hotel, underscoring the president-elect’s unusual status as the owner of a major venue for events in the US capital.Salem Al Sabah, Kuwait’s ambassador to the US, said the party would take place Feb. 25, adding that he hopes guests like the “new hotel in town.” He […]
By Thanarith Satrusayang | BANGKOK BANGKOK Thailand and China are in talks about building military production facilities in Thailand, a Thai defense ministry spokesman said on Wednesday, the latest sign of warming relations between China and America’s oldest ally in Asia. Relations between Thailand and the United States cooled following a May 2014 military coup that the Thai military said was necessary to end months of unrest, […]
SYDNEY The U.S. dollar held near 14-year peaks on Wednesday as global yield spreads moved inexorably in its favor, while a falling yen lifted Japanese shares to a one-year top. The Nikkei .N225 added 0.3 percent in thin trade, while Australia’s main index climbed 0.6 percent to its highest in 17 months after Wall Street racked up more records. Japan’s government upgraded its overall assessment of the […]
Tackling the theme of evil and how dark forces have affected the region throughout the centuries might seem like an tough task for a 75-minute documentary film, but it was a challenge Emirati director Mansoor Al Dhaheri relished. His film Little Sparta is currently screening in cinemas – but when he announced it on social media, he admits he was surprised by the reaction. It garnered an […]
But by the time Mr. Trump is sworn in next month, such safe zones may be irrelevant, if the evacuation of Aleppo and political negotiations proceed. Continue reading the main story More than a year after launching the air campaign that remade the battlefield in Mr. Assad’s favor, Russia appears to be looking for a way out of the war. Analysts say that Moscow sees in the […]
By Melissa Fares and David Lawder | WEST PALM BEACH, Fla./WASHINGTON WEST PALM BEACH, Fla./WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump plans to put his pick for Commerce Secretary, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, in charge of his get-tough trade policy, a transition team spokesman said on Tuesday. It is a signal of how Trump, who is also interviewing candidates to be the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), plans to elevate […]
Short takes and quick hits for the week of December 19-25, 2016. EFF launches “In defense of users” initiative with strong anti-Trump message Posted Dec 20, 2016, 12:30 PST The EFF isn’t pulling any punches in its new campaign The Electronic Frontier Foundation isn’t waiting for the Presidential inauguration on January 20, 2017, to express their opposition to incomping President Donald J. Trump. In a full-page ad […]
Tuesday 19:45 GMT Overview A robust session for US equities saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average climb to within a whisker of the 20,000 milestone as participants shrugged off geopolitical concerns and focused on the prospect of stronger growth under the presidency of Donald Trump. The “risk-on” mood in the markets left US Treasury prices and gold lower while the yen — viewed by many as a […]
The “animal spirits” that Donald Trump’s incoming US administration may unleash would have more far-reaching consequences on the economy and financial markets than any specific stimulus package he delivers, according to Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio. Mr Dalio, the founder of the world’s largest hedge fund group, wrote that “if this administration can spark a virtuous cycle in which people can make money, the move out of cash (that […]
Via Dana Lyons’ Tumblr, A popular bond fund is hitting a key price level that may finally produce a long-awaited bounce. We talk often of the inexorable Trump Rally in stocks since the presidential election. That good fortune hasn’t befallen all other asset classes, however. For instance, the post-election reaction in the bond market has been nothing short of a blood-letting. Yields on the 30-year U.S. Treasury Bond […]
By Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The United States on Tuesday blacklisted seven Russian businessmen and eight companies and government enterprises over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the conflict in Ukraine, the U.S. Treasury said in a statement, moves Moscow called “hostile acts.” The sanctions come a month before U.S. President Barack Obama hands over power to President-elect Donald Trump, who has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin […]
The Dow and the Nasdaq hit record highs on Tuesday, with the blue-chip index just 13 points shy of the 20,000 mark, a level it has never scaled. Goldman Sachs (GS.N), which was up about 1 percent, gave the biggest boost to the Dow. U.S. stocks have been on a tear since the Nov. 8 presidential election, with the Dow up 9 percent and S&P more than […]
Turkey’s lira, the second-worst performing currency of 2016, reverted to type with a bout of volatile trading after the country’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged. After strengthening by nearly 1 per cent ahead of the meeting, the lira came back under pressure and was trading at around TL3.54 to the dollar, although another bout of volatility subsequently pushed it higher in late London trading. Concerned about […]
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s legal news: Authorities allege $1 billion fraud at Platinum Partners: Top executives at the hedge-fund firm, including founder Mark Nordlicht, were arrested and charged with defrauding investors in one of the biggest such cases since Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. [WSJ, Bloomberg] Judge Persky cleared: A California judicial disciplinary panel found no grounds to sanction Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky over the six-month sentence […]
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. It could be called the “NBC Very, Very Late Nightly News With Brian Williams.” Instead, it’s “The 11th Hour With Brian Williams” on MSNBC — a new show starring an old face who’s honorably doing what he does well in […]
It started off as one of those typical conversations you have when you’re in a foreign country and the taxi driver recognizes you to be a foreigner. “Where are you from?,” he asks, soon after I get into the bright yellow taxi cab, to which I reply “Sri Lanka.”“Beautiful country,” he responds.“Have you been there?” I ask him politely.“No, but my friend went there for a holiday. He […]
ABU DHABI // Iran’s nuclear deal and the republic’s support for militias across the region are some of the major threats GCC countries face, the head of an Abu Dhabi think-tank told the British Parliament. Dr Ahmed Al Hamli told the International Relations Committee this threat had led to a regional shift of power from legitimate states to illegitimate terrorist groups, weakening the region for the Islamic […]
In a year replete with extraordinary political upheaval and the wrenching loss of artistic icons, the markets have played their part in contributing to the angst. Here is a look at some of 2016’s most notable one-day wobbles. China cracks It started badly. In China, the mainland’s benchmark, the Shanghai Composite index, had closed 2015 near a four-month high after bouncing nearly 21 per cent from its […]
To appreciate this inherent tension, consider Hillary Clinton’s words from the second presidential debate: “It is important for us as a policy not to say, as Donald has said, we’re going to ban people based on a religion. How do you do that? We are a country founded on religious freedom and liberty.” Here Clinton establishes a minimum standard of liberal decency that few American Jews would […]
The paperwork for the Opening Day Foundation listed four directors: Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Dallas investor Gentry Beach and Tom Hicks Jr., the son of a Dallas billionaire. Beach and Hicks are reportedly close friends with Donald Trump Jr., and both men helped raise millions of dollars for Trump’s campaign. “The event is being put on by the Opening Day Foundation,” Kinzie confirmed, adding: “There are […]
The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy on hold and turned optimistic on the growth outlook as a slide in the yen sharply improves the outlook for Japan in 2017. Japan’s economy is “likely to turn to a moderate expansion” with rising domestic demand, large-scale fiscal stimulus and growing exports, the central bank said. Its comments highlight the dramatic turnround from September — when despairing analysts said the […]
aNewDomain — Rex Tillerson, the ExxonMobil chief who Donald Trump has tapped to be the next US secretary of state, was the director of a Bahamas-based US-Russian oil firm, according to leaked documents in the Panama Papers. Tillerson ended the association with the Exxon subsidiary, Exxon Neftegas, in 2001, Exxon rep Scott Silvestri said Monday, a day after the Guardian and reporters at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported the news. […]
Jim Cramer looked a little worried this evening, during his Maddening Money programme. All throughout the elections, the establishment elite, globalist shills, underestimated Trump’s desires to make America great again. With today’s electoral college win and Trump’s persistent lack of subservience to China, the shills on Wall Street are starting to wonder if it’s really happening. It really is this time, happening that is. In the brief […]
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. Imagine if Snopes, PolitiFact and The Associated Press fact-checked our holiday cards and letters — or many of our daily declarations — for the truth. Facebook, of course, just announced it would team with PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, the Associated Press, ABC […]
