News related to
Trump

White House officials said foreign leaders would be more willing to help the United States if disagreements over human rights and other issues were aired in private. They cited the recent release of an Egyptian-American aid worker detained in Egypt, which was negotiated in quiet talks with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Continue reading the main story “Obama’s approach was to build support with the Arab public through […]

Authored by John Solomon via Circa.com, During his final year in office, President Obama’s team significantly expanded efforts to search National Security Agency intercepts for information about Americans, distributing thousands of intelligence reports across government with the unredacted names of U.S. residents in the midst of a divisive 2016 presidential election. The data, made available this week by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, provides […]

BOSTON President Donald Trump’s executive order on Thursday making it easier for churches to dabble in politics kept faith with his promise to evangelical Christians who helped him win the White House, but could end up benefiting his opponents as well. Leaders of the U.S. religious left, a rising force of opposition to Trump’s hard-line stance on immigration and healthcare, said they were poised to benefit from […]

May 4, 2017 by: Katrina Manson in New York Donald Trump will visit Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican on his first foreign trip as US president in an effort to unite a coalition against Islamist terrorism and Iran and extract more from traditional allies. The travel plans mark a departure from US foreign policy norms, which usually see new presidents visit neighbouring Canada or Mexico within a month of taking office. […]

Under the memorandum they signed as guarantors of a cease-fire, fighting between government forces and insurgents is to stop in four zones that include rebel-held territory in the north, central and southern parts of the country. Continue reading the main story It remains unclear precisely how the guarantors will monitor compliance with what they are calling “de-escalation zones.” Aleksandr Lavrentyev, the Russian negotiator at the Astana talks, […]

President Donald Trump’s most recent executive order is probably most noteworthy for what it doesn’t do, so we’ll start there. In February, The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets reported that a draft executive order on religious freedom, sweeping in scope, was circulating in the administration. It would have forced the federal government to “accommodate” […] (via WSJ)

GENEVA The United States will shoot itself in the foot if it quits the Paris climate accord because China, India and Europe will snap up the best power sector jobs in future, U.N. Environment chief Erik Solheim said on Thursday. U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce as early as next week whether he will take the United States out of the climate pact, having vowed […]

Advertisements

By David Brunnstrom | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Southeast Asian foreign ministers on Thursday to seek their support in pressing North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programs. Tillerson’s first meeting with all members of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations will also address another pressing regional issue – China’s assertive pursuit of territory in the South China Sea, […]

Authored by 720Global’s Michael Lebowitz via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, “History has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of protracted periods of low risk premiums” – Alan Greenspan The ability to see beyond the observable and the probable is the most important and under-appreciated characteristic of successful investors. For example, visualize a single domino standing upright. With this limited perspective, one can establish what the domino is doing in the […]

WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump will travel to Saudi Arabia and Israel this month as part of his first foreign trip, wading directly into the tangled diplomacy of Middle Eastern politics, a senior administration official said on Thursday. The swing through the Middle East, added to a trip that includes a NATO meeting in Brussels on May 25 and the Group of Seven summit in Sicily on […]

MANILA Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday his telephone conversation this week with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to discuss the Korean peninsula crisis was at the behest of his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump. Duterte said he spoke with Xi on Wednesday to convince him to play a bigger role in defusing tension in the Korean peninsula after North Korea test fired another missile early on Saturday. […]

As noted earlier, while European stocks and US equity markets have ignored the commodity crash in China, which in addition to iron ore plunging limit down, also saw rubber tumble 7% lower, and steel rebar, coke, coking coal plunge over 6% …   … Axiom’s Gordon Johnson warns (as we did a month ago) that the worst is yet to come, and in fact, the “backdrop of […]

By Richard Cowan and Yasmeen Abutaleb | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. House of Representatives was set on Thursday for a cliffhanger vote to repeal Obamacare, as Republican leaders worked to deliver President Donald Trump a win for one of his top legislative priorities. House Republican leaders have expressed confidence the bill would pass and several party moderates who previously objected to it got behind it on Wednesday, […]

The accrediting body for journalism schools on Wednesday essentially accused Northwestern University of fudging the facts in exiting the nonprofit overseer’s once-every-six-years accreditation process. The Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications responded to the surprise move by The Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications with a diplomatic but firm rebuke of the school’s rationale and honesty. “Each school makes its own […]

Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress are poised for a high-stakes vote on healthcare reform on Thursday that could decide whether the president will achieve one of the key elements of his domestic legislative agenda following a rough first 100 days in office. After three months of roller-coaster efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act — the healthcare law known as Obamacare that was […]

By Jeff Mason and Matt Spetalnick | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump vowed on Wednesday to do “whatever is necessary” to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians as he hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House, but offered no sign of how he could revive long-stalled negotiations. In their first face-to-face meeting, Trump pressed Abbas and other Palestinian leaders to “speak in a unified […]

By Nichola Saminather | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Asian stocks retreated on Thursday, taking their cues from a subdued session on Wall Street, while the dollar retained gains made after the Federal Reserve delivered a hawkish policy statement. At the end of its two-day meeting, the Fed kept its benchmark interest rate steady as expected, but downplayed weak first-quarter economic growth and emphasized the strength of the labor market, […]

Long before TV presenter Naoufer Ramoul had an apartment to decorate, she had chosen an interior designer. Ramoul, who is the presenter of the weekly political debate show ­Qabil li Niqash, had come across Harf Noon Design Studio on Instagram, and immediately got in touch with the company’s founder, Nisrine El Lababidi. “Naoufer messaged me and said: ‘Nisrine, I don’t own a house at the moment, but […]

The insurgent groups suspended participation in the talks on Wednesday to protest what they described as heavy bombing by the Syrian government’s Russian-backed forces the day before that killed dozens, including civilians. Continue reading the main story The Russian proposal does not specify measures to prevent government warplanes from carrying out such bombings. Rebels said they remained suspicious of Russian guarantees, regardless, because Russia has been unable […]

By Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday outlined for his staff how an “America First” agenda translates into foreign policy, but did not address the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts, which worry many diplomats. It was the first time Tillerson had addressed all employees since his first day on the job on Feb. 2, when he spoke to hundreds of […]

Sign up to receive FirstFT by email here The Federal Reserve said it believed the recent slowdown in US growth was likely to prove temporary as it stayed on course for a further increase in short-term interest rates as soon as June. The US central bank kept its target range for the federal funds rate at 0.75 per cent to 1 per cent following its latest two-day meeting. In […]

By Lindsay Dunsmuir and Jason Lange | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and downplayed weak first-quarter economic growth while emphasizing the strength of the labor market, in a sign it was still on track for two more rate rises this year. In a bullish statement following the end of a two-day policy meeting, the central bank also said consumer spending […]

By Richard Cowan | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September and avoid federal agency shutdowns on Saturday when existing money is depleted. With the 309-118 vote in the Republican-controlled chamber, the legislation now goes to the Senate, which is expected to pass it before a midnight Friday deadline. The Pentagon is a […]

Mr. Abbas, 82, who was among the negotiators on hand for the historic signing of the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn in 1993, indicated that he did feel optimistic that nearly a quarter-century later Mr. Trump might be the president who finally builds on that initial agreement to forge a final resolution to the conflict. Continue reading the main story Praising Mr. Trump’s “courageous leadership,” […]

VISHNU RAJA
RYO YAMADA
HITORI GOTOH
IKUYO KITA