Theresa May will launch a charm offensive in a bid to win Polish support in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations, as pressure grew to guarantee the status of migrant workers. Mrs May will host Polish prime minister Beata Szydło and other senior Polish politicians at a meeting in Downing Street on Monday that will focus on Brexit and defence co-operation, and seek to ease diplomatic tensions caused during […]
TOKYO Oil prices tumbled on Monday on fears that producer countries may fail to agree an output cut, pressuring U.S. stocks and the dollar as traders reversed their “Trumpflation” trade as weak oil prices would reduce pressure on U.S. interest rates to rise. That gave some relief to Asian shares, which had underperformed on worries about capital flight to higher-yielding U.S markets in the weeks since Donald […]
By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices fell over 1 percent on Monday, extending declines from last Friday as doubts re-emerged over the ability of major producers to cut output at a planned meeting on Wednesday aimed at reining in global oversupply. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading at $46.40 per barrel at 0035 GMT (7.35 a.m. ET), down 84 cents, or 1.8 percent, from their […]
Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Khalid al-Falih said on Sunday that he believed the oil market would balance itself in 2017 even if producers did not intervene in it. Any intervention will aim to expedite the balancing process, Falih told reporters at the headquarters of national oil giant Saudi Aramco. Under a preliminary agreement reached in September in Algeria, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would reduce […]
By John Miller | ZURICH ZURICH Swiss voted in a referendum on Sunday to reject a speedy exit from the nation’s five nuclear power plants, as concerns over losing energy independence outweighed safety worries raised by the measure’s proponents. Nearly 55 percent of voters turned down the initiative, with 45 percent favouring it in a vote that was part of the Swiss system of direct democracy giving […]
The UAE’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) has begun establishing committees to start collecting tax data on any US citizen living in the UAE from 2017, it has announced. The moves are required under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), a US federal law that aims to combat offshore tax evasion by US persons. The ministry will coordinate with various government authorities to collect financial data in […]
Our round-up of the week’s best comment and analysis from the Financial Times focuses on how infrastructure and fiscal policy shake-ups will play out for investors in the light of the current “Trumpflation” market rallies. The selection is taken from our Markets Insight and Smart Money columns, written by industry contributors and FT commentators. Infrastructure spending is the new zeitgeist of our age but we should have […]
By Edward Taylor and Jan Schwartz | FRANKFURT/HAMBURG FRANKFURT/HAMBURG Just as Porsche and Audi have fought for supremacy on the race track, the Volkswagen brands are now locked in a cut-throat battle to develop and manufacture the next generation of electric cars at a group embroiled in the “Dieselgate” scandal. Volkswagen Group denies that the kind of internal rivalry that it encouraged at the Le Mans 24 […]
By Simon Gardner and Ana Isabel Martinez | HAVANA HAVANA From the Bay of Pigs invasion to a historic visit by President Barack Obama to Havana, Cubans have known for generations that whenever the United States turns its face to Cuba, Fidel Castro would be staring right back. But the death of “El Comandante” has added to worries among Cubans that U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump will slam […]
AMSTERDAM Royal Dutch Shell expects to pump out all the fossil fuel reserves listed on its balance sheet, its chief executive said, dismissing concerns that production limits in the wake of the Paris climate accord could hit the energy giant’s valuation. In an interview with Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad, Ben van Beurden said the issue of “stranded” reserves – deposits in the ground that cannot be […]
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Sunday that he will “not necessarily” call a snap election next year, amid talk that he would seek an early vote as splits in the opposition have hobbled efforts to oust him over a long-running financial scandal. The multi-ethnic Southeast Asian country is due to hold an election by August 2018, and a government official has told Reuters […]
The Irish prime minister has said it will be “impossible” to agree Brexit within two years, in the strongest rejection so far of the UK’s negotiating timetable by an EU leader. Enda Kenny, who is seen as one of Britain’s allies in the process, said “there’s a growing feeling in Europe that there should be a transition period, and that the transition period will be longer than […]
By Marc Frank and Sarah Marsh | HAVANA HAVANA Fidel Castro’s death could give his younger brother, President Raul Castro, more space to pursue economic reforms, but change will also depend on whether U.S. President-elect Donald Trump decides to work with or challenge Cuba’s communist government. Raul Castro has introduced market-oriented reforms in recent years, but the pace of change has been slowed, many Cubans say, by […]
Etihad Airways has announced an expanded codeshare agreement with Hong Kong Airlines to give air travellers enhanced connections between Australasia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America. The two airlines have obtained regulatory approval to codeshare on nine additional routes, bringing the total number of services in their codeshare agreement to 14, Etihad said in a statement. Under the expanded codeshare agreement, Hong Kong Airlines has […]
MOSCOW The Kremlin said on Thursday that a report by the al-Hayat newspaper on an agreement between Russia and the United States on the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was not true. The newspaper reported that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had told several Arab countries that Russia and the U.S. reached an understanding on the future of Syria’s peace process, including Assad’s departure to […]
Saudi Arabia pulled out of planned talks with non-OPEC nations including Russia as disagreements about how to share the burden of supply cuts stood in the way of a deal to boost prices just days before a make-or-break meeting in Vienna. OPEC officials were scheduled to meet with non-members including Russia on Monday before a ministerial meeting in Vienna two days later. The meeting was later canceled […]
FRANKFURT Germany’s biggest airline Lufthansa said it will cancel some flights on Sunday even though its pilots have ruled out strikes that day following a four-day walkout that started on Wednesday. “Flight ops should proceed according to schedule on Sunday. Due to the strikes on the preceding days, there may still be a few cancellations,” the company said via Twitter and email, asking customers to check the […]
26 November 2016 The Information & Communication Technology Fund (ICT Fund) signed a sponsorship and collaboration agreement with the American University of Sharjah to provide 15 scholarships for distinctive students. This agreement coincides with the UAE Innovation Week, which takes place from 20-26 November 2016. The offered scholarships fund the bachelor studies of programs related to the ICT sector, including Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering and Computer Science. […]
One of the tallest roller coasters in the region will have its home in Qatar, with the first shipment of a section of the steel structure on its way, the manufacturer has announced. Within the currently under-construction mixed-use complex, Doha Oasis, on Al Khaleej St/B-Ring Road, the 60m-high structure will be the centrepiece of a new underground mall and theme park that will include more than two […]
He seized power audaciously in 1959 and commanded to the last a powerful personal following inside and outside Cuba. But during more than half a century in office Fidel Castro, who has died at the age of 90, metamorphosed from a popular and charismatic guerrilla leader into a traditional caudillo, an autocratic holdover from another age. At his life’s end, although bolstered by the emergence of a […]
Iraq’s prime minister said the country is willing to cut some of its own production, in a move that could smooth the way to a supply deal when Opec, the oil cartel, meets next week. Haider al-Abadi said Iraq would “shoulder responsibility” for some of the planned reductions of the 14-member group’s output to bolster the oil price, according to comments reported by Reuters. The price of […]
MOSCOW/KIEV Moscow protested against Ukraine’s plans to carry out missile tests near Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014 following the toppling of a pro-Russian Ukrainian president, raising the temperature in the dispute between the two countries. Russian aviation agency Rosaviatsia said late on Friday it has received a notification from Ukraine on missile tests in “Russia’s sovereign air space” on Dec. 1 and 2 in the region […]
Updated Nov. 26, 2016 2:23 a.m. ET Fidel Castro burst on the world scene in 1959, spawning the very image of a revolutionary with his scruffy beard, rifle and cigar, ruling Cuba for a half-century while rankling 11 U.S. presidents and helping bring the world to the brink of nuclear war. Mr. Castro, who was suffering from undisclosed illnesses, died at 90 years old, his brother, President […]
Updated Nov. 25, 2016 8:52 p.m. ET The most valuable U.S. financial-technology startup is extending its lead. Stripe Inc., whose software is used by businesses to accept and track digital payments, will be valued at $9.2 billion in a new funding round that is being completed, the company said. That valuation, which includes roughly $150 million in new cash being raised, nearly doubles the privately held company’s […]
