News related to lobbying

African Union to choose new leader, review Morocco membership

By Ed Cropley | ADDIS ABABA ADDIS ABABA The African Union is due to choose a new leader on Monday in a vote more likely to expose differences over the International Criminal Court and other issues than reaffirm the continent’s solidarity and common purpose. In a clear split, three of its four major regions – the south, the east and the largely Francophone west – are supporting […]

January 30

Poland wants Merkel on it side in reforming EU – PM Szydlo

WARSAW Poland wants to convince German Chancellor Angela Merkel during her trip to Warsaw in February to support its ideas for reforming the European Union, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said on Saturday. Poland’s year-old government, led by the conservative and eurosceptic and Law and Justice (PiS) party, believes that central EU institutions in Brussels wield too much power and is lobbying for reforms that would strengthen […]

January 28

Investing

Ukraine's Problem Is Ukraine

Submitted by James Durso via RealClearDefense.com, Ukraine’s government has hired Washington lobbyists to fix its problems with the Trump Administration, but would do better to fix its internal problems, instead. Ukraine’s problems are in four categories: a structural problem caused by the multiple overlapping entities involved in military strategy and procurement; the absence of a unified strategic vision for ordering equipment and supplies; a “Fifth Column” of […]

January 26

Biz Tech

Martin Shkreli Hits Back At Drug Lobbying Group's PR Campaign With 'Pharma Skeletons'

Martin Shkreli, a former CEO who became infamous in 2015 for hiking the price of niche drug Daraprim by over 5,000 percent, has become the poster child for greed in the pharmaceutical industry. But he’s not having any of it, firing back at the very industry and singling out other alleged offenders. He recently launched a new website called “Pharma Skeletons,” which details cases of big pharma […]

January 26

J&J disappoints on 2017 forecasts due to dollar

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 […]

January 24

Investing

A Preview Of Trump's Seven Imminent Executive Orders

Having already signed a (mostly symbolic) executive order on Obamacare on Friday night, urging US agencies to “waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation” of provisions deemed to impose fiscal burdens on states, companies or individuals, Trump is preparing to unload a volley of many more executive orders. Courtesy of Axios, which quotes “one of the best-wired Republican lobbyists in town”, here is a preview […]

January 23

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George Osborne to join BlackRock as adviser

George Osborne, the former UK chancellor, is to join BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, as an adviser. BlackRock’s chairman and chief executive Larry Fink said the company wanted Mr Osborne’s “unique and valuable perspective on the issues affecting the world”, citing his work helping the UK and the G20 to recover from the financial crisis. “At the centre of our mission is helping people around the […]

South Korea prosecutors summon another Samsung executive

SEOUL South Korea’s special prosecutor’s office said on Friday it summoned a Samsung Electronics Co Ltd executive for questioning as it investigates a widening influence-peddling scandal that has embroiled President Park Geun-hye. The office said it had summoned Executive Vice President Hwang Sung-soo for questioning at 2 p.m. (0500 GMT) on Friday, adding he was classified as a witness. It did not elaborate. Hwang is the fifth […]

Arts & Culture

Newsmaker: Kellyanne Conway

When it comes to bare-knuckle political lobbying, 12-year-old Claudia Conway is a chip off the old block. Today her mother, Kellyanne Conway, the Republican pollster credited with turning round Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, will be celebrating her 50th birthday at the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States. As his special counsellor, Conway is looking forward to life as the most powerful woman in the […]

What's On

Will Trump Target Women’s Programs Worldwide?

Lawmakers, government officials, and aid workers are bracing themselves for a broad offensive from President-elect Donald Trump against federal programs that support family planning and gender equality around the world. As one of his first acts in the Oval Office, the Republican president-elect plans to restore the “Mexico City policy” as soon as Sunday, a congressional staffer told Foreign Policy. Also known as the “global gag rule,” […]

Trump ready to sign executive actions on Day One

By Ayesha Rascoe and Julia Edwards Ainsley | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Donald Trump is ready to begin taking executive actions on his first day in the White House on Friday to move quickly on his pledge to crack down on immigration, build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and roll back outgoing President Barack Obama’s policies. Trump, a Republican elected on Nov. 8, arrived in Washington on a […]

Canada's Justin Trudeau faces ethics probe over Bahamas trip -media

OTTAWA Canada’s ethics watchdog is investigating Justin Trudeau for potential breaches related to his recent holiday on an island owned by the Aga Khan, the first time a prime minister has faced such scrutiny, media reported on Monday. Trudeau has been confronted with repeated questions from the opposition about his vacation in the Bahamas over the New Year’s holiday and said last week that he had flown […]

January 17

U.S. vice-president calls for Russia sanctions to stay as Trump moots deal

By Alessandra Prentice | KIEV KIEV Outgoing U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called on Monday for sanctions on Russia to stay, urging the world to stand up to its “coercion and aggression” after President-elect Donald Trump mooted ending the measures under a possible deal with Moscow. Speaking on a swan song visit to Kiev, Biden said the G7 nations and European Union should lift the sanctions only […]

January 16

Business

Samsung leader quizzed for over 22 hours in South Korea corruption scandal

By Se Young Lee and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee left the South Korean special prosecutor’s office early on Friday, more than 22 hours after arriving for questioning on bribery suspicions in an influence-peddling scandal that could topple President Park Geun-hye. Lee left the special prosecution office without answering reporters’ questions and headed to a waiting car. Prosecutors have been investigating […]

January 13

Secretary of State nominee Tillerson veers from Trump on key issues

By Patricia Zengerle and Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson expressed views on Wednesday at odds with President-elect Donald Trump’s positions on key foreign policy issues like nuclear proliferation, trade deals, climate change and relations with Mexico. In a nine-hour Senate confirmation hearing, the former chief executive of oil company Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) said he favoured maintaining U.S. sanctions against Russia for […]

January 12

Business

Samsung leader named a suspect in South Korea political probe

By Se Young Lee and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL A South Korean special prosecutor’s office will question Samsung Group [SAGR.UL] leader Jay Y. Lee as a suspect in a widening influence-peddling scandal that may force President Park Geun-hye from office. Prosecutors have been looking into whether Samsung payments of about 30 billion won ($25 million) for a business and foundations backed by Park’s friend, Choi Soon-sil, […]

January 11

Business

Boeing internal memo sets details of engineer layoffs in 2017

SEATTLE Boeing Co (BA.N) warned on Tuesday that it will conduct involuntary layoffs of engineers, part of a cost-cutting drive as the aerospace and defense company responds to increasing competition amid slowing aircraft sales. The reductions, disclosed in an internal memo seen by Reuters, also include dozens of job categories eligible for voluntary layoffs in Washington state, southern California and South Carolina. Boeing did not indicate the […]

January 11

Plouffe quits Uber to join Chan Zuckerberg Initiative

Uber’s policy chief David Plouffe is leaving the company to join the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic group led by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, at a time when Uber’s policy battles around the world continue to heat up. Mr Plouffe, who served as President Barack Obama’s campaign manager in 2008, joined Uber in 2014 and saw the company through some of its fiercest political […]

January 11

Cracks exposed at heart of N. Irish peace by "cash-for-ash" scandal

By Amanda Ferguson | BELFAST BELFAST After a decade of bitter compromises over paramilitaries and policing, Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government finally fell apart this week over the abuse by farmers of a green-energy grant to burn fuels such as wood pellets instead of coal. The confrontation has exposed a growing rupture in trust between Catholic Irish nationalists and pro-British Protestant unionists whose cooperation underpins the 1998 Good […]

January 10

Markets

Peso sinks to new low as Mexico’s woes mount

For more evidence that central bank intervention in the foreign exchange market is increasingly becoming an exercise in futility – look no further than Mexico. The peso briefly sank to a fresh all time low against the dollar on Tuesday, dropping by as much as 1.1 per cent to MXN 21.6227, as concerns continue to mount over incoming US president Donald Trump’s trade rhetoric towards Mexico, report […]

January 10

Biz Tech

CES 2017 Provides a Glimpse of Our Self-Driving Future

At CES 2017, self-driving cars were a hot topic. Faraday Future revealed its Tesla challenger, the FF91, while Chrysler, BMW, Honda, Hyundai, and Nissan all had anonymous vehicle announcements. But the big question is, when will truly self-driving cars be in use or available to purchase? That’s what I asked Ford executives before CES kicked off. Ford is actively developing its own self-driving car, and has what […]

January 10

Zuma's ex-wife given boost in South Africa leadership race

By Joe Brock | JOHANNESBURG JOHANNESBURG The chances of South African President Jacob Zuma’s ex-wife, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, becoming the next leader of the African National Congress were given a boost on Saturday with the endorsement of the ruling party’s women’s division. The ANC will pick a new leader at a conference in December and, given its national dominance since coming to power at the end of apartheid […]

January 08