Members of Donald Trump’s administration will have to agree to a lifetime ban on lobbying for foreign governments, his transition team said on Thursday, as the president-elect seeks to reassure voters that he is sticking to his promise to rid Washington of cronyism and corruption. Mr Trump ran on a campaign to “drain the swamp”, but his transition team has sputtered in recent days, flip-flopping on whether it will […]
Rising market expectations for growth and inflation were not the only things behind the selling pressure on US Treasuries after the US election. One gauge of long-term Treasury market risk known as the term premium has also climbed. The day after the election of Donald Trump as the next US president, the 10-year term premium made its biggest single-day jump since 2011. The move was within the […]
By Alexandria Sage and Nichola Groom | LOS ANGELES LOS ANGELES Tesla Motors Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk won approval on Thursday from the electric luxury automaker’s shareholders for an acquisition of SolarCity Corp, the solar energy system installer in which he is the largest shareholder. The stock swap deal, worth about $2 billion, caps a tumultuous year for Musk and Tesla. The proposed acquisition of SolarCity, […]
The UAE’s workers will get a three-day holiday to mark UAE National Day and Commemoration Day at the start of next month. The Federal Authority for Government Human Resources has announced that public and private sector worker will have a holiday from Thursday December 1 to Saturday December 3, giving one day off from the regular working week. Workers will return to work on Sunday December 4. […]
The Suicide Squad Extended Cut contains 11 extra minutes of footage, but is that enough to make the divisive movie any better? Unless your name is Harley Quinn, no, not really. This article is solely focused on whether the Extended Edition makes Suicide Squad a better film and what new material appears in this version. Check out my review of the Suicide Squad theatrical release for my […]
Photo Nusra Front fighters in Idlib Province, Syria, in 2015. In what analysts say is a calculated move to hide ties to Al Qaeda, the Nusra Front recently rebranded itself and changed its name to Jabhat Fath al-Sham, or the Levant Conquest Front. Credit Ammar Abdullah/Reuters American officials accuse him of being part of the “inner leadership circle” of Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, most widely known as […]
Amid all the attempts to guess what Donald Trump’s election means for Europe’s trade, security and populist politicians, one conclusion stands out: his administration may be good news for the European Central Bank. The reason is not any particular act by the president-elect; rather, it is the reaction of markets, which could help the European economy and give the central bank more room to act. Foreign exchange […]
By Lucia Mutikani | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. consumer prices recorded their biggest increase in six months in October on rising gasoline costs and rents, suggesting a pickup in inflation that potentially clears the way for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in December. Prospects for a rate hike next month also got a boost from other data on Thursday showing first-time applications for unemployment benefits tumbling […]
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), its main sovereign wealth fund, said on Thursday it had filled key posts as part of plans to expand investment capacity and help reduce the kingdom’s dependence on oil income. Under economic reform plans announced early this year, the government has said it aims eventually to expand the PIF, founded in 1971 to finance development projects in the country, from $160 […]
Photo An Israeli settlement surrounded by a defensive wall near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Credit Thomas Coex/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Right-wing Israeli politicians see Donald Trump’s election as helpful toward their goal of burying the prospect of a Palestinian state. On Wednesday, Israeli lawmakers gave preliminary approval to a bill that would retroactively legalize settlements built on private Palestinian land in the West Bank. […]
JPMorgan has agreed to pay $264m to settle a US probe into its employment of well-connected Chinese “princelings” to win business. The settlement, expected to be announced on Thursday, would be the first to arise from a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry launched in 2013 to determine whether bank hiring practices breached the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The 1977 law bans companies from paying bribes to […]
After winning the Best Actress award for lead star Jacyln Jose at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Ma’ Rosa has been chosen as the Philippines’s entry to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 89th Academy Awards, scheduled to be held on February 26, 2017. Can director Brillante Mendoza’s gritty urban drama give the Philippines its first ever Oscar nomination and award? Two industry websites think […]
Janet Yellen, the Fed chair, is signalling that the US central bank is reluctant to delay its next increase in short-term interest rates “for too long”. Ms Yellen is due to say on Thursday morning that as the Fed sees the case for a rise in rates continuing to strengthen, it “must remain forward-looking in setting monetary policy”. “Were the [monetary policy committee] to delay increases in […]
The Soyuz MS-02 rocket is launched with Expedition 49 Soyuz commander Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos, flight engineer Shane Kimbrough of NASA, and flight engineer Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The crew will spend the next four months living and working aboard the International Space Station. Source link
LONDON Battered bonds and emerging market currencies enjoyed some respite on Thursday as the dollar took a breather from a post-U.S. election charge that has taken it to a 13-1/2 year high. Wall Street looked set for a quiet start and Europe’s main stock markets <0#.INDEXE> were shuffling sideways as the dip in global bond yields cooled bank stocks, which have been rising on better lending profits. […]
“When the economic crisis hits the elite, it means the suffering is all over the place,” said Malak Rostom, the vice president of the student union. “If we can’t afford it, we can tell how much other people are suffering.” Continue reading the main story Some Egyptians may sneer at the problems of the children of middle- and upper-class families, worried about tuition increases that dwarf the […]
UK retail sales grew rapidly in October as consumers — yet to experience the impact of the weaker currency — continued to spend and colder weather boosted clothing sales. The seasonally adjusted volume of sales was 1.9 per cent higher in October than in September, the Office for National Statistics said on Thursday. Sales were boosted by strong growth in clothing and footwear as the end of […]
DUBAI // Two alleged pimps are accused of stabbing a man to death because he was harassing their prostitutes. The Vietnamese men, both aged 32, are charged with premeditated murder and with facilitating prostitution. They could not enter a plea at Dubai Criminal Court on Thursday due to there being no translator. Three Pakistanis, aged 20, 23 and 28, are also charged with physically assaulting the Vietnamese […]
Rotana to open 16 hotels in 2017 The UAE hotel company Rotana has announced that it will open 16 hotels next year, including five in the UAE and four in Saudi Arabia. There will also be two hotels each for Turkey and Iraq and the company’s first property in Muscat, Oman. The UAE properties are the Capital Centre Rotana in Abu Dhabi, complementing the existing Capital Centre […]
The welcome Several door staff are manning the slick hotel entrance as I drive up, and several more smartly dressed staff are stationed in the marble-and-glass lobby, which is dressed in fresh flowers and local artwork. A couple of the staff recognise me from a previous visit. The reception area to the right is also well-manned. I’m offered a cold towel and a tasty mango, mint, lemon […]
Despite an economic slowdown and rising inflation, Bahrain’s property market has witnessed stability across most real estate sectors in the second half, which is expected to continue into 2017, according to international real estate consultancy Cluttons. While the Gulf state’s residential markets have outperformed expectations due to resilient rental budgets, its office and retail markets have largely seen no change in rents in the first nine months […]
Thursday 08:30 GMT. European and US equity gauges are subdued as government bond yields dip from multi-month highs and the dollar stalls after hitting its strongest level since 2003. Following a muted Asia-Pacific session — encapsulated by Japan’s Nikkei 225 closing unchanged — index futures suggest the S&P 500 will dip 1 point to 2,176 when the opening bell rings later in New York, leaving the Wall […]
DUBAI// A man sexually assaulted two maids he hired to clean his house, the Dubai Criminal Court heard. The 50-year-old Iranian accountant hired the Filipinas to clean his home in Al Nahda for three hours last August. “We arrived at 3pm and divided the work, I took the bedrooms and she took the kitchen. Ten minutes later she came to me and told me to be careful […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Eight hospitals bombed in the past week, five of them within the last 48 hours. Food stores running out of supplies. Scores of people killed in a single day. By Wednesday night, it was clear that the escalation feared for weeks in rebel-held parts of northern Syria was underway, as Russian and Syrian government warplanes carried out a second straight day of intense bombardment. […]
