Anonymous sources are to journalists what a 12-pound funnel cake is to a kid at the state fair: We know it’s unhealthy, but we partake anyway. That has never been truer over the last week, as our good ship of state has sprung leak after leak. Nameless White House officials have served up more scoops than a Baskin Robbins: Trump’s disastrous call with Australia’s Prime Minister, his […]
A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Qassemi, said on Thursday, “It is a shame that the U.S. government, instead of thanking the Iranian nation for their continued fight against terrorism, keeps repeating unfounded claims and adopts unwise policies that are effectively helping terrorist groups.” Continue reading the main story Mr. Flynn also made clear that the challenge to Iran extended beyond the missile test, holding Tehran responsible for […]
By Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The United States on Friday ratcheted up pressure on Iran, putting sanctions on 13 individuals and 12 entities days after the White House put Tehran “on notice” over a ballistic missile test. The move against Iran is the first by the U.S. government since President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20 after vowing during his 2016 campaign to get tough […]
GENEVA A renewed assault on Islamic State fighters in the Iraqi city of Mosul could force 250,000 civilians to flee, if they can find a way out, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday. Such an exodus would be on top of roughly 162,000 people already displaced by Iraqi government efforts to retake the city since October. Such numbers, although high, remain well below UNHCR’s initial […]
The government is struggling to protect the UK from cyberattacks, say MPs. Image: iStock An inconsistent, dysfunctional and chaotic response to cybersecurity by the British government is causing concerns about its ability to protect the country from cyberattacks and hackers, MPs have warned. The damning indictment is set out in a by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report into protecting information across government, which comes as defence […]
European stocks and S&P futures rose modestly ahead of January US payrolls data, along with the dollar, while Asian shares dropped after China returned from a week-long holiday. Bonds slid, oil rose while the JGB intervened in the bond market to prevent a bond rout, in one of two major surprises during the Asian session. As reported last night, having closed at 0.109% yesterday the 10y JGB […]
By Tom Westbrook and Jane Wardell | SYDNEY SYDNEY Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull might receive a short-term boost after his infamous phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump but is likely to be the long-term political loser, analysts and rights advocates said on Friday. Languishing in opinion polls and vulnerable to attacks from within his own conservative party, Turnbull at least woke on Friday to domestic […]
By Keith Wallis and Osamu Tsukimori | SINGAPORE/TOKYO SINGAPORE/TOKYO Oil prices edged up on Friday on news that U.S. President Donald Trump could be set to impose new sanctions on multiple Iranian entities, firing geopolitical tensions between the two nations. Comments by Russian energy minister Alexander Novak that oil producers had cut their output in accordance with a pact agreed in December also helped support prices, analysts […]
Conservative Republicans are girding themselves for a clash with Donald Trump’s administration, warning that lax spending plans could put national debt on a steeper upward trajectory. The president has wrongfooted Republican deficit hawks by proposing to slash tax, protect social security and Medicare, boost defence spending and build a wall along the border with Mexico. Some lawmakers fear even fiscally conservative colleagues will buckle in the face […]
The assault force, which also included elite troops from the United Arab Emirates, quickly found itself under intense fire from all sides — even from female combatants who unexpectedly took up weapons from assigned fighting positions — forcing the Americans to call in strikes from helicopter gunships and attack planes. Photo Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, spoke during the daily news conference at the White […]
By Leika Kihara and Tetsushi Kajimoto | TOKYO TOKYO Japan will push back firmly on any attempts by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to meddle with its independence on setting currency and monetary policies, say sources familiar with the deliberations in Tokyo. It was the first clear sign from Japan that Tokyo won’t allow Trump to dictate domestic economic policy, leaving room for potential tensions between the […]
Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com, As I outlined in my article ‘The False Economic Narrative Will Die In 2017’, the mainstream media has been carefully crafting the propaganda meme that the Trump administration is inheriting a global economy in “ascension,” when in fact, the opposite is true. Trump enters office at a time of longstanding decline and will likely witness severe and accelerated decline over the […]
The UAE’s efforts to help eradicate polio in Pakistan “cannot be underestimated” and has played a significant role in the turnaround seen in the country since 2014, according to the World Health Organisation. WHO said in a statement that in 2016, fewer children were paralysed by polio than in any other year globally, and in Pakistan. Despite many challenges faced by the polio programme, Pakistan has made […]
There’s a whole lot of science — make that DNA changes — behind human height. A new large-scale international study has just found 83 new genetic variations that control height in humans. Of these, some influence adult height by over 2 centimeters or nearly 8/10 of an inch. This is an enormous discovery, according to researchers. “The genes affected by these genetic variations modulate, among other things, bone […]
As an expectant crowd of couples, families, retirees and grizzled world trekkers wait to board our Antarctic-bound ship, the mood is overwhelmingly one of anticipation. Talk is of when the first orca or iceberg will be sighted, and trepidation at the state of the Drake Passage, the notoriously rough sea that sits between us and the pristine ice of Antarctica. As we leave the docks of the […]
SHANGHAI China’s top diplomat said the country’s ‘Silk Road’ push would help boost international cooperation at a time when the risk of “isolationism” is growing. The ‘One Belt, One Road’ scheme, promoting infrastructure projects along historical land and sea trade routes, is helping “align China’s development with that of other countries”, State Councillor Yang Jiechi said in a commentary on Friday in the official China Daily newspaper. […]
I recently wrote about an agenda to mitigate the threats of insecure devices on the Internet of Things. One of the requirements expressed in that agenda is “For every product sold, there is a way that security researchers can responsibly disclose vulnerabilities found”. In this post I want to reflect on the issue of responsible disclosure from the perspective of the Collaborative Security approach, how responsible security […]
Snap is trying to raise $3bn in an initial public offering that could be the largest US tech IPO in years, according to documents that provide the first glimpse inside the owner of the messaging app Snapchat. Evan Spiegel, 26-year-old co-founder and chief executive, will own a stake worth up to $5.5bn, if the company succeeds in its aim of going public with a valuation of up […]
Panama Papers – How Has Guernsey RespondedMondaq News Alerts (registration)The simple reason for this is that for the past in excess of 20 years Guernsey has been taking active steps to minimise the risk of the types of shortcomings revealed by the Panama Papers happening in Guernsey. And we are continuing to do so. (via Google News)
02 February 2017 For years, mid-tier banks have been told they’re potentially heading for extinction The barbell effect dictates that the middle will be significantly challenged by an increasingly tough business environment, with only the very large and the very niche institutions being able to succeed. And indeed the outlook does look challenging, if one adds up the increased cost of regulatory compliance, the pressure on fees […]
By Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump said on Thursday that “nothing is off the table” in dealing with Iran following its test launch of a ballistic missile, and his fellow Republicans in Congress said they would back him up with new sanctions. Trump comment was in response to a question about whether he would consider military options to respond to Tehran, a day after […]
By David Ljunggren and Rod Nickel | OTTAWA/WINNIPEG OTTAWA/WINNIPEG Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking a low key approach to dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump, seeking to avoid clashes while indirectly signalling the two leaders’ differences to a domestic audience. Insiders acknowledge the cautious strategy could anger progressives whose support helped bring Trudeau to power in 2015 but say for now, he has no choice […]
02 February 2017 MARC has removed the ratings on WCT Holdings Berhad’s (WCT Holdings) RM1.0 billion MTN Programme and RM1.5 billion Sukuk Murabahah Programme from MARCWatch Developing. The ratings were placed on MARCWatch Developing on November 4, 2016 to enable the rating agency to reassess WCT Holdings’ business plan and the impact on its credit metrics following a major change in shareholders after the group’s founding members […]
Targeting the weak The us-versus-them dynamic is “easy for many people to rally around,” said Jonathan D. Weiler, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina. Targeting feared or unpopular minorities is a way of “setting a boundary,” said Sheri E. Berman, a political scientist at Barnard College — a way to distinguish between “us” deserving of protection, and “them” who are a threat. Continue reading […]
