Egypt’s foreign reserves reached over $36 billion in July, a record high, which the prime minister described as “good news” as it shows that the economy is recovering, the central bank said Tuesday. The bank announced the increase in a brief statement saying that the figure is 4.7 billion dollars higher compared to the previous…
read moreSome European oil majors have made inroads into the emerging U.S. offshore wind energy market, aiming to leverage their experience of deepwater development and the crowded offshore wind arena at home. Late entrants to the offshore wind game in Europe, which began with a project off Denmark 25 years ago and is now approaching maturity,…
read moreSecretary of State Rex Tillerson surprised reporters at the State Department Tuesday by joining their daily briefing for the first time, laying out his vision for U.S. foreign policy for North Korea, Venezuela, China, the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine, among other hot spots. Asked about U.S. relations with Russia following President Vladimir Putin’s order…
read moreU.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said the debate over raising the country’s debt ceiling could stretch into September and he sought bipartisan support for the legislation to prevent a government default. “We are looking for a way forward” to pass a debt limit increase “sometime in the next month or so,” McConnell…
read moreU.S. Senator Jeff Flake has a message for his fellow Republicans: Get a spine and stand up to President Donald Trump. It’s time for Congress to act as a brake on the president’s erratic impulses. In a scolding book, the Arizona lawmaker argues that Republicans are letting Trump lead the country away from conservative principles…
read moreA leading Senate Democrat on Tuesday accused U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions of concealing policy recommendations that could change how the Justice Department enforces laws on illegal immigration, drug trafficking and violent crime. In a letter to Sessions, Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden said the Justice Department should release recommendations made by the Task Force on…
read moreDozens of employees at a Wisconsin technology business were implanted with microchips Tuesday at the company’s headquarters. Three Square Market, also known as 32M, said 41 of its 85 employees agreed to be voluntarily microchipped during a “chip party.” The chip, about the size of a grain of rice, was implanted into each person’s hand…
read moreThe top prosecutors of Brazil and Argentina are accusing their governments of interfering in the creation of a joint anti-corruption task force to investigate bribes by the Odebrecht engineering group so that politicians, many of whom are under investigation, can themselves control the exchange of evidence. Brazil’s Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot said on Tuesday the…
read moreCommunist-run Cuba said on Tuesday it was suspending issuing new licenses for certain private-sector activities from bed-and-breakfasts to restaurants until it had implemented new measures to curb wrongdoing such as tax evasion. The move marked a pause in Cuba’s seven-year old push to expand self-employment in a bid to cut the bloated state payroll and…
read moreQatar filed a wide-ranging legal complaint at the World Trade Organization on Monday to challenge a trade boycott by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates, the director of Qatar’s WTO office, Ali Alwaleed al-Thani, told Reuters. By formally “requesting consultations” with the three countries, the first step in a trade dispute, Qatar triggered a…
read moreU.S. Senator John McCain was back in Arizona on Monday to begin treatment for brain cancer, but his situation did not stop him from again slamming the Trump administration for having “no strategy for success in Afghanistan” more than six months after the presidential inauguration. “When the Senate takes up the National Defense Authorization Act…
read moreWhen Luxembourg’s new law governing space mining comes into force on Tuesday, the country will already be working to make the science-fiction-sounding mission a reality, the deputy prime minister said. The legislation will make Luxembourg the first country in Europe to offer a legal framework to ensure that private operators can be confident about their…
read morePresident Donald Trump, who has been criticized for not doing enough to help pass health care legislation, will do more traveling to try to drum up support for tax legislation, a senior White House aide said on Monday. Specifically, Trump could travel to some Midwest states like Michigan and Wisconsin that he won during the…
read moreThe United States has imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, over what it called his “illegitimate” election of an assembly to rewrite the constitution. All of Maduro’s assets in the United States are frozen and Americans are forbidden from doing any business with him. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the sanctions Monday in…
read moreTweeting that there is “no chaos” in the White House, President Donald Trump brought in a no-nonsense retired Marine Corps general, John Kelly, as his chief of staff Monday to restore order to an administration shaken by six months of policy setbacks, personnel changes and media leaks. Within hours, White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci…
read moreU.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Monday there is no larger threat to Baltic states than the “specter of aggression” by Russia, as he pledged support for NATO allies Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Pence met in Tallinn with the presidents of all the Baltic states — Estonia’s Kersti Kaljulaid, Latvia’s Raimonds Vejonis and Lithuania’s Dalia…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump has decided to remove Anthony Scaramucci from his job as communications director, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing three unidentified people close to the decision. News of Scaramucci’s removal came hours after Trump swore in a new chief of staff, retired General John Kelly. Politico reported the dismissal came…
read moreU.S. President Donald Trump uttered assurances during the start of his Cabinet meeting on Monday morning that the threat from North Korea will be taken care of. “We’ll handle North Korea. We’re going to be able to handle them. It will be handled. We handle everything,” Trump said in response to a question from…
read moreRide-hailing service Lyft carried more passengers through June this year than it did in all of last year as it capitalized on missteps at Uber. The company says ridership through June surpassed the 162.5 million rides it gave in all of 2016. A spokeswoman wouldn’t give an exact number. Lyft has made its…
read moreJohn Kelly, a no-nonsense retired Marine Corps general, was sworn in Monday as the White House chief of staff, tasked with trying to bring order to Donald Trump’s presidency six months into his tenure. “He’s going to do a really great job,” Trump said as he welcomed Kelly, while touting the country’s economic performance. “Stock…
read moreSouth Africa entered an economic recession in June, and the country’s unemployment rate is fast approaching 30 percent, according to the government statistics agency. But for the sellers of secondhand books, business has never been better. Eric Nofal, who has been selling used books for almost 30 years, shows a customer around his store in…
read morePresident Donald Trump insisted Monday there is no chaos at the White House, even as his new chief of staff is entering a West Wing battered by crisis. Retired Gen. John Kelly, previously the Homeland Security secretary, takes over Monday from the ousted Reince Priebus, bringing his military experience to an administration weighed down by…
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