WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Monday (Jan 22) claimed victory after Democrats agreed to a stopgap deal to reopen US government offices and end a political crisis in Washington. “I am pleased Democrats in Congress have come to their senses” Trump said in a defiant statement, as Senate lawmakers moved to get hundreds of thousands of federal government employees back to work. Democrats said they decided to end the three-day “shutdown” after making progress with ruling Republicans toward securing the fate of hundreds of thousands of so-called “Dreamers” brought to America illegally as children. With Democratic support, a bill keeping the government funded until Feb 8 easily passed the Senate, with the shutdown to formally end after approval later Monday by the House of Representatives, where the number two Republican Kevin McCarthy said it had the support to pass. “Hopefully, we learn a lesson from this. Hopefully it never comes back to holding the government hostage,” McCarthy said. Word of the compromise deal struck in Washington sent US stocks surging to new highs. But the White House appeared in no mood for bipartisanship or magnanimity after a shutdown that overshadowed Trump’s first anniversary in office. Trump moved to undercut Democrats, saying he would only accept a comprehensive immigration reform – one that notably addresses his demands for a border wall with Mexico as well as the fate of the “Dreamers.” “We will make a long-term deal on immigration if, and only if, it is good for our country,” he said. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer earlier announced… [Read full story]
The head of Japan's SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T), which in October set up a $100 billion fund for technology investments, said on Tuesday he would invest $50 billion in U.S. businesses, a move President-elect Donald Trump claimed was a direct result of his election win. The investment, which could create 50,000 new U.S. jobs, revived speculation on Wall Street that U.S. telecommunications giant Sprint Corp (S.N), 82-percent-owned by SoftBank, might rekinkdle merger talks with T-Mobile US Inc (TMUS.O) that died under pressure from U.S. regulators. Trump's moves since the election to engage with individual companies, while turning his back on…... [read more]
WASHINGTON — The United States and Cuba have reached a deal to reopen embassies in Washington and Havana, in a major step toward ending decades of Cold War enmity.President Barack Obama is expected to issue a statement at 11am on Wednesday in the White House Rose Garden about the deal, which constitutes one of the major foreign policy achievements of his presidency."We will formally announce tomorrow that the United States and Cuba have reached an agreement to re-establish formal diplomatic relations and open embassies in each other's capitals," a US official said.Diplomatic ties have been frozen for five decades.The current…... [read more]
Poland's eurosceptic Law and Justice party (PiS) claimed victory on Sunday. Run by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of Poland's late president Lech, PiS secured 38% of the vote, enough to govern alone and well ahead of the incumbent, staunchly pro-EU Civic Platform (PO) at 23.4%, said pollster IPSOS. The victory by PiS would be the biggest in terms of seats by a single party since Poland held free elections after shedding communism in 1989 - marking a decisive swing to its brand of social conservatism mixed with left-leaning economics in the country of 38 million people. Distrustful of the…... [read more]
European leaders have claimed victory after the World Trade Organization was said to have judged massive US subsidies to Boeing illegal. The report, which has not been published, reportedly stated that billions of dollars in US aid to the aircraft manufacturer were illegal, prompting officials from the European Union, France and Boeing's arch-rival Airbus to claim victory. "Boeing benefits from billions of dollars in government subsidies that have been judged illegal by the WTO," said Airbus spokesman Rainer Ohler. European Union trade commissioner Karel De Gucht said the WTO findings "support the EU's view" of the decade-long dispute. The complaint…... [read more]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed victory in Israel's election after exit polls showed he had erased his center-left rivals' lead with a hard rightward shift in which he abandoned a commitment to negotiate a Palestinian state. Difficult coalition talks still lie ahead, in a politically divided country where no one party has ever won an outright majority in parliament. Isaac Herzog, Netanyahu's chief opponent and head of the center-left Zionist Union, said "everything is still open" and that he already had spoken to party leaders about forming a government. But after days in which Zionist Union appeared poised to defeat…... [read more]
