Politics

  New York / AFP Donald Trump met with some of America’s most powerful tech executives in a bid to mend fences with a largely pro-Hillary Clinton industry and promote job creation and trade. The afternoon summit at Trump Tower in New York gathered some of the wealthiest and brightest brains in the tech industry around the same table as …

  Washington / AFP New satellite imagery shows China has apparently installed “significant” defensive weapons on a series of artificial islands it built in the South China Sea, a US-based think tank said. Beijing has created seven islets in the Spratly Islands in recent years, built up from much smaller land protuberances and reefs. Although Beijing has said it does not …

  Brussels / AFP British Prime Minister Theresa May urged her EU counterparts on Thursday to make Brexit “as smooth and orderly… as possible” as they prepared to discuss the process at a dinner without her. “We want that to be as smooth and orderly a process as possible. It is not just in our interests, it is in the interests …

  Nagato / AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bunkered down for talks on Thursday to try and resolve a territorial dispute that has prevented their countries from formally ending World War II hostilities. Abe is hosting Putin at a hot spring summit in his ancestral city of Nagato in the hopes of achieving a breakthrough …

  Manila / AFP The United States has not renewed a major aid package to the Philippines because of “significant concerns” about the rule of law under President Rodrigo Duterte, the US embassy said on Thursday. “This decision reflects the Board’s significant concerns around rule of law and civil liberties in the Philippines,” embassy spokeswoman Molly Koscina said in a …

Buenos Aires / AFP Venezuela’s top diplomat turned up uninvited to a meeting of the South America’s Mercosur, despite Caracas’ suspension from the trade bloc for failing to meet democratic and trade standards. Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez pushed her way through a crowd of riot police and journalists to enter the Argentine foreign ministry in Buenos Aires where the extraordinary meeting …

  Aleppo / AFP Deadly clashes erupted in Syria’s Aleppo on Wednesday and a deal for the evacuation of rebel areas was on hold, leaving thousands of cold and hungry civilians uncertain of their future. Entire families had gathered in the early hours, in the hope of leaving Aleppo after an agreement announced the night before for rebels to withdraw from …

  Ankara / AFP Turkey’s president said on Wednesday he would speak with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in an effort to rescue a ceasefire deal which would allow civilians and rebel fighters to be evacuated from Syria’s Aleppo. “I will speak with Mr Putin again later in the evening,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a televised speech in Ankara. “The …

  Paris / AFP French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday joined calls for international observers to oversee the evacuation of civilians trapped under fire in the wrecked Syrian city of Aleppo. At a meeting with his defence cabinet, Hollande said those trapped by the fighting should “be evacuated in a dignified and safe manner, under the supervision of international observers and …

  Riyadh / AFP Saudi Arabia is determined to prevent external “interference” in neighbouring war-torn Yemen, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud said in an annual address on Wednesday. He did not explicitly refer to the kingdom’s regional rival Iran but Saudi officials have accused Tehran and the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah of aiding rebels in Yemen. Since March 2015, …