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Bloomberg The cost of California’s controversial high-speed rail project grew to $79 billion, a development likely to embolden opponents such as President Donald Trump, whose administration is already seeking to cancel and claw back federal grants. The segment already under construction in the state’s agricultural region known as the Central Valley is now expected to cost $12.4 billion, up from ...

Bloomberg A Blackstone Group LP unit that buys stakes in alternative asset managers is considering a minority investment in BC Partners, according to people familiar with the matter. Discussions between Blac-kstone Strategic Capital Hol-dings and BC are at an early stage and no deal has been reached, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is ...

Bloomberg Israel and Gaza-based fighters are digging in for extended fighting after a barrage of hundreds of rockets and retaliatory airstrikes boiled over into a second day, threatening to undo months of Egyptian-brokered efforts to reach a long-term truce. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said he instructed the army to continue its “massive attacks” in Gaza and bolstered forces near the ...

NEW YORK / WAM The UAE, in its capacity as the chair of the Group of Member States of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), hosted a dialogue with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on strengthening ties with the Muslim community. The dialogue session, which took place at the UN Headquarters, was entitled ‘Strengthening Ties with the Muslim Community: Promoting Dialogue, ...

TURIN (Italy) / WAM His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, received the first joint Honorary Doctorate in Urban and Regional Development, from the University of Turin and Polytechnic University of Turin, in Italy. During his keynote speech at the ancient castle of Valentino, H.H. said: “I am very ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Dr Amal Abdullah Al Qubaisi, Speaker of Federal National Council (FNC), received Helene Quilter, Secretary of Defence New Zealand, and her accompanying delegation at FNC headquarters in Abu Dhabi. The FNC Speaker commenced the meeting by first expressing her condolences to the government of New Zealand and its people, and the families of the victims of ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM Employers are vital partners to ensuring the rights of Emiratis are sustained, and attaining the UAE’s overall objectives and visions, said an official from the General Pension and Social Security Authority (GPSSA). Hanan Al Sahlawi, GPSSA Acting Executive Director, said that the Authority considers employers as strategic partners to achieve the objectives of the country that aim ...

Bloomberg The last stronghold in embattled businessman Anil Ambani’s phone carrier-to-power empire is also developing fault lines. Reliance Capital Ltd, his financial services business that almost doubled its profit in five years, had largely remained insulated from the distress plaguing the wider conglomerate. Now, the company that controls India’s fifth-biggest mutual fund, is racing to close a planned $2 billion ...

Bloomberg In the Philippines — where 76 million internet users stay online the longest in the world — just a handful of people spend a few hours each day to fight fake news about the upcoming midterm elections. The Commission on Elections has formed a team of 10 government workers to spot and report misleading online posts to Facebook, with ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump brushed off news of a possible weapons test by North Korea, vowing that leader Kim Jong-un “will do nothing to interfere” and that a denuclearisation deal with the US “will happen.” Saturday’s tweet, posted while Trump was in a motorcade to the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, was the president’s first response to news that ...