January, 2018

• 16 January

  Palestine leaders urge Abbas to withdraw recognition of Israel

  Bloomberg Palestinian leaders called on President Mahmoud Abbas to withdraw recognition of Israel and break off security cooperation, in a move that follows the Trump dministration naming Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. The Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Council declared it should no longer be bound by the 1993 Oslo peace accords and that its leaders will never recognise Israel as ...

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• 16 January

  Nigeria farmer-herder clash challenges Buhari

  

  Bloomberg Already grappling with extremist militants in the northeast, secessionists in the east and unrest in the oil-rich Niger River delta, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is facing an upsurge in violence between crop farmers and herders that may threaten his party’s election chances next year. Images of bodies hacked with machetes and perforated by bullets shared on social media are ...

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• 16 January

  Baghdad says ‘atmosphere of trust’ marked talks with Kurds

  BAGHDAD­­­­ / Reuters Iraq’s central government said “an atmosphere of trust” marked talks with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region to resolve a conflict that triggered armed clashes in October. Envoys of the two sides met in the Kurdish regional capital Erbil in northern Iraq and discussed issues including security, control over the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) land borders, airports, the oil ...

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• 16 January

  Germany’s SDP divided on alliance with Merkel

  

  Bloomberg Germany’s Social Democrats began taking sides on forming a government with Angela Merkel as the party leadership stepped up efforts to convince doubters of the need for a rerun of their grand coalition. SPD leader Martin Schulz continued his tour of key Social Democratic Party regions on Tuesday to sell the preliminary deal reached last week with Merkel’s Christian ...

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• 16 January

  GOP leaders struggle to avert shutdown

  

  Bloomberg Republican congressional leaders are struggling to separate the immigration blow-up set off by President Donald Trump from a funding bill to avert a US government shutdown at the end of this week. Democrats say the burden is on Trump to help break the stalemate after he rejected a bipartisan proposal to shield young, undocumented immigrants from deportation and ignited ...

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• 16 January

  Theresa May is climbing an indestructible plastic mountain

  

  TV naturalist Sir David Attenborough made his viewers weep last month with an exposé on how plastics are polluting the oceans, harming marine animals and fish. Last week, British prime minister Theresa May announced a slew of new measures to discourage plastics use, including plastic-free supermarket aisles and an expanded levy on plastic bags. A ban on microbeads in cosmetics ...

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• 16 January

  Curb your enthusiasm for Singapore’s housing revival

  

  What’s not to like about Singapore’s property market? Sales in 2017 touched a four-year high. Developers paid homeowners S$8.5 billion ($6.4 billion) — the most since 2007 — to vacate their homes so new apartment complexes could be built. Prices have stopped falling, and Credit Suisse Group AG expects them to rise between 5 percent and 10 percent this year. ...

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• 16 January

  It’s a different beast that underpins HK stocks

  

  After a 14-day run, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index on Monday came close to breaking through its historical record set more than a decade ago. Technical analysts now caution the benchmark looks overbought. Its strength, however, shouldn’t be surprising. That’s because the Hang Seng today isn’t what it was a decade ago. One of the most conspicuous changes has been ...

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• 16 January

  EU will gain from thriving London’s finance hub

  Last week, the UK government asked German business leaders for help in securing a good deal with the European Union on financial services. The request deserves to be taken seriously. Europe’s businesses have much to gain from keeping London as a thriving financial center. The City is by far the most significant financial hub in Europe. In 2016, the UK ...

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• 16 January

  Facebook’s new mission may be impossible to accomplish

  

  If Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is sincere in a recent post about gradually taking the media element out of “social media,” he’s striking a powerful blow for tech self-regulation, as well as preparing to pay a heavy price for the evolution of his vision. But getting the genie back into the bottle may be too difficult even for ...

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