Bloomberg As the largest US retail bookseller tries to enact a turnaround, some investors may be losing their patience. Barnes & Noble Inc., which saw same-store sales drop 5.4 percent in the latest year, said it’s expecting that measure to improve this year. Double-digit declines in gifts, music and movies drove also down comparable sales in the fourth quarter ended ...
Read More »Mexican airline vows to reunite immigrant families for free
Bloomberg A Mexican airline is offering to reunite families separated by President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance†immigration policy — for free. Controladora Vuela Cia de Aviacion, known as Volaris, said it will try to work with authorities in the US, Mexico and Central America to bring back family members. The company operates flights across Mexico and to various US cities, ...
Read More »Merkel’s Germany faces watershed moment with US
Bloomberg There is a corner of Berlin where the golden age of US-German relations lingers on. Visitors to the Allied Museum on Clayallee — a boulevard named for General Lucius Clay, commander in chief of US forces in Europe after World War II — are greeted by a propeller aircraft that flew in supplies to West Berlin during the Soviet ...
Read More »Palestinians skewer US team’s Mideast peace mission
Bloomberg The Trump team’s mission to the Middle East will run into a dead end if it tries to dodge political issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman said. The lead US Middle East peace negotiators, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, have been visiting with leaders in the region this week as they ...
Read More »Pentagon ‘suspends’ Korean military exercises
Bloomberg The US has “indefinitely suspended†military exercises in South Korea to foster Washington’s fledgling relationship with Pyongyang in the wake of President Donald Trump’s meeting in Singapore earlier this month with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis suspended the Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises as well as two other war game operations that were scheduled to take ...
Read More »Romania leader conviction to worsen political tensions
Bloomberg A second criminal conviction for Romania’s de-facto leader is set to fan political tensions over corruption in the Black Sea nation. Social Democrat boss Liviu Dragnea was handed a 3 1/2-year jail sentence for abuse of office, though he won’t be sent to prison until the appeals process has been exhausted. In a sign of the impending battle, the ...
Read More »Pence to lead US-Brazil talks on rocket launch
Bloomberg Talks over US commercial use of a rocket launch site in Brazil are advancing and will take center stage during Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Brasilia next week, according to three people familiar with the matter. While a final agreement is unlikely during his visit, progress has been made in discussions to give US personnel access to the ...
Read More »Salvini to Germany: Next year will determine future of EU
Bloomberg Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said the next 12 months will determine whether the EU can hold together as the bloc’s leaders prepare for emergency talks on immigration this weekend. Since taking office as part of a populist coalition last month, Salvini has been stirring up tensions over migration policy, refusing rescue ships access to Italian ports, sparring with ...
Read More »OPEC, allies agree to raise oil output
Bloomberg OPEC and its allies gave the final sign-off to an oil-production increase, sealing a victory for Saudi Arabia and Russia. Major producers outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries — including Mexico and Kazakhstan — met ministers from the cartel on Saturday and endorsed a nominal output increase of 1 million barrels a day, said Ecuador’s Minister of Hydrocarbons ...
Read More »UAE, US discuss stronger economic cooperation
WASHINGTON / WAM Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, and US Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, discussed ways to enhance cooperation in the economic and trade fields between the two countries. This came during a meeting held in Washington during the official visit of Al Mansouri to take part in The Select USA Investment Summit is being held from ...
Read More »