Bloomberg The White House repeatedly refused to say whether President Donald Trump secretly records his official conversations, after Trump suggested in a tweet that he had “tapes†of discussions with former FBI director James Comey. Trump issued a series of inflammatory Twitter posts, including a barely veiled threat against Comey, an assertion that it’s “not possible†for his spokesmen to ...
Read More »North Korea would talk to US if terms right, says Yonhap
Bloomberg A senior North Korean official said his country would be willing to talk to the US government if conditions were right, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap. Choe Sun-hui, director general for North American affairs at North Korea’s foreign ministry, made the comment to reporters in Beijing, Yonhap reported on Saturday. The remarks follow comments by US President ...
Read More »Ransom hackers who hit hospitals may return
Bloomberg The cyber-attack that spread rapidly around the globe was stifled when a security researcher disabled a key mechanism used by the worm to spread, but experts said the hackers were likely to return as many computers remain at risk. Hackers can still gain easy access to personal computers that lack a security update issued in March by Microsoft Corp. ...
Read More »The Comey debacle only magnifies Russia mystery
President Trump’s abrupt firing of FBI Director James B. Comey will intensify focus on the issue Trump has been so eager to dismiss — his knowledge of contacts between Michael Flynn and other associates and Russia. White House arguments that Trump sacked Comey for mishandling the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails are implausible, but no more so than some of ...
Read More »Job cuts at Indian outsourcers aren’t US president’s fault
India’s outsourcing firms are firing workers. Don’t blame it on President Donald Trump’s hawkish stance on US visas. The ‘end of hyper-globalization’ story makes for compelling headlines. But the Indian code-writers’ misfortune has more prosaic roots in technology and customer tastes. Global corporations, the paymasters of Indian software vendors, are no longer so keen to ante up for application development ...
Read More »China’s ambitious road to somewhere
Everything about China’s “Belt and Road” project is big — from the scale of its investments to the guest list for this weekend’s gathering to celebrate the initiative. To improve its odds of success, China would be wise to think smaller. True, the initiative — which envisions building energy and transportation infrastructure from Asia to Europe — addresses real needs. ...
Read More »Timing of Comey’s firing raises questions
US President Donald Trump’s abrupt firing of FBI director James Comey stunned the nation. It ignited a political firestorm as Comey was leading an investigation into whether Trump’s advisors colluded with Russian government to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in his favour. It has given rise to suspicions that the White House was trying to blunt the ...
Read More »Trump’s China deal boosts US LNG without rule change
Bloomberg America’s shale gas could soon head to China under long-term contracts for the first time, bolstered by a new trade deal that may not even change existing rules. Cheniere Energy Inc., the first exporter of natural gas from the lower 48 states, sees the agreement as “amplifying and accelerating conversations about new long-term contracts†with China, said Eben Burnham-Snyder, ...
Read More »Rosneft’s Essar Oil deal held up over debt issues
MOSCOW / Reuters Russian state oil firm Rosneft is struggling to close its $12.9 billion acquisition of India’s Essar Oil Ltd because six of Essar’s Indian creditors have yet to approve the deal, sources close to the talks said. The state-run banks and financial institutions that are delaying Rosneft’s biggest foreign acquisition hold about $500 million of Essar’s debt, five ...
Read More »Sonatrach CEO urges simplifying business, focus on output
ALGIERS / Reuters The new chief of Algeria’s state energy company Sonatrach has urged employees to simplify bureaucracy, and focus on the core business of production as the North African state deals with lower oil prices, an internal company letter shows. The message from new CEO Abdelmoumen Ould Kadour was sent to Sonatrach employees just over a month after he ...
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