The shock waves from Donald Trump’s surprise announcement that US troops in northern Syria would step aside and allow a Turkish offensive to obliterate its long-term Kurdish partners rippled out of Washington and shook America’s allies across the region. From Israel to the Gulf, officials, diplomats and commentators expressed fears – in private and ... Read More »
Erdoğan’s Syrian incursion could be his biggest gamble yet
Turkey’s president faces some difficult choices after being given green light by the US For Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it’s a case of be careful what you wish for. By most accounts, Turkey’s president bamboozled Donald Trump into giving a green light for an invasion of north-east Syria. Yet now, ... Read More »
Taiwan leader rejects China’s ‘one country, two systems’ offer
Taiwan’s president rejected on Thursday a “one country, two systems” formula that Beijing has suggested could be used to unify the island and the mainland, saying such an arrangement had set Hong Kong “on the edge of disorder”. President Tsai Ing-wen also vowed in a National Day speech to defend ... Read More »
‘Sorry, this is an emergency’: Climate protesters block streets around the world
Thousands of climate-change protesters took to the streets in cities around the world on Monday, launching two weeks of peaceful civil disobedience to demand immediate action to cut carbon emissions and avert an ecological disaster. In London, police arrested 276 activists from the Extinction Rebellion group as they blocked ... Read More »
Ancient Egyptian temple unearthed after 2,200 years
Tomb discovered by construction workers digging for sewage drain A 2,200-year-old Egyptian temple from the era of Pharaoh Ptolemy IV has been uncovered on the bank of the Nile. The tomb was discovered by construction workers digging for a sewage drain in the village of Kom Shaku in the Tama ... Read More »
Trump’s shock Syria retreat reverberates as Turkish troops mass
Officials scramble to understand implications of US move as Kurds face prospect of invasion alonecials scramble to understand implications of US move as Kurds face prospect of invasion alone Kurdish forces in Syria have said the fate of tens of thousands of suspected Islamic State fighters and their families ... Read More »
Nasa plans to send ‘shapeshifter’ robots to alien worlds in search of life
Nasa wants to send shapeshifting robots to the mysterious, alien moons around saturn. The space agency hopes that the visionary robots – which “turn ideas that sound like science fiction into science fact” – can finally help us learn more about the worlds’ surface, as well as helping shed light ... Read More »
Hariri in Abu Dhabi to rally support for Lebanon
Prime Minister Saad Hariri arrived in Abu Dhabi Sunday on the first leg of an Arab and foreign tour aiming to drum up Arab and international financial and investment support for Lebanon to help it overcome its economic crisis, officials said. During the two-day official visit to the United ... Read More »
HSBC plans to cut 10,000 more jobs worldwide, says report
Bank forced to shed jobs due to low interest rates and global uncertainty, FT reports HSBC is planning to lay off up to 10,000 staff, according to reports on Monday, just weeks after its chief executive stepped down and announced the axing 4,000 posts citing a weak global outlook. ... Read More »
HP plans to cut thousands of jobs globally over three years
HP Inc. plans to reduce its global staff by thousands of employees over the next three years. HP (HPQ) said Thursday that it intends to cut between 7,000 and 9,000 workers “through a combination of employee exits and voluntary early retirement.” It expects to complete the culling in the company’s ... Read More »