As Donald Trump steps up his tariff threats against China, Beijing is moving to beat the next U.S. president to the punch with its own restrictions and get Washington to the negotiating table ahead of a full-blown trade war, analysts say. Armed with the lessons of the last trade war during Trump's first term, China is seeking to amass bargaining chips to kick off talks with a new U.S. administration on contentious aspects of bilateral ties, including trade and investment, and science and technology.
Markets fell Friday as China's latest vows to boost the beleaguered economy failed to stir much excitement, while traders looked ahead to a key Federal Reserve policy meeting next week.Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said it remained unclear how big a boost there would be, adding that, "while we may get a near-term stimulus bounce, we're still not convinced that policy support will prevent the economy from slowing further next year".
Georgia Realtor Jenny Smith sent Christmas cards to random contacts one year. One man called her angry because his wife thought she was his wecret girlfriend.
China's foreign minister Wang Yi told his Egyptian counterpart on Friday that Beijing is "deeply concerned" about the situation in Syria, as the two top diplomats met in the Chinese capital."The two sides are deeply concerned about the current situation in Syria and call for respect for Syria's sovereignty," Wang told journalists, urging the prevention of "terrorist and extremist forces from taking advantage of the chaos".
President Emmanuel Macron was expected Friday to name a new prime minister after days of deadlock over finding a candidate to replace Michel Barnier, whose ousting by parliament pushed France into a fresh crisis.Barnier was ousted in a historic no-confidence vote on December 4 and there had been expectations Macron would announce his successor in an address to the nation even a day later.
Russia launched a new widespread attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight, forcing the country to implement emergency power outages, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday.
A Filipina inmate on death row in Indonesia told AFP from prison Friday that her planned transfer was a "miracle", in her first interview since Manila and Jakarta signed an agreement last week to repatriate her."We are excited to finally be with my daughter," she told AFP on Friday.
KYIV (Reuters) -Russia launched a large-scale missile attack on Ukrainian energy facilities during the morning rush hour on Friday, Kyiv said, while explosions were heard in the Black Sea port of Odesa and other cities in western Ukraine. Russian forces have been targeting Ukraine's electricity system for most of the year and it renewed its strike campaign last month, causing lengthy power cuts for millions of civilians as the war with Russia nears the 34-month mark. An industry source told Reuters that Friday's attack had targeted Ukrainian power substations and that it had included more strikes on gas infrastructure than in past assaults.
Imagine the scene, at noon, on January 20, on the west front of the US Capitol.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is pressing ahead with efforts to unify Middle East nations in support of a peaceful political transition in Syria. The outgoing Biden administration is particularly concerned that a power vacuum in Syria could exacerbate already heightened tensions in the region and create conditions for the Islamic State group to regain territory and influence.
Russia on Friday launched a massive aerial attack against Ukraine, involving dozens of cruise missiles and drones, the latest such strike aimed at crippling the country's electricity system. The Russian military targeted the Ukrainian power grid, energy minister Herman Halushchenko wrote on his Facebook page. Ukraine’s air force reported multiple strike drones launched at Ukraine overnight followed by swarms of cruise missiles in the country’s air space.
Beijing has unveiled a new tactic on Taiwan, the democratic island it claims as its own, officials and experts say: large-scale drills with no fanfare to normalise a heightened military presence and let the U.S. know that China can act whenever it wants. For four days this week, Taiwan went on alert in response to what it said was China's largest massing of naval forces in three decades around Taiwan and in the East and South China Seas. China's military said nothing until Friday when it quoted ancient Chinese tactician Sun Tzu's Art of War, a favourite of the communist republic's founder Mao Zedong.
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Some callers are women fearful they have been drugged and sexually assaulted; others are doctors worried they have misdiagnosed them -- a helpline set up amid France's notorious mass rape trial has tapped a nation's unease.- 'Speaking out' - There are "preconceived notions" around the use of drugs in sexual assault cases, Chaouachi told AFP. "People think it's about young girls drugged in a nightclub with GHB," said Chaouachi, referring to a notorious "date-rape drug" often used in sexual assaul
Georgian ex-footballer turned far-right politician Mikheil Kavelashvili is set to become Tbilisi's next figurehead president in an indirect election denounced as "illegitimate" by the current pro-EU leader.- 'Illegitimate' - The new electoral process makes it a foregone conclusion that Kavelashvili will be the next president, with incumbent Salome Zurabishvili set to lose office.
Russian lawmakers want to stiffen even further the rules governing the income received by those deemed "foreign agents" to include almost all forms of property, the speaker of the Russian parliament said on Friday. Russian law requires any person or organisation receiving support from outside Russia or who is under foreign influence to register as a "foreign agent", a label that has negative Soviet-era connotations and brings onerous bureaucratic requirements. Russia says the law is less strict than the 1938 U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, though the Russian law has been applied to almost all of the leaders of the divided opposition and is considered by some dissidents to be a badge of honour.
A quarterly survey by Japan’s central bank shows business sentiment has improved slightly, especially in major heavy industries such as automaking, fossil fuels and machinery, while services industries were less upbeat. The survey released Friday by the Bank of Japan, called the tankan, might influence the central bank's decision on whether to raise its benchmark interest rate next week. The latest survey's outcome undermined expectations for a rate hike, and the Japanese yen weakened, with the U.S. dollar trading at 152.90 yen on Friday, near its highest level in two weeks.
Chinese navy and coast guard ships have returned to China, signalling the end of a massive maritime exercise, Taiwanese authorities said Friday.A defence ministry spokeswoman said Friday that Chinese warships and coast guard vessels had been detected returning to China.
Cooler weather helped California firefighters make good progress on a wildfire that erupted in scenic Malibu, and more than 3,000 residents have been allowed to return home by Thursday, officials said.
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