Theresa May demands Salisbury poisoning suspects face justice ahead of Vladmir Putin talks June 28, 2019 Theresa May has called for the suspects in the Salisbury Novichok attack to be “brought to justice” ahead of a meeting with Vladmir Putin at the G20 summit today. UK authorities suspect two people from Russia’s intelligence service, GRU, were responsible for the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia last year. Read [...]
Trump jokes to Putin at G20: ‘Don’t meddle in the election, please’ June 28, 2019 Donald Trump has playfully warned Vladmir Putin not to “meddle” in the 2020 US election, smiling and waving his finger at the Russian president. The US president met face to face with Putin today as the G20 summit in Osaka gets underway. Read more: Putin says liberalism has “become obsolete” and praises “talented” Trump He [...]
Vladmir Putin calls liberalism ‘obsolete’ ahead of G20 summit June 28, 2019 Russian president Vladmir Putin has labelled liberalism as “obsolete” ahead of the latest G20 summit, which gets underway today. The 66-year-old claimed that the dominant ideology throughout western Europe had “outlived its purpose” during a wide-ranging interview with the Financial Times. Read more: US and China agree tentative trade truce ahead of G20 summit “[Liberals] [...]
Should 160,000 Tories choose our next Prime Minister? Yes, actually June 28, 2019 Discussing the Tory leadership election on Sky News earlier this week, host Adam Boulton asked me why the party members seemed so relaxed about Boris Johnson’s controversial private life. “Isn’t this the party of family values?” Boulton asked. It’s a fair point. Three quarters of the party’s 160,000 members believe that “young people today don’t [...]
Ford to cut 12,000 jobs across Europe and close five sites including its Bridgend engine plant June 27, 2019 Car manufacturer Ford has announced plans to cut 12,000 jobs across its European operations by the end of 2020 as it continues to streamline its business. The company, which employs 51,000 people across the continent, is also planning to close five European sites in total, including its engine plant at Bridgend in Wales. Read more: [...]
Robert Mueller to testify before House over Trump links with Russia June 26, 2019 US special counsel Robert Mueller has agreed to testify before two House of Representatives committees next month over Russian interference in the 2016 Donald Trump election campaign. Chairman of the judiciary panel representative Jerrold Nadler and representative Adam Schiff, head of the intelligence panel, said that Mueller had agreed to testify following the issuing of [...]
US ambassador says letting Huawei access the UK’s 5G network would be like ‘letting a kleptomaniac into your house’ June 25, 2019 US ambassador Woody Johnson took an apparent swipe at Chinese tech firm Huawei today, saying that inviting the company into key sectors of the UK’s economy would be “like letting a kleptomaniac into your house”. “If we let untrustworthy countries in the heart of our economies, and infrastructure, what could they do? We have to [...]
Oil prices tick up amid Middle East tensions June 24, 2019 Oil prices rose this morning as markets reacted to increasing tensions in the Middle East. The price of international standard Brent Crude reached highs of $65.74 this morning, before giving back some gains later in the day. At around 10.45am the black stuff was up 0.3 per cent to $65.39. Read more: Trump cancelled Iran [...]
‘No evidence’ of Russian interference in Brexit vote, says Facebook exec Nick Clegg June 24, 2019 Facebook’s vice-president Sir Nick Clegg has insisted there was “absolutely no evidence” Russia used the social media platform to influence the Brexit referendum. The former deputy prime minister said his firm had carried out analyses on its data and found no “significant attempt” by outside forces to influence the vote, arguing British politics had been [...]
The ‘Brics’ concept is a lazy and misguided tool for assessing emerging markets June 24, 2019 Seen in hindsight, the “Brics” concept was the perfect analytical tool for our lazy age, making one big point that required little thought while ignoring the nuance that is the basis of all good political risk analysis. Coined in 2001 by then Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neill, the idea that the rising developing countries [...]