Month: January 2019

Ford Motor Co said on Thursday it faces a bill of up to $1 billion if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal, comprising World Trade Organization tariffs and the impact of a weaker pound. The impact of Brexit on Ford, based on internal calculations, would be in the range of $500 million to $1 billion depending on a variety of factors, Ford said in a statement. Sky News earlier on Thursday reported the hit could be $800 million. Car makers and other manufacturers, including Airbus earlier on Thursday, have warned about the toll a no-deal Brexit could impose, …

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Greek police fired tear gas to disperse crowds gathered outside parliament on Thursday to protest a deal over the name of neighboring Macedonia, as an at-times angry parliamentary debate spilled into a third day. Several thousand people massed outside the Greek legislature, some of them chanting “traitors” as lawmakers debated ratification of an agreement reached with the neighboring ex-Yugoslav state last year. The Greek parliament delayed the expected approval of the U.N.-brokered deal by a day due to an increased number of lawmakers who wanted to have a say. The so-called Prespes Agreement between Athens and Skopje changes the tiny …

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Russia, China, Iran, Syria and Cuba have come down on one side. The United States, Canada, and countries in Western Europe are on the other. As the crisis in Venezuela reaches a new boiling point — with embattled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro facing a challenge from opposition leader Juan Guaido — the geopolitical fault lines look familiar. President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued statements Wednesday proclaiming U.S. recognition of Guaido, saying the U.S. would take all diplomatic and economic measures necessary to support a transition to a new government. Canada said it …

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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has inched up slightly in the eyes of women’s groups who said on Wednesday he has delivered on some promises to make the global organization a feminist institution but faces a major backlash and resistance. The Feminist U.N. Campaign, a coalition of women’s rights groups, advocates and U.N. staff, gave him a grade of B-, up from the C+ it gave him a year ago. The coalition launched its report card after the secretary-general said he would be a feminist leader when he took office two years ago. Global movement In that time, the #MeToo campaign …

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in his latest effort to build support for a Turkish-controlled military security zone in Syria. “The U.S. has already expressed a positive stance. Neither do we have problems [concerning the safe zone] with Russia,” said Erdogan at a joint press conference in Moscow. Erdogan is proposing a 250-kilometer-long and 32-kilometer-deep zone in northeast Syria to protect the Turkish border from the Syrian YPG Kurdish militia. Ankara accuses the YPG of links to Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey. ​However, the Turkish president envisages the zone not only providing …

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A new study by a defense analysis company indicates there was a 33 percent drop in global terror attacks in 2018, and terrorism fatalities fell to a 10-year low. Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center released its annual Global Attack Index on Wednesday, saying one of the central reasons for the decrease in incidents and fatalities was the decrease in violence in Syria, where the government has gained control of territory previously occupied by Islamic State militants. Attacks by IS in 2018 declined by nearly 75 percent compared to 2017.  The study said in addition to Syria, IS was also affected …

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Wednesday to coordinate their moves in Syria as their governments bargain over zones of influence in the war-torn country. The leaders share strong opposition to the U.S. military presence in Syria, seeing it as an obstacle to their clout in the country. The Kremlin meeting marked their first encounter since U.S. President Donald Trump announced the pullout of American troops in a Dec. 19 tweet. “If such plans are implemented, it will mark a positive move that would help stabilize the situation,” Putin said about the planned U.S. …

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World leaders in favor of international cooperation and free trade struck back Wednesday against the wave of populist nationalism that has featured more prominently than usual at the gathering of elites in Davos, Switzerland. As heads of state took turns to address the political and business tycoons, the question of global cooperation emerged as a dividing line. The leaders of Japan and Germany – countries that have flourished on trade since their devastation under nationalist leaders in World War II – focused on the need for cooperation. It was a not-so-subtle dig at earlier speeches by the populist president of …

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