Month: January 2020

Beirut (AFP) – Banks in a region of northern Lebanon were closed until further notice on Saturday, the National News Agency said, after lenders balked at customer anger over a liquidity crisis. Since September banks have arbitrarily capped the amount of dollars that can be withdrawn or transferred abroad, sparking fury among customers who accuse…

The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images Carlos Ghosn’s safety in Lebanon is seeming increasingly perilous as details of his escapade trickle out.  The former auto executive may have broken Lebanese law with prior trips to Israel, The Washington Post reported.  Ghosn is expected to give a press conference in the coming days — where he’ll…

Reuters A plane likely used by Carlos Ghosn to escape Japan via Turkey is suspected of assisting in a gold trade involving Venezuela, Bloomberg News reported Friday.  MNG Holdings was recruited to ferry gold between Turkey and Caracas last year, according to flight records.  Turkey has detained seven people in connection with the former auto…

Police in Fresno, California, have arrested seven suspects in a mass shooting that left four dead in November, alleging gunmen targeted a backyard where they believed rival gang members were gathered. Police in the central valley city said this week that seven gang members were responsible for the 17 November shooting at a watch party…

Key point: The sneak attack on Pearl Harbor shows that certain attacks can backfire on the enemy. Since the 1950s, the supercarrier has been the most visible representation of U.S. military power and maritime hegemony. Although supercarriers have participated in nearly every military conflict since the commissioning of USS Forrestal in 1955, no carrier has…

President Trump is working on solidifying the evangelical vote. Trump on Friday evening launched his “Evangelicals for Trump” coalition at a re-election campaign event at King Jesus International Ministry in Miami, Florida. The gathering, which included church leaders praying over Trump, comes just weeks after Christianity Today, a leading evangelical magazine, called for the president’s…

Launching a political coalition called Evangelicals for Trump at a Florida megachurch on Friday, President Trump declared his belief that God supports his agenda. “I really do believe we have God on our side. I believe that. I believe that,” Trump said at King Jesus International Ministry in Kendall, Fla., adding, “or there would have…

Oil prices surged as tensions in the Middle East escalated after a U.S. drone strike near the Baghdad international airport killed Iran’s top commander General Qassim Soleimani. His death has aggravated tensions between the United States and Iran, flaring up concerns of Iranian retaliation. The United States and Iran have been at loggerheads for about…

Even as uncertainties flare over when and how Iran will retaliate after a U.S. airstrike took out one of its top military commanders, markets have taken hold of two grounding principles, according to Mohamed El-Erian.  “The market losses are less than what they were initially and that reflects the deep conditioning that investors have had,”…

BAGHDAD — American oil workers were fleeing Iraq on Friday, as fears grew of war between the United States and Iran. At sermons in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, worshippers chanted, “Death to America!” And in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, where anti-government protesters have gathered for months, a banner went up with a…