Author: News Desk

  China’s economy is still struggling to recover from the pandemic, nearly two years after Beijing dropped its draconian zero-COVID lockdowns. In the first three quarters of 2024, economic growth came at 4.8% — just shy of Beijing’s 5% target. Deflation, weak consumer demand and a huge real estate crash have hurt the country’s incredible growth trajectory, while ongoing trade tensions with the United States — likely to worsen under Donald Trump’s second term — have hurt exports, which were credited with helping China’s ascent to become the world’s second-largest economy. “China suffers from overproduction and under-consumption,” George Magnus, a research associate at the…

  Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she is confident that a tariff war with the United States can be averted. Her statement on Thursday — the day after she held a phone call with US President-elect Donald Trump — did not make clear who had offered what. “There will be no potential tariff war,” Ms Sheinbaum said flatly when asked about the issue at her daily morning news briefing. On Wednesday, Mr Trump wrote that Ms Sheinbaum had agreed to stop unauthorised migration across the border into the United States.   She wrote on her social media accounts the same…

ONE thing can be said with a fair degree of certainty is that Davy Fitzgerald’s reign as Antrim senior hurling manager won’t be boring.Clare’s All-Ireland winning goalkeeper and manager had a couple of opportunities to shut down the discussion around whether Neil McManus will come out of inter-county retirement in 2025.Davy Fitz should want people talking about Antrim hurling. They need exposure.“There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about,” Oscar Wilde once said, “and that is not being talked about.”This column is a case in point. Had Fitzgerald shut down the debate and stated, “Neil McManus…

Every time the right opportunity arises, and the context allows it, Imperia’s chief prosecutor Alberto Lari repeats the same blessed words. He also did it two evenings ago, in Diano Marina, an area at the center of a recent first degree sentence on drug trafficking and extortion, with 22 convictions of which 17 with the aggravating circumstance of the mafia method. Mafia in Imperia, the chief prosecutor Lari: “No one reports”. Mayor Scajola: “Because he isn’t there” https://genova.repubblica.it/cronaca/2024/11/29/news/mafia_a_imperia_il_procuratore_capo_lari_nessuno_denuncia_il_sindaco_scajola_perche_non_c_e-423760080/?rss

UK retail footfall dips again as Storm Bert and later Black Friday hit sales Shopping centres worst affected but high streets and retail parks also down as total drops for second month in a row The number of shoppers out and about in the UK fell for the second month in a row in November as the later timing of the Black Friday discount spree, Storm Bert and weak consumer confidence depressed sales. Shopping centres were hit hardest, but the number of visitors to high streets and retail parks also fell with the north-east of England, Yorkshire, Wales and Scotland…

Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday put net migration at more than 900,000 in the year to June 2023, numbers Starmer blamed on the previous Conservative government. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the government intends to overhaul the immigration system after new data showed arrivals to the country had hit a record high. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday put net migration at more than 900,000 in the year to June 2023, numbers Starmer blamed on the previous Conservative government. “Time and again, the Conservative Party promised they would get the…

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s financial markets regulator and supervisor, has responded to the European Commission proposal to amend the Markets in crypto-assets Regulation (MiCA) Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS). ESMA acknowledges the legal limitations raised by the Commission but emphasises the importance of the policy objectives behind the initial proposal. In […] ESMA responds to the Commission rejection of certain MiCA Technical Standards

Boris Johnson has for British troops to be committed to peacekeeping duties at the Ukrainian border as part of any ceasefire deal. The former Prime Minister told the Daily Telegraph that peace-keeping responsibilities should be handled by a multinational group of Western nations. “I don’t think we should be sending in combat troops to take on the Russians,” he said.

Crawling on all fours onto the summit of Mount Elbrus in Russia, winds whipping so viciously they would blow him to his death if he stood up, Derek Mahon caught the mountaineering bug. “The conditions were horrendous. Once you got to cloud level it was a constant snowstorm with very high winds. You couldn’t see anything. And it was about -20c,” he said. But when you achieve something like that it gives you enormous satisfaction to continue to push the barriers. On Sunday, Mr Mahon will leave for Antarctica to set the record to become the 15th Irish person — and…

Justice is often depicted as the blindfolded goddess Themis, a symbol of impartiality. For almost three months now, in the Avignon criminal court, southern France, it is a completely different woman, with a straight face, fierce determination and measured speech, who dominates the trial of the 50-something men, including her ex-husband, who treated her like a sexual object. “Shame must change sides,” goes one of the slogans of feminist struggles against rape. It’s an understatement to say that, during the Mazan rape trial, whose closing arguments were completed on Wednesday. November 27, it became a reality thanks to the courage…