Posts by Amelia Frost
Well-off Hong Kong Daunted By Record Deficits
Hong Kong is facing its toughest fiscal test in three decades following a painful run of mammoth deficits, with experts urging the government to make careful cuts as the economy wobbles. The Chinese finance hub last saw a string of deficits after the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s — but their scale was…
Read MoreGermany May Face Long Wait For New Government After Vote
German voters head to the polls in a winter election on Sunday but may not have a new government for some time. Arduous coalition negotiations tend to drag on for weeks if not months in Germany, spelling long stretches of political paralysis before a new chancellor takes charge. The confident poll frontrunner Friedrich Merz has…
Read MoreRussia Is Wooing Western Energy Companies, but Will They Return?
Kremlin officials are dangling the prospect of lucrative investment deals for American energy companies, apparently seeking to convince President Trump that large economic gains could come from siding with Moscow in ending the war in Ukraine and scrapping economic sanctions on Russia. There is no doubt that Russia has vast troves of oil and natural…
Read MoreAustria, a Longtime Buyer of Russian Gas, Tries to Break the Habit
Just a few minutes’ walk from a metro station in the northeast corner of Vienna, you might think that you were in Texas: A drilling rig more than 130 feet high looms over open land. Instead of oil, though, the wells will pump close to 1.7 million gallons a day of hot water from deep…
Read MoreAttacks, ‘Firewall’ Row, Trump: Rocky Run-up To German Vote
Germany’s rocky path towards Sunday’s early elections began when the outgoing coalition government collapsed in acrimony on November 6, the very day Donald Trump won re-election to the White House. The campaign since then has been shaken by a series of deadly attacks, a heated battle in parliament around the far-right AfD and unprecedented hostility…
Read MoreCheat Sheet On Germany’s Colour-coded Politics
Germany holds elections on Sunday after its three-party “traffic light” coalition collapsed last year and could soon have a “black-red” government while a “Jamaica” or “blackberry” alliance is less likely. Confused? Here is a cheat sheet for Germany’s colour-coded party politics ahead of the pivotal vote in Europe’s most populous country and biggest economy. Every…
Read MoreOfficials Are Fired at Traffic Safety Agency Investigating Musk’s Company
The federal agency responsible for traffic safety, which has been investigating whether self-driving technology in Tesla vehicles played a role in the death of a pedestrian, laid off 4 percent of its employees last week, a Transportation Department spokesperson said Saturday. The traffic safety agency did not say whether any of its fired employees were…
Read MoreTrump Shakes Transatlantic Alliance With Russia Pivot
Donald Trump’s sudden shift on Ukraine has shaken the transatlantic alliance to its core. Now European leaders are crossing that same ocean in a desperate bid to shore it up. French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet Trump separately at the White House this week to try to convince him…
Read More‘Worst Is Over’ As Chile’s ‘Stolen’ Babies Reunite With Mothers
Four decades after they were cruelly forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother fell into each other’s arms Saturday at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst…
Read MoreElon Musk Says Left’s Cancel Culture and Freedom of Speech Infringement Made Him Go MAGA: ‘There Was No Choice’
After witnessing what he described as the left’s efforts to suppress free speech and personal freedoms, Elon Musk said he had no choice but to embrace the MAGA movement. Musk, billionaire entrepreneur and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), discussed the public shift in his political views at CPAC 2025 on Thursday. Elon…
Read MoreTrump Says Elon Musk Is Doing a ‘Great Job’ But Wants Him to ‘Get More Aggressive’
President Donald Trump praised Elon Musk‘s work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but encouraged him to “get more aggressive.” “ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday morning. “REMEMBER, WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE, BUT ULTIMATELY, TO MAKE…
Read MoreFederal Workers Who Defy Trump Will Need to ‘Find a New Career,’ Says White House Deputy Chief of Staff
White House Deputy Chief of Staff spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference and promised federal workers would support President Donald Trump’s directives or lose their jobs. Latin Times White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller delivered a fiery speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), warning federal employees that defying President Donald…
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