UK foreign secretary has held positive but frank talks with some of Donald Trump's key advisers during a visit to New York, officials have said. Boris Johnson met Mr Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kuchner, and Steve Bannon, the US president-elect's strategist.
US businesses added 156,000 jobs in December in the last release of key economic data before Donald Trump is sworn in as US president. The number of jobs created fell from an upwardly revised 204,000 in November and came in below market expectations of 175,000 new roles. The jobless rate edged up last month to 4.7% from 4.6%.
President-elect Donald Trump said on Wednesday he plans to nominate Wall Street lawyer Jay Clayton to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates financial markets in the U.S. Clayton currently works as a partner with the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell where he specializes in public and private mergers and has worked on several high-profile initial public offerings.
The founder of whistle blowing website WikiLeaks has said that even a teenager would have had the technical skills needed to break into the personal email inbox of John Podesta, a close aide to Hillary Clinton who was recently targeted by hackers with suspected links to Russia.
United Stated House Republicans were forced to back down on Tuesday on plans to throw out a congressional ethics office as Donald Trump rebuked them over the move, in an embarrassing clash with the president-elect on the day the new Congress was sworn in.
President-elect Donald J. Trump, expressing skepticism about intelligence assessments of Russian interference in the US election, said that he knew “things that other people don’t know” about the hacking, and that the information would be revealed “Tuesday or Wednesday.” He also underlined that no computer is safe and recommended sending important information the old fashion way, write it out and have it delivered by courier.
The government of the United States Thursday expelled 35 Russian diplomats from Washington and San Francisco, US Department of State said in an official statement. Meanwhile, lawmaker Vladimir Dzhabarov, who is Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council's (Parliamantary Upper House) warned that reciprocal steps will be made with regards to the U.S. embassy in Moscow and, quite possibly, the consulates will be cut down in size as well. In any case, it is believed that this decision will destroy diplomatic relations between the two countries, as one Kremlin source put it.
Germany's Deutsche Bank announced it has agreed a US$7.2bn payment to US authorities over an investigation into mortgage-backed securities. The sum, which needs final approval, is far lower than the US$14bn the US had asked the bank to pay in September. The looming fine had caused concerns that a failure of the bank could pose a risk to the global financial system.
The US economy grew even faster than thought in the July-to-September period, latest official figures indicate. The world's largest economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.5% in the quarter, up from an earlier estimate of 3.2%, the Department of Commerce said.
Sparking protest from California citrus leaders, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has ruled that fresh lemons from Argentina will be allowed to be imported into the U.S. The rule is the result of ten years of study on pest risks associated with Argentina lemons, according to the USDA. A proposal to allow Argentina lemon imports was published in May this year and received more than 400 comments.