Commentary: Mattis exit leaves the world more volatile.The resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is a nasty surprise for Washington's national security community and its overseas allies, writes Reuters global affairs columnist Peter Apps. "President Donald Trump started 2018 with a triumvirate of respected current and former generals seen as central to restraining his wilder foreign policy instincts. Now that constraint will soon be gone, leaving U.S. international relations hugely less predictable."
“People said ‘run, run a wave is coming!’. There were three waves in a row,”said Yadi, a middle-aged fisherman who operates a fleet of six vessels that were among dozens that sank or were dragged out to sea by the waves. The death toll from a tsunami triggered by a massive underwater landslide on an Indonesian volcano rose to 281, as rescuers using heavy machinery and their bare hands searched through debris in the hope of finding survivors. It is the latest in a string of natural disasters to strike Indonesia in 2018, making it the deadliest year in more than a decade.
Commentary: Christian revivals prompted less by churches, more by politicians.In the secular West, complaints that Christ is no longer the focus of Christmas remain a holiday-season routine, writes columnist John Lloyd. Yet in many countries, Christianity is experiencing something of a renaissance. Often prompted more by politicians than churches, this revival represents “a recoil from secularism and a search for a moral authority more powerful, because more traditional, than that of the state or of liberalism.”
World stocks were set for their seventh straight day of losses, as investors nervy about the possibility of a prolonged U.S. government shutdown and a worsening global economy opted for the safety of bonds and gold.
Oil prices edged up after evidence that a recent fall to 15-month lows may be affecting output in the United States, the world’s largest producer, although concern about the outlook for demand tempered gains.
U.S. satellite start-up OneWeb has offered to sell a minority stake to Russia, a move it hopes will allay Moscow’s concerns about the company’s plan to create a worldwide internet network using satellites, three sources familiar with the matter said.
