Finding Safer Ground at Palo Alto Networks

A rich multiple has made cybersecurity star Palo Alto Networks a dangerous play, but its shifting revenue mix is a good sign.

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Bidding War for Medivation Is Good News for Biotech

Pfizer had stiff competition in the chase for Medivation, which bodes well for biotech.

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Syria’s president, a former doctor, is turning hospitals into death traps

ON A wintry morning in February warplanes fighting on the side of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad launched a series of missiles that slammed into a field hospital in northern Syria. Medics raced towards the thick cloud of grey dust that mushroomed above the building before clambering over breeze blocks and fallen trees to pull the wounded from the rubble.

About 40 minutes later, the jets—either Russian or Syrian, no one is sure—circled back and dropped another bomb on the medics as they worked. The air strikes killed 25 civilians, including nine medical workers, making it the single deadliest attack on medical personnel since the war in Syria began in 2011. Unsatisfied with the death toll, the jets tracked the ambulances carrying the wounded to another field hospital three miles north. They hit the hospital entrance with another missile and then, ten minutes later, dropped yet another bomb. “There’s no way on that day they didn’t know what they were doing,” says Dr Ahmed Tarakji, president of the Syrian American Medical Society, which funded the second hospital hit that day.

In the euphemistic lexicon of war, these attacks are...Continue reading

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France argues over burkinis as its presidential race kicks off

THIS week France came back from the beach for la rentrée, the return to school and work after the holidays. The summer had been far from restful. It began with two terrorist attacks in Nice and Normandy, followed by a weeks-long political fixation with the “burkini”, a cross between a burqa and a swimsuit, which dozens of mayors of seaside resorts tried to ban from their beaches. The resurgence of identity politics in France, at a time of heightened tension over Islam and security, now looks likely to frame next year’s presidential election.

The row over the burkini will probably abate as the beaches empty. On August 26th, France’s highest administrative court suspended a ban imposed in the Mediterranean resort of Villeneuve-Loubet after it was challenged by human-rights groups. The court ruled that the mayor had not proved any risk to public order, and that the ban constituted a “manifestly illegal” infringement of “fundamental liberties”.

Had France not been under a state of emergency, the matter might not have flared up as it did. But the French are hyper-sensitive to signs of overt Muslim religiosity. Politicians, roused...Continue reading

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Emerging Markets: Catch the Yield Where You Can

The latest target in the search for anything with a yield: emerging-market bonds in local currencies.

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The ECB's Persistent Inflation Headache

Eurozone inflation remains stuck in low gear. Expectations are building again for more from the ECB.

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The bard of postmodern Mexico

MANY of the songs—and there were more than 1,500 of them—were syrupy and sentimental, some more sobbed than sung. Juan Gabriel was not David Bowie. But his death on August 28th has brought forth a similar outbreak of mass mourning. Mexico’s greatest modern pop singer stirred the hearts of millions across the Spanish-speaking world, including that large bit of it that resides north of the Rio Grande. His meaning was deeper and more disturbing than some of his songs might suggest.

Part of his appeal lay in his personal history. Alberto Aguilera knew all about the solitude and the loss of love of which he sang as Juan Gabriel (his stage name). He was the youngest of ten children. His parents were farm workers in the western state of Michoacán. When he was four, his father was admitted to a mental hospital. His mother moved the family to Ciudad Juárez, on the border with the United States. Unable to cope, she soon placed Alberto in an orphanage. That traumatic event marked him: his mother became the impossible Amor eterno of one of his biggest hits; in later life he gave generously to children’s homes.

He began to write songs while selling tortillas on the streets of Juárez. As a...Continue reading

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Why Chinese Banks Are Moving Deeper Into Property

Given Chinese banks’ increasing exposure to mortgage lending, they will have more on the line the next time prices turn south.

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This Fertilizer Merger Doesn't Smell Right

A potential merger of Potash Corp of Saskatchewan and Agrium shows the level of desperation in the industry but would raise competition concerns.

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Salesforce.com Tries to Buy Its Way to Success

As Salesforce.com gets set to report earnings, the question is whether its latest spate of deals and potential to do more are masking other concerns.

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Surely Uzbekistan’s next president can’t be worse

WHETHER Islam Karimov, who has ruled Uzbekistan with astounding brutality for the past 27 years, is dead or alive, his era is almost certainly drawing to a close. Two questions now hover over his hapless people. Who will succeed him? And will they get a better deal? The one they have suffered under for so long could hardly be worse. Of the five post-Soviet regimes in Central Asia, Uzbekistan’s is widely regarded as the nastiest, its leader the most mercilessly paranoid.

News of Mr Karimov’s death went viral among Central Asia watchers on Twitter on August 29th, when it was reported by Ferghana News, an independent Moscow-based agency that writes about Central Asia, citing unidentified sources. Rumours of the 78-year-old president’s imminent demise have circulated for years in Tashkent, but this time they were more solid. In its first official announcement concerning the president’s health, the secretive regime revealed that Mr Karimov was in hospital with an undisclosed ailment. His daughter, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, then took to Instagram, disclosing that Mr Karimov had suffered a brain haemorrhage. His condition, she said, was stable, his...Continue reading

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Abercrombie's Teen Angst Not Going Away

Abercrombie & Fitch’s second-quarter results show it still has a long way to go to win back teens with its repositioned brands.

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Ireland's forbidden fruit

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The Fed has yet to take monetary reform seriously

LARRY SUMMERS is right; this year's Fed symposium in Jackson Hole was triply disappointing. In the weeks before the gathering, members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) publicly discussed their worries that the current monetary framework might leave the Fed unable to deal adequately with future slowdowns. They got our hopes up: enough that we published a leader giving the Fed some suggestions for new approaches. But as Mr Summers says, the Fed let us all down. In their public remarks, at least, the FOMC members present expressed little concern about problems with the Fed's toolkit or weaknesses with the current 2% inflation target. Worse, Janet Yellen and Stanley Fischer, the chairman and vice-chairman respectively, used the occasion to tell markets to revise up their expectations of near-term rate hikes. Several of the regional Fed presidents suggested that the second rate rise of the cycle could come as early as the September...Continue reading

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Unloved Banks Might Get a Profit Boost

Loan growth was robust in the second quarter, an encouraging sign, but will it stay strong if rates start to rise? ​

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University of Chicago triggers a fresh debate about free speech on campus

IT IS safe to say that no welcome letter to incoming university students has attracted more attention, or inspired more tweets, than the missive John Ellison, the dean of students at the University of Chicago has sent to freshmen. After telling the class of 2020 that “our commitment to freedom of inquiry and expression” is one of the “defining characteristics” of their new academic home, Mr Ellison noted a few things the newbies will not find on campus: “Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called ‘trigger warnings’, we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.” "Trigger warnings" alert students to potentially distressing passages in literature or speeches.

His comments sparked predictably polarised responses. Many cheered the letter for standing up for cherished academic values. Geoffrey Stone, a law professor who...Continue reading

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EU's Apple Tax Hit: Ire In Ireland, Confusion Elsewhere

Frosty reactions to the European Commission’s ruling that Apple needs to pay €13 billion to Ireland’s tax authority show why international tax agreements are so hard.

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How Prada's New-Look Accounting Flatters Figures

Prada’s surprising operating-profit growth came primarily from a subtle change in its accounting policy.

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Why Euro Looks Stuck Even as Fed Gears Up to Move

Unless Fed officials begin to show greater confidence that the U.S. economy can sustain notably higher rates, the euro looks set to remain stuck in a rut.

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Housing Market: Why Millennials Are Getting Priced Out

Home values are creeping closer to records, much to the dismay of consumers who have missed out.

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What Happens When a Central Bank Buys Property Stocks

The Bank of Japan’s asset purchases have helped shares in real-estate investment trusts, but home builder stocks may be telling the true story.

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Why Fitbit's New Band Got a Healthy Reception

Fitness band maker has much cheaper multiple as it updates flagship devices.

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Why Lighter Shelves Won't Support Sagging Retailers for Long

Retail inventories are the healthiest they have been in a long time, but investors shouldn’t expect the discipline to last very long.

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After a two-year ban, Guinea’s Muslims will again take part in the Haj

PILGRIMS jostle outside the Islamic Centre in Conakry. A stressed-looking official barks at them to queue in single file. Rain pours down the sides of a dilapidated portico. Hawkers hover, flogging plastic sandals and kola nuts.

These men and women have travelled to the capital from all corners of Guinea to apply for a “pilgrimage package” that will take them to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on the Haj in September. All Muslims are supposed to visit the holy city at least once in a lifetime. Guinea has been allotted 7,200 places this year by the Saudi authorities. Some pilgrims have been saving all their lives for this opportunity. Everyone is anxious that their papers are processed in time.

However, trying to organise a foreign trip for thousands of people—most of whom have never left the country—is no easy task. Complicating matters is pent-up demand. Pilgrims from Guinea were banned from taking part in the Haj for two years because of the Ebola virus, which killed more than 2,500 of their compatriots. Saudi Arabia only lifted the ban at the end of June, so officials have had little time to prepare.

“Some of those applying are...Continue reading

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Why China Hasn't Cut Rates in What Feels Like Forever

Growth isn’t budging and economic data continues to underwhelm. But China hasn’t eased monetary policy in over six months. Or so it seems.

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China prepares to host the G20

IF A Martian were to land on earth and be asked, based on effort put into spiffing itself up, which city was the Olympic host this year, there is a good chance it would guess Hangzhou. Rio de Janeiro struggled mightily with its preparations for the summer games, with mixed results. Hangzhou, by contrast, has left no stone unturned, no wall unpainted and no sewer unsealed in getting ready for the G20 Summit, an annual gathering of the leaders of the world’s 20 leading economies. Most hosts treat the G20 as a worthy, if rather dull, conference. But China has approached it with gusto, as is its wont with international events that let it showcase its modernity to the world. 

Even if left in its original state, Hangzhou would surely have impressed visiting dignitaries and journalists. Just 40 minutes west of Shanghai by bullet train, it is one of China’s wealthiest cities. The misty waters of West Lake at its heart, fringed by rolling tea fields, have inspired poets for centuries. In recent years, it has become an entrepreneurial hub, most famously as the hometown of...Continue reading

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Why the Math Doesn't Work for Today's Market

With interest rates low and stock valuations distorted, how much cash that companies give back to investors is more crucial than ever.

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China's Private Investment Crash May Be Mirage, but Pain Is Still Real

China’s drop in private investment may look worse than it is because of the distorting effects of last year’s stock market bailout.

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Why Rackspace Is Taking Its Cloud Act Offstage

The $32-a-share price Rackspace has scored in a go-private deal with Apollo might look like a letdown, but moving out of the spotlight has its advantages.

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Quake-prone Italian towns have not bothered to protect their buildings

 

AS USUAL after a disaster, the photographs published in the media of those who perished in the earthquake that struck central Italy on August 24th are incongruously joyful. A couple smile radiantly at the camera, unaware that one day they will be found locked in each other’s arms, dead beneath tons of rubble. A young flautist hugs a puppy. An official who, ironically, devoted her working life to earthquake disaster relief walks barefoot by the sea. The hardest-hit towns—Amatrice, Accumoli, Arquata del Tronto and Pescara del Tronto, all in an area north-east of Rome—had a combined population of under 5,000. Yet two days after the earthquake the provisional death toll stood at an improbably high 268. Italians are beginning to ask why.

Part of the answer is that the picturesque mountain area was crammed with summer visitors. Italian city-dwellers with relatives who live by the sea or in the mountains often spend their holidays there, especially if they are short of cash. Others had second homes in the area. Some had come to Amatrice, the biggest of the towns (and known for its famous spaghetti all’Amatriciana), for an annual gastronomic festival.

Another...Continue reading

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How to get poor countries out of low-trust ruts

THE headline on this piece overpromises. I don't know how exactly to flip a low-trust society to a high-trust state. No one does, sadly. The question is one of the most important in economics, however. Poor societies are mostly poor because of a lack of trust. The laws and institutions that facilitate market transactions and long-run investment survive and work because of broad public buy-in: the common belief that rules should generally be followed because others will generally follow rules.

This week's Free-exchange column looks at how new technologies are affecting trust relationships. The topic is a hot one at the moment; Tim Harford and Tyler Cowen recently wrote on similar themes. It seems to me that technology affects the role of trust in society in a few different ways. Technology can breed familiarity where it had not been...Continue reading

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Yellen Cries Wolf

Fed chairwoman tries to convince the market that a rate rise is coming but investors aren’t listening.

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The Price of the Calm After the Storm

Markets are calm this August. Policy makers have ensured that, but distortions are rife.

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Vivendi: Why Empire Building Is No Strategy

French media group Vivendi is benefiting from the growth of music streaming, but investments in struggling Italian companies are puzzling.

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Why Citron Case Leaves Hong Kong Investors Squeezed

Hong Kong’s legal action against a short seller’s research will have a chilling effect for independent analysis, left and right.

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Why Craft Brewing Slowdown Won't Benefit Big Beer

The upscale drift of beverage markets in the developed world cuts the wrong way for big U.S. brewers.

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Janet Yellen Might Ruin Your Summer Vacation

As investors debate whether markets are calm, the hope is Janet Yellen’s Jackson Hole speech provides more clarity than confusion.

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Clinton says Trump has based his campaign on prejudice and paranoia

TWENTY years ago when Bob Dole accepted the Republican presidential nomination: “He pointed to the exits and told any racists in the party to get out,” Hillary Clinton recalled approvingly on August 25th, as she neared the end of a speech that—in effect—accused Donald Trump of beckoning bigots back in to the heart of the conservative movement. Mrs Clinton’s account of Mr Trump’s closeness to white supremacists and conspiracy theorists was both brutal and detailed: closer in tone and structure to a prosecutor’s closing argument than to a traditional campaign speech.

The Democrat started with Mr Trump’s record as a young property developer, when he was sued by the Department of Justice for refusing to rent apartments to black and Latino tenants (whose applications would be marked with a “C” for “coloured”, Mrs Clinton told her audience). Trawling through well-fished waters, she cited Mr Trump’s energetic promotion of the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama is not American-born, his claim that the Mexican government is actively sending rapists across the border and his assertion that a federal judge born in Indiana is...Continue reading

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The EpiPen Controversy Isn't About Mylan

Political outrage over EpiPen price increases won’t help lower health-care costs for Americans.

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Workday's Price for Getting the Job Done

The cloud company’s valuation curbs enthusiasm, but performance stays strong.

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Why the e-mail scandal will continue to overshadow Clinton’s campaign

HILLARY CLINTON has been on a high since the party conventions in July. While Donald Trump continued the slump that began at his own shambolic convention, the Democratic nominee has risen to the top of almost every national and swing-state poll. But Mrs Clinton is too flawed a candidate to enjoy an easy ride to the White House for long: 60% of Americans think she is untrustworthy. She was bound to stumble; equally predictably, this has been precipitated by the undying scandal over her e-mail habits as secretary of state.

On August 22nd, it was revealed that the FBI had collected 15,000 more pages of e-mails in its investigation into Mrs Clinton’s use of a private server for work-related e-mails. They are in addition to the 30,000-odd pages she had already handed over to the FBI in 2014. In July the agency concluded she had been “extremely careless” in her use of a private server but should not be charged with any offence. It has said it doesn’t believe the new batch, which it found in various computer archives and on Mrs Clinton’s server, had been “intentionally deleted”. But this will not save the Democratic nominee a deal...Continue reading

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Pining for the partisans

KOKI the parrot is a shrewd old bird. He used to belong to Marshal Josip Tito, Yugoslavia’s longtime communist leader, who died in 1980. Koki lives on the Croatian island of Brioni, where Tito spent six months of the year, and where the villas are still reserved for Croatia’s leaders. If visitors are lucky, Koki will swear at them, or squawk “Tito! Tito! Tito!” If Koki had a bigger vocabulary, he would doubtless enjoy revealing Croatia’s darkest state secrets, which he has surely overheard. On August 16th Croatia lurched into a new election season, and it is a measure of the country’s frozen politics that some of the key campaign issues hinge on conversations Koki might have eavesdropped on decades ago.

Take the murder of Stejpan Djurekovic, who was shot and hacked to death with a meat cleaver in Germany in 1983. Mr Djurekovic was an émigré active in Croatian nationalist circles. On August 3rd a German court sentenced Josip Perkovic and Zdravko Mustac, two former Yugoslav secret-service agents, to life imprisonment for organising his death.

Croatia’s main parties, the Social Democrats and the Croatian...Continue reading

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Fighting for position

Putin spends rubles, makes rubble

AS COLUMNS of soldiers marched through the centre of Kiev to mark 25 years of Ukrainian independence this week, Larissa Nikitina could not help but think about the price of sovereignty. Some 9,500 Ukrainians have been killed in fighting in the country’s east since early 2014, and there are more casualties every week. “We fought for this holiday, we are fighting for it, and we will have to keep fighting for it,” she said. Tensions have flared around Crimea and eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, and many worry that another round of fighting is on the horizon.

The Minsk peace process, which has sought since mid-2014 to broker an end to the conflict, has been at a standstill all summer, and violence has been escalating. International monitors have noticed Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatist forces creeping closer along the line of contact; heavier-calibre weaponry and artillery have come back into use. Earlier this month, Russia claimed that Ukraine tried to stage a terrorist attack on Russian-occupied Crimea, a charge Kiev denied. While events remain murky, Vladimir Putin’s...Continue reading

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Al-Malarkey

THE presidential palace in Ankara is a 1,150-room modern fortress of stone pillars and sheet glass, completed for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2015 at an official cost of $615m. For Mr Erdogan’s supporters, it is an emblem of Turkey’s energy and will. For his opponents it represents the president’s autocratic instincts and lust for power. During the attempted coup of July 15th, mutinous fighter pilots dropped bombs near the complex. On August 24th, Joe Biden, America’s vice president, went there to apologise to Mr Erdogan for America’s failure to show more solidarity with Turkey in the coup’s aftermath.

Mr Biden did his best to mend fences. He compared the failed coup attempt to the September 11th attacks in America, expressed regret for not coming earlier, and paid his respects to the coup victims. Yet Mr Erdogan seemed unimpressed. Sitting alongside Mr Biden, looking less like an old friend than an estranged relative, the Turkish leader complained that Fethullah Gulen, the American-based Muslim cleric who his government claims masterminded the plot, was still free. “Under Turkey’s extradition agreement with the United States, such...Continue reading

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Reserve player

Patel-tale signs of orthodoxy

CENTRAL banks need the confidence of investors to function well, so questions about their leadership and independence are seldom welcome. On August 20th Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, belatedly appointed a new head of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), nine weeks after Raghuram Rajan, the incumbent, surprised everyone by announcing he was stepping down. The new man, Urjit Patel, was an understudy to Mr Rajan—prompting plenty to wonder why the original cast member was, in effect, forced out.  

Beyond the usual way stations for central bankers—Yale, Oxford, a period at the IMF—Mr Patel was once a management consultant and an executive at Reliance Industries, a group headed by Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man. He has been a deputy governor of the RBI since 2013.

India’s newish inflation-targeting framework, which has been successful in stemming rising prices (helped by outside factors such as falling oil prices), is as much his as Mr Rajan’s. So is the upcoming arrangement whereby interest rates will be set by a panel comprising government and RBI...Continue reading

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ARC’s covenant

Where’s the liquidity?

This year has brought prolonged dry spells to many parts of Malawi. In April President Peter Mutharika declared a state of emergency because of food shortages; yields of maize, the staple crop, are a third below their five-year average. Prudently, Malawi had bought drought insurance from the financial affiliate of African Risk Capacity (ARC), an African Union initiative to fund disaster relief. There is one problem: ARC has not paid out.

Malawian officials had spent three years preparing to join the scheme. They found lots to like. Risks were pooled across the continent. Sophisticated software would model rainfall and its impact on households. If the rains failed, a payout would come quickly, before more typical emergency assistance kicked in. “It was beautifully crafted,” says one civil servant. Malawi signed up last year.

Under the terms of the policy, a payment would be triggered if more than 1.39m people were affected by drought. A joint assessment by the government and international agencies reckons that 6.5m people will need aid by January. Yet ARC’s software, bizarrely,...Continue reading

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Law of averages

WHEN Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund, was bleeding money during the global financial crisis, its boss, Ken Griffin, says CNBC, a broadcaster, parked a van outside its doors to chronicle its demise. Last year CNBC crowned Mr Griffin “King Ken”; in recent years he has done spectacularly well.

Such abrupt twists of fortune appear dramatic. In fact, they are predictable. Novus, an analytics firm, has crunched numbers from Hedge Fund Research, a data provider, to suggest that hedge-fund performance shares a trait boringly familiar from other forms of investment: funds that do poorly then do better, and outperformers then underperform. In other words, past performance is not a guide to future returns (see chart).

The study filters data for two periods: from June 1st 2008 to February 28th 2009, when equity and credit markets were crashing, and from March 1st 2009 until the end of 2015. The funds are anonymised but show plenty of Citadel-like cases. One fund that lost 91% during the crash returned an annualised 42% afterwards. Conversely, among the 93 funds that finished in the top decile during the crash, only three remained...Continue reading

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SECular shift

DURING the financial crisis of 2008, LIBOR was a gauge of fear. The London inter-bank offered rate—at which banks are willing to lend to one another—leapt. (Even then it may have been too reassuring: banks have since been fined billions, and traders jailed, for rigging it.) Lately it has been climbing again: on August 22nd three-month dollar LIBOR rose above 0.82%. That is no cause for panic, but it is a seven-year high and 0.2 percentage points more than in June. What’s going on?

Increases in LIBOR, a benchmark used to set rates for trillions of dollars’ worth of loans, usually reflect either strains on banks or expected rises in central banks’ policy rates. Although the Federal Reserve has been toying with tightening, this time LIBOR’s ascent has another explanation, traceable to the turmoil of 2008. A change by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the regulation of American money-market funds has made borrowing pricier, especially for foreign banks.

Before the crisis investors in money-market funds—which lend for short periods to banks, other companies and the government—had become accustomed to...Continue reading

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Econundrum

THE American economy is in a befuddling state. Firms are on a six-year hiring spree that shows little sign of abating; payrolls swelled by an average of 190,000 a month between May and July. Competition for workers is pushing up wages. The median pay rise in the year to July was 3.4%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Americans are spending that cash; in the second quarter, consumption per person grew at an annual pace of 5.5%, equalling its fastest growth in a decade. Yet real GDP is expanding by only 1.2% a year. The culprit seems to be business investment, which has fallen for three consecutive quarters. It is now 1.3% lower than a year ago—the biggest annual decline since early 2010 when the country was staggering out of the financial crisis. If firms are hiring and consumers are spending, why is investment weak?

Initially, the decoupling was caused by the prolonged fall in oil prices. Cheaper petrol benefited Americans by about $1,300 per household, boosting consumption. Simultaneously, it caused investment in the oil industry to fall by more than half in 2015, as shale oil and gas firms stopped drilling. Investment...Continue reading

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The Jackson four

IN THE latter part of this week, monetary policymakers and theorists from around the world were due to attend the Jackson Hole symposium, 6,800 feet up in the mountains of Wyoming. Many people—aggrieved savers and yield-hungry investors—probably wish they would never come back down. To their critics, central bankers seem strangely committed to two unpardonable follies: eroding the interest people earn on their savings and inflating the prices they pay at the shops.

It was, therefore, brave of one central banker—John Williams of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco—to argue on August 15th that the Fed might need to raise its 2% inflation target or replace it with an alternative if it is successfully to fight the next downturn. Some economists favour an inflation target of 4%. This is not as outlandish as it sounds. Indeed, the notion that new circumstances require a new target may appear quite run-of-the-mill to central bankers from the developing world who are taking part in the symposium.

Much criticism of the West’s central bankers rests on the myth that they are wholly responsible for rock-bottom rates. In fact, they seek the...Continue reading

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Believing is seeing

IT IS easy to forget that even the most trivial commercial transactions rely on small acts of trust. Laws encourage good behaviour, but states lack the resources to force everyone to be good all the time. Trust keeps society running. Just ordering a pizza requires faith that the dough will be well made, that the pizzeria will not abuse the customer’s credit-card information, and that the delivery man will not abscond with the cargo. More complex partnerships, of the sort that make long-run economic growth possible, require much higher degrees of trust. New technologies, from sharing-economy apps to the blockchain, offer routes around some of the trust deficits that stand in the way of growth. Yet whether such solutions to problems of mistrust build on or undermine social ties is no easy question to answer.

Trust in society is not just a nicety. It makes possible, as one paper on the subject has it, “the commitment of resources to an activity where the outcome depends upon the co-operative behaviour of others”. Low-trust societies waste piles of time and money working out who can be counted on, defending vulnerable stores of wealth, and guarding...Continue reading

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The perils of not saving

I’d like someone else to pay my pension

PALLBEARERS bearing coffins scrawled with the legend “No+AFP” joined tens of thousands of Chileans in Santiago on August 21st to protest against the country’s privatised pension system. Organisers—a mix of unions, pensioners’ associations and consumer-advocacy groups—say that a million demonstrated nationwide (perhaps an exaggeration). Pensions are too small, the marchers complain. After “years of abuse…the people have finally woken up,” says Ernesto Medina Aguayo of Aquí La Gente, a pressure group.

The scheme they revile, launched by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet 35 years ago, was a model for other developing countries such as Peru and Colombia. Rather than saddle the government with an unaffordable pay-as-you-go system, in which today’s taxpayers support today’s pensioners even as the population ages, Chile created one in which workers save for their own retirement by paying 10% of their earnings into individual accounts. These are managed by private administrators (AFPs).  

In some ways, the system worked. Contributions to the AFPs...Continue reading

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Clinton Republicans

HILLARY CLINTON’S campaign has a new TV ad suggesting that Donald Trump’s ego is too large and his head too hot to entrust him with nuclear codes. The ad—which ends with the whistle of a falling bomb, roaring jet engines and a doomy sounding narrator intoning: “Because all it takes is one wrong move”—is built around clips of Mr Trump himself, boasting that he knows more about Islamic State than “the generals” and inviting opponents to “go fuck themselves” (with the expletive bleeped out). By way of serene contrast, the ad shows Mrs Clinton reading briefing books in what looks like a night-time White House.

This invites comparisons with “Daisy”, an attack ad from 1964 implying that a vote for Barry Goldwater, that year’s hardline Republican nominee, was a vote for nuclear war. “Daisy” (so called after its opening images of a child picking the flowers) quoted the sitting president, Lyndon Johnson, paraphrasing W.H. Auden’s line: “We must love one another, or die,” as atomic blasts filled the screen. In this less poetic age, Mrs Clinton’s spot offers a recording of Mr Trump vowing to “bomb the shit” out of...Continue reading

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Wage war

ILLEGAL immigration from Mexico is not quite a century old. A law of 1917 was the first to regulate the southern border. Stricter controls gradually followed all through the 20th century, often during the low points of a recurring cycle of sentiment towards immigrants. Economic booms have lured workers across the Rio Grande, encouraged by American firms. Downturns have led to demonisation of “wetbacks”. The 1930s and 1950s both saw indiscriminate mass-deportations; in 1976 President Gerald Ford wondered how best to “get rid of those six to eight million aliens who are interfering with our economic prosperity”.

The latest bout of Trumpian immigrant-bashing fits the mould in one respect: it comes on the heels of an economic downturn. But it is also strange, because the undocumented population levelled off after 2007. In 2015 there were just 188,000 apprehensions of Mexicans at the border, down from 1.6m in 2000 (see chart). This is partly because the recession reduced the magnetism of America’s labour market. But it also reflects a much more secure border—the number of border agents quintupled between 1992 and 2010—and changing demography in...Continue reading

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Tithing troubles

THE booming voice of Apostle Rodney Chipoyera, the pastor of the Kingdom Prosperity Ministries, fills a decrepit cinema-turned-church in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. Yes, times are tough, he tells his congregants, who sit in broken chairs wearing their Sunday best. The country may be bust, but if you stop tithing—giving a full tenth of your income to his church—you will be cursed. “You tithe, He blesses,” proclaims Mr Chipoyera. “You keep the tithe, the curse is initiated.” The congregation responds in ardent agreement: “I refuse to rob God in tithes and offerings!”  

Strutting across the stage, Mr Chipoyera is at pains to defend his shiny car and fashionable clothes. Nobody wants their pastor to look poor, he declares with a laugh. “I represent God,” he says. “I dress well to show who I represent…I don’t want to be one of those pastors on a bicycle.”

On Sunday mornings Harare booms with the sound of preaching. White-robed apostolic sects worship in fields and by the roadside; wealthier folk attend gleaming megachurches. Pastors starting from scratch find space in schools and even nightclubs....Continue reading

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The richest, riskiest tin mine on Earth

More than a river to cross

DEEP in the jungle of North Kivu, a lawless province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a new road is being cut through the canopy. As birds chirp, hand saws cut noisily through trees. Men with shovels dig out roots and flatten the ochre-red earth. A sturdy new log bridge crosses a stream. On it stands Boris Kamstra, a South African in a plaid shirt and bucket hat. “This is great road-building material,” he booms, gesturing at the stones.

Mr Kamstra is the boss of Alphamin Resources, a Canadian-funded company that is trying to build perhaps the most improbable mine in Africa. The site, on a hill called Bisie, is about 60km (37 miles) from the nearest settlement of any size, a town called Walikale. Before Alphamin arrived there was no road connection: anyone hoping to reach it faced a full day’s hike. Getting to Goma, the nearest border crossing, would take another two days on a road lorries cannot use. In the immediate area are three armed rebel groups. The nearest government post is at Walikale—and consists of one rather squat office.

Congo’s soil is bursting with buried...Continue reading

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The ballot and the Book

“WHOOPS!” seems to be all aghast officials can say. On either side of the River Jordan, the Hashemite kingdom and the Palestinian Authority have called elections expecting easy wins. Instead, to their surprise, the local arms of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group, have ended their boycotts of the ballot and are now the front-runners. The king’s men in Jordan anticipate that the Islamic Action Front (IAF), the brothers’ political arm in Jordan, will emerge from the general elections on September 20th as the largest single party. In adjacent Palestine, ministers speculate that Hamas, the Brotherhood’s Palestinian offshoot, might sweep all eight of the West Bank’s cities in municipal elections set for October 8th.

This would mark a turn for democratic Islamism, which had seemed on the verge of oblivion in the Arab world after the Brotherhood’s Muhammad Morsi was overthrown as president of Egypt in 2013. Hounded into hiding and despairing of electoral politics, Sunni Islamists across the region abandoned the ballot box for bullets and boats to Europe. King Abdullah of Jordan declared the Brotherhood “a Masonic cult” and banned it (although he eschewed the mass arrests that have taken place in Egypt). Now, both the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and King Abdullah will have to engage with the Islamists again. “We’re not Cairo,” proffers...Continue reading

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Nostalgia for a nightmare

What’s on the menu later?

HE CALLED himself the Emperor of Central Africa. Others dubbed him the Butcher of Bangui. Jean-Bédel Bokassa seized power in a coup on December 31st, 1965 and ruled what is now the Central African Republic (CAR) until he was ousted by French soldiers in 1979.

In his early years in office he was corrupt, brutal and chummy with France. (President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing often came to slaughter elephants in one of his wildlife reserves.) With time, however, Bokassa’s behaviour grew even worse. He fed his enemies to lions and crocodiles. He ordered all schoolchildren to buy new uniforms made by his family firm, rounded up those who protested and massacred at least 100 of them—reportedly joining in the beatings himself. After the French lost patience and overthrew him, the dismembered remains of a maths teacher were found in his fridge. His successor accused him of cannibalism. He always denied it, though at a state banquet he once told a French diplomat: “You never noticed, but you ate human flesh.”

Bokassa died in 1996. Strangely, he is now enjoying a surge of posthumous...Continue reading

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Slammer dunk

FOR decades the fleshy features of Altaf Hussain have glowered over Karachi. The leader of the mighty Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) may have fled to London 25 years ago, but his image remains plastered on the streets of the city he controls. But it is becoming harder to find the posters and party flags that once fluttered from every streetlight. Mr Hussain has gradually been losing sway over Pakistan’s largest city to the Rangers, a notionally civilian security force under the control of the army.

In 2013 the government ordered the Rangers to rid Karachi of Islamist militants and criminal gangs. Last year they turned their attention to the MQM, a party successive governments have accused of deep involvement in Karachi’s criminal economy. Although it is ostensibly a relatively liberal and staunchly anti-Islamist political outfit, the authorities claim it runs a shadow organisation of extortionists and kidnappers. As evidence of the party’s unsavoury side, the Rangers point to weapons they discovered when they raided its “Nine Zero” headquarters last year.

The MQM, in turn, accuses the Rangers of kidnapping and killing dozens of...Continue reading

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Talk like a gaijin

Got it?

ITS buses and trains arrive on the dot. Its engineers are famously precise. But when it comes to English, Japan is uncharacteristically sloppy. Signs are often misspelled. Taxi drivers point at phrasebooks to communicate with foreigners. Shops that take an English name to be trendy often get it horribly wrong: witness “Poopdick”, a second-hand cosmetics outlet.

English-speakers are much less common in Japan than in most rich, globalised countries. In 2015 Japan’s average score in the TOEFL, a popular test of proficiency for non-native speakers, was 71 out of 120, lower than in all East Asian countries except Laos and Cambodia. Companies seeking English-speakers tend to look for people who studied or grew up abroad, on the assumption that locally schooled candidates will not cut the mustard.

The government wants to change this. Earlier this month it announced plans to overhaul the teaching of English. Children may soon start learning the language two years earlier, when they are eight instead of ten. Lessons will emphasise communication over reading, writing and grammar.

All this, it is hoped,...Continue reading

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Bad air days

AFTER the sun sets, Seoulites can glance at the illuminated N Seoul Tower atop one of the peaks surrounding the city to check the quality of the air they are inhaling. The tower has a palette of four colours: if blue or green, go for that jog. But if it glows yellow or red, beware not only of high levels of coarse soot, but also unhealthy concentrations of fine dust that can cause grave damage to the lungs.

South Korea began publishing nationwide readings on PM2.5, as the dust is known, only last year. It stood at 27 micrograms per cubic metre on average—half the level in nearby China, but over two-and-a-half times higher than the World Health Organisation’s recommended limit, and well above the levels in other rich Asian countries. Seoul is far sootier than Tokyo (see chart). And these readings may be optimistic: an adviser says the government regularly discards high readings as “anomalies”. South Korea ranks 173rd out of 180 countries in an index of air quality from Yale University (China came in next-to-last). Its problems with pollution are likely to grow: the OECD, a group mostly of rich countries, projects that on the current...Continue reading

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Move over, Merlion

Otterly entrancing

WHEN Australia’s prime minister came to visit Singapore last year, his local counterpart took him to visit not the Merlion, a statue of a mythical creature adopted decades ago as a national mascot, but the Bishan Ten—a photogenic family of otters that have become something of a national obsession. In early August Singaporeans chose the Bishan Ten as the official emblem of their country’s 51st year. A state media firm has produced a documentary on the family, narrated by Sir David Attenborough. And the city-state has just hosted the 13th International Otter Congress.

Otters had disappeared from Singapore by the 1970s, as rubbish, farm waste and sewage clogged its few short rivers. But in 1977 Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s independence leader, ordained a clean-up, as part of his vision to turn Singapore into a “garden city”. “The river went from black to clear in less than a decade,” says Sivasothi, also known as Otterman, a lecturer at the National University of Singapore.

As the rivers grew cleaner, fish populations returned. By 1998, the first otter families began to return to...Continue reading

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Rebels in their dotage

A long way from the Netherlands

WHEN negotiators sat down together in Oslo this week in an effort to end the Philippines’ 47-year-old communist insurgency, they expressed the hope that a peace deal could be wrapped up within a year. That is optimistic: the two sides have been talking on-and-off for 30 years, without success. Their jerky progress towards the negotiating table in recent weeks is an ominous portent.

The Philippines’ new president, Rodrigo Duterte, had promised to resume talks during his election campaign, and declared a unilateral ceasefire within a month of his inauguration in late June. But the communists failed to reciprocate immediately. Instead, communist guerrillas ambushed some government militiamen in the southern Philippines, killing one and wounding four. Mr Duterte promptly called off the truce, just before the communists declared their own ceasefire, which was subsequently rescinded. It was only after the government released some insurgents, and the communists reciprocated, that the two sides reinstated the ceasefires, allowing the talks to go ahead.

The man the government regards as...Continue reading

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Vale of tears

OWAIS GULAB has not left home for seven weeks. The college where he studies computing is closed, as are all but a few local shops. His phone, like others across the Kashmir Valley that use a pre-paid SIM card, cannot make calls. The hostel his family runs stands empty. It overlooks Dal Lake, whose hundreds of pleasure craft, normally packed with summer tourists, sit idle.

It is not just curfews, strikes and clashes between police and protesters that make Mr Gulab feel trapped. He fears leaving the valley, he says, because in other parts of India police routinely harass young Kashmiris. Musing over tea on the 46th afternoon of his confinement, what perturbs Mr Gulab is that he too now thinks in terms of “us” and “them”. “Someone my age with a 21st-century outlook should not be saying ‘those Indians’ and ‘their army’, but then you look at the headlines,” he says, pointing to a local newspaper that lists those killed in the latest round of violence.

There are now 68 names on that list. The number of injured approaches 10,000, some 460 of them wounded in the eyes by pellets from the shotguns the police use to quell riots. Most...Continue reading

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Unlearning war

GNARLED beams and splinters of wood are all that remain of many houses in Toribío, a town high in the Andes that saw some of the worst of the violence in Colombia’s war against the FARC, a left-wing guerrilla army. On one dwelling’s surviving wall graffiti in bold yellow letters reads: “I hate your war.” Over its 52 years, perhaps 220,000 Colombians died and 7m were displaced.

Now Latin America’s longest-running military conflict is over. On August 24th negotiators representing Colombia’s government and the FARC announced that they had reached a final agreement after four years of talks in Havana. Although violence subsided in recent years, especially after the FARC declared a unilateral ceasefire in 2015, the war’s formal end will allow Colombia at last to become a normal country, and to focus its attention on improving the lives of its 48m citizens. “Today marks the beginning of the end of the suffering, the pain and the tragedy of war,” said Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos.

Now he will ask congress to convoke a plebiscite on October 2nd to seek voters’ approval. Meanwhile, the FARC will hold their tenth, and...Continue reading

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Mixed-Up German Data Pose Challenge for Investors

As soon as investors gain any measure of confidence, a piece of information arrives to challenge it. The surprise decline in Germany’s Ifo index is the latest example.

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The revenant

WHEN Nicolas Sarkozy failed in his bid for re-election as president in 2012, the French thought they had seen the back of him. He vowed to retire from public life. But the promise never rang entirely true. Sure enough, this week the Sarko tornado began once again to tear its way through France: the Gaullist former president declared that he would seek his party’s nomination at a primary in November. For now, Mr Sarkozy trails his rivals for the post. But it is almost always a mistake to underestimate the pugnacious ex-president.

Mr Sarkozy formally announced his decision in a new book, “Tout pour la France” (Everything for France), published on August 24th. The next day he was due to take to the stage in the south of France for his first campaign rally. Mr Sarkozy’s platform, as outlined in the book, is a hallmark mix of economic liberalism (lower taxes, longer working hours, later retirement) and right-wing identity politics (tighter citizenship and immigration rules, a tougher stance on Islam and integration).

On the face of it, Mr Sarkozy’s chances of securing the nomination for “Les Républicains” (the Republicans), and...Continue reading

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What to Learn From the ECB's Great European Corporate Bond Squeeze

The European corporate bond market is heading into ever more extraordinary territory.

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Devastated villages in Umbria

 

 

 

 

BEAUTY and tragedy, the contrasting faces of Italy, came together in deadly fashion on August 24th when a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck villages in the picturesque uplands north-east of Rome. At least 247 people have died. In 2009, an earthquake devastated the city of L’Aquila, less than 30 miles away. The lethal impact of the disaster is likely to have been magnified, as it was around L’Aquila, by houses built decades ago, if not centuries earlier, that do not meet modern anti-seismic standards. The earthquake presents Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, with new grief as he strives to win a referendum, probably in November, on which he has staked his political future.

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HP: No Quick Fix for Printer Jam

Company’s printing-supplies unit sees its worst decline so far and isn’t expected to stabilize until next year.

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Why China's Overseas Oil Adventurer Can't Cut Costs Forever

Cnooc’s low level of overall oil reserves means it will have to undo cost costs at some point.

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How Zika could spark a new abortion debate

ZIKA, the mosquito-borne virus that can cause devastating birth defects in developing foetuses, continues its spread from Latin America to points north. The virus is prompting official warnings regarding foreign and, now, domestic travel. “Pregnant women and their partners who are concerned about being exposed to Zika”, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cautions, “may want to consider postponing nonessential travel to all parts of Miami-Dade County” in Florida. Of the 2,260 American women who have contracted Zika (nearly a quarter of whom while pregnant), all but a handful were bitten by a mosquito while travelling south of the border. The 14 domestic cases all originated in Florida.

With Zika-carrying mosquitos now flying around the Sunshine state, the ever-simmering abortion debate has a new focal point. Laws in Brazil, where the current outbreak began, are decidedly unfriendly to women seeking to end their pregnancies: abortion is legal only in cases of rape or when the woman’s life is at stake. Similarly restrictive laws are found in most...Continue reading

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Housing Market Eases Low-Rate Pain for Banks

Strong mortgage lending will be a boost for banks struggling with low rates.

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The battlefield in Syria just became more complicated

AS IF the war in Syria did not have enough combatants, yet another country has entered the fray. On August 24th Turkey sent tanks, warplanes and special-operations soldiers over the border, driving Islamic State (IS) out of Jarablus, an important supply node for the jihadists.

Turkey’s mission has the backing of America, which is leading an anti-IS coalition. But it is already raising concerns inside Syria, where a five-year-old civil war has killed perhaps 500,000 people. Lately the fighting has become more chaotic. Alliances are shifting between the country’s myriad fighting groups, and their foreign backers. Peace, already a dim prospect, now seems even further off.

The situation in Hasakah, in the north-east, is indicative of the changing landscape. Until recently, the Syrian army of Bashar al-Assad, the country’s blood-spattered president, had mostly steered clear of Kurdish militias—and, at times, seemed to work with them—in order to confront Sunni Arab rebels. The Kurds, for their part, have focused their fire on IS and tried to consolidate their self-declared semi-autonomous region, called Rojava, in the north. But in...Continue reading

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Bond Market Smackdown: SolarCity vs. Sri Lanka

Elon Musk’s big bond purchase should give his investors, and Tesla shareholders,​pause.

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Glencore's Self-Help Is Actually Help From Commodity Markets

The Swiss commodities giant is out of the danger zone thanks to rebounding coal and copper prices.

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The mystery of the Melungeons

HEAD into Sneedville from the Clinch river, turn left at the courthouse and crawl up Newman’s Ridge. Do not be distracted by the driveways meandering into the woods, the views across the Appalachians or the shadows of the birds of prey; heed the warnings locals may have issued about the steepness and the switchbacks. If the pass seems challenging, consider how inaccessible it must have been in the moonshining days before motor cars.

Halfway down, as Snake Hollow appears on your left, you reach a narrow gorge, between the ridge and Powell Mountain and hard on Tennessee’s north-eastern border. In parts sheer and wooded, it opens into an unexpected valley, where secluded pastures and fields of wild flowers hug Blackwater Creek—in which the water is not black but clear, running, like the valley, down into Virginia. This is the ancestral home of an obscure American people, the Melungeons. Some lived over the state line on Stone Mountain, in other craggy parts of western Virginia and North Carolina and in eastern Kentucky. But the ridge and this valley were their heartland.

The story of the Melungeons is at once a footnote to the...Continue reading

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The perils of peace in China’s commodity industries

WHEN the number of strikes plummets, something significant is usually going on. Strikes in China’s mining, iron and steel industries have fallen from more than 40 in January to four a month or fewer between May and August, according to China Labour Bulletin, an NGO based in Hong Kong. The explanation seems to be that China is backtracking on plans for the restructuring of state-owned firms in these sectors.

In February the government announced that it would redeploy 1.8m people, or 15% of the workforce, in the bloated and debt-laden coal, iron and steel industries. Just after that, a huge strike over unpaid wages by coal miners in the north-east dramatised the risks of trying to force through massive lay-offs and plant closures. So local officials have dragged their feet. According to the national planning authority, in the first seven months of the year provincial governments achieved only 38% of their full year’s targets for coal production cuts.

Fear of unrest is not the only explanation. Commodity prices have rebounded slightly this year, so local authorities are playing a game of chicken, keeping mines and factories open and...Continue reading

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Mauricio Macri’s reform plans suffer a judicial blow

TO HEAL Argentina’s economy, damaged by years of populism, Mauricio Macri’s plan is to administer unpleasant medicine early in his presidential term, which began in December. That way, by the time he runs for re-election in 2019, the country will be feeling the benefits—or so he hopes. On August 18th Argentina’s Supreme Court disrupted his plan. It ruled that a quadrupling of gas prices, introduced in April, was illegal because the government had failed to consult the public, as required by the constitution. The court could strike down a sixfold rise in electricity prices on similar grounds. The ruling is a setback, though probably not a disaster, for Mr Macri’s ambitions.

Argentina’s energy prices are far too low. Under Mr Macri’s predecessor, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the government’s subsidy bill reached 12.3% of its total spending in 2014, or nearly 3% of GDP. The budget deficit was 5.4% of GDP last year. But the subsidies are not big enough to make up for utilities’ skimpy revenues from selling energy. Because they lack cash for investment, Argentines are plagued by summer blackouts.

But many see the price...Continue reading

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Greenhouses turn Alaskans into farmers

ALASKA’S State Fair, which runs until September 5th, began as a celebration among residents of the Matanuska Colony, a New Deal scheme under which 200 down-and-out Midwestern farm families were shipped to Alaska to see whether agriculture could gain a foothold in the coldest state. The fair lives on, though within little more than a decade after the start of the colony most of the participants had abandoned their frigid farms and the project was widely seen as a flop.

Glaciers in the state cover 300 times more acres than farms do. Only 5% of the food consumed is grown locally, compared with 81% nationwide. The growing season is short and summer temperatures chilly. Tomato plants wither. Fruit trees, in most parts of the state, are just a dream.

Enter the high tunnel: a greenhouse consisting of a curved metal frame with plastic sheeting stretched across it. There is even a federal programme to pay for it. The scheme, which seeks to extend growing seasons and improve soil health, is open to farmers across the country. But it is Homer, a town of about 5,000 souls 200 miles south of Anchorage, that has become the high-tunnel capital of the...Continue reading

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Meitu: Why China's Photo Phenomenon Is Out of Focus

Meitu is looking to achieve a pricey IPO valuation for an unprofitable internet company selling inexpensive phones.

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Treks and hikes

Henry Curr talks about the annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole and why they are discussing a change to inflation targeting. And Soumaya Keynes and Ryan Avent round-up the best economic blogs this month - how does the sharing economy impact niceness? Andrew Palmer hosts.

The bitter, political fight to create a new macroeconomics

THE big debates in macroeconomics have never been polite. I suppose it's understandable that this is the case; after all, the stakes are high. Tyler Cowen excerpts a new blog post by Scott Sumner, which reads:

…what’s happened since 2009 involves not just one, but at least five new types of voodoo:

1. The claim that artificial attempts to force wages higher will boost employment, by boosting AD.

2. The claim that extended unemployment benefits—paying people not to work—will lead to more employment, by boosting AD.

3. The claim that more government spending can actually reduce the budget deficit, by boosting AD and growth. Note that in the simple Keynesian model, even with no crowding out, monetary offset, etc., this is impossible.

4. More aggregate demand will lead to higher productivity. In the old Keynesian model, more AD boosted growth by increasing employment, not productivity.

5. Fiscal stimulus can boost AD...Continue reading

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2016 Experience China in Iran opens

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Bom proveito! CCTVNEWS takes you on a culinary tour in Beijing for a taste of Brazilian dishes

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Retailers Could Fail the Back-to-School Test

Retailers with a significant back-to-school business face easy comparisons, but that may already be priced into their shares.

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Canadian expat runs local food tours for foreigners in SW China’s Chengdu

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Turkey strikes ISIL as tensions mount near Syria border

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Biden says US committed to NATO pledge

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China upbeat about performance at Rio Games

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Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau to visit China and attend G20 Summit

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Watch: Busy sidewalk dramatically collapses

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Nigerian Army claims Boko Haram militant leader "fatally wounded"

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Cuba and Iran agree to deepen relations

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Video of 5-year old Syrian boy sparks outrage

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Rio 2016: Court of Arbitration for Sport upholds ban on Russia

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Singapore to hold state funeral for S.R. Nathan

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Exclusive video: President Xi Jinping visits Qinghai Province, talks about ecosystem protection

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How to Free Big Banks From Weight of Dead Money

Big banks have long complained about the costs of holding large pools of inactive deposits, especially in countries where interest rates have turned negative. Increasingly, they are charging customers to look after their cash.

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Why Europe's Steady Growth Does Little to Enthuse Investors

Investors are favoring further-flung, more exciting destinations than Europe for their cash. But steady growth remains a reassuring factor.

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Indonesian Parliament to debate nationwide alcohol ban

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DPRK condemns S.Korea and US joint exercises, threatens with nuclear attack

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Over 1,900 killed in seven weeks in Philippines

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China urges Japan to mend relations with China

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Lawmakers and greens are trying to get Europeans to stop wasting food

A CULINARY tour of Europe offers copious delights: a perfectly thin pizza slice from Naples, a glistening paella on Valencia’s beachfront, a fresh Parisian croissant. Indeed, the continent seems to turn out more treats than its people can eat. The latest estimates say Europeans threw out 88m tonnes of food in 2012—173 kg per person. The wasted food was worth €143 billion ($162 billion).

Such wastefulness is bad for the planet. Europeans pride themselves on being green, yet in fact they squander only slightly less each year, per head, than North Americans or Australians. Throwing away food means wasting the resources used in its production, such as water. This is especially foolish in dry countries such as Spain. The problem is set to get worse as climate change makes rainfall patterns less predictable.

Governments are now trying to help. In Italy, until recently, a supermarket that tried to donate items to a charity would find itself entangled in red tape as thick and twisted as a plate of spaghetti. But on August 2nd lawmakers made it far easier by passing reforms to tax incentives. In February France passed legislation to fine shops for...Continue reading

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Military rank for Edinburgh Zoo's king penguin

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US Vice President Joe Biden to visit Ankara

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Typhoon Mindulle hits Japan’s Hokkaido and injures at least 61

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Turkey hits ISIL with fresh artillery strikes

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RIO 2016: China’s women's volleyball squad heads home

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Chinese fighter pilots complete aircraft carrier training

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Chinese fleet returns from RIMPAC 2016 drill

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At least 40 killed in India’s central and eastern regions

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Egyptian President: Putin willing to host talks

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Everyone Wants Emerging-Market Bonds, But There Aren't Enough to Go Around

With prices high for emerging-market debt, any uptick in supply or deterioration in demand could tip the balance in an unpleasant way.

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Syria crisis: Government forces and Kurdish militias fight for control of Hasakah

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Turkey shells ISIL, Kurdish forces in northern Syria

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Chinese-made app helps Russian to start her own business

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8kiNQqr-dU
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Qingcaosha reservoir to keep Shanghai in fresh water

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vc_NUKo2as
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More French towns spread ban on the burkini

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Turkish PM: Russia can use Incirlik airbase “if necessary”

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Cco5pMVFYg
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Gymnastic whiz kid shows off ring skills on Beijing subway

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Iran foreign minister begins Latin America tour in Cuba

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EU leaders plan for ‘future chapter’ after Brexit

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UN to send aid to Aleppo if 48-hour truce agreed

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_Vd03gPn70
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First Chinese transcript of Tokyo War Trial released in Shanghai

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxw41y8oE-w
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15-year-old boy caught before detonating explosive belt in Iraq

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IxxtRVzXnw
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US makes $1.3 billion interest payment to Iran to settle old dispute

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isd3qkBpf8U
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Rio 2016: 52 Chinese athletes leave for Paralympic Games

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Interesting outtakes from CCTVNEWS reports from Rio

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Somalia’s Al-Shabaab still poses big threat to region

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Libya parliament votes no confidence in UN-backed government

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYhlzUBBW0U
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Footage: Giant panda does Olympic floor exercise

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DPRK threatens US, South Korea with ‘Korean-style preemptive retaliatory nuclear strike’

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNwEJyAsYbU
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US to deploy 16 F-35 stealth fighters at west Japan base in 2017

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Central China firefighters free boy who got head stuck in guardrail

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Hong Kong Exchange implements stock volatility control system

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zkum1BfDYY
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Death toll from Turkey wedding attack rises to 54, 29 victims under 18

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlkC0TAeaeM
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Chinese companies join UN’s ‘Global Compact’, supporting UN's sustainable development goals

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKu4J7C5_TI
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Discussion: UN to investigate inaction in South Sudan

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxerPLmz6nk
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Discussion: Matt Damon shares personal take on "Jason Bourne" movie

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Iran revokes Russia’s use of air base

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yqaa90Qe80
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Sarkozy declares bid to return to French presidency in 2017

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Best Buy's Mounting Troubles

Best Buy’s turnaround has matured and growth is proving hard to maintain, a tough reality ahead of its earnings report.

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Most of Louisiana’s flood victims lack insurance

SOUTH Louisiana is pretty well inured to catastrophe. But the still-unfolding disaster that is being dubbed the Great Flood of 2016 came as a particular shock, arriving as it did without a name (unlike a hurricane or a tropical storm) and without the powerful winds that usually herald a dramatic storm. 

Forecasters had warned of heavy rains and the possibility of flash floods in and around Baton Rouge, the state capital. But that is routine in August for a place that often gets more rain in a day than many California cities do in a year. The rains that started falling on August 11th, however, dumped a record 15 inches over a wide swath of terrain around the capital city, and more than 25 inches in some places. The rivers, which in the region’s pancake-flat landscape barely slope, couldn’t carry the water away—indeed many began to flow backwards—and the result has been disaster.

The American Red Cross reckons the storms are the worst to have hit the United States since Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Officials are still working out the full extent of the damage, but at least 40,000 homes—and possibly as many as...Continue reading

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Stacking More Chips on Applied Materials

Shares of the chip-gear maker are running high, but probably aren’t at a peak.

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Medivation Ovation: Pfizer Pays the Price for Growth

Pfizer’s $14 billion acquisition shows quality midsize biotechs are in short supply.

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Why Bad-Loan Sales Could Be a Double-Winner for Shareholders

Italian bank investors may end up owning high-risk bonds, but surprisingly some are keen.

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G20 Kitchen: Buon appetito! A taste of Italy in Beijing

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A suicide bomber wreaks more horror on Turkey’s beleaguered Kurds

 

MORE than half of the 53 killed were children. The suicide bomber himself was no older than 14. Turkey was already reeling from a brutal attempted coup and an ensuing government crackdown when, on late Saturday, a young suicide bomber melted into a crowd of guests at a wedding ceremony in a largely Kurdish neighbourhood in the southern city of Gaziantep and blew himself up. The Turkish government quickly pinned the blame on Islamic State (IS).

Turkey has endured a rash of IS attacks since 2015, including five this year. Of late, the group has been striking tourist spots and state facilities; its most recent attack, before Saturday, was a triple-suicide bombing at Istanbul’s main airport. But overall, its main targets have been Kurdish. A laptop seized from the house of an IS operative who killed himself during a police raid in Gaziantep earlier this year revealed plans to attack a Kurdish wedding.

As IS loses territory to Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed militants in Syria, it has extended its war into Turkey. The jihadists’ aim, according to government officials and analysts, is to punish the country for its role in the American-led...Continue reading

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A Window of Opportunity Cracks Open at Valeant

Easing financial conditions could give Valeant’s new finance chief an assist.

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UN condemns terrorist attack in north Somalia

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Record-setting painting on Beijing’s dam

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Syrian media: Kurdish forces violated truce

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhkImQOYDYA
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Chinese woman celebrates her 119th birthday

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Rio 2016:China's great moments of glory

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Rio 2016: China 3rd on medal table with 26 gold

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLFjsk1DvpY
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Man finds himself stranded 8 meters high after rescuing stuck kid

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijASWPCmtts
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China commits to continue organ transplantation reform

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWHXRHVNThQ
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China opposes any form of Taiwan independence

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgvy-rz9HYc
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DPRK protests as US, S. Korea begin annual military exercises

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6qArt2ElUQ
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Russia stops launching strikes from Iranian base

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Renesas-Intersil: Putting Down Chips for Automotive Jackpot

Renesas, a one-time supplier of chips to Apple iPhones, looks to be paving the road to supply the likes of Apple’s cars.

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Kurdish forces launch assault to evict Syrian army

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Thai police say at least 20 people involved in bomb attacks

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2Fuq2woVUo
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Foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea to meet in Tokyo

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lARcnhBoy9M
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Crowd lifts car to save elder trapped underneath

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHkthzrADCI
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Malian pleads guilty to 2012 Timbuktu attacks

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FhuBBnBwAk
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Philippine FM: Philippines is not leaving UN

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0i_piBWYrA
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Watch: Old control tower demolished at Wuhan Tianhe Airport

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One Policy to Rule Them All: Why Central Bank Divergence Is So Slow

The focus on the Fed raising rates masks the global easing in monetary policy.

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New York clinic uses art in fight against Zika

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Nail art brings Olympic rush to your fingers

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5z8lNNeTzw
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9 soldiers killed, 85 injured in Libyan clashes

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpMzOVGhZLg
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2020 Tokyo Olympics: Japan begins preparation, but problems persist

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYVWHdRUz40
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Rio 2016: Chinese elements at the Games

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhvkWjWmKt8
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Rio 2016: Closing ceremony brings end to Olympics

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUkLp74gCDo
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Watch: China-developed robot helps with transformative Parkinson’s surgery

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzb0VO8Oy2w
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South Korea, US begin annual Ulchi Freedom drill, DPRK slams exercise as ‘provocative action’

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMc-Ws79K0w
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Team China's breakthroughs at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n-oVkcmdP4
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At least 10 killed in two suicide car bomb attacks in Somalia

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAQ45-jKYC4
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Rio 2016: China’s Olympic focus undergoing change

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYAqRh9GNyA
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36 ISIL militants responsible for 2014 massacre hanged in Iraq

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSKZ2TPeJSg
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Rio 2016: US swimmers to face further action over robbery claims

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ8Xe8367tY
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Hundreds civilians stranded in Iraq warzone

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L0VE7vamug
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Two Strategies, One Crowded Trade

Buying low-volatility stocks and shares with good dividends often amounts to the same thing. A dividend itself can damp volatility, because the rising dividend yield that comes with a falling price can bring in buyers.

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Two suicide car bomb attacks Somalia

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Chesapeake: Triumph of the Optimists

A spate of positive developments in the past six months at Chesapeake has seen its value increase fourfold. Investors had underestimated the benefit of the troubled company buying itself time.

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Business class subway seats in southern China's Shenzhen draw controversy

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Chinese people now interested less on medal table, more on the athletes and their stories

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLI2UMmFSjs
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Turkey wedding suicide bomber ‘was child aged 12-14’

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjYa9Vu9J7s
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Footage: Man survives after jumping from five-story building

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1nL9GaP2D0
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Interview with Lang Ping, known as ‘iron hammer,’ leads China’s volleyball back to peak

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMSrxWyYVPk
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Turkish president: ISIL likely behind deadly Turkey wedding attack

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-stoy2LxBQ
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Iran releases images of new missile defense system

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8mEAafxSIA
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Canadian man's bomb did not fully detonate before police shot him

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB-A4BLUXug
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Congo's electoral commission says presidential vote should be delayed

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JSXQX66nhI
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Indian PM’s auctioned suit enters Guinness Book of World Records

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U8lFj-_GbU
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How did Turkey and Israel restore ties? A look into Turkey-Israel relations

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lk4-3ZM2Tc
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Philippine President Duterte threatens to quit UN over drugs censure

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYzL8R1SDn0
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Japan defense budget: Tokyo seeks greater military standing

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIXJWz8h4RE
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Snowden documents show NSA leak is real

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ldRDwZK_6Y
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Careless driver without license creates havoc on the street

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Wq36zvzbk
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Watch: Crazy driver drives in reverse on highway

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqtTHp18pzs
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Cao Wenxuan becomes first Chinese writer to receive Anderson award

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26VbpjYbsfg
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Rio 2016: China’s Zheng Shuyin grabs the gold medal in women's over-67kg taekwondo

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyk-vO6aQZ0
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43 Taliban militants killed as Afghan forces take back parts of Kunduz

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-jhfp25kIo
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China employs new navigation system to relieve airspace congestion

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJxs6jDq9sg
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Iraqi government to ramp up weapons manufacturing

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smIkxsiAI7g
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WHO offers Africa emergency fund for consideration

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e4Xn_79kME
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Chinese author Hao Jingfang wins Hugo Award for Best Novelette

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI8jNkAZ6EA
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Syria crisis: UN envoy calls for truce to get aid into Aleppo

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiKNg29DNtE
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Maker Faire Beijing 2016 celebrates innovation and DIY spirit

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HD_NAE_pmw
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Two soldiers killed, eight wounded in eastern Ukraine.

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x4C6QRip5U
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Russia holds military drills in Crimea

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR0O4d0t7kY
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IOC President describes Rio Olympic Games as 'iconic'

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6H-S48Uonk
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Rio 2016: Brazil’s Neymar delivers winner in 5-4 shootout victory over Germany

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEP4Io9LU2s
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Explosion in Turkey: 30 killed, dozens wounded in alleged suicide bombing

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWsgiK6Tsk4
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Washington DC panda cub celebrates first birthday with fans

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3-0_2TT_iU
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Rio 2016：Poster art 13 times over

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC9blQtF3Yg
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Rio 2016:China claims gold medal in women's volleyball

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_N1bQ5KNpM
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Clashes increase between Syrian army, Kurdish forces

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBtSgFR1w4o
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New York AIDS arts exhibition tells the 35-year history of AIDS

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI7euezVc9o
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Turkey blast: at least 30 killed, dozens wounded in the city of Gaziantep

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOtZA-03pWk
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German minister proposes partial burqa ban

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wznYYPgjTkQ
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Turkish PM: Assad could have role in interim government

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCREsL85jkc
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Rio 2016: China’s Chen Long wins badminton men’s gold

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrvKjHMnEC8
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Jamaican fans in Rio celebrate sprint star Usain Bolt

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9X2dIFiEfM
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Thousands rally in support of Houthi-led government in Yemeni capital

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5GOVPmd84Y
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Travelers discover a picturesque Australian town

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7MmPc0J28Y
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Australia drought: Music helps children cope in drought-hit farms

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ova1Olht6vk
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Japan Comic Convention: Enthusiasts queue up for favorite comics

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKaBsLFxmWU
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Start-up comes out swinging with new wearable device

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMfi-kWUx_M
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Rio 2016: Volunteer chefs turn wasted Olympics food into meals for homeless

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2k2p76yXNA
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Woman jumps off the bridge; husband, policeman follow

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LjSpVegC5I
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Turkey to take more active role on Syria in next six months: PM

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCZRt0hlQNE
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DPRK says deputy ambassador to UK fled to ROK to escape punishment

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t25zGGxqE30
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Turkey coup aftermath: Mass prisoner release underway to make room for coup plotters

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5olDHMHeLk
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Chinese company helps customers save money in Brazil

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkKzq4brLl4
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RIO 2016: Australian athletes ordered to pay fine

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-78O_DkbvE
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Denmark’s Axelsen defeats Chinese Lin Dan, wins badminton men's bronze

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuAryUSQg4c
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Turkish PM says US is ‘strategic partner, not our enemy’

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBHiPnMCaL4
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UNICEF calls for end to recruitment of child soldiers in South Sudan

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0RUfYgYqfA
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UN panel seeks push toward nuclear disarmament

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ErJ711JPY
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UNICEF calls for action to improve lives of over 100,000 children trapped in Aleppo

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL3HonOWje8
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New York boy donates 3D mobile lab

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMukRPYoGic
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Syrian regime jets hit Kurdish positions, even after US warning

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qGXklsWwNE
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Taliban militants capture Khan Abad district in northern Afghanistan

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uva5h3pIIm0
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German refugee quandary: Responding to terror attacks, Germany bans the burqa

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NNHXW5X21U
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Turkish parliament approves Israel reconciliation deal

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D39nbFOnXjU
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Organization pushing for yellow fever vaccinations

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3Q5XEEH31w
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Cities, counties flooded as typhoon hits Hainan

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z0ehG51_50
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Zika outbreak in Miami: US scientists seeks long-term prevention measures

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLkGdwNVxPg
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Five years after Baghdad attack, UN remembers some of its ‘best and bravest’

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UUSSaoF-Mw
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Russia carries out military exercise in Crimea

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVYTgYikBrk
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Artisan apparel: Express yourself in a cultured fashion

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhWvi3Qdtok
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China creates "Chinese Mode" of organ donation

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If7IOcElVjc
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DPRK: South Korea attempts to create a "warlike atmosphere"

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfWAi0alV2c
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South Korea stages drill to mark anniversary of artillery clash

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kT5Vf18mkY
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South Korean president sees dip in approval ratings

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2WpIHrOFUg
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Xi speaks with Suu Kyi to discuss contested dam project

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9ITnpoMaik
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Record 130 million people rely on humanitarian aid, UN chief calls for help

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t29zxFTQJY
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Rio 2016: Russian’s pole vaulter Isinbayeva retires, says God will judge IAAF

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXCYKr0B_ZQ
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IAAF rejects Chinese protests as Americans get 4x100 do-over

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai078-6jLyI
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Putin visits Crimea after Ukraine incursion claim

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tx6xlan48c
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Russia releases video of raids on Syria militants

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PncRiHb00o4
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Rio 2016: China’s women golfer Lin makes Olympic history with hole-in-one shot

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI8F151tWOI
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Syria crisis: Russia denies bombing Aleppo’s Qaterji district

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjB5tX6Vw8g
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Rio 2016: Ryan Lochte’s apology accepted by Olympic organizers

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnr8HbQb-9c
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Exclusive: Interview with Chinese men’s doubles badminton champs

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zegjz_mPL7A
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Rio 2016: Usain Bolt wins his triple-triple, grabs relay title for Jamaica

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdcpT_ZvFd4
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Rio 2016: China beat Malaysia to win men's doubles badminton gold

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UISmkRGu3k
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Rio 2016: Russia captures team synchronized swimming gold for fifth straight Olympics

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSLhA9sk_lM
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Rio 2016: Spain wins gold in women's badminton singles

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ8SgemQhF0
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Salesforce.com: Where Ambition Has Its Price

Surge of M&A deals, with a pricey attempt at LinkedIn, sparks worries that cloud company’s growth is slowing.

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Donald Trump loses his second campaign chief in two months

IN THE foreign policy speech he delivered on August 15th Donald Trump promised to institute “extreme vetting” of anyone seeking to migrate to or visit America. Yet the embarrassing demise, amid scandal, of his second campaign chief in two months does not inspire much confidence in Mr Trump’s abilities on this front. On August 19th Paul Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign, a few days after he had been sidelined as in an emergency shake-up.

Slick as wet paint, Mr Manafort is a vastly experienced political operator who cut his teeth working on Gerald Ford’s presidential campaign in 1976. He had got to know Mr Trump in the lobby of the tycoon’s eponymous Manhattan skyscraper, Trump Tower; Mr Manafort happened to rent an apartment there. He was hired in March to work on Mr Trump’s delegate strategy for the Republican National Convention, then given overall charge after the campaign’s previous boss, Corey Lewandowski, was sacked, also amid scandal.

Mr Lewandowski, a former police officer with limited previous experience of front-rank politics, had become embroiled in nasty rows with journalists, some of whom he...Continue reading

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Viacom's Soap Opera Will Have a Dramatic Sequel

Viacom’s leadership struggles are behind it, but there could be more pain ahead for investors.

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The Profit and Peril of Cancer Drugs

Cancer drugs have rightly generated significant investor excitement, but picking winners will be challenging.

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Oil Market Boost May Come from Venezuela, Not Algeria

The oil market has rallied in part due to optimism about an output freeze that could be agreed on next month in Algeria, but Venezuela’s descent into chaos may be the most bullish development for prices.

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UAE students look to boost careers by learning Chinese

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwoFZEpeH-E
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China's organ transplantation reform lauded at International Congress of The Transplantation Society

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkyi_JcO2gU
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Expecting mother unexpectedly delivers baby in train toilet in SW China

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q0H8tg31os
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Chinese President Xi Jinping meets Myanmar’s Suu Kyi

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dUxH_i9n0Y
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Malaysian Lee Chong Wei beats Chinese badminton player Lin Dan in men's semi-finals

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VaolE8xCBE
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Rio 2016: US swimmer fined for fabricating robbery story

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62EkzpqFZ2c
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America is phasing out the federal use of private prisons

DURING the third season of “Orange is the New Black”, a Netflix series about female jailbirds, the federal facility housing the protagonist felons is taken over by a private prison company. Life at Litchfield penitentiary, never a walk in the park, quickly deteriorates as cartoonishly crass executives cut costs and crowd the prison to maximise profits. This fictional turn of events isn’t so far from reality. Over the past two decades, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has signed contracts with corporations to help accommodate inmates in the country with the largest prison population in the world. Of the 2.3m people behind bars in America, 193,000 are serving time in federal prisons. And of those, around 22,000 are housed in facilities run by for-profit companies.

On August 18th, Sally Yates, the deputy attorney-general, issued a curt memo announcing that the Department of Justice would begin limiting its dealings with private prisons. Three years ago, she noted, when America’s prison population was at its peak, private prisons filled...Continue reading

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German conservatives call for partial face veil ban

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YONfwhXo9LY
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Chinese Bank Shows How To Move Risks Around

As Chinese banks’ funding and profitability increasingly comes from less secure places, investors should tread carefully.

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Beijing approves Shenzhen-HK stock trading link

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCSwN_IhDiI
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New technology may prevent suicide bomb attacks

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZema0vU_ws
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World's highest and longest glass bridge to open in China

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reQP7c_8FnE
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Chinese navy conducts confrontation drill in Sea of Japan

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxREOl7L7LQ
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Chinese team takes top prize at Dota 2 tournament

from CCTV News http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujvRVT5EPFM
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