Los Angeles Times (May 14)
“Judges on Europe’s highest court may have thought they were striking a blow for individual privacy when they ruled Tuesday that search engines could be ordered to stop linking to sensitive or older information about people online, even if it had been lawfully published. Instead, they were creating an entitlement to censor history, or at least to make parts of the public record harder to find.”
Tags: Censor, Europe, History, Judges, Law, Links, Privacy, Public record, Search engines
5/14 Issue
There is near certainty to “the collapse of the giant West Antarctica ice sheet,” but the inevitable won’t happen overnight. The Washington Post observes the massive impact on global sea levels won’t be fully felt for the 200 years or more the collapse takes to unfold.
A boom year in M&A also looks fairly certain. Institutional Investor reports that “global deals this year have already hit $1 trillion as of the end of March, one of the highest quarterly levels since 1998 and almost double the level announced for the same period a year ago.”
Less certain is the “business sense” to Pfizer’s proposed takeover. The Financial Times urges AstraZeneca’s directors to proceed with caution as Pfizer has destroyed tremendous value through previous mergers.
The world would, however, benefit if the pharmaceutical industry could unleash some new antibiotics. The last new class was introduced nearly three decades ago. The New York Times observes that both standard and last-resort antibiotics are increasingly failing due to growing resistance.
Thailand offers another immediate crisis. The country has been all but rent in half and, according to the Economist, now stands at an “abyss.” It’s been a stunning reversal of fortunes for a country that was once held up as an exemplar of success.
The U.S. may be more stable, but its K-12 education program is under-performing counterparts worldwide. Some of the problem may be teacher pay, but the Washington Post asserts a solution must involve the “selectivity of education programs, the rigor of their preparation and the continuing education and feedback they receive.”
And the Wall Street Journal reports that Tokyo topped New York, London, Shanghai and other major cities, becoming the world’s largest commercial real estate market during the first quarter of 2014. Transactions surpassed $10 billion, increasing more than 70%.
****
To see the overseas media’s takes on these and other developments, you can browse Global News highlights below and also at http://www.irken.jp/gn/. Links to the original sources are provided above, but please note these are frequently updated. Links that were valid at publication may later be broken.
Washington Post (May 13)
“The collapse of the giant West Antarctica ice sheet is underway.” It will be massive, but it won’t be rapid. The apparently “unstoppable” melt could raise sea levels “up to 12 feet,” but it will take anywhere from two centuries to a millennium to fully transpire.
Financial Times (May 12)
There’s little obvious business sense to Pfizer’s proposed takeover of AstraZeneca. Strategically, there’s not much to be gained aside from effecting a change of tax domicile. “Pfizer’s dealmaking history is moreover a deeply dispiriting one…. Despite having spent some $240bn on three big acquisitions since 2000, its market capitalisation is just $185bn today. Meanwhile the Dow Jones index is more than 40 per cent higher.” AstraZeneca’s directors must proceed warily. This is about more than the potential short-term profit to existing shareholders.
Tags: Acquisitions, AstraZeneca, Dealmaking, Directors, Dow Jones, Market-cap, Pfizer, Profit, Shareholders, Short term, Strategy, Takeover, Tax domicile
New York Times (May 11)
“Antibiotics have transformed medicine and saved countless lives over the past seven decades. Now, rampant overuse and the lack of new drugs in the pipeline threatens to undermine their effectiveness.” The last new class of antibiotics emerged in 1987. Today both standard-treatment and last-resort antibiotics often fail due to growing resistance in germs and bacteria.
Tags: Antibiotics, Bacteria, Drugs, Effectiveness, Germs, Lives, Medicine, Overuse, Pipeline, Resistance
The Economist (May 10)
“Long in crisis, Thailand is close to the brink. Without compromises on both sides, it may well collapse.” Thailand has fallen hard. Not long ago, it was a “shining example” of democracy with its booming economy. Now “everything is broken.” The latest blow came when a court dismissed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and nine cabinet members in what is being viewed by many as a political intervention. The country remains split in two politically. “The irreconcilable differences between the two sides have swallowed up Thailand’s courts, its army and even the monarchy—and left Thailand at the abyss.”
Tags: Army, Brink, Broken, Cabinet, Collapse, Compromise, Courts, Crisis, Democracy, Economy, Monarchy, Politics, Prime minister, Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra
Wall Street Journal (May 9)
“Driven by a surge in international interest, total commercial property transactions in Tokyo jumped 71% to $10.1 billion from the same period last year, leaping above New York and London.” Tokyo’s commercial real estate market was the largest in the world during the first quarter of 2014. This marked “the first time the Japanese capital has topped an ongoing survey of the world’s major cities launched a decade ago.”
Tags: Commercial property, Japan、New York, London, Market, Real estate, Surge, Tokyo, Transactions
Institutional Investor (May 8)
M&A appears poised to hit new highs. “Announced global deals this year have already hit $1 trillion as of the end of March, one of the highest quarterly levels since 1998 and almost double the level announced for the same period a year ago. The trend is reaching across industries and regional markets.” Several factors are driving the boom? M&A “reduces the uncertainty as to how surplus capital will get put to work and, with the cost of capital so low, raises the odds that acquisitions can boost future earnings growth.”
Tags: Acquisitions, Cost of capital, Earnings growth, Global deals, M&A, Surplus capital, Uncertainty
Washington Post (May 8)
“If you look around the world at nations that are now outperforming the United States on international tests, it is not hard to figure out the differences between their vastly improved educational systems and ours. It is not simply the pay of teachers that matters but the selectivity of education programs, the rigor of their preparation and the continuing education and feedback they receive.”
Tags: Education, Feedback, Nations, Outperforming, Pay, Preparation, Programs, Rigor, Selectivity, Teachers, Tests, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (May 7)
“Good political news is scarce in Latin America these days, so it’s worth noting the upset victory on Sunday by Vice President Juan Carlos Varela in Panama’s presidential election.” This anti-corruption underdog prevailed against the former mayor of Panama City, the incumbent’s hand-picked successor who had already made moves to subvert the constitution. “The real victor is Panama’s young democracy.”
Tags: Anti-corruption, Constitution, Democracy, Incumbent, Juan Carlos Varela, Latin America, Panama, Politics, Presidential election, Underdog, Upset, Victory
