Bloomberg (September 30)
“The most violent protests in Hong Kong in almost 50 years pose a dilemma for President Xi Jinping: clear the streets and risk embedding anti-China sentiment in a city that has prized its relative freedom, or make concessions and appear weak at home.”
Tags: Anti-China sentiment, Concessions, Freedom, Hong Kong, Protests, Risk, Violent, Xi Jinping
Forbes (September 29)
Vladimir Putin might “move against the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia” in an attempt to further weaken NATO. “Given the West’s responses to Russia’s invasions of Georgia and Ukraine, Putin may well be tempted to make a series of probes, after slicing and dicing Ukraine. He won’t send in troops and armor, as he’s done in Ukraine, but he’ll see what unrest he can create to start ‘softening up’ the Balts to become political vassals of Moscow.”
Tags: Baltic, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moscow, Nato, Putin, Russia, Troops, Ukraine, Unrest
The Economist (September 27)
With the Scottish issue solved, the UK now turns to the sticky English question which gives Scottish representatives votes on English issues, without any reciprocity. “It is simply not fair to disadvantage English voters in this way. The system must be changed, ideally in a way that enhances democracy, buttresses the union and does not increase bureaucracy. Sadly, these aims clash.”
Tags: Bureaucracy, Democracy, Disadvantage, England, Reciprocity, Scotland, UK, Union, Voters
Washington Post (September 26)
“Before too long, district police officers on patrol are likely to have miniature, body-worn video cameras as part of their standard gear, in addition to badge, gun, handcuffs and nightstick. That welcome and timely measure… should go a long way to promoting better interactions between uniformed officers and civilians — and providing critical video evidence when things go wrong.”
Tags: Body-worn, Cameras, Civilians, Gear, Interactions, Patrol, Police officers, Uniform, Video evidence
Financial Times (September 25)
“Global gloom-mongers have something new to worry about – falling commodity prices. The closely watched Bloomberg Commodity index, which tracks 20 commodity prices, has dropped this week to a fresh four-year low.”
Tags: Bloomberg Commodity Index, Commodity prices, Falling, Global, Gloom, Lows, Prices
Euromoney (September)
“The security crisis brought on by the rise of Islamic State could turn Iran from pariah to much-needed partner to the west.” This places Iran “at a crossroads.” Will the nation chose to be “a resource-rich, rejuvenated success story, returned to the international fold and relied upon by western states as a stable force in an increasingly troubled region?” Or, instead, will it continue as “a recession-hit, bad loan-addled failure still barred from western trade and getting steadily, inexorably worse?” The view in Tehran is that it could go either way.”
Tags: Crossroads, Failure, Iran, Islamic State, Pariah, Partner, Recession, Resource-rich, Security crisis, Stable force, Tehran, Western trade
USA Today (September 24)
27 years after the Montreal Protocol placed restrictions on chlorofluorocarbons, “the ozone layer is beginning to heal and is on track toward full recovery by the middle of the century.” This suggests hope in the fight against global warming. “Collective international action, even at a time of global tensions, can head off environmental catastrophe. And the sooner action is taken, the better, because the atmosphere can take decades to recover.”
Tags: Atmosphere, Catastrophe, Chlorofluorocarbons, Collective action, Environment, Global warming, Montreal Protocol, Ozone, Recovery, Tension
Wall Street Journal (September 22)
“Global CO2 emissions increased to 35.1 billion metric tons in 2013, a new record and a 29% increase over a decade ago. Of the year-over-year carbon climb, China at 358 million metric tons jumped by more than the rest of the world combined and is responsible for 24.8% of emissions over the last five years.” Developing nations now account for nearly 60% of emissions, which means “that regardless of what the West does, poorer countries that are reluctant to sign agreements that impede economic progress hold the dominant carbon hand.”
Tags: Agreements, China, CO2, Developing nations, Economic progress, Emissions, Record, West
Institutional Investor (September 21)
The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) “will sell its entire book of hedge funds, including 24 direct interests and another six hedge-fund–of-fund stakes.” This could signal a sea change as other pension funds reevaluate the effectiveness of hedge funds, which have mushroomed to $3 trillion. “Last year on average, hedge funds returned 9 percent, which was 23.4 percentage points less than public market returns.”
Tags: CalPERs, Effectiveness, Hedge funds, Market, Pension funds, Reevaluate, Return
The Economist (September 20)
“The cost of halting Ebola’s spread is also rising exponentially. In August the World Health Organisation estimated that it would take nine months and cost $490m to contain Ebola. Now it reckons the cost has risen to over $1 billion. The longer the world prevaricates, the harder and costlier it will be to contain this outbreak.”
Tags: August, Containment, Cost, Ebola, Exponentially, Outbreak, Spread, WHO
