Bloomberg Italy’s League leader Matteo Salvini and ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi pledged to remain united after a virulent clash over relations with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, with the prospect of a pop- ulist Five Star-League government alarming investors. Center-right alliance leaders Salvini, Berlusconi and Giorgia Meloni of the far-right Brothers of Italy party said in a joint statement after meeting ...
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New Peru leader calls for end to ‘hate and confrontation’
Bloomberg Martin Vizcarra assumed Peru’s highest office pledging to end the political confrontation that forced his predecessor to quit while maintaining economic stability and fighting corruption. The 55-year-old engineer-turned-politician called for unity to recover governability and the trust of Peruvians, in a national address after being sworn in as president in Congress. He signalled he would appoint a new finance ...
Read More »The real cyberthreat to US
“This alert (from the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation) provides information on Russian government actions targeting US Government entities as well as organizations in the energy, nuclear, commercial facilities, water, aviation and critical manufacturing sectors†— Joint DHS and FBI memorandum, March 15, 2018 One curiosity of the cyber age is that the American public ...
Read More »Fed’s dots are knocking on Asia’s doors
Jerome Powell’s debut rate-setting meeting as Federal Reserve chairman had few surprises. The quarter-percentage-point increase in the target for overnight US interest rates was expected. An added relief was policymakers’ decision to leave their median forecast for end-2018 rates unchanged. Yet the all-important dot-plot—committee members’ individual expectations—are telling Asia something more worrying. A possible fourth rate hike in 2018 hasn’t ...
Read More »Uber’s self-driving casualty
History will probably remember Elaine Herzberg for a tragic reason: She’s thought to be the first pedestrian ever killed by an autonomous vehicle. Herzberg was struck by a self-driving Uber last week in Arizona, apparently stepping off a median and into traffic too quickly for the car’s sensors to detect her. Even Uber’s safety driver—the human backup sitting behind the ...
Read More »US and EU can make trade ties great again
Just when the European Union seemed to have recovered some of its free-trade zeal, it now faces the prospect of a mutually destructive trade war with its biggest economic partner, the US. Escalation has risks for both sides. The US from counter-tariff measures and the EU from a fragmented response as some member states are tempted to accept US offers ...
Read More »What the public needs and doesn’t from Facebook now
The public is set to hear from Mark Zuckerberg soon to address the latest company crisis. Given how Facebook has mishandled its response so far, the company’s boss could use some advice. Here’s what no one needs from Zuckerberg: A pledge to “do better” or an attempt to recast Facebook as the victim of the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. ...
Read More »Want to stop the climate change? Take ‘em to court
Climate change is profoundly unfair: By failing to address it, today’s leaders are imposing what could prove to be an unbearable burden on future generations. But how can they be made to recognize the danger and act? Using the US legal system, a group of children has found a novel way to do so. The 2015 Paris Agreement on reducing ...
Read More »Use your brain; artificial intelligence won’t soon replace it
Nectome promises to preserve the brains of terminally ill people in order to turn them into computer simulations — at some point in the future when such a thing is possible. It’s a startup that’s easy to mock. Just beyond the mockery, however, lies an important reminder to remain skeptical of modern artificial intelligence technology. The idea behind Nectome is ...
Read More »ECB acts to ensure glitch-free journey to smooth QE end
Bloomberg The European Central Bank is making sure its bond-buying program doesn’t run into any problems in Germany in the final stretch. Six months before purchases are currently set to expire, the ECB added seven German regional development agencies to the list of institutions whose debt is eligible for quantitative easing. The expansion was done at the request of the ...
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