Opinion

Time for Brazil to sharpen its diplomatic skills

After months of street protests and political revolt led Brazil’s legislature to suspend Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and put her on trial for fraud, it’s too early to say how the caretaker government will fare in her place. Little-loved interim President Michel Temer will be contending with both the fallout from the country’s toxic corruption scandal and a record economic ...

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Leaving Europe is a risk UK should avoid

  The British electorate does not need Americans to tell them how to vote in the June 23 referendum, and I wouldn’t dare try. I have always had great admiration for the British people — and great respect for the country’s democratic traditions. But from across the Atlantic, we Yanks are watching the campaign closely — and many of us ...

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Fed’s view on interest rates is faulty and scary

  Ramesh Ponnuru Interest rates are on the way up, and policy makers at the Federal Reserve want to dispel any doubts you have about it. In the minutes from the Fed’s latest meeting, “most participants” said that raising rates in June “likely would be appropriate” if the economy continues to improve. Presidents of two of the regional Feds said ...

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Vietnam’s lethal traffic takes toll

  Vietnamese traffic: locals know it; everyone complains about it. Tourists photograph it and share their experiences back home. But for pedestrians, crossing the streets can be a daunting affair. Vietnam has made great strides economically. But amid the soaring economy and rise in tourism, roads and traffic policing have not kept pace with the increasing number of vehicles on ...

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Taking the fight to the IS

Amid hedgerows of computer screens in the joint operations center that runs the war against the IS, Marine Brig. Gen. Bill Mullen explains the complex assault that drove the extremist fighters last week from the strategic town of Rutbah at the western edge of Anbar province. The battle showed how the campaign against the IS, which has had a slow ...

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Japan’s currency move needs wariness

  Japan’s plan to tame bullish Yen to sensitise its exports has drawn criticism from G7 ministers’ meeting, which brought together finance ministers and central bank governors from Britain, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Japan and the US, plus leaders from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and European Union. Tokyo’s repeated threats to intervene in forex markets to reverse a ...

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China’s on-again, off-again P2P lending

Sara Hsu SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS China’s peer-to-peer (P2P) lending sector has witnessed expansion in recent years, despite periodic clampdowns on excessive risk. This has led to on-again, off-again surges in activity in this shadow banking sector. In some cases, criminal activity has highlighted the perils of borrowing or lending through this industry, but the loan availability for borrowers and ...

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As Obama heads to Vietnam, he must keep human rights in mind

Vu Minh Khanh was in Washington last week to address a congressional hearing. As the wife of the respected Vietnamese human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, she vividly recalled her husband’s ordeal. He has been missing ever since he was arrested last December. She knows he is in police custody but is unaware of his whereabouts and fears for his ...

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Trump already damaging US alliances

  The U.S.-Japan and U.S.-ROK alliances have survived the Cold War, drastic regime change, and global economic turmoil, but can they withstand a full-on assault by U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump? Trump’s fiery, and even racist, rhetoric has U.S. allies worried about the future direction of U.S. foreign policy and presence in East Asia. When examining alliances, scholars and alliance ...

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Your smartphone may soon be a virtual theater

  Google’s annual developers’ conference, known as the I/O, has now become what Apple’s events have ceased to be: A window into the near future of consumer tech. This year’s event revealed two important bets Google is making for the post-smartphone era. The short version of Google’s (for the sake of convenience I will keep calling it that rather than ...

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