Iraqi and coalition forces launched the operation to liberate western Mosul, the most populated urban areas, from IS extremists on February 19. Since then the Iraqi forces have wrested back a series of neighbourhoods. Troops have also retaken the city’s airport, a sprawling military complex, the main government compound. The offensive is being waged from three directions advancing along …

  The Socialist candidate for the French presidency, Benoit Hamon, says he doesn’t believe in the ‘myth’ and “quasi-religion” of growth– it’s part of the “consumerist, productivist and materialist model” of development, he argues. That’s outside the economic mainstream, and many see those views as a symptom of the meltdown of the global left. But the just-released Global Happiness Report …

  The global smartphone market has seen better days, yet the industry underpins the hottest stocks in Asia’s best-performing sector this year. The MSCI Asia Pacific Infotech index is up almost 16 percent in 2017, outgunning the runner up (industrials) by just shy of 7 percentage points. And leading that sub-index, in dollar terms, are smartphone suppliers. What’s interesting is …