Berlin / AFP Four German police officers were wounded, some of them seriously, when a member of the far-right “Citizens of the Reich” group opened fire during a raid Wednesday, authorities said. The 49-year-old alleged gunman belonging to the so-called Reichsbuerger movement was also slightly injured in the exchange of gunfire in the Bavarian town of Georgensmuend and taken ...

  Manila / AFP Visiting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had praise for China on Wednesday, setting aside a maritime dispute as the combative leader reconfigures his country’s diplomatic alliances. The Asian giant was “good”, he said. “It has never invaded a piece of my country all these generations,” Duterte added in an apparent comparison to the Philippines’ former colonial ruler the ...

  Bangkok / AFP Thai “cyber-scouts” have flagged scores of websites for alleged royal defamation since the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and are monitoring all communication channels, a junta official said on Wednesday. A crackdown on perceived royal insults has been enforced following the king’s death last Thursday, which has plunged the nation into mourning for a beloved monarch. ...

  Hong Kong / AFP Hong Kong’s legislature again descended into chaos on Wednesday as pro-Beijing politicians blocked the swearing in of two new lawmakers who want a split from China, in an increasingly divided parliament. It comes as fears grow in the semi-autonomous city that Beijing is tightening its grip, fuelling an independence movement in Hong Kong. Wednesday saw rival ...

  Is Brexit unconstitutional? That’s the key issue in a suit argued this week before the High Court in London. What makes the question especially piquant is that Britain doesn’t have a single written constitution, but rather a complex tradition of constitutional law made up of principles, precedents and practices accrued over generations. Under those principles, the answer to whether ...

  A specter is haunting academia, the specter of specters — ghosts, goblins and “cultural appropriation” through insensitive Halloween costumes. Institutions of higher education are engaged in the low comedy of avoiding the agonies of Yale. Last October, the university was rocked to its 315-year-old foundations by the wife of a residential college master (a title subsequently expunged from Yale’s ...

  At the first presidential debate, Donald Trump said he would “absolutely” accept the outcome of the election as the will of the people. But that was before poor debate reviews rolled in and boasts of sexual assault surfaced, sending his campaign into a tailspin. Trump has since backtracked, claiming that the election might be stolen from him. And if ...

Urbanization has contributed hugely to economic and social development. Cities today represent 80% of global GDP. Urban areas have created livelihood avenues and made societies stronger. However, rapid urbanization has brought in its wake a host of formidable challenges. Some climate change and environmental problems are very urban-specific. Around 70% of the global population will be urban in the next ...

  Thomas Malthus was wrong for one simple reason. Humans have survived his 1798 forecast that growing populations wouldn’t be able to feed themselves because innovation and productivity gains allowed them to produce more and more with the same amount of labour and capital: Irrigation, fertilizers, higher-yielding plant species and mechanization have enabled farmers to grow 5 to 6 times ...

  With inflation in the euro zone starting to show signs of life, European Central Bank watchers are beginning to speculate about when quantitative easing might taper off. Germany’s Bundesbank, which has been uncomfortable with the bond-buying program from the get-go, is likely to be a leading advocate of scaling back purchases. But there are significant risks to moving too ...