Moscow / AFP Russia and Egypt will hold joint military drills involving airborne troops on Egyptian soil for the first time this month, the Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday. “The joint Russian-Egyptian drills will happen in mid-October 2016 on the territory of Egypt,” it said, without specifying their start date. The drills, called “Protectors of Friendship-2016”, will include 500 ...

  Beijing / AFP China and Russia blasted Washington on Tuesday for its decision to deploy a missile defence system in South Korea in response to Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. Speaking at the 7th annual Xiangshan regional defence forum in Beijing, top military officials from the countries said the move by Seoul and Washington represented a threat to regional stability and was ...

  Lashkar Gah / AFP Afghanistan has deployed hundreds of commandos backed by NATO air strikes in Lashkar Gah to drive Taliban insurgents from the southern city after the militants killed 14 people in a coordinated attack, officials said on Tuesday. The assault Monday marked the insurgents’ latest attempt to seize the capital of Helmand province, underscoring unravelling security as ...

  Karbala / AFP Thousands of Iraqi security personnel guarded areas in and around Karbala on Tuesday to protect hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims flocking to the shrine city for annual mourning rituals. Shiites in Iraq have come under frequent attack by extremists of the IS group who still control some territory in Anbar province, to the west of ...

  This year’s economics Nobel Prize has gone to Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström, for their work on the theory of contracts. For good primers on the winners and their work, check out the blog of economist Kevin Bryan, several posts by the always-reliable Marginal Revolution, and the summary written by Bloomberg View’s Tyler Cowen. The research here is deep ...

  In Washington on Sunday night, the popcorn was popped, the pitchers of election-themed cocktails given a final stir. And then a hush fell over the city as the streets emptied and the professional political class gathered huddled around screens to find out whether Donald Trump would somehow rescue his improbable campaign, or whether he would pound the final nails ...

  It’s election season, so it’s time to bemoan low voter turnout. Americans do not vote in numbers comparable to the citizens of other democracies, we’re often reminded. Then the laments start: Low turnout is a sad commentary on the state of the republic. This year could be even sadder because many people don’t like either of the main parties’ ...

  Taliban insurgency continues as does Afghanistan’s dependence on foreign aid. At a recent conference in Brussels, international donors — comprising 70 countries — pledged $15.2 billion to the war-wracked nation for the next four years. NATO members are maintaining troop numbers in Afghanistan and have vowed to fund the Afghan forces with $5 billion annually until 2020. The US ...

  Growth-wise, the world seems to be in a little bit of a rut. Oh, sure, we’re OK. We just don’t seem to be going much of anywhere. Global production has recovered somewhat since the catastrophe of the financial crisis, but it didn’t bounce back entirely. Instead, we’re staggering along at a noticeably lower rate of growth, both abroad and ...

  Science fiction author William Gibson once observed that “The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.” The same can said for alpha, or the ability of money managers to deliver market-beating returns. Reports of high fees and underperformance have long dogged the alternative investment world, mainly private-equity, venture-capital and especially hedge funds. Last year, returns were negative ...