August, 2017

• 16 August

  India bans ‘gold exports’ to plug trade loopholes

  Bloomberg India has banned the export of gold products with purity above 22 carats with immediate effect, a move that the industry sees as a way of curbing irregularities in the trade. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade issued a notice limiting shipments of jewelry, coins and medallions to 22 carats or below, without giving a reason. “The move may ...

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• 16 August

  Trump pivots back to blame ‘both sides’ for Virginia melee

  

  Bloomberg A day after belatedly faulting white supremacists for deadly clashes in Virginia, President Donald Trump returned to his controversial position that there was “blame on both sides” for the weekend violence — remarks that caught his own aides off-guard. “You had a group on one side that was bad, and you had a group on the other side that ...

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• 16 August

  ‘Slew of UK papers will not aid Brexit’

  

  Bloomberg Martin Schulz, the former head of the European Parliament who is leading Germany’s Social Democratic Party into next month’s election, said that the UK government risks further complicating Brexit negotiations by producing a series of position papers for the talks. Schulz, who’s trailing in his race to unseat Chancellor Angela Merkel, also signaled he wants to keep her handling ...

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• 16 August

  Suicide attack kills 7 soldiers near Baiji

  TIKRIT / Agencies Seven Iraqi soldiers were killed on Wednesday when a suicide attacker tried to infiltrate a security headquarters near the northern city of Baiji where IS is entrenched in nearby mountain areas, security sources said. Around five assailants attacked the compound where police and army troops are based. One blew up his explosives vest at the entrance while ...

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• 16 August

  Fear stalks Nairobi slum over Kenya vote impasse

  

  Bloomberg In a Nairobi slum named Lucky Summer, residents tell of being terrorized by men with dreadlocks wearing official Kenyan paramilitary uniforms who stalk the streets at night carrying machetes, clubs and guns. The troublemakers belong to the Mungiki, a criminal gang that played a key role in ethnic fighting that followed a contested 2007 vote and claimed at least ...

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• 16 August

  Jordan holds local elections in step to devolve powers

  AMMAN / Reuters Jordan held local elections on Tuesday in a move officials say will help devolve some powers to larger cities and underdeveloped rural regions but which critics say falls short of promised wider political reform. The countrywide municipal vote – the first since 2013 – is a stated bid by the government to bring wider grassroots democracy that ...

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• 16 August

  Libyan coastguard threatens Spanish migrant ship

  

  ABOARD THE GOLFO AZZURRO / Reuters The Libyan coastguard intercepted a humanitarian rescue ship in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, ordering it to sail to Tripoli or risk being targeted, a Reuters photographer aboard said. It was the latest in a series of incidents in which non-governmental organisations (NGOs), operating on the edge of Libyan waters to rescue migrants trying to ...

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• 16 August

  Turkey asks Germany to extradite coup suspect

  ANKARA / Reuters Turkey has asked Germany to extradite a theology lecturer suspected of playing a major role in last year’s failed coup, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday. Turkey sent a diplomatic note requesting the extradition of Adil Oksuz, who the government says was the “imam” of air force personnel who last year bombed parliament as part of ...

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• 16 August

  Why US hasn’t brought ‘fire and fury’ to North Korea

  

  As the world ponders the meaning of President Donald Trump’s threat of “fire and fury” on North Korea, it’s worth asking why his predecessors never took those steps to stop its nuclear program. When Bill Clinton was confronted with the threat of North Korea’s exit from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, he considered military force. But he ended up going for ...

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• 16 August

  There are many pitfalls to cutting low-skilled immigration

  

  President Donald Trump has thrown his support to the Cotton-Perdue bill to restrict legal immigration of low-skilled workers into the US by as much as 50 percent on the grounds it would raise the wages of American working families. That’s not what the economic evidence is showing, however. The only academically solid study of the impact of reducing legal immigration ...

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