October, 2016

• 19 October

  Duterte praises China on Beijing visit

  

    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 ...

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• 19 October

  Thais ‘scouts’ step up web surveillance after king’s death

    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. ...

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• 19 October

  Hong Kong pro-independence lawmakers blocked from taking oath

  

    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 ...

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• 19 October

  Legal case for Brexit is surprisingly European

  

    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 ...

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• 19 October

  Colleges should encourage — not suppress — a diversity of viewpoints

    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 ...

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• 19 October

  Donald Trump should be more like Richard Nixon

    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 ...

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• 19 October

  Greening of urbanization process crucial to growth

  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 ...

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• 19 October

  Global productivity gains may have slowed for good

  

    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 ...

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• 19 October

  The ECB can’t afford to risk a taper tantrum

  

    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 ...

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• 19 October

  China is poised to win most if the US withdraws

    Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have made clear, to varying degrees, that they’re suspicious of big free-trade agreements. Trump has gone further and questioned some of America’s most durable and valuable relationships with other nations. While some of this can be dismissed as campaign rhetoric, the consequences of such talk are far-reaching. At a time of major economic ...

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