|
Год выпуска: April 2024
Автор: The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group
Жанр: Экономика/Политика
Издательство: «The Economist Newspaper Ltd»
Формат: PDF (журнал на английском языке)
Качество: OCR
Количество страниц: 76
CHINA'S RISKY REBOOT
- Xi Jinping is engineering an industrial revolution to escape economic stagnation. It will backfire: leader, page 7.
- How China's leaders plan to overtake America, page 57.
- Mr Xi wants to woo back foreign business, page 49.
- China asked countries to focus on interests, not values. Careful what you wish for: Chaguan, page 32.
Trump and nuclear deterrence
- Donald Trump’s threat to dump allies would risk a free-for-all: leader, page 8, and briefing, page 12.
- Two books examine modern nuclear weaponry and the global annihilation it could bring about, page 67.
Latin America’s right-wingers
- Their movement is not built on fears of migration, but on traditional morals, opposition to socialism and a tough line on crime, page 21.
Why India’s elite loves Modi
- Unlike other strongmen, his support among the better educated runs deep, page 24.
More cures from weight-loss drugs
- Blockbuster anti-obesity medicines could also help treat many other diseases, page 63.
The world this week Politics
- An Israeli strike killed seven aid workers in Gaza. A drone fired missiles at the car convoy of World Central Kitchen, a charity that has worked closely with Israel in recent months. Its route had been cleared with the Israeli army. Six of the seven were foreign aid-workers, thought to be the first to die in the Gaza war (around 200 aid workers have been killed). Their deaths provoked a furious international response. Joe Biden said that Israel “has not done enough to protect aid workers”. Binyamin Netanyahu acknowledged the “tragic event” in Gaza but said “this happens in war.” WCK said it was pausing its operations in Gaza, as have other NGOs.
- In Syria a suspected Israeli air strike hit the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus. Seven people were killed, including General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the Quds Force, the expeditionary wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. He was the highest-rankinglranian commander to be assassinated since America killed Qassem Suleimani with a drone strike in January 2020.
- Benny Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet, called for an earlyelection to be held in September to “renew trust” in the government. Earlier, tens of thousands of people marched in Jerusalem calling forthe removal of Mr Netanyahu as prime minister.
- Uganda’s Constitutional Court upheld a law that imposes long prison sentences for “promoting homosexuality” and the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”. It struck down some sections of the law, such as a duty to report gay people to the police.
- Human-rights groups accused Russia’s Wagner mercenaries of assisting government forces in drone strikes and attacks that have killed large numbers of civilians in Mali. The country’s political parties and NGOs have called on the military government running the country to draw up a timetable for a return to democracy, after missing a deadline in 2022 and then breaching a promise to hand over to civilian rule by the end of March this year.
Rolexgate
- Police raided the home of Peru’s president, Dina Boluarte, in their search for evidence relating to the origin of her Rolex watches. Ms Boluarte is being investigated for allegedly enriching herself while in office. She denies wrongdoing and described the raid as “abusive”. But six ministers abruptly resigned, throwing hergovernment into crisis.
- President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, held what both sides described as a “candid and constructive” phone call. The leaders discussed areas of co-operation, such as counternarcotics and climate change. But they disagreed on Taiwan and trade, among other things.
- China stirred up tensions with India again by designating Chinese names to 30 places in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which lies in the foothills of the Himalayas. China claims the area is part of South Tibet. America said it opposed any attempt by China “to advance territorial claims” on the region.
- Thailand’s reformist Move Forward party came a step closer to being outlawed, after the Constitutional Court decided to hear a case that seeks to ban it. The court has already ruled that the party’s policy of reforming the law to allow criticism of the monarchy is unconstitutional. Move Forward won a general election last year, but it was blocked from taking power by the royalist-army establishment.
- Taiwan was hit by an earthquake of magnitude 7.4, the country’s strongest in 25 years. Most of the damage was in Hualien county, on the east coast. At least nine people were killed and a thousand injured.
- Less than a year after it lost heavily in a general election, Turkey’s opposition came roaring back to life in local elections. The Republican People’s Party (CHP), which is on the centre-left, received 38% of the total vote compared with 36% for the ruling Justice and Development (AK) party. The vote is seen as a rebuke to Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his handling of the economy. Since his re-election as president last May, annual inflation has soared to 68.5%.
- Meanwhile, at least 29 people died in a fire at a nightclub in Istanbul. The casualties were mostly workers who were renovating the building during the day.
- In Germany new laws that relax the use of cannabis came into force. People can carry up to 25 grams of the weed and grow three plants at home. But they can’t smoke it near schools or in pedestrian zones.
- Ukraine carried out a drone attack on an oil refinery in the Russian republic of Tatarstan, which also houses factories that produce drones for Russia to attack Ukraine. The target was around 1,300km (800 miles) inside Russian territory, the farthest strike that Ukraine has made across the border. Meanwhile a new law was signed in Ukraine that lowers the mobilisation age from 27 to 25, allowing the armed forces to expand the draft.
- Mike Johnson, the speaker of America’s House of Representatives, suggested that a vote on a bill that provides military aid to Ukraine and Israel would be held soon. The bill passed the Senate but has stalled in the House because of opposition from Republicans. Mr Johnson wants to tie his party’s support for the aid to concessions from Democrats on things like lifting a moratorium on new liquefied naturalgas facilities, and hinted that some of the aid will be a loan.
- Florida’s Supreme Court ruled that a state ban on abortion six weeks after conception could come into force next month. But it also sent the matter to voters by approving a ballot measure for November’s general election that would restore the right to an abortion up to 23-24 weeks into a pregnancy. The issue will resonate throughout the South. Women from Georgia, Texas and elsewhere have travelled to Florida for the procedure after their states banned it.
Big Brother is listening
- Scotland’s controversial hatecrime law came into effect, making it illegal to use “threatening or abusive” behaviour to stir up hatred against people on the basis of certain characteristics, such as being transgender. The law is opposed by many, including J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk, for curtailing free speech. The head of the Scottish Police Federation says it is unworkable because people won’t understand it. Police Scotland was criticised for a bizarre “hate monster” awareness campaign. Within the first few days 4,000 complaints of hate were reportedly registered under the law online.
The world this week Business
- Disney saw off an epic proxy challenge from Nelson Peltz at its annual general meeting. Through Trian, his hedge fund, Mr Peltz was seeking two seats on the company’s board to “restore the magic”,claiming that poor management and box-office failures have contributed to the underperformance of Disney’s share price. But Bob Iger, the chief executive, fought an extensive campaign defending his turnaround strategy, which won the support of BlackRock, the Disney family and George Lucas, a film producer. Mr Peltz reportedly received just 31% of the vote for his claim to a seat.
- Tesla delivered 386,810 vehicles worldwide in the first quarter of 2024, a decrease of 8.5% year on year and its first quarterly decline on that basis since 2020. Investors, already rattled by slowing growth in the electric-vehicle industry, punished Tesla’s stock. Figures from other carmakers were mixed. Ford and Hyundai reported a big rise in EV sales in America, and General Motors announced a sharp decline.
- Despite the fall in deliveries, Tesla reclaimed its crown as the world’s biggest seller of EVs, after BYD sold just 300,000 pure-electric vehicles in the first quarter. That is farbelow the more than 526,000 that BYD shifted in the last three months of 2023, when it overtook Tesla in sales.
- Xiaomi entered China’s fiercely competitive EV market when it started selling its new SU7 four-door sedan, which has a lower-than-expected starting price of $30,000. The Chinese tech company is better known for its smartphones. It took nearly 90,000 orders for the car over 24 hours, though customers may have to wait up to seven months for a delivery.
A meeting of minds
- America and Britain signed an accord to “build a common approach” on ensuring the safety of artificial intelligence, the first agreement of its kind in the world. Although America has far more AI startups, Britain is home to Deep-Mind, a developer of neural networks that is owned by Google. Britain opened its AI Safety Institute last November. America’s parallel institute is still being organised.
- Microsoft decided to sell its Teams chat application separately from its Office 365 suites around the world. It unbundled the products in Europe last year to avert an antitrust fine from the European Commission.
- Sam Bankman-Fried insisted that “I never thought that what I was doing was illegal,” after he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud at FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange he founded that collapsed in 2022.
- The sentencing judge said that Mr Bankman-Fried had committed perjury during his testimony to the court, and shown no remorse for his actions.
- SLB. the world’s biggest provider of oilfield services, agreed to buy Champion X, which specialises in production chemicals and artificial lift solutions, such as jet pumps. It is the biggest acquisition by SLB, formerly known as Schlumberger, since 2016.
- The price of natural gas in Europe fell, after it was reported that gas-storage in the EU was around 60% full, a record high for this time of year. That will rise in the coming warmer months as gas supplies are replenished. Two years ago Europe faced soaring gas prices amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and low storage levels. The price of TFF, Europe’s benchmark gas contract, now trades around €25 ($27) per megawatt hour compared with €56 a year ago.
- Oil prices reached five-month highs, amid concerns about conflict in the Middle East and attacks on Russian refineries. Brent crude traded close to $90 a barrel.
- The euro zone’s annual inflation rate fell to 2.4% in March, closer to the European Central Bank’s target of 2%.
- “Today we begin again,” said General Electric, as it completed its transition to three stand-alone companies, each listed separately on the stock-market. GE Aerospace houses jet engines and aviation services, GE Vernova is the energy business, focusing on wind and gas turbines, and GE Health-Care supplies imaging, ultrasound and IT systems to hospitals. Founded in 1892, GE no longer exists as a conglomerate. Larry Culp, GE’s boss, is now CEO of GE Aerospace.
Mr Trump’s business model
- The share price of Trump Media, Donald Trump’s socialmedia platform, slumped after it revealed a huge drop in quarterly revenue and a yearly net loss. Trump Media only recently went public on the stock-market. In a regulatory filing the company’s auditors noted that there is “substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern” Meanwhile MrTrump is embroiled in a legal fight with two founders of the business, claiming they shouldn’t receive shares in it.
скачать журнал: The Economist - 6 April 2024
|
