The Economist - 14 September 2024

Год выпуска: September 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: 80

How ugly will it get?

• After election night in America, complexity will meet conspiracy—with baleful results: leader, page 11, and briefing, page 17.
• The result is, apparently, written in the stars, page 21.
• Debating Donald Trump, Kamala Harris made him look out of his depth: Lexington, page 25.

America’s safest city

• How Boston reclaimed the streets, page 20.

Danger in the South China Sea

• Fresh fights over reefs and shoals test America's credibility, page 29, and leader, page 12.

Getting Europe to grow

• The best recommendations in the Draghi report are those that Europe finds most uncomfortable: leader, page 12, and analysis, page 60.
• The ideas are fine—but who will pay for them? Charlemagne, page 45- Europe’s corporate laggards, page 56.

Breast milk: the motherlode

• Remarkably, some of its constituents could treat cancer and other diseases, page 67.
• New baby formulas are getting better, page 68.

The world this week Politics

• Kamala Harris and Donald Trump held possibly their only televised debate of America’s presidential campaign. Ms Harris, the vice-president, put Mr Trump on the back foot; at times he seemed to be the incumbent defending his record. Polling suggested viewers thought Ms Harris performed better than her rival. Before the event opinion polls indicated the race was tightening, and that Ms Harris’s momentum was slowing.
• A few days before the debate Ms Harris received Dick Cheney’s endorsement for president. The former Republican vice-president warned that Mr Trump “can never be trusted with power again”.

Spoiler alert

• Michigan’s Supreme Court ruled that Robert F. Kennedy junior’s name must stay on the state’s ballot in November’s presidential election, even though he has withdrawn from the race to support Mr Trump. The contest between Ms Harris and MrTrump is tight in Michigan, a crucial swing state, and the inclusion of Mr Kennedy on the ballot could make a marginal difference.
• America, Britain, France and Germany imposed new sanctions on Iran for supplying Russia with ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine. The penalties include further restrictions on Iran Air’s flights to and from Europe. Antony Blinken, America’s secretary of state, has said that Russia is increasingly reliant on Iran and North Korea for weapons. Ahead of a visit to Kyiv by Mr Blinken, Joe Biden suggested he was looking for ways to allow Ukraine to use American long-range missiles against Russia.
• Russia said its forces had taken control of the town of Novo-hrodivka in eastern Ukraine, which lies just 12km (seven miles) from Pokrovsk, a strategic hub for Ukrainian troops. Ukraine targeted Moscow with another big drone attack, which killed one person and destroyed dozens of homes.
• Around 100,000 trade unionists and leftists protested across France against the appointment of Michel Barnier as prime minister. Emmanuel Macron gave the job to Mr Barnier, who hails from the centre-right, after two months of deadlock following July’s parliamentary election, at which left-wing parties won the most seats but fell far short of a majority.
• The German government announced a six-month crackdown on illegal migrants crossing its borders. The government thinks it can tighten border restrictions despite being in the EU’s Schengen free-movement area because of the security threat from Islamist extremists. The ruling coalition lost heavily in two recent state elections over immigration, which is also a big issue in the forthcoming election in Brandenburg.
• In Britain the new Labour government easily won a vote on a controversial policy to withdraw winter-fuel payments from all but the most needy pensioners. Some 9m of the 11m elderly people currently getting up to £300 ($392) a year to help with fuel costs will lose out. Only one Labour MP voted against the government, though plenty abstained. The government claims the measure is needed to fill holes in the public finances.
• Edmundo Gonzalez, the widely accepted winner of July’s presidential election in Venezuela , fled the country for Spain amid threats by the authorities to arrest him. The electoral commission and the courts have deemed that Nicolas Maduro won another term as president, despite the results being far from transparent.
• Alberto Fujimori, a strongman who ruled Peru between 1990 and 2000, died aged 86. In 1992 he sent tanks to shut down Peru’s Congress and governed as an autocrat for the following eight years. In 2009 he was sentenced to 25 years in jail for human-rights abuses and corruption; he ended up serving less than 15 of them.
• The chief of El Salvador’s police force was killed in a helicopter crash. He was escorting a former bank director who had been accused of embezzling $35m. Nayib Bukele, the president, said the crash was suspicious and ordered an investigation.
• Israel said it was “highly likely” that its troops “unintentionally” killed an American-Turkish woman at a protest in the occupied West Bank. Witnesses have questioned Israel’s claims. Israel withdrew from Jenin after a security operation that lasted nine days, during which 36 Palestinians were killed. Most of the dead were members of armed groups, but the Palestinian health ministry said children were also killed. Israel also struck a school in Gaza used by terrorists to plan attacks. Eighteen people were killed there, including six UN workers.
• A gun man from Jordan killed three Israelis at the Allenby Bridge border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan. Hamas did not claim responsibility for the attack but said it was a natural response to the war in Gaza.
• Nigeria’s secret police arrested and then released Joe Ajaero, a prominent union leader who had criticised the government’s decision to raise the price of petrol. Mr Ajaero said his pass port had been briefly confiscated. Critics have accused the government of stifling dissent following protests in recent weeks against corruption and the rising cost of living.
• Workers at Kenya’s main airport in Nairobi went on strike, disrupting travel across the region. They were protesting against the government’s plan to lease the airport to Adani, an Indian conglomerate, which they claim will cost jobs and harm the local economy. Kenya’s High Court had temporarily halted the deal in response to a legal challenge from NGOs.
• The Labor government in Australia said it wanted to ban young people up to the age of 16 from access to social media. It has started testing a programme that restricts those aged 16 and under from viewing pornographic sites. Experts warned that implementing age-verification checks was fraught with complications.
• Typhoon Yagi battered Vietnam. killing at least 197 people and leaving scores missing. Packing winds of 150kmh (92mph), it was the country’s worst storm in 30 years. Some 1.5m people in north Vietnam were left without electricity.

Great multitudes came to him

• Pope Francis continued his 12-day tour of South-East Asia. Around 600,000 worshippers attended a mass in East Timor, almost half the island’s 1.3m people. Papal masses have drawn far bigger crowds elsewhere but, as a share of the population, this week’s gathering is thought to be the largest ever.

The world this week Business

• Mario Draghi released his long-awaited report regarding European growth and competitiveness. Mr Draghi, who has been president of the European Central Bank and prime minister of Italy, focused on boosting innovation, calling for the EU’s countries to combine their research spending and create a new super-agency for advanced projects. As well as easing competition rules to enable consolidation, the report calls for the integration of capital markets. Mr Draghi said his recommendations were not a case of do or die, but rather one of do this, “or it’s a slow agony.”
• Underlining the problems with Europe’s competitiveness, Northvolt, which makes batteries for electric vehicles, said it would scale back its operations and suggested jobs would be lost. The Swedish company is adjusting in part to reduced demand for EVs, but it is also pausing its production of cathode active materials, essential elements for lithium-ion batteries. It will now have to import the materials from cheaper Chinese and South Korean rivals.
• A bout of consolidation beckoned in Europe’s financial sector, when UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest bank, declared a 9% stake in Commerzbank, Germany’s second-biggest lender, and expressed interest in increasing its holding. The German government recently decided to reduce its stake in the bank from 16.5% to 12%.
• The European Court of Justice ruled that Apple must pay €13bn ($14.3bn) in back taxes, overturning a lower court’s decision in 2020 that had dismissed the order from the European Commission. The case arose from the commission’s finding in 2016 that Apple benefited from an unlawful deal on corporate tax in Ireland, where it had established its European base. The company said the commission was “trying to retroactively change the rules” on corporate tax. In another victory for the commission, the EC) upheld a €2.4bn fine against Google from 2017 for pushing its own shopping search results over those of its competitors.
• In America another antitrust trial got under way against Google, this time for improperly using monopoly power to corner the market in digital advertising. Google denies the government’s claims, arguing that it competes “millisecond by millisecond” with rivals for ad revenues. The trial will last for several weeks.

Hello Mate

• Investors were unimpressed with Apple’s new iPhone 16, which can use artificial-intelligence features, though only some will be ready in 2025. In China Huawei launched the Mate XT, the world’s first tri-fold smartphone, which sells for a hefty $2,800.
• Southwest Airlines announced that its executive chairman would depart next year, one of the key demands made by Elliott Management, an activist hedge fund that plans to launch a proxy battle to shake up the company’s management. After a meeting America’s annual inflation rate fell sharply in August, to 2.5%, though core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, was surprisingly high. The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates for the first time in four years when it meets on September 18th.
• Following intense lobbying from Wall Street, the Fed said it would cut roughly in half the extra capital that America’s largest banks will be required to hold under new rules that fall under the Basel framework.
• between Elliott and the board Southwest said that six directors would also retire, in November, and four independent directors would be appointed. But the board reiterated its support for Bob Jordan, the chief executive, denying Elliott another of the scalps it wanted.
• The Bank of England also announced that it is watering down the rules.
• OPEC trimmed its forecasts and now thinks global demand for oil will grow by 2m barrels a day this year, which is still above the 1.4m b/d growth seen before the pandemic. Oil prices have tumbled to their lowest point this year. Brent crude is trading around $72 a barrel.
• A private crew of four astronauts flew 1,400km (870 miles) above Earth’s surface, the farthest humans have travelled in space apart from missions to the Moon, which is 384,000km away. The crew, led by Jared Isaacman, a businessman, flew in a SpaceX capsule and prepared for the first spacewalk by private citizens.

Always with us

• Tributes were paid to James Earl Jones, who died aged 93. The American actor had a long career in theatre and film but is best known as the voice of Darth Vader, for which he was first paid $7,000 in 1977. His baritone voice will live on. Mr Jones struck a deal with Disney, which owns the Star Wars franchise, to reconstruct his voice using Al for future films.

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