Sánchez: “You may have heard that Spain is alone. They’re the same people who said that when we recognized the State of Palestine, and then others followed.
“We are not alone — we are the first. Those who will end up alone are the ones defending the indefensible.”
Counterpoint: this is a strategy.
No question that some of these ppl are truly incompetent but in the aggregate the tactic of being a bully in the public eye, getting pushed back, then coming back to say that they made a mistake is something we have seen in Italy for 20 years.
Dull, cheap fascism.
“More than 20 million HIV-positive people like Samkelo no longer knew when their next dose of antiretrovirals would come. Already, since January 24, at least 15,000 premature deaths have occurred because of the funding gap, according to a Pepfar tracker set up to monitor the impact.”
Plot showing Germany's international investment position vis-à-vis China and the US.
"German election frontrunner warns of ‘great risk’ for companies investing in China"
☝️ FT headline about Merz warning German companies against high-risk foreign exposure.
Reality check: If over-exposure to high-risk, 'extractive institution' places worries you, perhaps 🇨🇳 is not the 🐘 in the room?
USAID matters. I've often disagreed with their strategy and choices, but their work saves more lives than any philanthropy can. It's a rounding error in the federal budget, and one of the best things we do as a country. To see it destroyed overnight by one unelected man is an unmitigated horror.
this washes away any residual doubt. the real motivation behind Meta’s policy changes isn’t some misguided conception of free speech, it’s just discrimination.
oh come on. black rock, black plague, black fossil fuels
@katemac.bsky.social www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/glo...
adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...
dumm, dümmer, cdu
“This is an ongoing game of Russian roulette,” says physician Nahid Bhadelia, founding director of the CEID. “The more virus there is in our environment, the more chances there are for it to come into contact with humans.” It was only a matter of time before bird flu turned deadly, she says.
With everything moving to the right (?), what's left for the social democratic left? More than you may think, and there's no one better to explain that than Silja Häusermann, who talks about her new 📚 on the #politicalScienceNoProblemEtAl podcast 🎙️
"China’s households have some of the world’s highest savings rates, partly because of the need to save for health emergencies and the lack of sufficient pensions, according to economists." Faced with economic challenges, there is ample opportunity for social policy reform to address inequalities.
Launched as a pilot program in late 2022, the private pension system will be expanded nationwide to help build China's third-pillar pension system. Under the pilot program alone, 60 million accounts have been opened. Yet, more ambitious policies will be needed to ease pressure on the public system.
More than one-third of employees aged 25 and over reported having higher education levels than required for their job. “The UK university system is under financial pressure because so many young people do not get that labour market value out of their degrees,” Andreas Schleicher added.
The best thing about BlueSky is not financing a sociopath.
"Society’s changing perception towards divorce marks a departure from traditional values, which emphasised staying together as a married couple no matter what and stigmatised divorce. Divorces in China are celebrated on social media as symbols of freedom, with netizens throwing divorce parties...."
Fascinating! Comparing historical air pollution levels in London and Beijing vividly illustrates how fast and compressed China's path to industrialization was, and how quickly China's policy shift to regulating air pollution translated into improvements in air quality - at least for Beijing.
"Be bold. Think long term. Get it right." Martin Wolf on the much-needed overhaul of the UK's pension, faced w low saving rates and inefficiencies. "The only credible vehicle ... is higher standard pension contributions, ideally to at least double today’s 8 per cent, at least for the better paid."
The World Bank is “puzzled” about under-investment in clean energy when they could just simply read “The Price is Wrong.” on.ft.com/4i1A82U
Spain's Minister of Consumer Affairs is doing God's work!
"The ministry said it was also banning some of the practices for which the airlines were penalised, including charging extra fees for carrying hand luggage on to the aeroplane and reserving adjacent seats for children or other dependants."
Some plateauing of growth, but we basically tied record activity levels again yesterday!
Investors placed nearly $40bn of orders to buy $2bn of bonds issued by China at yields only marginally above equivalent US Treasuries. The sale took place in Saudi Arabia-a break with a tradition of issuing bonds in HK- in a sign of Beijing’s push for closer financial links with the kingdom.
