Canada

September 29, 2020

Coronavirus: failure and a modicum of success?

The daily number of Covid-19 cases in the US has been relentlessly high, yet Canada has seen a marked fall in the number of daily infections. On Saturday the United States reported…

July 17, 2017

The interests of nations determine economic alliances

Britain be warned: Donald Trump is beginning to understand that US interests are far greater in a market of 500 million people than 80 million, writes Geoff Kitney. So just who are…

February 16, 2017

Canada and the EU tie the knot

The European Union is opening the doors to freer trade at precisely the moment that free trade is under the most serious threat since the Great Depression, writes Geoff Kitney Amid an…

Over half a million Palestinians waiting to see what's left of their homes
It’s thought well over half a million Palestinians in southern Gaza have been waiting to return to see what’s left of their homes in the North. Israel says that can now happen. But it looks chaotic. On the main road heading north, thousands of families who have camped at the gate for days have begun moving on foot laden with whatever possessions they can carry. But with much of northern Gaza in ruins after intense Israeli bombardment, many will discover they don’t have homes to go to. Israel agreed to allow people to move north after Hamas said it would release three hostages on Thursday, including a 28-year-old civilian, Arbel Yehud. It’s thought she is being held by the group Islamic Jihad. A further three hostages will be released on Saturday in exchange for scores of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. BBC news, January 27

Tensions flare in Lebanon and Gaza
Fragile cease-fires in Lebanon and Gaza were put to the test yesterday. In Southern Lebanon, Israeli forces killed or injured scores of people, Lebanese officials said, and in Gaza, Israel prevented thousands of uprooted Palestinians from moving back to their homes, saying Hamas had violated the terms of their truce, including by not adhering to the agreed order of hostage releases. By the end of the day, however, Israel and Hamas said understandings had been reached via mediators to resolve their dispute, and the White House issued a statement indicating that in Lebanon, an arrangement for an initial 60-day truce would be extended until February 18. Negotiators had hoped that the cease-fire in Lebanon would become permanent by now, securing a measure of calm in a turbulent region. Thousands of Lebanese displaced by the war have poured onto roads leading south as they return home. New York Times, January 27

France begins easing Syria sanctions, EU top diplomat expects deal 'today'
France will begin easing sanctions on Syria following the ousting of Bashar al-Assad, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Monday ahead of talks with his EU counterparts in Brussels. Barrot said France would also propose sanctions against Iranian officials responsible for the detention of French citizens in Iran. The bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she expected EU members to agree to a "step-for-step approach" to sanctions relief for Syria. "We are expecting to decide today regarding this, it is a step-for-step approach," Kallas said at the start of the Brussels meeting. France 24, January 27

Keir Starmer set to resist Trump’s demand for higher defence spending
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to resist pressure from President Donald Trump and the British military to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030 because of concerns about the state of public finances, The Times has been told. The two leaders spoke for the first time since Trump’s inauguration last night in a 45-minute call characterised as “warm and personal”. Earlier the US president praised the prime minister for doing “a very good job” and suggested that his first official overseas trip could be to Britain. The pair discussed the close ties between the UK and the US. Trump offered Starmer his condolences on the death of his brother and expressed his “respect and affection” for the royal family. They largely avoided flashpoints including tariffs, the Chagos Islands and defence spending. The Times, January 26

UK revives plan for rival to Silicon Valley between Oxford and Cambridge
The UK government will turbocharge a strategic plan to create a British rival to Silicon Valley around Oxford and Cambridge, the latest sign that Labour is focusing on high-productivity areas of the economy in its push for growth. The decision to back the Oxford-Cambridge Arc marks a return to political favour for a scheme that was shelved three years ago after then Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson prioritised “levelling up” poorer regions. Science secretary Peter Kyle on Monday said the government wanted to double the economic output of the science-rich region that stretches between Britain’s two best-known universities, with the manufacturing and logistics hub of Milton Keynes in between. Fast-tracking the scheme to rival the science clusters of Boston and San Francisco in the US would add £78bn of GDP to the UK economy by 2035, according to research by consultancy Public First for the Oxford-Cambridge Supercluster Board, which comprises industry and university leaders. Financial Times, January 27

Two hundred UK companies sign up for permanent four-day working week
Two hundred UK companies have signed up for a permanent four-day working week for all their employees with no loss of pay, in the latest landmark in the campaign to reinvent Britain’s working week. Together the companies employ more than 5,000 people, with charities, marketing and technology firms among the best-represented, according to the latest update from the 4 Day Week Foundation. Proponents of the four-day week say that the five-day pattern is a hangover from an earlier economic age. Joe Ryle, the foundation’s campaign director, said that the “9-5, five-day working week was invented 100 years ago and is no longer fit for purpose. We are long overdue an update.” Marketing, advertising and press relations firms led the charge, with 30 adopting the policy. This was followed by 29 organisations in the charity, NGO and social care industry, and 24 in technology, IT and software. Another 22 companies in the business, consulting and management sector had also permanently offered four-day weeks to staff. The Guardian, January 27

Trump criticizes Europe and threatens tariffs
President Donald Trump criticized Europe yesterday over what he called “unfair” trade practices and regulations in a video address to the World Economic Forum in Davos. He said he would impose tariffs on companies that chose to produce outside the US. For months, Europe has been bracing for possible trade restrictions under a new Trump administration. But though Trump pledged across-the-board tariffs during his campaign, many economists and analysts have viewed those threats as more of a bargaining chip than a concrete plan. “They don’t take our farm - essentially don’t take our farm products,” he said yesterday. “And they don’t take our cars” and “make it very difficult to bring products into Europe,” he added. Europe does import both farm products and cars from the US, though it exports more. New York Times, January 24

Colombia turns to Venezuela to help 'eradicating' armed gangs in border region
Colombia called on neighbouring Venezuela on Thursday to help tackle guerrillas blamed for a week of bloody violence that has displaced 40,000 people in the lawless border region. "I've been in contact with the current Venezuelan government," Colombian President Gustavo Petro said, floating a "joint plan to eradicate armed gangs on the border". Colombia is struggling to contain violence in the mountainous northeastern Catatumbo region, where a 5,800-strong leftist militia has targeted rival armed groups and their alleged sympathizers. The National Liberation Army is trying to assert control over a swath of the border region that is home to plantations and trafficking routes which provide much of the world's cocaine. The offensive has killed at least 80 people, while dozens more have been kidnapped and tens of thousands have been displaced, according to government and United Nations estimates. France 24, January 24

OpenAI struggles to price Microsoft stake in deal to become for-profit company
OpenAI’s board is locked in complex negotiations to become a for-profit company, struggling to determine the price of Microsoft’s stake in the start-up while holding talks to value its newly formed charitable arm at $30bn. The ChatGPT maker, which is overseen by its not-for-profit board, has been discussing a restructuring since September that would split the start-up in two. Its charitable arm, tasked with OpenAI’s original mission of “benefiting humanity”, would be given a stake in the newly formed public benefit corporation (PBC). One obstacle to the conversion has been determining how much equity the start-up’s biggest backer, Microsoft, would hold in the PBC, according to people with knowledge of the talks. Other considerations, such as how much equity chief executive Sam Altman will be granted in the new company, must also be ironed out. According to three people familiar with the negotiations, the charitable arm could be valued at about $30bn, but a final price is yet to be determined. The majority of that value would be realised in the form of equity in the PBC, one person added, with the remainder paid in cash. Financial Times, January 24

AstraZeneca set to inject more money into Canada
AstraZeneca has announced a £460 million investment in Canada as uncertainty over a large investment in the north of England continues. Britain’s biggest public company said it would create 700 new scientific and “high-skilled” jobs as part of the move to a larger, “state-of-the-art office” in the greater Toronto area, Ontario. The overseas investment follows a similarly large investment in the US - the company’s largest market - announced towards the end of last year. It also comes with AstraZeneca yet to confirm a proposed £450 million investment in a new vaccines facility in Speke, Liverpool. That investment was announced in the last Tory budget in March but has yet to materialise amid frustrations over the speed of securing support from the Labour government. AstraZeneca said the new investment in Canada would contribute to the FTSE 100 company’s target to hit $80 billion in total revenue and to bring 20 new medicines to the market by 2030. Eight have been delivered so far. The Cambridge-based company also expects results from seven phase III clinical trials this year. The Times, January 23

Thames Water credit rating slashed as administrators approached
Thames Water’s debt has been downgraded as the struggling utility company seeks to secure £3bn in emergency funding to stave off collapse, after it emerged that the government has approached potential administrators. The rating agency Moody’s downgraded the company’s debt rating, and increased its view of the probability of default, changing its outlook on Thames Water from stable to negative. Moody’s said that it downgraded Thames as it believes its proposed financial plans “do not provide an attractive risk-return balance for existing or new investors”. In a market note, Moody’s said: “This may deter new equity funding and increases the likelihood of a more severe haircut to senior debt than embedded in the previous ratings. Either through a potential future creditor-led debt restructuring or one that is imposed as part of a special administration process, should the company meet the criteria for special administration to be called.” Thames Water, which provides water and sewerage services to 16 million customers in London and south-east England, has been on the brink of collapse for months as it struggles under a £15bn debt pile. On Thursday it emerged that the UK government had approached multiple restructuring advisers for the role of special administrator for Thames Water if the troubled utility fell into bankruptcy. The Guardian, January 24

Trump orders plan for release of JFK and MLK assassination files
US President Donald Trump has ordered officials to make plans to declassify documents related to three of the most consequential assassinations in US history - the killings of John F Kennedy, Robert F Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. "A lot of people are waiting for this for long, for years, for decades," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. "And everything will be revealed." The order directs top administration officials to present a plan to declassify the documents within 15 days. That does not make it certain it will happen, however. President John F Kennedy was killed in Dallas in 1963. His brother Robert F Kennedy was assassinated while running for president in California in 1968, just two months after King, America's most famous civil rights leader, was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee. Many of the documents related to the investigations have been released in the years since, although thousands still remain redacted, particularly related to the sprawling JFK investigation. BBC news, January 24

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Canada

Coronavirus: failure and a modicum of success?

The interests of nations determine economic alliances

Canada and the EU tie the knot