China talks of building a “digital Silk Road”

CHINA’S vague but much-vaunted Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has been providing buzzword fodder for government leaders and official sloganeers since 2013, when the country launched the scheme to extend its political and...

One of China’s poorest provinces wants to be a tech hub

A ROBOT taller than the Arc de Triomphe towers over a new theme park on the edge of Guiyang, the capital of the southern province of Guizhou. Attendants at Oriental Science Fiction Valley dress in blue-and-silver space...

Expert preparing for 'CATASTROPHIC event' which could HIT Italy and European banks

EXPERTS have warned Italy's political crisis will continue to affect the stability of the global market, with economist Ian Shepherdson warning investors to prepare for a "catastrophic event" that could rock Italian and...

John Bolton, the world’s hope

JOHN BOLTON is not well-liked in Washington. A warmonger and bully, the national security adviser is disdainful of the bipartisan foreign-policy world and the governing institutions its members cycle in and out of. That...

Eight months after Hurricane Maria, the human toll is still unclear

MARIA was a brief visitor to Puerto Rico. The category-4 hurricane made landfall at 6am on September 20th last year and 11 hours later she was gone. She left a trail of destruction. Some 300,000 people were displaced; and...

Some good news from the fight against opioids

SOME 382,000 Americans have overdosed on opioids—a group of drugs that includes prescription painkillers, heroin and synthetics—since the year 2000. That is greater than the number of American combat deaths in the second...

American border officials are separating migrant families

MIRIAN and her 18-month-old son fled Honduras after soldiers threw tear gas into their home. They requested asylum at the American border with Mexico five weeks later. Mirian surrendered her Honduran ID card and her son’s...

Can a new mayor fix San Francisco’s housing and homelessness problems?

THE cliché of luxury penthouses and Gucci stores cheek-by-jowl with filth and poverty is usually reserved for poor-world entrepôts. But the contrasts in San Francisco—the richest city in America by median household income—could...

California considers taking custody of some street people

IN 1967 Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, signed into law the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, an ambitious reform of the state’s mental-health laws. It was part of a wave of changes that closed asylums in the state...

People in India often despair of their democracy

IN THE spring of 1947 the leaders of India’s independence movement reached a fateful decision. The right to vote in the soon-to-be-born Indian republic, they agreed, would no longer be restricted as under the British Raj,...

The legacy of Germany’s student protests in 1968

IT RESEMBLES just another Berlin courtyard—some straggly bushes and a bike rack—but Krumme Strasse 66 can claim to be a birthplace of today’s Germany. It was 1967; the Shah of Iran was at a performance of “The Magic Flute”...

Uproar over new speed limits on French country roads

The good old days PASSING through wide fields of wheat and potatoes, route D915 links the northern French port of Dieppe with Pontoise, north-west of Paris. On a straight stretch of single-carriageway road, lined with sycamores,...

Turkey’s opposition scents success against Erdogan

VICTORY for Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development (AK) party in presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24th should have been a foregone conclusion. The strongman enjoys unwavering support...

France’s strikes may now be starting to ebb

The last gasp? ONE protester carried a placard depicting Emmanuel Macron as a Nazi. Another produced an effigy of the French president swinging from the gallows. As France prepares for its tenth week of strikes, the mood...

Ireland votes solidly to allow abortion

IN 1979, when Pope John Paul II visited the Republic of Ireland, 1.2m people attended his open-air mass in Phoenix Park in Dublin—more than a third of the population of the country at that time. As many again turned up...

How welfare reform has hurt America’s poorest children

LAST month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies to find ways to add new work requirements to welfare programmes and strengthen those that exist. He said that a bipartisan welfare...

ROCK UP to roll out more climbing arenas as rising demand boosts shopping centre footfalls

INDOOR climbing centre developer Rock Up is to scale its operation in shopping centres where the walls’ wow factors for families are helping revive flagging footfalls. Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed https://if...

Plots and sackings in Ukraine

Ukraine’s security services seized the world’s attention this week by faking the murder of a Russian opposition journalist, Arkady Babchenko, as part of a purported sting operation. At the same time, another plot unfolded...

Political chaos in Italy as new elections beckon

THE powers of an Italian president are few, but mighty. He—there has never been a she—can declare war, dissolve parliament and name the prime minister. The constitution also stipulates that the president names the ministers,...

Ripple price update: Crypto CEO claims Ripple will break free from competition after THIS

RIPPLE’S CEO Brad Garlinghouse has claimed over time people will gain a better understanding of the cryptocurrency he promotes because they are not “anti-government”. Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed https://ift...

Pound euro exchange rate: GBP resilient despite above-forecast Eurozone inflation

THE pound euro exchange rate shifted towards €1.14 on Thursday morning after a surprising rise in UK net consumer credit and above-forecast Eurozone inflation print. According to Eurostat, consumer prices in the bloc climbed...

City News: Just 25 Hedge Fund managers pocketed almost the entire economy of Bosnia

JUST 25 city money-men trousered $15.4 BILLION in pay in one year – just short of the entire economy of Bosnia and Herzogovina, and MORE than nations like Nicaragua and Jamaica. The staggering pay-packets were topped by...

Irish border issue serves Remainers and Eurocrats – EXPRESS COMMENT

THE Swiss, efficient in all things, have demonstrated to this newspaper how their frictionless border works with Germany, France and Italy. There is a vast and steady traffic of people, vehicles, lorries and goods. Source:...

Pound US dollar exchange rate: GBP up as consumer confidence improves

THE pound has risen by 0.4 per cent against the US dollar today, making £1 worth around $1.333. This is a recovery for the pound, which is still down from May’s best exchange rate of $1.376. Source: Daily Express :: Finance...

Beachcomber: 101 years old and still worried by ants and mice...

WHAT a week this has been for receiving disturbing news about animals. No sooner had I read about the ability of wasps to recognise the faces of other wasps , than I discovered something very worrying about ants. Source:...

The Kremlin denies responsibility for MH17

IT WAS an important demand, if one with little hope of success. On May 29th the Netherlands’ foreign minister, Stef Blok, insisted at the UN Security Council in New York that Russia “accept its responsibility” in the downing...

Donald Trump and the NFL

LAST week, the National Football League, a powerful organisation overseeing 32 teams worth a combined $80bn, announced that it would bar its employees from engaging in a peaceable and silent protest at work: kneeling during...

Racist tweets from Roseanne spur ABC to cancel “Roseanne”

ONE of the defining features of life under Donald Trump is that even as his presidency reassures Islamophobes, xenophobes, misogynists, bigots and racists, it simultaneously stiffens the resolve of Americans who value tolerance...

Did a police officer violate the constitution by inspecting a stolen motorbike?

FIVE years ago, Ryan Collins evaded police in Albermarle County, Virgnia by weaving through traffic at more than 140mph. But they caught up with him. Weeks later, after tracking down the extended-frame Suzuki Mr Collins...

'Euro INSTABILITY will always HAUNT us' Chief strategist warns SMART people worry about EU

THE EUROPEAN UNION poses the "biggest risk" to international financial markets because of the "constant instability" of the euro, investment strategist Robert Albertson warned. Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed h...

Complex rules are too taxing for UK savers

POLITICIANS have turned the UK's savings and pension system into a "Frankenstein's monster" that is scaring Britons away from saving, and hitting them with unnecessary tax bills. Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed...

Get right cover to take grandchildren abroad

GROWING numbers of doting grandparents are taking the little ones on summer holidays, but they need to take cover before jetting off to the sun. Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed https://ift.tt/2xsQX...

Dow Jones industrial average: What is Dow Jones stock price today? Italy crisis hits Dow

DOW Jones industrial average dropped off nearly 400 points today amid political unrest in Italy. The Italian Prime Minister’s decision to veto a cabinet appointment has sent the Euro and US stocks tumbling. What is Dow...

Euro exchange rate: Will Italy political crisis bring about END of the Euro?

EURO exchange rates show the pound has risen against the Euro today amid political turmoil in Italy. Will Italy’s political crisis bring about the end of the Euro? Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed https://ift.tt...

Pound euro exchange rate: GBP stumbles as German unemployment falls below expectations

THE pound euro exchange rate stumbled today as investors responded to a surprising fall in Germany’s unemployment rate. The pound is currently worth around €1.142 against the euro. Source: Daily Express :: Finance Feed...