In The News

India’s Limited Options on China: The Wire

Ashok K. Mehta June 22, 2020
India failed to anticipate China’s aggression along the shared border and now must respond to a deadly clash that left 20 Indian soldiers dead and, by some reports, twice as many Chinese – along with China’s claim to Galwan Valley. Both sides have engaged in road-building and moved troops in the area. Ashok K. Mehta reviews events since early May and India’s premature assurances that the...

Paying Migrants to Go Back Home Fails: Euronews

Lillo Montalto Monella and Sara Creta June 20, 2020
Migration from Africa to Europe is treacherous, yet many are still desperate to flee poverty, repression, conflict and hunger. Euronews describes one man’s experiences traveling through multiple countries, endurig a Mediterranean shipwreck, a gunshot wound, and two years of abuse and torture in a Libyan detention center. Families and friends shun some who return home and failing to send...

Oil, Gas Sector in Terminal Decline? OilPrice.com

Robert Rapier June 19, 2020
The rise of renewable energies and reduced energy consumption due to the Covid-19 pandemic may push fossil fuels into terminal decline, reports Robert Rapier. Global consumption of coal, while still growing, peaked in the developed world after being replaced by natural gas. Price pressure has accompanied intense production for oil and natural gas in recent years while consumers increasingly...

Capitalism as Victim of Covid-19? Salon

Matthew Rozsa June 18, 2020
The pandemic and climate change demonstrate that survival depends on the ability to learn while relying on best evidence. Political leaders who downplay or deny the consequences of Covid-19 and climate change – trying to protect economies for the short term, rejecting early warnings and refusing to adapt – actually risk more economic damage. Such disasters also show that the free-market...

Europe Pursues Digital Tax After US Pulls Plug: FT

Sam Fleming, Jim Brunsden, Chris Giles and Victor Mallet June 18, 2020
The United States walked away from global negotiations led by the OECD on a digital tax for multinationals, claiming an “impasse,” and threatened tariffs against nations that impose such taxes. “The move heightens transatlantic tensions, with the threat of more trade disputes as individual countries pursue their own taxation plans,” reports a team for Financial Times. “Robert Lighthizer, US trade...

Flashpoint in New Financial War: New Statesman

George Magnus June 17, 2020
China and the US wage war on multiple fronts – trade, tech, social media and communications. China takes steps to impose a National Security law for Hong Kong and that could extend a new front into finance and weaponization of capital, argues George Magnus for New Statesman. The United States has “the biggest, deepest, most transparent and trusted capital markets subject to the rule of law, and...

Blood Spilled on China-India Border: Diplomat

Sudha Ramachandran June 17, 2020
A standoff punctuated with frequent clashes in recent weeks along the Line of Actual Control turned violent with the death of 20 Indian soldiers in Galwan Valley in Ladakh. China did not release casualty figures. Indian sources suggested as many as 40 Chinese died in brutal hand-to-hand combat that did not involve firearms. Both India and China claim the area. The battle occurred with border...