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| The death of civility. PHOTO: AP |
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10 pipe bombs were mailed to liberal media figures and Democrats
- The Trump administration moved to redefine gender as unchangeable from birth
- New York sued ExxonMobil for obscuring the cost of climate change to shareholders
- Google reportedly paid $90m to an executive accused of sexual misconduct
- Hackers stole credit card details of 10m Cathay Pacific customers
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China unveiled the world’s longest bridge and tunnel project
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A Japanese journalist was released from captivity in Syria after 40 months
- Ethiopia appointed its first female president
- Saudi Arabia held and abandoned more positions over the Khashoggi assassination
- Flash floods swept away 18 people on a school excursion in Jordan
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| Welcome to correction territory. PHOTO: Richard Drew / AP |
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Did the US economy just break?
For most of the year the US stock market has gone from strength to strength. Bullish tech companies from Silicon Valley (and Seattle) have led the charge, leaving fat dividends and giddy paeans in their wake. Then came October. The Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500 and the Dow Industrial Average had already looked brittle for most of the month. This week all three disintegrated, and a year’s worth of gains was erased.
On Wednesday the tech-heavy Nasdaq received a body blow from weaker-than-expected earnings reports. Amazon - a company built on aggressive growth - missed its targets for consecutive quarters and was punished by shareholders. Even AWS (the ever-expanding cloud backbone of Jeff Bezos's empire) lagged during the third quarter. Growth may have slowed but Amazon's operating profit still rose to $2.9b. Alphabet reported a similarly muted result: despite coming in above earnings estimates Google's parent company didn't meet sales expectations. The problem is that more people are clicking on Google's ads but prices are dropping. The company also faces hefty fines and rising costs for the development of products like its Pixel phone.
The Nasdaq dropped 12% from its 2018 peak, taking the Dow and S&P with it. More disappointing earnings from Netflix and Facebook turned the slump into a rout. By the end of Wednesday the three major US indexes were back where they had started at the beginning of the year. The volatility quickly spread around the world, rattling both Asian and European markets on Thursday. Trump's trade war was a worrying distraction while the economy was flying, but now it seems like it could be an existential threat to the economy. Tensions in the middle east and the oil price were also brought into sharp focus. It seems a dangerous time for the market to be "correcting" itself.
Old dogs, new cash
On Thursday (thankfully) the old guard stepped into the breach. Microsoft flexed, showing off better-than-expected sales for the quarter. Visa and Ford followed suit. The three stalwarts helped the Nasdaq snap a six-day losing-streak and regain 3%. That buoyancy also helped lift the Dow and S&P. But we can't give all the credit to the veterans: huge quarterly results from Twitter and Tesla went a long way to cushioning the Nasdaq slide. And with that (and some very enthusiastic buying from bargain-hunters) Wall Street found a ledge to arrest its fall.
An axiom of politics holds that opposition parties don't win elections, governments lose them. A corollary to this might be that governments don't lose elections, economies do. We'll be paying close attention to see what the market does between now and November 6.
Five stars, zero budgets
While America tries to keep its economy stoked, Europe has been dealing with its own economic nightmare: Italy. For a culture that popularised double-entry bookkeeping, Rome is having a hard time making its numbers add up. The ruling coalition (made up of the Five Star League and League) proposed a first budget that greatly increases welfare entitlements while also significantly cutting taxes. The European Council swiftly rejected it, arguing that Italy was "openly and consciously going against commitments made". It's the first time the EU has sent a member state back to the fiscal drawing board. Unfortunately for those in Brussels trying to rein in Italian spending, such a move will simply stoke the anti-EU resentment that helped bring Five Star and League to power.
Bitcoin turns 10
We'll leave you with an update on the world's first cryptocurrency. In the decade since the illusive (and elusive) Satoshi Nakamoto first floated the notion, Bitcoin has achieve mythical status. It is a guiding light for technologists, anarchists, utopians and criminals alike. The decentralised structure has invited both the brave and the shifty. From its lofty heights last December ($25,000 per coin) the trailblazer has collapsed to just over a third of its former value. 2018 has been a year of plateaued fates.
Stuck between widespread adoption and crash, the only constant in cryptocurrency appears to be the rate of theft. It's estimated that $1.5b of the digital stuff will be purloined this year alone. Meanwhile, few have any convincing responses to the question: whither cryptocurrencies?
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| Desperate, hopeful and northbound. PHOTO: Pedro Pardo |
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The caravan and the circus
Those without the time or inclination to parse the daily news might well have a fearful impression of the migrant caravan aimed at America. US cable news channels - already in a feverish election mode - have portrayed the group as though it were the rampaging Vandals at the Aurelian Walls. But for the most part they are poor, exhausted families from Honduras and Guatemala. Apropos of nothing (apart from fear-mongering) the US President has claimed that there are Middle-Eastern terrorists amongst these migrants.
Most of the reporting on this issue has ignored the economic and practical reality of the matter: the caravan is a logical choice for those in it. The US-Mexico border - to the chagrin of many - continues to be a porous one. But as patrols have increased, so too has the asking price of the coyotes (smugglers) who move people into America. The figure has quadrupled in the last decade, to a sum out of reach for many Central American families. For them the caravan is a free alternative, and one that also offers strength in numbers from child and sex traffickers (often one and the same).
Editor's note: Remember, whether it be troops marching on the Rio Grande, pipe-bombs in Manhattan or actual policy debate - inkl is showcasing the best political reporting in the US Midterms through our dedicated section. Just swipe left from the home screen in the inkl app!
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| Australia's offshore detention camps. PHOTO: Reuters |
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The kids are not all right
In 2013 the Australia launched the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It was a moment of reckoning for a nation that had allowed its children to be violated for decades. This week Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologised to the victims of child sexual abuse. It was a touching moment, but one that does little to heal lifetimes of trauma and internalised guilt. And while the PM receives applause, children and their families continued to languish in Australia's island prisons.
On Nauru (Canberra's client-state in Micronesia) and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, refugees are dying a slow death. The mental health crisis of indefinite detention has already claimed too many lives and damaged even more - possibly beyond repair. Detention has sucked the life out of these children; some try to hang themselves, some eat detergent to attempt suicide, others still have sunk into the psychic limbo of resignation syndrome.
But at this late moment it appears the machiavellian deterrent scheme - embraced wholeheartedly by both major political parties in Australia - may be close to collapse. New Zealand's PM Jacinda Ardern has reiterated an offer to resettle the refugees. Meanwhile support for offshore detention is waning amongst the few moderates in Australia's ruling conservative coalition. The so-called ‘Pacific Solution’ may just reach a conclusion.
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| Liquid gold. PHOTO: Robyn Walker |
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Toilet blocks / building blocks
There is waste management and then there is waste management. This story is the latter. Enterprising students at the University of Cape Town have created the first ever bio-bricks made of human urine. Researchers mixed last night’s liquids with sand and bacteria to unlock calcium carbonate (a bonding agent) in the urine. The mixture is placed in moulds and hardens - incredibly - at room temperature. Creating useable bricks out of urine is great, but doing it without the usual energy-intensive firing process is simply outstanding.
Utensil utilitarianism
We often lament that democracies are too self-reflective, unsure and collaborative to enact robust change against species-wide threats. Occasionally, we are reminded of their efficacy. This week the European parliament in Strasbourg voted in sweeping new restrictions on single-use plastics. The EU targeted the 10 types of rubbish most likely to end up in the ocean including straws, disposable cutlery and cotton swabs. All of these will be banned by 2021. Adding to this, 90% of plastic bottles produced must be recyclable by 2025. Magnifique.
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| The country with no hospitals. PHOTO: Sameer al-Doumy / AFP |
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Warfare by neglect
The Syrian Civil War is drawing to a close and the victors are already rewriting history. Damascus is slowly normalising relationships with Amman and Baghdad. ISIS (while not yet beaten) has been deprived of its territory. The Gulf monarchies and Turkey have spent billions of dollars (and thousands of lives) navigating Western manoeuvring in the region, only to watch Iran, Hezbollah, Russia and Bashar al-Assad take the chocolates. And although half a million have already lost their lives, many more will too as the regime continues its passive tactic of allowing diseases to flourish in restive provinces.
May's bed already made
When the vehemently-Catholic Republic of Ireland legalised abortion many assumed that Northern Ireland would follow. The Northern Irish are largely sold on the idea. But, what would be a free-kick for any other sitting government in Westminster has become a headache for Theresa May. It just so happens that her Tories are propped up by the DUP (the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland). This group of reactionary Ulster Protestants expounds a view on abortion that would make their southern neighbours whisper 'ave maria'. So, at least for now, no legal abortions in Northern Ireland.
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Quote of the week... "If they are worried about iPhones being tapped, they can use Huawei" - China's Foreign Ministry shows great aplomb in handling the claim that Beijing has tapped Donald Trump's iPhone.
Headline of the week... Crash Test Dummies Are Getting Fatter Because We Are, Too - Bloomberg Businessweek
What to watch for this weekend... The temper on Brazil's streets if Jair Bolsonaro clinches the Brazilian presidency run-off.
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