Headlines
Americas
Colombia’s President Iván Duque undermines a peace deal
IVÁN DUQUE won Colombia’s presidency last year on a promise to modify a peace deal between the government and the FARC guerrilla group, which ended their 52-year war in 2016. On March 10th this year Mr Duque kept that promise. In a televised speech he stated six objections to a law governing the operation of a tribunal, known as the JEP, that investigates...
Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president, is a master of social media
POLITICIANS START working only when Carnival ends, Brazilians joke. This year explosive tweets from the president, Jair Bolsonaro, delayed the serious business of reforming pensions and cleaning up crime and corruption. On March 5th the president posted a video of one Carnival reveller urinating on another in an act of performance art. “This is what...
A blackout deepens Venezuela’s woes
THE SCENE by the polluted Guaire river that flows through central Caracas was dystopian. Residents from the nearby San Agustín slum had heard that a drainage pipe was leaking into the stream. They scrambled down its concrete banks with plastic containers to catch the water before it mixed with the sewage. On March 11th Caracas’s 2m people had been...
Mexico’s reluctantly liberal president
THE LEFT has rarely been stronger in Mexico. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the new president, won last year’s election by a record margin and has sky-high approval ratings. For the first time, leftist lawmakers have a majority in both houses of congress. Parties scorned by Mr López Obrador as “neoliberal”, which misgoverned Mexico before he...
Why more undocumented migrants are reaching America
DONALD TRUMP promised to resort to untested measures to keep Mexican migrants from crossing America’s southern border. The promise contained at least two nagging flaws. The first is an outdated view. Migration of Mexicans is down by 90% from its peak in 2000; now most border-hoppers come from the “Northern Triangle” of Guatemala, Honduras and...
Asia Pacific
Cabe Malaysia Conference addresses shared global challenges
A number of issues facing the construction industry – the impact of the Hackitt report and future directives of UK legislation; the true value of sustainable buildings and standardisation of contracts – have been debated at a conference in Malaysia, illustrating the fact that many issues are not restricted by geography, but indeed are shared...
Vistra appoints Michael Sheahan as Alternative Investments Global Lead for Real Estate
Vistra, a leading global fund administration, trust and corporate services provider, today announced the appointment of Michael Sheahan as Alternative Investments Global Lead for Real Estate, effective immediately. In this role, Michael will lead the company’s global real estate (RE) business with responsibility for the development and execution...
HSA Advocates expands its Regulatory & Policy and Disputes Practice with new additions in the partnership collegium
HSA Advocates (“HSA”) is pleased to announce the appointment of Apoorva Misra as Partner and Shreshth Sharma and Nitish Gupta as Associate Partners in the Regulatory & Policy and Disputes practice. While the three partners will be based out of the firm’s New Delhi office, however, their responsibilities will not be restricted by geography. Apoorva...
Benelux law firm AKD keeps in step with growth of Asian market and expands Asian practice
Benelux law firm AKD expands its Asian practice with the arrival of Hyunju Park, Kaori Ishikawa and Xian Kong. Hyunju focuses on the Korean market, Kaori on Japan and Xian on China. Erwin Rademakers, AKD’s managing partner, who is also responsible for the firm’s Asian practice, explains: “The business sector in Korea, Japan and China is growing...
Rachika A Sahay joins HSA Advocates as Partner in the New Delhi office
Rachika A Sahay joins HSA Advocates as Partner to further strengthen the Projects, Energy and Infrastructure and Corporate practices. She will be operating out of the firm’s New Delhi office. Rachika has over a decade of experience in handling a broad range of deals in the energy sector. She also has diverse experience in handling corporate transactions...
Europe
Maven strengthens senior management team with promotion to partner of two property investment directors
Partnership promotions reflect the expertise of Maven’s specialist property investment team and its ongoing expansion Maven Capital Partners (“Maven”), one of the UK’s most active private equity houses, has promoted Colin Anderson and Andrew Whiteley from Maven’s specialist property investment team to partnership positions. The strengthening...
Private equity dealmaking influence in Europe up for 4th consecutive year - Mergermarket data
Key Data Points [Overview]: Europe recorded 1482 buyouts valued at EUR 170.1bn in FY18, up 16% by value compared to 1474 buyouts worth EUR 147bn in FY17. Exits are down 10% in volume to 935 from 1036 deals in FY17 and down 19% in value to EUR 134.7bn from EUR 166.8bn in the previous year. The region recorded 53 buyout deals valued over EUR 1bn...
Bradbury Group invests in a new multi-million-pound production facility
The UK’s leading manufacturer of steel doors project strength in new factory unveiling. Leading UK manufacturer of steel doors and physical security solutions, Bradbury Group, are announcing their move into their new headquarters located on Foxhills Industrial Estate in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, totalling an investment of around £8...
New professional network launched to promote the vital role women play in driving RegTech success
On 27th February, over 70 brilliant women got together at law firm Addleshaw Goddard, for the launch of a new network called RegTech Women, aimed at connecting women who work in the financial services regulatory technology industry (RegTech). Partner at Addleshaw Goddard, Mandie Hulme said “We are proud to be supporting this initiative - RegTech is...
Jon Abraham joins Laureusas new Head of Commerical
Ahead of the 2019 Laureus World Sports Awards, leading sports industry professional Jon Abraham has been announced as the new Head of Commercial at Laureus.Jon joins Laureus from his role as Commercial Director at B2B sports media and events company SportsPro where he was responsible for all commercial strategy across multiple platforms. In an eight-year...
Mena
Cyclone Idai Destroys ‘Ninety Percent’ of a City of Half a Million in Southern Africa
AdvertisementSupported byCyclone Idai Destroys ‘Ninety Percent’ of a City of Half a Million in Southern AfricaVideoThe United Nations said the storm that hit southern Africa last week may be one of the worst weather-related disasters ever in the Southern Hemisphere.CreditCreditZinyange Auntony/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBy...
J.H. Kwabena Nketia, 97, Pre-eminent Scholar of African Music, Dies
AdvertisementSupported byJ.H. Kwabena Nketia, 97, Pre-eminent Scholar of African Music, DiesImageJ.H. Kwabena Nketia at his home in Legon, near Accra, the capital of his native Ghana. “He showed that the African history of music was a sacred tradition revealed,” a colleague said.CreditCreditvia African Musical ArtsBy Giovanni RussonelloMarch...
Cyclone Idai May Be ‘One of the Worst’ Disasters in the Southern Hemisphere
AdvertisementSupported byCyclone Idai May Be ‘One of the Worst’ Disasters in the Southern HemisphereImageA damaged section of the road between the cities of Beira and Chimoio in central Mozambique on Tuesday.CreditCreditAdrien Barbier/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBy Alan YuhasMarch 19, 2019Cyclone Idai, the storm that battered...
Cyclone Idai Leaves Vast Destruction in Mozambique and Other Countries in Southern Africa
AdvertisementSupported byCyclone Idai Leaves Vast Destruction in Mozambique and Other Countries in Southern AfricaImageGraves were dug Monday for people killed by a cyclone that hit eastern Zimbabwe.CreditCreditZinyange Auntony/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBy Norimitsu Onishi and Jeffrey MoyoMarch 18, 2019JOHANNESBURG — A deadly cyclone...
Large City in Mozambique Nearly Wiped Out as Cyclone Leaves Vast Destruction
AdvertisementSupported byLarge City in Mozambique Nearly Wiped Out as Cyclone Leaves Vast DestructionImageGraves were dug Monday for people killed by a cyclone that hit eastern Zimbabwe.CreditCreditZinyange Auntony/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBy Norimitsu Onishi and Jeffrey MoyoMarch 18, 2019JOHANNESBURG — A deadly cyclone that struck...
International
Preparing for conflicts by cyber-means
WHEN LATVIA conducted its biggest-ever national military exercise last August, which mobilised more than 10,000 people, a group of researchers discovered that using only open-source information they could identify about 10% of the individuals involved—and use that knowledge to track the exercise in real time. They also found they could make a soldier...
How NATO is shaping up at 70
REACHING 70 IS an extraordinary achievement for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Most alliances die young. External threats change; national interests diverge; costs become too burdensome. Russia’s pact with Nazi Germany survived for only two years. None of the seven coalitions of the Napoleonic wars lasted more than five years. A study in...
Decades after the end of the cold war, Russia is showing new aggression
“FOR ME, I’M living the dream,” says Major Pierre Gosselin, a Canadian company commander in NATO’s multinational battlegroup in Latvia. A bleak, freezing-cold firing range in January at Camp Adazi, a military base 45 minutes’ drive from Riga, is not everyone’s idea of heaven. But Major Gosselin and his men, recently arrived for their six-month...
NATO members’ promise of spending 2% of their GDP on defence is proving hard to keep
THE PRESIDENT did not mince his words. “We cannot continue to pay for the military protection of Europe while the NATO states are not paying their fair share and living off the fat of the land. We have been very generous to Europe and it is now time for us to look out for ourselves.” A tweet from Donald Trump? In fact the words were John F. Kennedy’s,...
What NATO needs to do to live to its 100th birthday
THE TRANSATLANTIC alliance deserves a resounding “happy birthday”. It kept the peace for 40 years of cold war, protected western Europe from communism, helped stabilise central Europe after the Soviet Union’s collapse and enabled unprecedented prosperity. It has shown admirable openness, adaptability and commitment. “We’re incredibly complacent...