Headlines
Americas
Why the Mexico City marathon attracts so many cheats
IN RECENT YEARS the Mexico City marathon has caused crowding on the city metro. That is not just because the city shuts down numerous roads above ground for the 42-kilometre race. It is also because cheating marathoners have been known to hop on for a quick detour to the finish line. Last year 5,000 of the 28,000 runners who finished were disqualified....
Forest fires in the Amazon blacken the sun in São Paulo
IN THE MIDDLE of the afternoon on August 19th South America’s largest city went dark. Under a thick, black cloud at 3pm, the lights flickered on in São Paulo’s skyscrapers; on the motorways brake lights started to glow in the city’s bumper-to-bumper traffic, and many Paulistanos were worried. Social-media users posted pictures of the gloom, juxtaposing...
Argentina’s crisis shows the limits of technocracy
IF YOU CAN’T beat them, join them. That seems to be Mauricio Macri’s response to his crushing defeat in presidential primary elections on August 11th. He won 32% of the vote against the 48% secured by the Peronist slate of Alberto Fernández and Cristina Fernández (no relation), a populist former president. At first Mr Macri blamed the outcome...
A secret hydropower deal with Brazil causes a political crisis in Paraguay
WHEN BRAZILIAN soldiers invaded Paraguay in 1865, after banding together with Argentina and Uruguay, the country lost a quarter of its territory and perhaps 90% of its male population. A century later Brazil sent soldiers to a disputed border region and withdrew only after the two countries agreed to build the world’s largest hydro-electric dam. The...
What explains Donald Trump’s war on late-term abortions?
WHILE LEROY CARHART, a doctor who specialises in late-term abortions, was finishing his most recent termination, the manager of his clinic in Bethesda, Maryland, outlined the procedure. Abortions in the second half of pregnancy take between two and four days, said Christine Spiegoski, a nurse wearing a T-shirt that read: “Don’t like abortion? ...
Asia Pacific
SANNE appoints new business development director in Tokyo
Makoto Nagao, has been appointed to the newly created role of Director, Business Development adding further strength to SANNE’s Asia-Pacific business. With more than 35 years of experience, Nagao-san brings a wealth of knowledge, following a lengthy career with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, SMFG. While he was at SMFG, Nagao-san was General Manager...
Crayfish.io launches UK’s first funded initiative to get businesses China-ready
A ground-breaking initiative with a £500k investment fund dedicated to helping UK businesses get ‘China-ready’ has been launched in Cambridge by global online platform, Crayfish.io. Starting in September, the Crayfish China Accelerator programme - which has secured UK-China Enterprise Ltd (UKCE), a Chinese-capital-backed VC fund, as its...
SANNE opens new office in Mumbai, India
SANNE, a leading global provider of alternative asset and corporate services has further extended its global reach with the opening of a new office in Mumbai, India. With existing offices in 18 leading international finance centres, SANNE now has a local presence in one of the world’s fastest growing alternative markets and is also pleased to announce...
SANNE secures new bookkeeping licence in China
SANNE, a leading global provider of alternative asset and corporate administration services obtains new bookkeeping licence in China boosting its already strong proposition. The new licence expands SANNE’s existing product offering in China, adding bookkeeping, accounting and tax preparation services for Chinese registered entities. Jing Jing...
SANNE appoints Country Head to lead its Singapore business
Adding further expertise and knowledge to its APAC business As a leading global provider of alternative asset and corporate business services, SANNE is pleased to announce the appointment of David Fowler to the role of Country Head − Singapore with immediate effect. Based in SANNE’s Singapore office, David will be taking over the role from Valérie...
Europe
An affiliate of Sun European Partners announces that it has completed the sale of Famosa
Sun European Partners, LLP (“Sun European Partners” or “Sun”) today announces that one of its affiliates has completed the sale of Fábricas Agrupadas de Muñecas de Onil, S.A. (“Famosa” or “the Company”), a leading designer, developer, manufacturer and distributer of toys in Spain and throughout the world, to Giochi Preziosi S.p.A.. Famosa,...
Huge Tax Changes for Self-Employed Following Publication of New Legislation
On 11 July 2019, the Government published draft legislation outlining the IR35 changes coming to the private sector, which are expected to affect 250,000 businesses. The reform will impact users and suppliers of personal service company contractors in the private sector. Companies have only nine months to plan for the new off-payroll changes, as they...
Young people pick their banking partners for the future
Battle of the brands Generation Z calls the brands it will bank on in 2030 Britain Banks most trusted for handling payments and safe storage of dataTech brands first choice for creating smart, real-time servicesAs a sector, financial services scores poorly for ethics and positive social impact More than two in five young people (43%) believe that...
Alcentra Closes Significant Capital Raise for its European Direct Lending Strategy
Record €5.5 billion raise reflects strong investor demand, Alcentra’s track record of deployment and returns Alcentra, one of Europe’s largest and longest tenured managers of private debt and part of BNY Mellon Investment Management, has announced the close of its latest European direct lending capital raise. The firm has raised €5.5...
Service Graphics becomes UK’s largest integrated print, design and display company
From 22nd July 2019 a new British high street brand is offering everything print, design and display to B2B customers. Paragon Service Point, one of the UK’s leading providers of retail print and design services, has re-branded to Service Graphics, following the acquisition of the assets of Service Graphics Ltd Glasgow and Skelmersdale by Paragon...
Mena
One More Way to Die: Delivering Food in Cape Town’s Gig Economy
CAPE TOWN — He had delivered his last food order for the evening and was driving home from Pinelands, a suburb in Cape Town, when an oncoming car swung in front of him, knocking him off his motorbike.Friends and family arrived within 20 minutes, but the motorcyclist, Christian Hakomeyimana, was already dead. A 20-year-old Rwandan migrant, he had been...
Giraffes Get New Protections, but Will It Be Enough?
Giraffes are a threatened species and many of their populations are endangered and declining. But until now, no international regulations governed their trade. On Thursday, at a conference in Geneva, countries overwhelmingly agreed to add giraffes to the list of animals protected by the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of...
Bold Women. Scandalized Viewers. It’s ‘Sex and the City,’ Senegal Style.
DAKAR, Senegal — In the most controversial scene of “Mistress of a Married Man,” a hugely popular new television series in Senegal, the show’s protagonist, Marème, dons a daring magenta pantsuit and heads out for a date with a married man — but not before pointing below her belt.“This is mine,” she tells her best friend. “I give it...
Brazen Women. Scandalized Viewers. It’s ‘Sex and the City,’ Senegal Style.
DAKAR, Senegal — In the most controversial scene of “Mistress of a Married Man,” a hugely popular new television series in Senegal, the show’s protagonist, Marème, dons a daring magenta pantsuit and heads out for a date with a married man — but not before pointing below her belt.“This is mine,” she tells her best friend. “I give it...
With Her Latest Novel, Petina Gappah Sees an Obsession Through
The floppy disk where Petina Gappah saved early drafts of her historical-fiction novel “Out of Darkness, Shining Light” now serves as a lucky charm, 21 years after she began.It took that long because the story she wanted to tell was a complex one: that of the arduous, nine-month journey in 1873 of 69 workers as they transported the body of the explorer...
International
Redistribution and innovation drive Canada’s changing economy
EVEN BEFORE Donald Trump and before Brexit, Justin Trudeau was aware that voter disenchantment and populism were on the rise. He saw one of the important answers to this as economic, and his remedy has been to give the middle class a pay rise. “Western democracies around the world had a struggling middle class…that felt that it wasn’t part of...
Canada’s indigenous peoples are claiming new rights and resources
“EDUCATION IS THE New Buffalo”, a sculpture formed from words in indigenous languages, is a focal point of Calgary’s new public library. Its message is that, just as bison once sustained indigenous people in North America, so education will secure their cultural survival. Such messages of support for Canada’s “First Nations” are everywhere....
The election in October will be a test of Canada’s liberal values
NAHEED NENSHI, Calgary’s ebullient mayor, says that when he was elected in 2010—becoming the first Muslim to lead a large North American city—only the foreign media brought up his religion. The local press never mentioned it. That changed when he ran for re-election for a third term in 2017. People “suddenly started talking about race and religion”,...
The environment is Canada’s biggest wedge issue
BURNABY MOUNTAIN in a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia’s biggest city, is a tranquil spot which affords a spectacular view of the North Shore mountains. Yet the area around it is the site of Canada’s fiercest political battle, which pits environmentalists against the oil industry. The Liberal prime minister has been caught in the middle. At...
Canada is feeling lonely, but its place internationally is still strong
ON DECEMBER 1ST last year the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, a Chinese telecoms firm, as she prepared to change planes at Vancouver’s international airport. Ms Meng is wanted in America on charges stemming from allegations that Huawei had tried to evade sanctions on Iran. She is under house...