World & Politics
France is losing out on its reputation of the world's first winemaker - 08/26/2016
Bad weather would reduce the grape harvest in France in 2016. This was reported by the French Ministry of Agriculture, which also noted that the regions of Champagne, Burgundy and Charente are going to be affected particularly badly. Last year, the total production of wine in France was 47,8 million hectoliters. This year is expected to bring only 42.9 million hectoliters, which is 7% below...
Why is success at Olympics tied to success in economics? - 08/24/2016
British athletes won 27 gold Olympic medals and became a sensation of Rio 2016. This success looks particularly impressive on a background of the United Kingdom’s extremely unfortunate results at the Olympics in 1990 and in the early 2000's. In recent years, according to experts, government agency UK Sport has been working much better to select potential winners and provide them with the most...
Are Olympics worth the expense? - 08/19/2016
In September last year, the International Olympic Committee announced five applicants to host Olympics 2024. These were European Rome, Hamburg, Paris and Budapest, as well as the American Los Angeles. Great deal of choice, wasn’t it? Especially given the fact that even less expensive Winter Games 2022 had only two bidders – Kazakh Alma-Ata and Beijing, which eventually become the winner. Later,...
Would ex-convicts save the world's economy? - 08/18/2016
Governments of developed countries are trying to diminish number of convicts in prisons. For the first time in decades, America and Europe now release more convicts than commit to prison. After-care can help ex-convicts stay away from prison. However, economists warn support in employment, popular in recent years, leads to a completely opposite result. Now job applicants are bound to declare...
Leap year of the Japanese economy - 08/17/2016
The fourth largest global economy showed zero growth in the II quarter of 2016. Dynamics of Japan's GDP changed its direction four times since the beginning of 2015. Now, it’s sinking deeply into recession. The instability was caused by promiscuity of the economy’s sectors. Government spending (+ 2.3%) and private investment in residential real estate has shown positive results, while private...
British police to fight against online trolls - 08/16/2016
According to the British press, the Metropolitan Police has established a special unit that will deal with aggressive behavior of users on the Internet and social networks. Police officials said that the unit’s main purpose is to fight against kindling national and religious hatred. However, human rights activists fear that such an initiative could restrict freedom of speech on the Internet. The...
European Union to tighten control over Viber and WhatsApp - 08/15/2016
In September, the European Commission will announce introduction of tighter requirements for online services such as WhatsApp and Skype. According to internal documents of the European regulator, which got at disposal of journalists from FT, the new rules supposed to bring the messengers into accordance with "standards of security and confidentiality" set in the EU. The European Commission (EC)...
Saudi Arabia's problems hit on labour migrants - 08/12/2016
Saudi Arabia is struggling with weak GDP growth, and trying to improve collection of taxes. Yet, condition of the country’s economy right now does not allow to pay a lot to employees, so thousands of workers from South Asia found themselves on tenterhooks. If a country cannot provide food for their migrant workers, it says a lot about its financial condition. Collapse in oil prices has forced...
Ecuador allowed Sweden to interrogate Julian Assange - 08/11/2016
The Prosecutor's Office of Ecuador will allow Swedish investigators to interrogate Julian Assange in the embassy in London, where WikiLeaks founder has been living since June 2012. The decision was made within an agreement on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters between states. Sweden accuses Julian Assange of rape, which he denies. Ecuador will allow Swedish investigators to question...
Germany is annoyed with indolent EU Members States - 08/10/2016
Once it became clear that Britain leaves the European Union, Germany decided to bring discipline in the "European family". Order, responsibility, strict compliance with all conditions, and work – those are the new rules for the European Union. At least that is what Germany, the union’ strongest player, thinks. According to the latest statistics from the European Union, Germany is the largest...