More banks need bailouts. China’s lax banking regulations have led to decades of bad loans, corruption, and mismanagement. Now, according to UBS Research, more than 24 of the nation’s banks need $339 billion in rescue funding to have 12.5 percent of their at-risk portfolio balanced by cash – the global standard for safe practice. Although...
Tag: 28 January 2020
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INDIA: MASS PROTESTS CONTINUE
On Sunday, millions of Indian citizens continued the two months-long protests against the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act, spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party, which grants citizenship to religious minorities – except Muslims – from neighboring countries. Some seven million people in the state of Kerala formed a human chain that...
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FRANCE
Last week, as President Emmanuel Macron presented his controversial pension plan to his council of ministers, thousands of union members from the rail and transport sectors ended their six-week strike, citing the financial stress of staying off the job. Many of the public transportation workers who had been protesting, but returned to work out of...
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LEBANON: NEW GOVERNMENT, SAME OLD STORY?
The ongoing protests against lack of jobs, a decaying economy, and government corruption that began on 17 October last year, and forced its Prime Minister Saad Hariri to resign, continues. Despite the announcement by Hassan Diab, the new Prime Minister, of his appointing 20 new ministers whom he vowed to work with to solve protesters’...
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VENEZUELA: GUAIDÓ FADING
Juan Guaidó, who with U.S. backing and that of some 50 nations, claims to be the legitimate president of Venezuela, received a cool reception at the recent meeting of government and financial leaders in Davos. Despite his recent meeting and endorsement by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week, as reported in the Trends Journal,...
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CRYPTO BUG BITING BANKS = GOING CASHLESS
One in every ten of the world’s central banks is planning to issue a national cryptocurrency before 2023, according to a 2019 survey by the Bank for International Settlements. The number almost doubled for banks planning to launch digital currencies by 2026. In theory, national cryptocurrencies could be used to buy anything from fast-food burgers...
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BIG CHAIN “HEALTH HUBS” ON THE RISE
The retail giant Walmart is planning to open its second Health “super center” in Georgia this year. Walmart’s first Health center opened its doors last September in Dallas, GA. The 10,000-square-foot storefront offers primary care, lab work, X-rays and EKGs, optical and hearing services, mental health counseling, dental services, nutrition counseling, fitness guidance, and health...
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“SENOLYTIC” DRUG REVERSES KEY CAUSE OF AGING
As the human body ages, it accumulates a growing number of “senescent” cells that lose their ability to work properly or even go dormant. As more of these cells build up, the symptoms of ageing become more pronounced – everything from dementia to crepe-like skin. “Senolytic” drugs that could clear away senescent cells have been...
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IT’S ALIVE! (SORT OF)
Scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder have created a form of concrete that can reproduce and can heal itself if damaged. Beginning with a particularly robust strain of bacteria, researchers mixed the bugs with sand and a hydrogel holding water and nutrients to feed the microbes. As the bugs flourished and multiplied, they...
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PFAS CONTAMINATION MORE WIDESPREAD
PFAS – perfluoroalkyl substances, a family of more than 5,000 hardy chemicals used to make products ranging from firefighting foam to waterproof mascara – have widely pervaded the U.S. water supply, according to a new study by the private, nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG). Several of the chemicals have been linked to liver damage, kidney...