The Japan Times newsroom selected these world news stories as the most important of 2016. 1. The rise of Donald Trump: On Nov. 8, Republican Party candidate Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidential election. The 70-year-old was seen as a long shot at the ...
This past year has been one where the limits and failings of democracy became more visible than at any time since World War II enshrined the view that representative government was best.
The year 2017 will mark the 40th anniversary of the publication of John Kenneth Galbraith's "The Age of Uncertainty." But if Galbraith were writing the same book in 2017, he probably would call the 1970s the Age of Assurance.
What unites supporters of Donald Trump and the U.K.'s "leave" campaign is not anger at being excluded from the benefits of globalization, but rather a shared sense of unease that they no longer control their own destinies.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi quit in the early hours of Monday after losing a referendum he'd called to push through constitutional changes, threatening renewed political and financial turmoil for Europe. "I lost, and the post that gets eliminated is mine," Renzi said early Monday ...
Austrian voters roundly rejected on Sunday a candidate vying to become the first freely elected far-right head of state in Europe since World War II, halting at least temporarily the wave of populism sweeping Western democracies. The runoff vote was a litmus test, since it ...
Russia's supercomputer has "colossal" powers according to Vladimir Putin’s defence minister
BLOOMBERG/ GETTY STOCK IMAGE
The potential of the high-tech machine at the Russian National Centre for Defence Control is only using half of its capacity.
Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu made the revelation during a documentary on Russian TV.
Using technology developed during the Yugoslav Wars, the supercomputer has the power to analyse fleet positions and international relations to warn President Putin about developing situations and when he should take military action.
Russia’s state news agency TASS says the supercomputer has the power to identify threats to Russia.
Referencing NATO’s role in the Yugoslav conflict, Mr Shoigu said: "This was a large NATO operation. When fleet was concentrated, when missiles were transported, where and to what distance - everything is analysed.
“If tomorrow information comes from one sector, from another, and the machine will tell us, 'My friends, the situation is similar by 90% with what happened in Serbia', this means that there is a threat of repetition of what happened in Serbia then, in this region, and measures should be taken.”
The supercomputer is currently working to just half of its potential, with the opportunity for the Russians to assess security threats even quicker.
Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu said the supercomputer's reserve is "colossal"
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Mr Shoigu said: "This is an open architecture. Blocs can be added or withdrawn from it now.
“It can be built up, increased, expanded, there are many possibilities here. The reserve is colossal.
“We have not even reached half of it because it is an enormous volume of the program product which should allow us to manage more effectively, with faster speed.”
The supercomputer is based at the Russian National Centre for Defence Control in Moscow
AFP
The supercomputer is just one part of Russia’s secretive digital defence centre which operates around the clock to analyse intelligence and data.
Reports in September suggested a new machine to control air, land and sea robotic systems was being developed.
It comes as tensions escalate between Russia and the US over allegations of hacking during the 2016 presidential election.
President Barack Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian suspected spies and imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies over their involvement in hacking.
Files recently released by the
National Archives shed light on Margaret Thatcher’s last years in No 10.
The predominant issue then, as now, was Europe.
Margaret Thatcher at 10 Downing Street during general election, London, Britain - 1983Credit:
Herbie Knott / Rex Features
Files recently released by the
National Archives shed light on Margaret Thatcher’s last years in No 10.
The predominant issue then, as now, was Europe. The Tory wets not only
disagreed with Lady Thatcher’s Euroscepticism but were embarrassed by it
and determined to resist. In hindsight, they were wrong and she was
absolutely right.
Europe has yet to prove Lady Thatcher wrong.
For instance, she opposed
chancellor Nigel Lawson’s preference for unofficially “shadowing” the
German mark, which was Europe’s strongest currency, or joining the
Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) as a way of bolstering the pound.
Eventually the pro-Europeans got their way – and membership of the ERM
proved an unmitigated disaster. Leaving it in 1992 led to more than a
decade of healthy growth.
Former Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl with former Prime Minister Margaret ThatcherCredit:
PA
Lady Thatcher’s instincts were
correct. It was better to let the pound find its natural level, as
recent weakening will hopefully prove, while tying European currencies
together as if they had identical strengths and weaknesses was not only
risky but had political consequences. The Europeans dreamed of a
continental super-state. This was not what Britons had voted for in the
1975 Common Market referendum, and not what Lady Thatcher once supported
either.
Some readers might judge her worries about German reunification at the
end of the Cold War to be short-sighted. It was, after all, a triumph
over communism. Yet the new Germany became the motor for an expanded and
more tightly integrated EU. Since 1989, Germany has proved large enough
to dominate Europe but not dominant enough to lead it. That has led to
mistakes and recriminations. Europe has yet to prove Lady Thatcher
wrong.
A NEW report from Migration Watch confirms what this newspaper and many others have said all along – that in order to control immigration Britain must leave the single market.
Leave campaigners said since the start of the campaign that Brexit means leaving the single market
Failure to deliver this would represent a betrayal by the Government.
On June 23 the British people voted overwhelmingly to take back control of our borders, laws, taxes and trading arrangements.
The rules for membership of the single market are crystal clear. Stay in it and these things will still be controlled by Brussels.
Remoaners continue to claim that we never voted to leave the single market and therefore the Government must keep us in it.
This is a desperate ruse that completely ignores events during the referendum campaign.
Before the referendum David Cameron made clear numerous times that a vote to leave would mean withdrawing from the single market.
Leave campaigners – most notably Michael Gove – frequently said the same thing.
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Rejecting the customs union is likely to be the only way that Britain can have full border control
It is ridiculous and patronising to claim that British voters did not know what they were voting for.
They clearly wanted, among other things, to win back control over Britain’s borders and to put a stop to unfettered mass immigration.
They knew that doing so would require leaving the single market and they were happy to take that step.
It is about time the Remoaners respected the will of the people.
The single currency has fallen to $1.03 in 2016 – the lowest level in 13 years - and is now on track to fall as low as $0.95, according to economist forecasts.
Jordan Hiscott, chief trader at ayondo markets, said: “The Euro is now facing a perfect storm and the next obvious level is parity with the USD, quite possibly by Q2 next year.
“The currencies are quickly moving closer in value, thanks to the strengthening of the US dollar, following the election of Trump and his Regan-era style of economics, focusing on large infrastructure spending.
"Combine this with the weakening of European regional government, the resignation of the Italian Prime Minister and the prospect of 16 separate European government elections next year, and it’s difficult to be positive about the Euro.”
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Euro could fall further against the dollar in 2017
Since September the euro has lost about seven per cent against the dollar, as the two economies face different outlooks for the future.
The desperate European Central Bank (ECB) has committed to continue its money-printing programme until the end of 2017 in an effort to stimulate the economy at a worrying time.
Italy's banks are in crisis, Greece's debt deal faltering, and French and German elections are looming, which has raised fears for the future of the euro.
In contrast, the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates in December and is expected to implement multiple hikes next year, as the economy continues to grow.
Julian Jessop at Capital Economics has predicted the euro will fall to $0.95 against the euro in 2017.
He said: "There is likely to be a much greater contrast in monetary policy between the US and other advanced economies than most anticipate over the next two years.
"We expect the Fed to hike interest rates four times in both 2017 and 2018.
"This is far more than appears to be priced into the markets, even after the rise in yields following the Fed’s December hike.
"And for all the talk of the end of quantitative easing, the ECB and Bank of Japan look set to continue their asset purchases for the foreseeable future.
"In turn, this divergence is likely to put additional upward pressure on the dollar in 2017."
I DON’T want to make light of the death of George Michael but I imagine the news generated a kind of relief on the faces of some BBC editors. No longer would the pro-Remain Today programme have to lead on its own scoop – former Bank of England governor Lord King’s comments on Brexit – and could instead fill up most of its two hours playing pop music.
Unlike his successor Mark Carney, ex-Bank of England governor Lord King is optimistic
What we should have woken up to yesterday morning was the headline that Lord King believes Britain should have “greater self-confidence” in leaving the EU and that we should quit the single market and customs union. It would not make sense, he said, to remain in the customs union when it would preclude doing our own trade deals with countries outside the EU.
He added that free movement should be “non-negotiable” – that the Government should get on and devise a migration policy for post-EU Britain, not throw it into the pot of things to be negotiated as part of our leaving settlement.
For the benefit of Radio 4 listeners who turned off after the umpteenth airing of Careless Whisper and didn’t get to hear the short clip of Lord King which was eventually played, the former governor also made some damning remarks about the euro. He intimated that the single currency is doomed because the EU has “simply not put into place the framework to make it a success”.
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Clark: Mark Carney lost no opportunity to claim we could be making a huge mistake if we voted leave
n the end, he added, the EU will have to recognise that it was wrong to rush ahead with the single currency in 1999 and that the patience of German voters would run out when they realised their money is being thrown away bailing out southern European economies.
This was explosive stuff from Lord King, not least because it conflicts so starkly with the views of his successor at the Bank of England, Mark Carney, who lost no opportunity during the referendum campaign to claim we would be making a huge mistake if we voted to leave.
Last January Carney claimed that leaving the EU would put Britain at the mercy of “the kindness of strangers” because foreign investors in government bonds might decide to dump them.
In March he warned a committee of MPs that Brexit presented “the biggest domestic risk to financial stability” and that it would push up inflation.
He was still at it in August when the Bank of England announced a panic 0.25 per cent reduction in interest rates, which Carney said would “blunt the slowdown” that Britain was suffering as a result of the Brexit vote.
We now know that Carney’s warnings were just fantasy. The economy continues to grow strongly – in fact faster than any other large EU country. International investors have carried on investing in UK government debt and while the rate of inflation has risen, it is still only just a little over half the Bank of England’s target.
While Lord King did not directly criticise his successor it was quite clear that had he still been governor during and after the referendum campaign he would have had a far more constructive attitude. He would not have spent his time talking down the UK economy.
It is refreshing to hear Lord King being upbeat because it was once he who was the needlessly gloomy one. In his last months as governor in 2012 and early 2013 he issued a series of warnings on the economy which, as we later discovered, was doing a lot better than he suggested in recovering from the crisis of 2008/09.
Part of the job description of leading the Bank of England is to boost confidence in the economy, not to engage in Panglossian propaganda but to balance warnings of economic risks with observations on how things could turn out very much better.
GETTY
Lord King: 'The EU has simply not put into place the framework to make the single currency a success
Mark Carney says he was “only doing his job warning of risks” but why didn’t he also warn of the risks of staying in the EU and being dragged down by the festering economic crisis in the Eurozone?
I can’t imagine Carney ever bringing himself to admit in public that there are great opportunities for Britain in leaving it.
Whatever it is that Remainers like about being members of the EU they cannot deny that leaving will give us the freedom to negotiate our own trade deals with countries outside the EU, something which has been denied to us for the past 44 years.
It allows the possibility, at least, that we will be able to open up trade with China and Japan, the world’s second and third largest economies, with which the EU has so far failed to deregulate trade.
As Lord King said yesterday, these are not opportunities that can be exploited by being halfhearted about Brexit. He may have intended his comments as a rebuttal to the suggestion by Carney that the Government should commit to a drawn-out transitional phase of withdrawal.
No one will serve our interests by dreaming up some fiddle by which we are half in, half out of the EU. The debate needs to move quickly to how best we can exercise our new freedoms. What should be our migration policy, our trade policy, our industrial and agricultural policies? There is plenty of room for debate on all those matters.
Brexit doesn’t commit us to any particular line, it merely repatriates the powers to decide for ourselves.
But so long as frustrated Remainers prefer to spend their energy trying to undo the referendum result, they are debates in which it will be difficult for them to engage.
