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Friday, August 30, 2019

Notations On Our World (Special M-End Edition): On Making A Difference

As we await a new month and go dark for the Labor Day Week-End here in the United States, we decided to feature this courtesy of the Economist to provide a snapshot of the challenging times in our World as we look forward to the continued journey of service.

We wish all in the United States a Happy and joyful Labor Day Week-End as it is officially the End of Summer: 



The Economist this week
Highlights from the latest issue
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This week we have two connected covers. In Britain, where Boris Johnson has announced that he will suspend Parliament for five weeks from mid-September, we ask who can now stop a no-deal Brexit. The sense of inevitability about no-deal, cultivated by the hardliners advising Mr Johnson, is bogus. The European Union is against such an outcome; most Britons oppose it; Parliament has already voted against the idea. When MPs return to work next week, they will have a fleeting chance to avert an unwanted national calamity. Mr Johnson’s muzzling of Parliament has made clear why they must seize it.
Mr Johnson’s ploy is legal, but it stretches the conventions of Britain’s constitution to their limits. His scheming is just one example of the cynicism that is gnawing at Western democracies—and which is the focus of our cover in the rest of the world. Democracies are generally thought to die at the barrel of a gun, in coups and revolutions. These days, however, they are more likely to be strangled slowly in the name of the people. Old-established polities, such as Britain and America, are not about to become one-party states, but their democracy is already showing signs of decay. Once the rot sets in, it is formidably hard to stop.
 Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief
Editor’s picks
Must-reads from the current edition
Pharmaceuticals
Opioids Inc in the dock

Companies accused of fuelling America’s opioid crisis face a legal reckoning
Business
India’s economy
Meagre fare

Narendra Modi’s government is scrambling to spice up growth
Finance and economics
Israel v Iran
The plots thicken

New fronts open up in a festering conflict, as Israel braces for an attack
Middle East and Africa
Chaguan
Getting a grip

How China might bring Hong Kong to heel without sending troops from the mainland
China
Banyan
Wars without end

A Chinese development scheme adds an extra dimension to long-running conflicts
Asia
Horticulture
Growing brighter

New ways to make vertical farming stack up
Science and technology
Bird life in New Zealand
Cheep dates

Efforts to conserve the kakapo, a pudgy parrot, are at last being rewarded
Asia
The world this week
Italy’s centre-left Democratic Party and the populist Five Star Movement reached an agreement to form a new coalition government that would see Giuseppe Conte remain prime minister. Mr Conte recently quit his job after Matteo Salvini, the hard-right leader of the Northern League, withdrew his support from the government. The deal keeps Mr Salvini out of power. He had served as interior minister, overseeing a crackdown on migrants.
More from politics this week
The latest escalation of the trade war saw China announcing new tariffs on $75bn-worth of American goods from September 1st. Donald Trump responded by announcing a five-percentage-point increase on existing and planned tariffs on Chinese exports.
More from business this week
The world ahead
Your guide to the future
image of
If Egypt collapses
Pyramid scheme

What might cause the country to collapse, and what would the consequences be if it did?
From Economist Films
Film
What does a cashless future mean?

Many countries are going cashless at great speed. What are the advantages of ditching hard cash and what are the dangers?