1 Russia foresees recession next year (San Francisco
Chronicle) The Russian government has acknowledged that the country will fall
into recession next year, battered by the combination of Western sanctions and
a plunge in the price of its oil exports. The news caused the stock market to
drop and pushed the ruble to a fresh record low against the dollar.
The economic development ministry has revised its
GDP forecast for 2015 from growth of 1.2 percent to a drop of 0.8 percent.
Russian households are expected to take hit, with disposable income seen
declining by 2.8 percent against the previously expected 0.4 percent growth.
Russia's economic outlook is at the mercy of the
global market for oil, a key export that finances the bulk of the state budget.
Sanctions over Moscow's role in eastern Ukraine are making things worse,
hurting Russian banks and investment sentiment in particular. The ruble has
dropped by more than 40 percent this year as the economic troubles mounted.
That in turn risks spawning more problems, such as a spike in inflation that
would pinch consumers.
While Russia's troubles could do some economic
damage to Europe, they are unlikely to have much impact on the US economy, the
world's largest. Russia is the 28th-biggest market for the US, absorbing $11.1
billion worth of US goods last year.
Russia's economic stability is important for the
region. It is a major trading partner for Western Europe, selling raw materials
and oil and gas to the West and importing consumer goods and foodstuffs.
European agricultural producers reported big losses following the Kremlin's ban
on some imports. A weaker economy and a weaker ruble would also mean that fewer
Russians will be traveling abroad and spending their money there.
2 Nikkei at seven-year
high (BBC) Japan's Nikkei closed at a fresh seven-year high on Tuesday as
investor sentiment was buoyed by talk of the Bank of Japan (BoJ) buying stocks.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 closed up 0.4% at 17,663.22 points. Earlier, the index
had fallen after Moody's Investment Service cut Japan's credit rating by one
notch to A1 from Aa3.
oody's move underlined
concerns over Japan's economy after an increase in the national sales tax was
delayed. But analysts said the weaker yen, together with the possible move by
the BoJ, was continuing to support investor sentiment.
3 Hawking sees AI as threat to humanity (Stuart
Clark in The Guardian) The development of artificial intelligence could spell
the end of the human race, Professor Stephen Hawking has said. The famous
astrophysicist said he believed technology would eventually become self-aware
and supersede humanity, as it developed faster than biological evolution.
Hawking said: “The primitive forms of artificial
intelligence we already have, have proved very useful. But I think the
development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human
race.”
Hawking – who as a result of his motor neurone
disease is almost totally paralysed – also spoke of how he had received a
“life-changing upgrade” to the computer software that allows him to
communicate. Hawking now uses a system that incorporates predictive text,
allowing him to type twice as quickly as before and send emails ten times
faster. “Medicine has not been able to cure me, so I rely on technology to help
me communicate and live,” he said.
Hawking has been in partnership with Intel for over
25 years. His MND is related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He was diagnosed
in 1961, when he was 21, and given just two years to live. He turned 72 on 8
January 2014.
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