1 China markets start
week with new falls (BBC) Asian shares headed lower on Monday as jitters from
the sell-off in the markets last week continued to keep investors on edge. Global
markets made big losses after Chinese trading was suspended twice last week on
dramatic plunges in values that triggered a circuit breaker mechanism, and
spurred more volatility.
China suspended the use
of that tool on Friday, a move that reassured traders. But the Shanghai
Composite index was down 2.5% to 3,106.38 in early trade. Weak inflation data
over the weekend did little to encourage investors. China's consumer inflation
edged up 1.6% in December from a year ago. That compared to a 1.5% rise in the
previous month.
But deflation risks
remained in the world's second largest economy as factory-gate prices continued
to fall for the 46th consecutive month, down 5.9%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index
fell 2.4% to 19,964.64, following the mainland markets.
Australia's S&P/ASX
200 index was down 2% to 4,892.60 as falling oil prices continued to weigh on
the market. The price of Brent crude oil fell another 50 cents to $33.05 a
barrel. Mining heavyweights BHP Billiton and Rio Tino both plunged over 4% in
Sydney. In South Korea, the benchmark Kospi index was down 0.7% to 1,904.14
points.
2 World’s poor lose out as aid is diverted to
refugees (Larry Elliott in The Guardian) Sweden is one of the most generous
countries in the world when it comes to international aid. Along with other
Scandinavian countries, it has given bounteously to less fortunate nations for
many years. With a population of under 10 million, it also takes more than its
fair share of asylum seekers - an estimated 190,000 last year, with a further
100,000 to 170,000 expected to arrive in 2016.
This is proving to be an expensive business. The
Swedish migration agency says the cost of assimilating such a large number of
asylum seekers will be €6.4bn this year – and a debate is raging about whether
the aid budget should be raided to help meet the bill. In 2015, 25% of the aid
budget was spent on refugees. One proposal is to raise that figure to 60%.
Other countries are responding in similar fashion.
Italy raised its aid spending in 2015, but the extra money was mostly spent
domestically on those who successfully made the dangerous voyage across the
Mediterranean from north Africa.
Final figures for development assistance show that
global aid spending rose to a record level of $137.2bn in 2014 – an increase of
1.2% on the previous year. But the money is not going to those countries that
are in the greatest need. Spending on the least developed countries (LDCs) fell
by almost 5% and as a share of the total fell below 30% for the first time
since 2005.
Donor countries are increasingly dipping into their
aid budgets to deal with the migration crisis or diverting money that would
previously have gone to sub-Saharan Africa to countries that are deemed to be fragile,
such as Egypt, Pakistan and Syria, but are not classified as LDCs.
The aid critics respond by saying that too much of
the money is being wasted. They ask why the health systems of Liberia, Guinea
and Sierra Leone proved so woefully inadequate during the Ebola crisis and have
a ready answer: the money that should have gone on building hospitals and
training doctors and hospitals across Africa all too often ended up being spent
on expensive western consultants or in the offshore bank accounts of corrupt
politicians.
3 Tesla car can now park itself, be summoned (David
R Baker in San Francisco Chronicle) In two years, Tesla owners may be able to
summon their self-driving electric cars from across the country and let the
vehicles find them, CEO Elon Musk has said. In the meantime, however, they’ll
have to settle for telling their cars to meet them in the driveway or park
automatically in the garage.
Tesla this weekend updated its Autopilot system that
gives the company’s Model S sedans and Model X sport utility vehicles limited
abilities to drive themselves. The update is now available for Model S and will
soon be available for the Model X.
With the latest changes, delivered as a wireless
software upgrade, owners will be able to “summon” their cars while standing
nearby. Using either the key fob or a smartphone app, drivers can tell their
cars to open the garage door, roll forward to where the owner is standing and
close the garage door automatically. The same process works in reverse, so
Tesla owners can step out of their cars at the front door and let the cars park
themselves.
Tesla also improved the cars’ ability to auto-park
in public. The cars can now back themselves into tight parking spots after the
owner has exited the vehicle. Musk called the new summoning feature a “baby
step” in the evolution of Tesla’s autonomous driving technology.
“Ultimately, you’ll be able to summon your car from
anywhere there’s a land bridge, anywhere the car can physically get to you,”
Musk said. “If you’re in New York and your car is, say, in Los Angeles, your
car will find its way to you.” That level of self-driving capability, Musk
said, is probably two years away.
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