Search - covid 19

The beauty of sport is its ability to surprise and Isaac Nader produced one of the biggest ever in international 1,500 metres finals as he won the world title Wednesday while Katie Moon was a more predictable winner of a third successive pole vault crown.Portugal had never had a medallist in the 1,500m but Nader's storming run in the home straight was enough for the 24-year-old to deny Jake Wightman of Britain a second title. "Some people criticised me and said I would never achieve this but here I am – world champion and the first Portuguese athlete to win a global gold in the 1,500m," said a beaming Nader.While Wightman celebrated his silver after an injury-plagued three years since he won the title in 2022, there was misery for reigning champion Josh Kerr after the Briton was left hopping along midway through the race, apparently with an injury.Even at 34, Moon is pretty much unbeatable in an event that has failed to match the heights of the men's event in which Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis broke the world record for the 14th time in Tokyo. Moon triumphed with a best vault of 4.90 metres, a considerable 16 centimetres shy of the world record set by Yelena Isinbayeva 16 years ago."It feels fun watching girls getting in shape in real life," said Moon. "I am 34 now and I have seen several athletes come in young and blossom. All my medals are special but this one is the one. The older you get, it gets harder."The men's long jump went to Italian Mattia Furlani, 20, who confirmed his Olympic bronze last year was no fluke with a winning effort of 8.39m. Defending champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece was totally out of sorts and finished 11th.One lesson to be learned is beware Kenyan women distance athletes called Faith. Faith Kipyegon romped to the 1500m title on Tuesday and Wednesday it was the turn of Faith Cherotich to triumph in the 3,000m steeplechase.Femke Bol has had the misfortune to compete in the 400m hurdes at a time when the phenomenon that is Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has been around.McLaughlin-Levrone, though, has turned her attention to the 400m flat and is favourite to add that world title to her tally Thursday.Bol, three times a minor medallist behind the American, can take advantage of her absence to retain her world crown, just as she did in the 2023 championships. Bol had far too much pace in her semi-final for former Olympic and world champion Dalilah Muhammad, who at 35 is 10 years older than the Dutchwoman.The climax to the men's event is a rematch of the three medallists from the 2021 Olympic final in Tokyo. Karsten Warholm, who set a memorable world record on that scorching day, takes on runner-up Rai Benjamin, who avenged that defeat in winning Olympic gold in Paris last year, with bronze medallist, 2022 world champion Alison dos Santos, completing the trio.The stage is set for perhaps the most keenly awaited clash in the field events, the men's javelin final Thursday, between Olympic gold medallist Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan and the man he deposed in Paris last year India's Neeraj Chopra. However, the script came close to being torn up by Nadeem until he saved face in qualifying with his third and final throw.Chopra feels right at home in the stadium where he won Olympic gold four years ago, albeit with empty stands owing to Covid restrictions. "That Olympic gold medal changed everything for me," he said. "After winning it, I started to believe in myself."Nadeem may have pulled it out of the fire but it was not the case for another Olympic champion, Spanish triple jumper Jordan Diaz. The 24-year-old's dream of a full house of titles, he is also European champion, ended, as he pulled up with a quadriceps injury in qualifying.All the favourites in the men's and women's 200m – in which Melissa Jefferson-Wooden is bidding to become the first to achieve the individual sprint double since Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in 2013 – eased into semi-finals.Joining them is 17-year-old Australian Gout Gout, of whom great things are expected. The Australia-born son of South Sudanese parents took his first experience of a global championships in his long stride. "It's a great experience for me, running against the big dogs," said Gout. After the action was followed by big crowds early in the champions, Wednesday's action attracted just shy of 36,000, leaving thousands of empty seats.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone smashed the long-standing United States women's 400 metre record to surge into the final at the World Athletics Championships. The 26-year-old American, who is the world record holder at the 400m hurdles but has chosen to run the flat race in Tokyo, blazed through her semi-final in 48.29sec.That was almost half a second faster than Sanya Richards-Ross's previous US record of 48.70, which had stood since 2006. McLaughlin-Levrone will be the red-hot favourite to capture her first 400m world title in tomorrow's final and said she was "honoured" to better Richards-Ross's national mark."Definitely wasn't expecting that time but it just shows the fitness is there," she said. "Excited for the finals and grateful to have taken down a record by an amazing woman."McLaughlin-Levrone was one of the stars when Tokyo hosted the Covid-delayed Olympic Games in 2021. She set a world record of 51.46sec when winning 400m hurdles gold in one of the stand-out performances of those Games. She was also part of the US 4x400m relay squad that took gold.She said she still had gas left in the tank after her semi-final performance and was taken aback when she looked at her time on the scoreboard. "I wasn't expecting that but it's not surprising because I know the work's been put in," she said. "It's really just about executing and I'm grateful that it showed me that it's there."McLaughlin-Levrone was joined in the semi-finals by Paris Olympics champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic, who went through in a time of 49.82. Paris Games silver medallist Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain also qualified along with Poland's Natalia Bukowiecka and Jamaica's Nickisha Pryce.Britain's Amber Anning, who qualified with a second-quickest time of 49.38, said McLaughlin-Levrone would be the woman to beat in the final. "I think she wanted to put herself into a good position going into that final," said Anning. "I just tried to stay with her as much as possible but still execute my race."

Faith Kipyegon cemented her status as an athletics legend Tuesday by winning her fourth world 1500 metres title whilst Cordell Tinch's decision to return to the sport paid off with 110m hurdles gold.The 31-year-old Kipyegon had bad news for those who entertained hopes of winning the 5000m later in the week – the Kenyan is going to try and achieve the double as she did in Budapest in 2023. Tinch was also at those championships two years ago but bowed out in the semi-finals, with Grant Holloway going onto win his third world gold.Tuesday, the roles were reversed as Holloway bowed out in the semis and 25-year-old Tinch took his crown. Not bad for someone who stepped away from the sport and five years ago was selling mobile phones and then worked in a paper factory.Sadly their golden moments were not shared by a full house, with just 37,000 in the National Stadium and that despite Japan having several athletes in action, including two in the high jump final. Just as on Monday so it was Tuesday – New Zealand and Canada won a gold apiece.Despite deafening patriotic cheers for Yuto Seko and Ryoichi Akamatsu, they had pulled on their tracksuits and were mere spectators long before New Zealand's Olympic high jump champion Hamish Kerr had added world championships gold to his collection.Canada's Ethan Katzberg retained the men's hammer title, emulating his teammate Camryn Rogers in the women's event on Monday. The mild-mannered Olympic champion, 23, recorded a new championship best, throwing 84.70 metres in the second round.Some had thought the women's 1500m might see a new generation take over in the shape of Kipyegon's 22-year-old teammate Nelly Chepchirchir. However, Kipyegon put that theory firmly in its place, and just as at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics she will be bringing something gold back to her daughter."This sport drives me," said Kipyegon, who also set a new world record over the distance in Oregon in July. "I won here in 2021 (at the Olympics) just after becoming a mother, so being back here, winning again, means I can show a new gold medal to my daughter."Tinch's road back to the track was sparked by a jest made at his expense by his stepfather in 2020, but as being the new world champion sank in he had no regrets about the sabbatical. "If I hadn't taken that break from the track, I wouldn't be a world champion now," said Tinch. "Everything I learned at that time away from the sport made me the man I am and a world champion."Kerr is an entertainer and played to the crowd throughout the final, cupping his hands to his ears on the two occasions he went over on the third and final attempt. Once he had sealed victory the Kiwi ran down the infield almost as fast as compatriot Geordie Beamish's finishing winning burst in the 3,000m steeplchase on Monday. "Geordie (Beamish) gave me a kick in my backside after his win last night so I had to win too," said the 29-year-old.Katzberg said he had felt the pressure after Rogers's victory. "I can't ask for much more," he said. "Camryn (Rogers put the pressure on me to perform tonight. It was an incredible performance from her, so for Canada to win the men's hammer tonight as well is amazing."As they absorbed their victories Tinch's teenaged teammate, 800m runner Cooper Lutkenhaus, left the scene but with lessons learned. At 16 years 8 months and 28 days old he became the youngest runner to represent the United States at a world championships. But he finished seventh in his heat. "I did not feel any pressure and I really wanted to come out here and give everything," he said. "Being 16 on the world stage is very exciting. My parents and my family still see me as a 16-year-old kid."Lutkenhaus added he could now go out in Tokyo and have some fun, although reality is also biting. "I still have homework to do on this trip," he admitted.Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone meanwhile showed she could threaten the women's 400m record set four decades ago by Marita Koch. The American, running this event instead of her speciality, the 400m hurdles, practically strolled over the line in her semi-final in 48.29sec. Koch's record is 47.60sec. All eyes will be on tomorrow's final.

Hami Nepal used Discord app to mobilize protestsSudan Gurung and team propose cabinet changes, focus on youth involvementA former DJ and his obscure Nepalese non-profit used a social media app popular with video gamers to drive massive protests and become the unlikely power brokers in installing the country's new interim leadership.Sudan Gurung, the 36-year-old founder of Hami Nepal (We are Nepal), used the Discord messaging app and Instagram to mobilise massive demonstrations that forced Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to resign, in the deadliest political crisis to hit the Himalayan nation in decades, a dozen people involved in the demonstrations said. The group used VPNs to access banned platforms and issued calls to action that reached tens of thousands of young people, they added. Representatives for Oli could not be contacted for comment."I was invited to join a group on Discord where there were about 400 members. It asked us to join the protest march a few kilometres from the parliament," 18-year-old student Karan Kulung Rai, who is not part of the group, told Reuters.Hami Nepal's early social media posts on Discord became so influential that they were referenced on national television.As protests grew violent, the group also identified messages it termed "fake news" and shared hospital phone numbers.Hami Nepal members, who asked not to be identified as they had used proxy names online for security reasons, said Gurung and the group's other leaders have since become central to high-stakes decisions, including the appointment of the new interim leadership till elections are held on March 5. They have already convinced the country's president and army chief to appoint former Chief Justice Sushila Karki, known for her tough stance against corruption, as Nepal's first woman prime minister in an interim capacity, three members of the group said."I will make sure that the power lies with the people and bring every corrupt politician to justice," Gurung said in his first press conference since the protest on Thursday. On Sunday, Gurung and his team were in meetings to decide key cabinet positions and were proposing that some government officials appointed by the previous administration be removed, members of Hami Nepal said."Meetings are ongoing between Karki and members of the group. We will finalise the cabinet soon," one of the members said. Gurung and Karki did not immediately respond to questions sent to their mobile phones.The "process is being carefully carried out, so that it consists of skilled and capable youth," Hami Nepal said on Instagram.Monday's protest by young adults loosely categorised as a "Gen Z" movement, as most participants were in their 20s, turned deadly within hours and rapidly brought down the government. The protests were directed at perceived government corruption and took off following a ban on multiple social media platforms - a directive that was reversed. Protesters clashed with authorities on the streets, leaving at least 72 dead and over 1,300 injured.Gurung, who is older than the Gen Z age bracket, and his team have vowed not to take up any cabinet positions but want to be part of the future decision-making."We don't want to be politicians. Sudan Gurung was only helping the 'Gen Z' group and we are only the voice of the nation and not interested in taking leadership positions," said Ronesh Pradhan, a 26-year-old volunteer for the group. Gurung, who was a DJ before he founded Hami Nepal, organised civic relief when the worst earthquake in Nepal's history killed over 9,000 people in 2015, and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Team members running the Instagram account, whose followers have swelled to over 160,000, and Discord posts alongside Gurung include 24-year-old cafe owner Ojaswi Raj Thapa and law graduate Rehan Raj Dangal.Thapa, who quickly emerged as a vocal protest movement leader, told Reuters in an interview that the judiciary was not independent and ensuring its freedom was a key priority once the interim government was put in place."We may need some changes to the constitution but we don't want to dissolve the constitution," he said on Thursday.

Beatrice Chebet won the 10,000m world title while the cream of sprinting delighted a sellout 55,000 crowd at the world championships Saturday – a stark contrast to the empty stadium at the Covid-affected Tokyo Games in 2021.Chebet, 25, added the world title to her Olympic crown in Paris last year where the Kenyan also won the 5,000m. “I wanted that gold medal so much,” she said. “I have never won a gold at the world championships so I was sure I had to get it.”That was one of several titles on offer, giving a gentle lead-in to the finals of the men’s and women’s blue riband event, the 100m, Sunday.Ryan Crouser proved he has no equal in the shot put as despite missing the outdoor season through injury he became the second man – after Werner Guenthoer over 30 years ago – to be crowned world outdoor champion on three successive occasions. “This is my first time throwing hard since September last year, (so) this one is the one I am most proud of,” said Crouser.There was also gold for the American 4x400m mixed relay team, avenging their defeat by the Netherlands in last year’s Olympic final. The Dutch, anchored by 400m hurdles favourite Femke Bol, had to be satisfied with silver.All the favourites wasted little energy in qualifying for Sunday’s men’s 100m semi-finals. Olympic champion Noah Lyles and the Jamaican who lost out to him by the slimmest of margins at the Paris Olympics, Kishane Thompson, look in prime form despite the championships coming at the end of the season.Lyles did not enjoy his previous, crowdless experience in Tokyo but he is a different person four years later and put on a show for his audience. “As you know, it was a bit echoing back then and this time there is all the atmosphere, whistles and children cheering for me,” he said. “It really feels good to be back. This is the best form I have ever been in my life. I am bringing special things here.”Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo and two-time Olympic 200m silver medallist Kenny Bednarek also impressed. Bednarek, who pushed Lyles in the back and accused him of showing disrespect at the US trials, will hope he remembers every bit of kit Sunday having left his spikes in the United States. “I am just a clumsy dude,” he said.Women’s 100m Olympic champion Julien Alfred laid down the law in her heat, storming out of the blocks and the Saint Lucia star cantered over the line in 10.93sec. Defending world champion Sha’Carri Richardson had a far stronger heat, including two-time 200m world champion Shericka Jackson, but neither had to over-exert themselves as they eased into the semi-finals.Jackson’s legendary compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is also through but remains an outsider to add to her ten world golds and make it a fairytale farewell. On form alone, Alfred’s biggest threat is American champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden. Third behind Alfred in last year’s Olympic final, the 24-year-old said she could cope with a change in expectations from a minor medal prospect to one of the title favourites. “I already hold myself to a really high standard and expectations, so the pressures of the outside world, I really don’’t feel them,” she said. “I try to make sure I go out there and focus on Melissa, focus on what I can do and run my races to the best of my ability.”Edmund Serem is just 17 but the Kenyan showed he is a real title prospect. He kept his head after an early mistake in the 3,000m steeplechase and went on to win his heat –even having the time to join his hands together and hold them in front of his face as he crossed the line. However, he will have to go some to beat two-time defending champion Sofiane El Bakkali – Morocco’s two-time Olympic gold medallist coasted through his heat.

Qatar National Bank (QNB) predicted that upcoming US Federal Reserve interest-rate decisions could lead to a mild stagflation scenario, where growth slows while inflation remains above target. In its weekly report, QNB noted that the current US administration has clearly focused on monetary policy and has urged the Federal Reserve to deliver large rate cuts and adopt a more flexible stance. The report explained that monetary policy decisions are normally based on forecasts of key macroeconomic variables and a careful analysis of how interest-rate changes affect economic activity and prices, with the Federal Open Market Committee typically carrying out this process through extensive technical deliberations free from political pressure. The bank observed that new economic trends has unsettled financial markets, causing significant volatility as investors try to determine the appropriate level of interest rates for pricing assets in the new macroeconomic environment. US interest rates and Treasury yields were said to provide important information on macroeconomic expectations, particularly through the real yield curve (the gap between yields on 10-year and 2-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities). A wider gap indicates expectations of weaker short-term growth relative to the long term. This gap has widened in 2025 even though long-term real yields have remained stable, suggesting that longer-term growth expectations have not changed while near-term activity is expected to weaken. Recent US labor-market data were highlighted as evidence of this slowdown, showing slower job creation and a gradual rise in unemployment in recent months. Consensus forecasts for real GDP growth have also been revised downward, with expectations for 2025 and 2026 reduced by about 0.5 percentage points to 1.5% and 1.7% respectively, levels approaching the weakest annual growth since the post-COVID recession. The report stressed that real interest rates remain highly restrictive. With the federal funds rate upper bound at 4.5% and inflation at roughly 2.7%, the real rate is close to 1.8%, well above the estimated neutral rate of roughly 0.5-1.0 percentage points. QNB argued that current rates are overly tight and need adjustment to avoid a sharp growth slowdown. Short-term Treasury yields were described as closely tracking market expectations for the Fed's policy path. The two-year Treasury yield has fallen about 60 basis points this year (from a January peak of 4.40% to roughly 3.80%) signaling expectations of a substantial rate-cutting cycle. Markets now anticipate two 25-basis-point cuts by the end of 2025, followed by additional reductions through 2026, which would bring the policy rate down to around 3% by the end of that year. QNB concluded that these indicators point to a moderate stagflationary environment, with inflation staying above the Fed's 2% target even as growth weakens. Members of the Federal Open Market Committee were reported to have acknowledged a shift in the balance of risks toward slower growth, with markets expecting a policy-easing cycle that lowers the federal funds rate to roughly 3% by the end of 2026.

France’s government has now fallen after losing a parliamentary confidence vote brought by Prime Minister François Bayrou in a failed attempt to force the National Assembly to reckon with the country’s fiscal troubles. By ousting Bayrou’s team, the opposition – comprising both the left and the right – appeared to deny the need for fiscal adjustment.France’s fiscal position is deeply unbalanced. Last year, the country’s total deficit reached €169.6bn ($200bn), or 5.8% of GDP. With public debt at 113% of GDP, the need for adjustment truly is real.On the other hand, France is also the only major OECD country to have enacted a deep structural reform – specifically, far-reaching changes to its pension system – since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. And while France emerged from the last decade in a weaker fiscal position, the recent ballooning of its national debt fits within a broad global trend, which has also enveloped the US and Germany as well.And yet, two successive governments have chosen to portray France’s fiscal position largely in near-catastrophic terms. Finance Minister Éric Lombard recently went so far as to suggest that France might require an International Monetary Fund bailout, though he later retracted his statement.This goal was to convince voters to support the government’s proposed budget, which would significantly reduce public spending in 2026. It would suspend the indexation of most public expenditures (including pensions) to inflation and eliminate two public holidays. It was a good fiscal-consolidation package, neither especially regressive nor progressive, but it has proved highly controversial.But overdramatising the situation was a tactical mistake. It rarely works in democratic societies. On the contrary, it tends to breed mistrust, fatigue, and defiance. Citizens want to show they have choices. They stage protests, vote against incumbents, or disengage from politics.This dynamic is seen at work when it comes to climate policy. Instead of presenting the merits and benefits of fighting global warming, governments and international organisations often stress dire warnings of impending catastrophe. But forcing interventions onto citizens, especially those viewed as costly or unfair, based on a Hobson’s choice – “It is this or climate doom” – has often triggered backlashes, including in France, where the “yellow vest” protest movement emerged in 2018 in response to fuel-tax hikes.The same logic applies to fiscal policy. Debt and climate are both issues that require long-term vision and a sense of intergenerational justice. Yet, time and again, policymakers have sought to bypass this complexity and simply scare people by telling them they stand on the edge of an abyss.It is naive to believe that populations can be driven into constructive action by fear. Eighteen years ago, the prime minister at the time proclaimed that France was bankrupt. Since then, the debt has doubled. Eminent personalities and official bodies and agencies periodically issue dramatic warnings, which are broadly ignored.When populist movements in Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Peru, and Venezuela, have used external debt crises as rallying cries against mainstream politics, the results have often been destabilising.While ordinary citizens largely ignore their government’s gloomy narratives, financial markets have taken note. The yield on 30-yearFrench government bonds has reached its highest level since 2011, and the yield on ten-year bonds is at Italian levels. This should not be surprising, given the importance of perceptions in assessing financial risk. When a government insists that its national debt is unsustainable, investors and rating agencies are inclined to believe it.France does need strong and rapid fiscal adjustment. But the reasons why have yet to be explained to the French people. Ministers describe in arithmetical terms the sad reality that debt service now consumes a larger share of the budget than education. But the sad fact is that few voters pay attention.

The world desperately needs a good guy to believe in. There is only one candidate for the job: Europe. No other country or region is free, prosperous, endowed with the right values – and large enough to be an example to the world.But it is not enough for good guys to be good. They also must be strong and determined. And that, I am afraid, is where Europe falls short. Right now, Europe looks anything but strong. It looks wimpy.First came the so-called trade deal with the US. As my London School of Economics colleague Luis Garicano wrote, it was “not a deal, but a surrender.” Europe made a number of concessions, including acceptance of 15% tariffs on its key exports, in exchange for nothing.Then came the August 18 gathering of European leaders in the White House. If there is one art President Donald Trump practices to perfection, it is scene-setting. He sat in his big reclining chair, behind his big desk, while the leaders of Germany, France, Italy, Finland, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom, plus the president of the European Commission and the secretary-general of Nato, cowered on the other side like supplicants hoping to land a job on his old reality TV show The Apprentice. No picture could better convey the stark asymmetry in gall – and in real power.But there is no reason why Europe is condemned to genuflect before a US president. Europe has a much larger population than the US, and the combined GDP of the European Union, the UK, and other rich non-EU countries, like Norway and Switzerland, comes close.The truth is that Europe’s weakness reflects its own mistakes. Start with the biggest of them all: security. Garicano puts it well: “You cannot win a trade war against the army that protects you.” Sixty years ago, French President Charles de Gaulle’s fixation on an independent European defence capability looked like Gallic obstinacy. Today, it looks visionary. Russia’s aggression has revealed that Europe is exposed without US security guarantees – which cannot be relied upon as long as Trump is president.Europe is not doing enough to address its security deficit. Granted, defence spending has been rising. Of 28 European Nato members, 20 spent more than 2% of GDP on defence in 2024 – an increase of 0.6 percentage points in just two years. But that is still a far cry from the 3.4% the US spends, and Poland’s 4.7% projected for 2025.Europe’s defence procurement is also maddeningly fragmented, with each country trying to create jobs by buying weapons locally. The result is inefficiency and delays. The proposed European Defence Mechanism, which would include Britain and serve as a joint procurement agency, is a much better way forward, as is the idea (at least for the short run) of buying from the US the weapons Ukraine and Eastern Europe need to be safe.All of which leads to the question of how Europe can pay for its rearmament. The EU has not completed either a capital-markets union (to allow companies to borrow more cheaply across the continent) nor a banking union (to break the “doom loop” between banks and their national governments). Nor has it permanently created a class of bonds issued jointly by the EU on behalf of all its members. A pile of EU debt was issued under emergency powers during the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is not clear that this debt will be renewed when it matures, much less serve as the foundation for something bigger and more lasting.That is a pity, because a joint eurobond would bring huge benefits to Europe. Not only does it make perfect economic sense to finance the continent’s joint defence by issuing joint debt obligations. Eurobonds would also help turn the euro into a global safe asset, and the time is ripe for that change, too.After all, thanks to Trump’s antics, the dollar is looking more and more like an emerging-market currency, and investors everywhere are searching for an alternative. From an investor’s point of view, bonds backed by the EU, and not subject to the political and economic ups and downs of individual countries, would be safer and more liquid. So, they would carry a lower interest rate, allowing Europe to save plenty of money.But a global euro would also likely be a stronger euro, and that causes politicians from export-oriented economies like Germany and The Netherlands to hesitate. But maybe a stronger euro would be the perfect excuse to complete the other gargantuan unfinished task: the single market.The EU is supposed to be a fully unified market for trade in all goods and services, but the truth is that many barriers remain. For every €100 of value added in EU countries, only €20 of goods flow back and forth between them. For the US, the equivalent figure is $45 out of every $100. This costly fragmentation was a main theme of the weighty Draghi report on EU competitiveness, released in September 2024 – and now gathering dust on a shelf in Brussels.Europe’s external wimpiness is the result of its internal wimpiness. For all of Europe’s lofty claims to enlightenment, the continent’s politics remain as petty and short-sighted as those of any local town hall. When former German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed in 2012 that there would be no eurobond “as long as I live,” she was not practicing far-sighted statesmanship, but simply trying to reassure local nativists.And when, more recently, liberal-internationalist French President Emmanuel Macron did everything in his power to block the EU-Mercosur trade deal, he was pandering to domestic farmers. If that is the leadership Europe gets from its most prominent figures, what can Europeans expect from the continent’s lesser politicians?With Trump threatening from one side, and Putin from the other, Europeans can no longer afford their leaders’ passivity. The world’s only remaining good guy needs to step up. Democrats everywhere are waiting. — Project SyndicateAndrés Velasco, a former finance minister of Chile, is Dean of the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Parallel to this month’s United Nations General Assembly in New York, another critical summit will take place: the Science Summit at UNGA80. The Summit – which aims to highlight “the pivotal role of science in addressing societal challenges” – will provide a platform for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to demand a renewed recognition of scientific research as a pillar of resilience and sovereignty.For decades, the conventional wisdom has been that the fastest route to development lies in the adoption of foreign technologies, not independent innovation. Development institutions and policymakers have treated basic science as a luxury that only advanced economies could afford. For LMICs, they argued, the cultivation of scientific capacity – a slow and expensive process – would consume resources that should be allocated to pressing needs like poverty reduction, food security, and infrastructure; they are thus better off importing technologies and solutions from abroad.But this logic has been upended in recent years. A series of developments – including the Covid-19 pandemic, intensifying climate shocks, and proliferating barriers to trade and technology transfers – has exposed the risks of dependence on imported science. It is now clear that if LMICs are to gain control over their own development agendas, respond effectively to crises, and adapt global knowledge to local realities, they must build their own dynamic research ecosystems.This is not a detour on the path to development or an inconvenient necessity born of external challenges. Far from distracting from urgent needs, investment in basic science can enable countries to meet those needs, by giving rise to new industries, creating high-quality jobs, strengthening public services, and attracting the private capital needed to sustain growth and innovation.Calls for LMICs to raise gross expenditure on research and development toward the widely used 1%-of-GDP benchmark have rightly been growing louder. But not all investments are created equal. In a study at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, my team and I mapped a new dataset, spanning 129 countries, according to funding, talent, institutions, and research output. Our central finding is that total spending matters much less than the manner and context in which it is deployed.When paired with strong institutions, capable research agencies, and policies that attract and circulate talent, even modest R&D budgets can yield outsize returns. An analysis showed that some countries achieve several times the global median research impact (H-index) per dollar of R&D spending, while others fall short. The lesson for LMICs is especially important: countries under budget pressures cannot afford to spend more on poorly aligned systems.LMICs have proven their capacity for innovation, especially in the health sector. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Senegal’s Pasteur Institute developed and deployed rapid diagnostic kits within weeks, and Ugandan scientists created mobile EpiTent hospitals tailored to the local public-health system. Using its genome-sequencing capabilities, South Africa identified new virus variants early, providing critical data to the world. These achievements were the product of deliberate, long-term investments in domestic capacity that paid off when global supply chains and aid channels faltered.International partners have a critical role to play in supporting scientific sovereignty in developing economies, including by co-investing in LMIC-based universities, laboratories, and research councils. As LMICs’ scientific capacities progress, so will their ability to collaborate as equals with international researchers and institutions; contribute solutions to shared problems, from pandemic preparedness to food security; and ensure that global research agendas reflect the needs and priorities of all countries, not just the wealthiest.At a time of shrinking global aid budgets and faltering multilateralism, LMICs cannot count on the international community to meet their development needs. But far from a roadblock to progress, this should serve as a catalyst for transformation. By investing in their own institutions and talent, developing-country governments can transform vulnerability into resilience, and dependence into agency.At the UNGA, world leaders will discuss wars, climate change, and economic uncertainty. But science must also be on the agenda. Only by nurturing robust scientific ecosystems can we ensure that LMICs are prepared to meet known and unknown challenges. — Project Syndicate

Boeing Co delivered 57 commercial aircraft in August, its best performance for the month since 2018, in the latest sign of steadying factory operations as the US planemaker targets faster production rates.The tally, which included 43 of Boeing’s 737 family of jets, is the second-highest of the year and marks an uptick from July, according to data posted Tuesday on the company’s website. August’s results underscore Boeing’s recent improvements in stabilising its factories as the manufacturer prepares to ask regulators for permission to return output of the best-selling jet to pre-Covid levels.Gross orders for Boeing totalled 26 during the month against two cancellations. The company recorded 83 net orders, including those added to its backlog under a US accounting provision for at-risk deals. For the year, the US planemaker has landed 725 gross orders against 600 for Toulouse, France-based Airbus SE.Boeing has started to narrow an output gap with market leader Airbus that’s stood since the US manufacturer fell into a series of crises starting with the first of two fatal 737 Max crashes in late 2018. Through August, Boeing has delivered 385 jets this year to 434 for its European rival, which handed over 61 aircraft for the month.Since the beginning of 2024, Boeing’s output deficit to Airbus has narrowed by more than half, based on the average of trailing six-month deliveries, according to Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu.Jefferies estimates of 6-month average gap in Boeing-Airbus deliveries.Boeing is sharing with US regulators a series of measures of the health of its production system ahead of a formal request to speed its 737 assembly lines to a pace of 42 jets per month, from the current cap of 38.The company has told airline customers it’s optimistic it will be able to raise rates by October, Ryanair Holdings Plc Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary told reporters on August 27.

Crude prices have fallen 12% this year, pressured by increased output from Opec+ countries and elsewhere, and as US President Donald Trump’s trade war weighs on demand. Yet the market has overall proven surprisingly resilient to the alliance’s strategy shift, giving the oil alliance added confidence to return even more barrels. Opec+ agreed to a new round of production increases from next month last Sunday, as the group extends a policy shift towards higher volumes after years of defending prices. In a meeting that lasted 11 minutes, key alliance members approved adding about 137,000 barrels a day from October during a video call as they accelerates the unwinding of its next tier of supply cuts. The group said in a statement it will return all or part of 1.65mn a day, without giving a period or increments, depending on market conditions. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and its partners or Opec+ stunned oil markets in recent months by reviving 2.2mn barrels of halted production a year ahead of schedule in a bid to reclaim market share, even despite widespread expectations of an approaching supply glut. The group hopes that a further increase in sales volumes will offset any hit to revenues from lower prices, one delegate said, signalling a reversal of the strategy that Opec+ has espoused since its creation almost a decade ago. However, the actual volume is likely to be lower than announced, as some members of the group face pressure to compensate for earlier oversupply and forgo their share of production hikes, while several countries lack spare capacity. The decision is likely to put a renewed spotlight on the unused production levels available in different Opec+ members, as countries that can’t pump more won’t fully benefit from the increased quotas, while they face the added pressure of lower prices. The group’s decision comes against the backdrop of mounting warnings that the oil market is headed for a significant oversupply as the summer driving season ends in the northern hemisphere. The International Energy Agency in Paris forecasts a record supply glut next year amid faltering consumption in China, and swelling output across the Americas — from the US and Canada to Brazil and Guyana. In the second quarter, global oil stockpiles increased by the most since the third three months of 2020, when the global economy was still being ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the IEA. Over that period, stockpiles in the developed world climbed by 60,000 barrels a day, while expanding by more than 1mn barrels a day everywhere else. Goldman Sachs Group predicts Brent may slump to the low $50s in 2026. For global oil markets in the longer term, the Opec+ move serves to erode a longstanding safety net of idle production that could be brought back to cushion unforeseen supply shocks. Granted, there are some bullish factors that could provide some support to oil in the coming months. Winter heating needs will provide periodic boosts to demand, and the possibility of lower interest rates should bolster the prices of commodities including crude and diesel. But it’s the oil glut — which the IEA says will balloon to a record next year — that is in focus now. There are, of course, gainers and losers from the decline in global crude prices. But cheaper oil may not translate into a proportional growth boost for global economy as much as it’s generally hoped for. Longer term, oil companies say global energy future envisages rising demand and population growth, making oil an important fuel for decades to come. Despite the emergence of renewables, global energy security depends mainly on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future. The world is in need of a stable oil market with price equilibrium.

As the oil market moves closer to a long-anticipated glut, traders are closely watching buying from China to see if it will absorb an excess that the world’s crude producing nations are set to pump.Earlier this year, China piled into the crude market to snap up millions of barrels, including some that went into its strategic storage. The buildup has since slowed down as the nation’s domestic demand picked up, but with expectations that Beijing will continue to amass barrels, its next steps are seen as critical.With China’s vast network of oil tank farms still a little over 50% full, according to OilX data, traders say another spree would limit the damage from a long-anticipated glut in other parts of the globe. That’s significant because if China’s buying is elevated, it will prevent a buildup of supply in a narrow set of hubs in Midwestern America and Northwest Europe, limiting how far prices can fall.“The key question is where stockbuilds will turn up,” HSBC Holdings Plc analysts including Kim Fustier wrote this week. “If China continues to absorb excess oil volumes via its strategic reserves, as it did in in the second quarter, stockbuilds in the OECD could be muted.”The global market’s capacity to absorb barrels will be among talking points when OPEC+ nations meet to discuss supply on Sunday. Saudi Arabia wants the group to accelerate the return of another tranche of halted output adding to concerns about a surplus that would depress prices but all options are on the table.About 10% of the nation’s crude stockpiling has been directed to its strategic petroleum reserves, according to Kayrros analyst Antoine Halff. There have also been additions to the country’s refining capacity, such as CNOOC Ltd’s Daxie plant, and the addition of new tank space.It’s also possible that Beijing wants to hold more barrels in storage given the heightened levels of geopolitical risks over the last few years, the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies wrote in a note.While China’s flagship crude futures contract was flashing a softer market over recent weeks, the world’s two main benchmark’s continued to suggest relatively tight supplies.That’s because inventory builds so far this year have avoided western hubs. In Cushing, Oklahoma, the tank farm of about 15 storage terminals that underpins the West Texas Intermediate futures contract, inventories have been repeatedly near multi-year seasonal lows this year.The International Energy Agency says that in the second quarter global oil stockpiles increased by the most since the third three months of 2020, when the global economy was still being ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic. Over that period, stockpiles in the developed world climbed by 60,000 barrels a day, while expanding by more than 1mn barrels a day everywhere else.It’s still possible that prices will need to fall from current levels for China buy in a big way, though, according to Frederic Lasserre, head of research at Gunvor Group.“The last solver that everybody is talking about is China,” he said. “Not for runs, but because we’ve seen a recent trend of them being willing to build up crude barrels. But if you expect China to go back to stockpiling 1mn barrels a day, you need a big price drop to incentivise it.”Both inside and outside of China there’s plenty of space to store unwanted oil.Bank of America Corp wrote last month that there’s about a billion barrels of empty tank capacity available across the globe to fill with inventories, which could mean that markets avoid falling into a heavily bearish structure.There are signs that the surge in production is starting to come, though. Brazil’s output approached 4mn barrels a day for the first time over the summer, and a new field is due to start in the country before the end of the year. Guyana has moved from producing nothing to almost 1mn barrels a day and output in Canada’s oil heartland of Alberta hit a record in July.At the same time, despite concerns about a decline in US output, the Energy Information Administration has consistently revised oil supply estimates higher over the last few months.What traders are waiting for now, is for those increases to appear at key storage hubs.“When we look at OECD inventories we’re still at a relatively low level,” Nadia Martin Wiggen, a director at Svelland Capital, said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “Yes, there is this supply glut coming according to expectations, but we need to see that materialising.”