Archive for the ‘World current affairs’ Category
As we turn the clocks back in the UK, around the world who does and who does not practice daylight saving time?
October 26th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
If you look at the world map on this web page, you’ll see that almost 80 nations – notably those of Europe and North America – practice daylight saving, but most of the rest of the world manages without this practice. The same web page provides some interesting facts on the practice: The USA has […]
Posted in British current affairs, World current affairs | Comments (6)
Today is Blog Action Day 2014 #BAD2014 and this year’s theme is inequality #Inequality
October 16th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Today is Blog Action Day when bloggers around the world post items on the same theme and this year the chosen subject is inequality. Conveniently this week Credit Suisse has published its annual Global Wealth Report. Among the mass of data, the report tells us that, taken together, the bottom half of the global population […]
Posted in British current affairs, World current affairs | Comments (0)
The Taiwanese vegetable seller turned philanthropist
October 8th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Meet Chen Shu-chu, the 63-year-old vegetable vendor who has quietly donated over 10 million Taiwanese dollars ($350,000; £210,000) to her hometown. No matter how much money she makes, she spends no more than a few dollars a day on herself so that she can give away the rest. Her generosity has made many people wonder how […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
At last, a good news story: how a million Africans will receive much better medical care
October 3rd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
It’s a 159 tonne ship that once used to be operated by the Royal Navy. It’s been kitted out in Scotland as a medical centre by BAE Systems. It has been transported 8,585 miles by sea and land from Glasgow to Lake Victoria. The journey took 246 days. And, over the next 20 years, it […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Among all the trouble spots in the world, don’t forget Uzbekistan
September 26th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
There are so many places of armed conflict and human rights abuse around the globe that it’s tempting to cut oneself off from the news or to focus only on the current or largest threats like Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. But we should not overlook other trouble spots such as Uzbekistan where there […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Violence at home costs $8 trillion a year – worse than war
September 12th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Domestic violence, mainly against women and children, kills far more people than wars and is an often overlooked scourge that costs the world economy more than $8 trillion a year, experts working on a study for the Copenhagen Consensus Centre said this week. The study, which its authors said was a first attempt to estimate […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Now that the Israel/Gaza war is over (for a time), what did it cost and what did it actually achieve?
August 28th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
After the collapse of at least eight temporary ceasefires, it looks as the ‘permanent’ ceasefire between the Israeli Defence Force and Hamas is holding. So it is time to take stock of the consequences of the 50-day conflict. What was the cost? In Gaza, more than 2,100 were killed, most of them civilians, including about […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (3)
What is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)?
August 22nd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
“The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a comprehensive free trade and investment treaty currently being negoti- ated – in secret – between the European Union and the USA. The inten- tion to launch TTIP negotiations was first announced by President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address in February 2013, and […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Where did ISIS or the Islamic State come from?
August 14th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
The BBC explains in the short video and timeline here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
“Hard Choices” (4): my review of the memoir
August 10th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I have now finished reading the 600-page memoir by Hillary Clinton of her four years as America’s Secretary of State. You can read it here.
Posted in American current affairs, History, World current affairs | Comments (0)