- The $2 Trillion Project to Get Saudi Arabia’s Economy Off Oil
Eight
unprecedented hours with “Mr. Everything,” Prince Mohammed bin
Salman.
The
Bloomberg
April 21,
2016
Prince
Mohammed
Early
last year, at a royal encampment in the oasis of Rawdat Khuraim,
Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia visited his uncle, King
Abdullah, in the monarch’s final days before entering a hospital.
Unbeknown to anyone outside the House of Saud, the two men, separated
in age by 59 years, had a rocky history together. King Abdullah once
banned his brash nephew, all of 26 at the time, from setting foot in
the Ministry of Defense after rumors reached the royal court that the
prince was disruptive and power-hungry. Later, the pair grew close,
bound by a shared belief that Saudi Arabia must fundamentally change,
or else face ruin in a world that is trying to leave oil behind.
For
two years, encouraged by the king, the prince had been quietly
planning a major restructuring of Saudi Arabia’s government and
economy, aiming to fulfill what he calls his generation’s
“different dreams” for a post
carbon
future. King Abdullah died shortly after his visit, in January 2015.
Prince Mohammed’s father, Salman, assumed the throne, named his son
the deputy crown prince—second in line—and gave him unprecedented
control over the state oil monopoly, the national investment fund,
economic policy, and the Ministry of Defense. That’s a larger
portfolio than that of the crown prince, the only man ahead of him on
the succession chart. Effectively, Prince Mohammed is today the power
behind the world’s most powerful throne. Western diplomats in
Riyadh call him Mr. Everything. He’s 31 years old.
“From
the first 12 hours, decisions were issued,” says Prince Mohammed.
“In the first 10 days, the entire government was restructured.”
He spoke for eight hours over two interviews in Riyadh that provide a
rare glimpse of the thinking of a new kind of Middle East
potentate—one who tries to emulate Steve Jobs, credits video games
with sparking ingenuity, and works 16-hour days in a land with no
shortage of sinecures.
Last
year there was near-panic among the prince’s advisers as they
discovered Saudi Arabia was burning through its foreign reserves
faster than anyone knew, with insolvency only two years away.
Plummeting oil revenue had resulted in an almost $200 billion budget
shortfall—a preview of a future in which the Saudis’ only viable
export can no longer pay the bills, whether because of shale oil
flooding the market or climate change policies. Historically, the
kingdom has relied on the petroleum sector for 90 percent of the
state budget, almost all its export earnings, and more than half its
gross domestic product.
On
April 25 the prince is scheduled to unveil his “Vision for the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” an historic plan encompassing broad
economic and social changes. It includes the creation of the world’s
largest sovereign wealth fund, which will eventually hold more than
$2 trillion in assets—enough to buy all of Apple, Google,
Microsoft, and Berkshire Hathaway, the world’s four largest public
companies. The prince plans an IPO that could sell off “less than 5
percent” of Saudi Aramco, the national oil producer, which will be
turned into the world’s biggest industrial conglomerate. The fund
will diversify into nonpetroleum assets, hedging the kingdom’s
nearly total dependence on oil for revenue. The tectonic moves “will
technically make investments the source of Saudi government revenue,
not oil,” the prince says. “So within 20 years, we will be an
economy or state that doesn’t depend mainly on oil.”
- Mitsubishi Admits Cheating on Fuel-Economy Tests
The
New York Times
APRIL 20,
2016
TOKYO
— In the latest scandal to hit the automobile industry, Mitsubishi
Motors said on Wednesday that it had cheated on fuel-economy tests
for an ultrasmall car it produces in Japan. The company acknowledged
that its engineers had intentionally manipulated evaluations.
The
cheating affected about 620,000 cars sold in the Japanese market
starting in 2013, Tetsuro Aikawa, Mitsubishi’s president, said at a
news conference.
But
the problem could stretch beyond that make of car. Mr. Aikawa said
that the same testing method, which was in violation of Japanese
standards, was used on other models in the country and that
Mitsubishi was investigating whether fuel-economy ratings for other
lines had been exaggerated as a result.
“It
has become clear that improper testing methods were used to improve
the appearance of fuel efficiency,” Mr. Aikawa said before he and
other company leaders bowed in apology. Company executives called the
manipulation of tests on the microcar, called the eK, “intentional.”
Automakers’
reports of fuel economy and pollution ratings have come under
especially close scrutiny after a scandal at Volkswagen last year.
The German automaker was found to have manipulated
software in
11 million diesel vehicles to cheat on emissions tests.
Mitsubishi’s
reputation has been battered by scandal before. In 2000, the
company
admitted that
it had been hiding reports on vehicle defects for more than two
decades. The news contributed to a sales plunge of nearly 50 percent
and nearly pushed the automaker into bankruptcy.
The
revelation of cheating put the fuel ratings of other Mitsubishi
vehicles under scrutiny. Its shares fell 15 percent on Wednesday
after the company released a brief statement saying it had engaged in
“improper” fuel-economy reporting. It disclosed the details after
the market closed.
- The Guardian view on the Queen at 90: the time to discuss changes
The
Editorial of The
Guardian
20 April
2016
Elizabeth
II’s long life has defined the modern monarchy. But a modern
conversation about the ever-changing constitutional concordat ought
to begin now
The
Queen opening a new bandstand at Alexandra Gardens, Windsor, on
Wednesday. ‘She is said to believe that when the public looks at
her they see someone who is honest and prosaic and not in some ways
so dissimilar to themselves.’ Photograph: i-Images
There
has never been, and there may never be again, a British monarch quite
like Queen
Elizabeth II,
who celebrates her 90th birthday on Thursday. She owes most of her
uniqueness to a single cause: her longevity on the throne. This queen
has now ruled for longer than any of her predecessors. This queen is
now older than any previous monarch. This queen has been married
longer. What is more, as she reaches her tenth decade, this queen
also looks good for several
more milestones yet.
Today’s
monarchy can appear profoundly rooted in history and tradition. But
that can be misleading. In our day, this is partly because Elizabeth
II is the only monarch most of us have ever known, just as Prince
Philip is the only consort and
Prince
Charles the
only heir. None of this has changed since 1952, an increasingly
immense span in an era in which political leaders and cultural icons
rarely stay more than a decade at the top.
The
truth is that over time the monarchy has always invented itself, and
has been reinvented, as it goes along. Today’s monarchy reflects
Elizabeth II much more than most of us pause to consider.
In particular it reflects her lifelong readiness to do dutifully
and adaptably the things that she and her advisers decided were
expected of her, and our acceptance of that role. But the
monarchy has also sometimes been reinvented by the country, not the
court.
All
this has helped to make the Queen seem an object of fixed
familiarity, the familiarity surely more apparent than real, like no
other public figure in modern Britain. Although the monarchy can
unquestionably have an infantilising effect, it is hard to think of
anyone in this country other than the Queen who is more widely
respected on the personal level, even by some committed
republicans and reflexive defiers of authority. This has helped make
her a somewhat
deceptive source of the enduring in
an otherwise radically changed Britain, and a perhaps improbable
force for national cohesion in an era of deepening divisions.
The
Queen is said to believe that when the public looks at her they see
someone who is honest and prosaic and not in some ways so dissimilar
to themselves. That will seem a naive view to many, yet the years
would seem to have vindicated it. The Queen may not be able to point
to many major achievements as monarch, but she has made incredibly
few mistakes either; the rows over her tax position and the
challenges posed by Princess
Diana in
life and death are now increasingly distant exceptions. She has
public ratings any politician would die for. She has done her
strange, irrational and undemocratic job with a tact and judgment few
people could match.
When
the earlier milestones of her life and reign had been reached, there
was an understandable reluctance to spoil the national party. It has
seemed churlish – perhaps even unBritish – to ask too loudly the
question that Jeremy
Benthamposed
about any law, custom or institution: “What is the use of it?”
These earlier anniversaries have been occasions to acknowledge the
unspectacular woman on the throne, the respect she enjoys and the
pleasure she brings, rather than to reflect on the institution she
embodies or to ask where the monarchy might be heading in a more
democratic era. Very large numbers will again prefer it that way as
the Queen reaches 90.
Yet
Britain should not forever defer the need to think about the future
of the monarchy. We live in volatile times. We struggle with
what it means to be British. The United Kingdom may soon pull up its
drawbridge against its neighbours. It may split into some of its more
ancient national components. The state religion which the monarch
pledges to uphold has a weakening public hold. The longer the
Elizabethan monarchy continues, the closer Britain comes to the point
at which an institution that does so much to define it will also have
to change.
This
needs to be considered and debated. It cannot be assumed that the
placid concordat between the public and the crown over which the
present queen has presided will seamlessly survive under a different
monarch. That would be especially true under a monarch who was a
figure of controversy for any reason. It is too easily forgotten
that, ever
since 1688,
the monarchy has evolved less to reflect the personality and whims of
the monarch than to reflect the values, institutions and needs of the
nation within which the monarch reigns. If such a system is to
continue, or if it is to be replaced, modern Britain should now
begin a modern conversation about how these inescapable changes
should happen.
- Where do earthquakes hit?
April
25, 2016
Earthquakes
normally occur along the edge of tectonic plates - the gigantic slabs
that fit together to make up the earth’s crust.
The
plates, which are constantly moving on the earth’s surface,
sometimes crash into each other or suddenly slide past each other.
The
sudden movement of the plates can cause the ground to shake, which
wreaks havoc and destruction.
What
is the Ring of Fire?
Both
Ecuador and Japan are located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is
the world’s most active earthquake belt.
The
Ring of Fire is a long chain of active volcanoes and earthquake sites
that run around the edge of the Pacific Ocean.
It
is believed that about 90% of all earthquakes occur along the
horse-shaped ring that covers several tectonic plates.
The
25,000-mile ring stretches all the way from South America and North
America to Japan and New Zealand on the other side of the ocean.
USGS
The
Ring of Fire stretches from South America to Japan and New Zealand
Which
country has the most earthquakes?
Earthquakes
happen all the time all over the world - but a vast majority of the
quakes are too weak to be felt.
The
whole of Japan lies in very active seismic area so it records a lot
of earthquakes, according to the US Government’s science bureau,
the US Geological Survey (USGS).
But
in fact Indonesia has more total earthquakes than Japan “by virtue
of its larger size”, the USGS said.
Powerful
7.8 earthquake kills dozens in Ecuador
Sun,
April 17, 2016
An
earthquake of 7.8 magnitude has killed dozens in Ecuador.
