The Economist Latin America August 10, 2019

Politics In its most ominous warning yet to protesters in Hong Kong, China said the demonstrators were “playing with fire” and on “the verge of a very dangerous situation”. A day earlier a strike hit the city’s transport system and led to more than 200 flight cancellations. The protesters, who initially wanted an extradition bill to be scrapped, are now calling for Carrie Lam to resign as Hong Kong’s leader and for direct elections. China’s spokesman in Hong Kong said Ms Lam was staying put. India’s Hindu-nationalist government unexpectedly ended the autonomy granted to Indian-administered Kashmir, splitting it in two, putting local party leaders under house arrest and ordering non-residents, including tourists, to leave. The government poured another 25,000 troops into the region. Pakistan said the move was illegal. Relations between the…

Politics In its most ominous warning yet to protesters in Hong Kong, China said the demonstrators were “playing with fire” and on “the verge of a very dangerous situation”. A day earlier a strike hit the city’s transport system and led to more than 200 flight cancellations. The protesters, who initially wanted an extradition bill to be scrapped, are now calling for Carrie Lam to resign as Hong Kong’s leader and for direct elections. China’s spokesman in Hong Kong said Ms Lam was staying put. India’s Hindu-nationalist government unexpectedly ended the autonomy granted to Indian-administered Kashmir, splitting it in two, putting local party leaders under house arrest and ordering non-residents, including tourists, to leave. The government poured another 25,000 troops into the region. Pakistan said the move was illegal. Relations…

IT IS SUMMER, and the heat is oppressive. Thousands of students have been protesting for weeks, demanding freedoms that the authorities are not prepared to countenance. Officials have warned them to go home, and they have paid no attention. Among the working population, going about its business, irritation combines with sympathy. Everybody is nervous about how this is going to end, but few expect an outcome as brutal as the massacre of hundreds and maybe thousands of citizens. Today, 30 years on, nobody knows how many were killed in and around Tiananmen Square, in that bloody culmination of student protests in Beijing on June 4th 1989. The Chinese regime’s blackout of information about that darkest of days is tacit admission of how momentous an event it was. But everybody knows that…

SINCE THE trade war began in 2018 the damage done to the global economy has been surprisingly slight. America has grown healthily and the rest of the world has muddled along. But this week the picture darkened as the confrontation between America and China escalated, with more tariffs threatened and a bitter row erupting over China’s exchange rate. Investors fear the dispute will trigger a recession, and there are ominous signs in the markets—share prices fell and government-bond yields sank to near-record lows. To avoid a downturn, both sides need to compromise. But for that to happen President Donald Trump and his advisers must rethink their strategy. If the realisation has not dawned yet, it soon should: America cannot have a cheap currency, a trade conflict and a thriving economy. The…

IT IS SUMMER, and the heat is oppressive. Thousands of students have been protesting for weeks, demanding freedoms that the authorities are not prepared to countenance. Officials have warned them to go home, and they have paid no attention. Among the working population, going about its business, irritation combines with sympathy. Everybody is nervous about how this is going to end, but few expect an outcome as brutal as the massacre of hundreds and maybe thousands of citizens. Today, 30 years on, nobody knows how many were killed in and around Tiananmen Square, in that bloody culmination of student protests in Beijing on June 4th 1989. The Chinese regime’s blackout of information about that darkest of days is tacit admission of how momentous an event it was. But everybody knows…

THE TWO mass shootings within 24 hours of each other last weekend, one in El Paso, Texas, the other in Dayton, Ohio, were horrifying. Yet at the same time they were not surprising—at least in a purely statistical sense. So far this year America has averaged one shooting in which four or more people are killed or injured every single day. The death toll at the El Paso Walmart was 22. And that awful number made it only the fifth-deadliest shooting this decade. The ten people killed in Dayton put the murder spree there down at number 11 on the same list. When police officers are trying to solve a murder they look at motive and opportunity. That framework is useful for thinking about mass murders, too. The shooter in Dayton…