Robots haven’t yet taken all our jobs, says new World Bank report, and Brazil President Bolsonaro moves to keep his poll promises.
Saudi Arabia begins trial in Khashoggi case
Saudi Arabia has put to trial 11 people suspected of killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the kingdom’s state-run press agency said Thursday. The country’s attorney general has sought death penalty for five of the 11 accused, revealed a statement by the prosecutor.
The Washington Post quoted the statement to say that the defendants who have not been named attended their first court hearing with their attorneys.
An Al Jazeera report said that according to the statement, the prosecutors have sent a request to Turkey for evidence that Ankara obtained while investigating the killing.
The Washington Post report, however, added that according to the prosecutor’s statement, “Turkey has failed to respond to Saudi requests for evidence in the case.”
Meanwhile, a BBC report added that the lawyers of the suspects requested a copy of the indictment sheet be given to them and time so they can review it. It also mentioned that no date had been set for the next hearing.
Khashoggi, a well-known US-based critic of the Saudi establishment, was killed on 2 October last year when he visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to complete formalities for his divorce.
The kingdom turned down Turkey’s request to extradite 18 suspects for trial, including 15 agents who are believed to have flown to Istanbul to murder Khashoggi. The BBC report said that it is not known whether the any of 15 suspects which Turkey believed carried out the killing are on trial in Saudi Arabia.
Robots haven’t yet killed our jobs, says World Bank report
World Bank chief economist Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg has said that the rise of automation until now has had a negligible effect on jobs at a global scale despite widespread predictions that machines will soon replace humans.
Even though advanced economies have parted ways with industrial jobs considerably in the past decades, the rise of this sector in East Asian countries has more than compensated for this loss, reveals the annual development report by the Washington-based financial institution.
In a Bloomberg report, Goldberg said, “This fear that robots have eliminated jobs — this fear is not supported by the evidence so far”.
In ‘World Development Report 2019: The Changing Nature of Work’, the institution’s president Jim Yong Km acknowledged that “robots are taking over thousands of routine tasks and will eliminate many low-skill jobs in advanced economies and developing countries”.
“At the same time, technology is creating opportunities, paving the way for new and altered jobs, increasing productivity, and improving the delivery of public services,” he added.
“This is the fourth industrial revolution, there have been three before, and in each case we managed to survive so it’s not the case that machines completely eliminated humans,” Goldberg told Bloomberg.
The report also highlights that 2.6 million industrial robots will be in operation by this year. It adds that despite recording the highest robot density per worker in 2018, countries like Germany, Korea and Singapore have been able to retain high rates of employment.
Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro moves to keep poll promises
Newly installed Brazilian President and far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro took to Twitter Thursday to announce his decision to privatise 12 airports and 4 sea ports in a move that seems to indicate that he intends to keep his election promises.
In his inauguration speech Tuesday, Bolsonaro promised to “create a new virtuous cycle to open markets” and “carry out important structural reforms”, CNBC said in a report.
Bolsonaro’s election campaign rested on assurances to Brazilians that he will redirect parts of the country’s economy from state-run enterprises to more private sector operations.
And his tweet Thursday, said the CNBC report, “appeared to underline a commitment to that ideology”.
Rapidamente atrairemos investimentos iniciais em torno de R$ 7 bi, com concessões de ferrovia, 12 aeroportos e 4 terminais portuários. Com a confiança do investidor sob condições favoráveis à população resgataremos o desenvolvimento inicial da infraestrutura do Brasil.
— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) January 3, 2019
Meanwhile, in an interview to a local news network, the president hinted that he was open to the possibility of the US having a military presence in Brazil, a move that could mark a significant departure from the country’s foreign policy, Reuters reported.
When asked if he would sanction US military presence in his country, Bolsonaro said, “Depending on what happens in the world, who knows if we would not need to discuss that question in the future”. He said that Russia’s support to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s “dictatorship” had stirred tensions in the region.
In a decision taken within the first few hours of him assuming office, the far-right leader also issued executive orders which Al Jazeera reports will make it “impossible” for new lands to be identified and demarcated for people from Brazil’s indigenous groups, descendants of former slaves and even the LGBT community.
Commenting on Bolsonaro, The Economist in an editorial said, “He often belittles women, has praised the old military regime’s torturers and goads the police to kill more criminal suspects”.
US Congress passes bills to end govt shutdown, Republican Senators oppose legislation
After the US Congress saw over a hundred women leaders making history with their swearing-in in the House of Representatives for the first time, the House approved the passage of six bills Thursday to end the partial government shutdown without paying for President Donald Trump’s border wall.
The legislation invited Trump’s threat of a veto as the bills aimed to end the impasse without securing $5 billion for the 2,000-mile border between the US and Mexico, reported Washington Post.
The House passed two sets of legislation after new Speaker and Democrat Nancy Pelosi’s approval.
A package of six bills was passed to reopen almost all the federal departments that were shut down since 22 December.
A short-term Homeland Security spending bill to specifically fund the department’s operations through 8 February was also passed.
However, many Republican Senators were steadfast that they won’t take up any government spending legislation unless Trump personally approves of it.
Pelosi was equally resolute. The Washington Post quoted her as saying, “What we’re asking the Republicans in the Senate to do is to take ‘yes’ for an answer. We are sending them back exactly, word for word, what they have passed.”
“Why would they not do that? Is it because the president won’t sign it? Did they not hear about the coequal branch of government, and that we the Congress send the president legislation and he can choose to sign or not?” asked Pelosi.