Author: Robert Richardson

The Big Number: $26.2 trillion

That’s the combined GDP of the 15 countries set to sign the world’s biggest free trade deal via video conference this Sunday. Known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the agreement took eight years of negotiations and will include the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),  along with Australia, China, Japan, Korea, and New Zealand. These countries together account for about a third of both the world’s GDP and population. 

India withdrew in November last year over fears of being flooded with cheap consumer goods from China, but it is being granted special permission to join whenever it chooses to under a clause.

The timing of the China-led RCEP being sealed just before the next U.S. administration is no coincidence. An expert who advises the Chinese government on trade told the South China Morning Post the Biden Administration is likely to rejoin the CPTPP, and “if the RCEP negotiations are not handled well, that would provide incentive for a lot of countries to shift to CPTPP.” Too many abbreviations? The chart below should help.

CPTPP or the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is a free trade agreement between 11 countries that emerged after the U.S. rejected the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in 2017. President Obama had promoted TPP as a means to limit China’s influence in global trade and it is possibly still seen as a threat to the Asian economy’s interests.

Elite athletes like World Cup skier Mikaela Shiffrin, champion climber Kai Lightner, and ultrarunner Sabrina Stanley are used to letting their performance do the talking. But, as with so many of us, 2020 challenged them in new ways, pushing each out of their respective comfort zone. From taking a stand on social issues to having the courage to talk openly about stigmatized topics to believing in themselves in the face of skeptics, here’s how each found voice and purpose through adversity this year.Mikaela Shiffrin: “You wanna unfollow? I’ll see you to the door.”Last February, Mikaela Shiffrin was in Europe when she got the call: Her father had suffered an accident back home in Colorado and was clinging to life. Shiffrin flew home immediately, buying herself a few short hours to say an impossible goodbye. Jeff Shiffrin died on February 2, 2020, at the age of 65.

Source: Saying the Quiet Parts Out Loud | Outside Online

2050, are you kidding me?!

The Toronto-Dominion Bank is coming in for a mix of kudos and mockery after announcing a 2050 net-zero target and declaring that it will no longer finance some oil and gas-related activities in the Arctic, but failing to issue a broader statement on fossil fuel divestment, as a growing number of European financial institutions are doing.In a release yesterday, TD Bank Group said it had also “established dedicated teams to advise and support clients as they work to capture the opportunities of the low-carbon economy. The ambitious actions outlined today support the Bank’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy, which leverages TD’s business, people, and financial resources to help deliver sustainable economic prosperity.”

Source: TD Bank Sets Net-Zero Target, Limits Fossil Divestment to Arctic Oil and Gas – The Energy Mix

Supermarket aisles filled with fresh produce are probably not where you would expect to discover some of the first benefits of quantum computing.SPECIAL FEATURESpecial Report: The CIO’s guide to Quantum computing (free PDF)Quantum computers offer great promise for cryptography and optimization problems. ZDNet explores what quantum computers will and won’t be able to do, and the challenges we still face.Read MoreBut Canadian grocery chain Save-On-Foods has become an unlikely pioneer, using quantum technology to improve the management of in-store logistics. In collaboration with quantum computing company D-Wave, Save-On-Foods is using a new type of computing, which is based on the downright weird behaviour of matter at the quantum level. And it’s already seeing promising results.The company’s engineers approached D-Wave with a logistics problem that classical computers were incapable of solving. Within two months, the concept had translated into a hybrid quantum algorithm that was running in one of the supermarket stores, reducing the computing time for some tasks from 25 hours per week down to mere seconds.

Source: Quantum computers are coming. Get ready for them to change everything | ZDNet

Mumbai Travel Guide – Interactive Guide in Indian, English and ChineseInteractive City Guides search using the power of the internet, continuously updated in multiple languages. All 2nd editions using the power of the internet with 8 search engines and 9900 links using your browser in over 10 different languages; point and click that’s it! You can now avoid spelling mistakes and language difficulties making this guide simple enough for everybody to use. One thumb required, simply click the icon and your search is done. Read everything you want to know and it is never out of date. Don’t want to read, watch it all searching YouTube!These guides have extensive hotel and restaurant search; not to mention real estate, shopping, job and employment opportunities available in the guides. Sit in the coffee shop and start searching away on their WiFi and start using our interactive city search guides and brochures with multiple languages! For PC, Mac, Pad, iPhone or mobile IOS and Android phone enabled search tool with multi-search engine capability built right in.This guide searches for food, hotels, real estate, historical sites, sports, concerts, even public toilets and water closets and everything that’s fun to do; with travel planning, maps and transportation. Good for tourists, travellers, vacationers, people who have just moved to town, and even long term residents who want to stay on top of what’s new and current in their area or city.These guides are great for those with disabilities; pick and click with one thumb!New updated Interactive Notes and Glossaries for Economics, Financial, Markets, Money and Banking for students and professionals. Financial literacy is the ability to understand and effectively apply various financial skills, including personal financial management, budgeting, and investing. Financial literacy helps individuals become self-sufficient so that they can achieve financial stability.All guides rolling out in 2020 searching in all languages in Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Indian, Portuguese and Japanese!Updated April 2020. R.G. Richardson City Guides using the power of the internet. Available in 190 countries worldwide.

Source: Mumbai Travel Guide: Indian, English and Chinese by R.G.Richardson – Books on Google Play

Purdue Pharma will plead guilty to three federal criminal charges as part of a settlement of more than $8 billion, Justice Department officials announced Wednesday.The company makes OxyContin, the powerful prescription painkiller that experts say helped touch off an opioid epidemic.The deal does not release any of the company’s executives or owners — members of the wealthy Sackler family — from criminal liability, and a criminal investigation is ongoing

Source: OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to plead to 3 criminal charges in $8 billion settlement

Corporate China’s shiniest star was just days away from seeing his Ant Group list on the stock market in a record $37 billion deal, when he chose to launch a blistering public attack on the country’s financial watchdogs and banks.The regulatory system was stifling innovation and must be reformed to fuel growth, billionaire Ma told a summit in Shanghai on Oct. 24 attended by the great and the good of China’s financial, regulatory and political establishment.Chinese banks, he said, operated with a “pawnshop” mentality.It was this speech that set off a chain of events that ultimately torpedoed the listing of Ant, the fintech titan Ma founded, according to interviews with government officials, company executives and investors. They all requested anonymity to disclose confidential details.

Source: How billionaire Jack Ma fell to earth and took Ant’s mega IPO with him | Reuters

0sharesFrom Garmin to Suunto, Roger Hughes looks at 7 of the best sailing watches available right now. With the arrival of another of those significant birthdays, (I’m not telling which one), my wife asked me if I would like a sailing watch. She knew I have never owned a decent sailing watch, and the ancient seven-day wind-up ships chronometer on our schooner was unreliable – especially when we forgot to wind it up.Of course, nowadays you don’t need a ship’s clock to tell the time accurately, because any number of digital gadgets, including your mobile phone, will give microsecond accuracy.I actually didn’t know what a sailing watch was until I started looking at them on the web. The first thing which struck me was the sheer number – actually absolutely hundreds – of watches that go by the name ‘sailing watches’.It seems like every watchmaker in the world makes wrist-watches that they call sailing watches. But many are just ordinary chronograph stop-watches with fancy dials. Some are horrendously expensive fashion watches, which I would be frightened to even wear on a boat.

Source: Best sailing watches: 7 options that actually help on your boat – YBW

MOMENT IN TIME: PHOTO ARCHIVES

Boris Johnson had barely finished telling the nation about new English lockdown arrangements on Saturday night when the BBC, correctly reading the mood of its primetime audience, cut live to Strictly Come Dancing.It is easy to imagine Johnson on the other side of that switchover. There is a parallel universe where “Boris” is one of the sequin-clad celebrities waiting in an Elstree studio for the jaunty music to strike up while someone with natural gravitas delivers the serious message from Downing Street. In this scenario, Johnson’s political career fizzled out after a second term as mayor of London but his fame stayed alight. He was an obvious match for Strictly. (The judges deride his shambolic dances and dishevelled appearance, but he appeals over their heads to the voting public, who keep returning him to the dancefloor – for a laugh: a welcome distraction from the pandemic.)

Source: Trump and Johnson have shown countries need leaders, not celebrity politicians | Rafael Behr | Opinion | The Guardian