Economist, Oct 13, 2018 (I)

choi

(1) The Retreat from Meat. People in rich countries are eating more vegan food. The further they go, the better (this is a "briefing" on "Veganism").

My comment: There is no need to read text. This is a bar chart worth viewing:

"Belch de jour
CO2 equivalent emissions per tonne of protein
[unit:] tonnes '000  

beef .....~277 ["~" due to my estimation from reading the bar]
pork .....~60
dairy ....~55
eggs .....~27
poultry..~25

Source: 'Shifting Diets for a Sustainable Food Future'
by J Ranganathan et al, 2016"

(2) Free-speech in Singapore | Gavel-rouser. Mild social media posts scandalise the city-state's judiciary.
("IT WAS hardly a zinger. 'Malaysia's judges are more independent than Singapore's for cases with political implications,' wrote Jolovan Wham [范國瀚, though I fail to find out his ethnicity; his Twitter account identifies himself as gay], an activist, on Facebook on Apr 27th. On Oct 9th Singapore's high court found him guilty of 'scamdalizing the judiciary.' He was not the only rabble-rouser. John Tan 陳兩裕, a politician [vice chairman 副主席] from opposition Singapore Democratic Party 新加坡民主黨 [1980- ; social liberal: Wikipedia], had observed in May [also in Facebook]: 'By charging Jolovan for scandalising the judiciary, the [Attorney General's Chambers] only confirms what he says is true.' Mr Tan was convicted of the same crime [on the same day in the same trial]. The pair have not been sentenced, but face up to three years in prison and a fine of as much as S$100,000 ($72,000).  It is the first time that Singapore's new, beefed-up contempt-of-court has been used. The amendments came into force last October")

Note:
(a) The brackets bookending Attorney General's Chambers (AGC)  新加坡總檢察署 are original; the rest in the above quotation are my additions.
(b) There is no need to read the rest.

choi

(3) Istanbul's Arabs | Dissident Haven. A century after Turkey lost its Arab provinces

Quote:

"REFUGEES, dissidents and emigrés from across the Arab world are flocking to the old imperial city which ruled their lands until 1918 [by Ottoman Empire (c 1299–1922/1923: en.wikipedia.org)]. In Mukhtar, a popular café in Istanbul's 'Little Syria,' outcasts from regimes that crushed the Arab spring [yes, s in lowercase] sip coffee spiced with cardamom -- and plot their comeback. They hail from Egypt, Syria, Yemen and other Arab countries where the Ottoman Turks once ruled. Some advocate peaceful means, other violent.  

"Istanbul may host as many as 1.2m Arabs, including many of the 3m-plus Syrian refugees in Turkey. * * * Most Arab states deny citizenship to foreigners and their offspring, even those born and raised in their countries. By contrast, Arabs may get a Turkish passport after five years of residency, or immediately if they bring in at least $250,000. 'There they treat us like slaves,' says a Lebanese education  consultant who took a pay cut to move from Dubai to Istanbul. 'Here we belong.' Some Arabs arrive after failing to win asylum in less friendly Europe. * * * Saudis snap up property in case things go wrong back home.

"Turkey's political system is another attraction. Its democracy looks flawed to European eyes. But it is a paragon compared with most Arab regimes. Its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose wife is of Arab origin [born in Istanbul, though], still openly champions Arab uprisings of 2011 [Arab Spring (2010-2012)] and the Muslim Brothers who briefly ran Egypt * * * 'It is the last corner of the Arab Spring.' says Ayman Nour [1964- ; ran against then president Mubarak in 2005, won 7% of votes officially], once a candidate for Egypt's presidency, who now runs his own television station from the city.

"But after the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist, their haven may feel a bit less safe.

Note:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b) Population of Istanbul city and Turkey were 15m and 80.8m, respectively, at the end of 2017.
(c)
(i) Turkey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey
(section 1 Etymology: "The name of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye) means ;land of the Turks'. Middle English[:] Turkye"/ Turks constitute 70-75% of population and Kurds are the largest non-Turkic ethnicity (18-25% of population)
(ii) Turkic peoples  突厥
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkic_peoples
("The first known mention of the term Turk * * * applied to a Turkic group was in reference to the Göktürks 古突厥 [the spelling is Modern Turkish, adopted by English; Gök means both blue and sky in Göktürks's language] * * * [once practiced] Tibetan Buddhism * * * The date of the initial [Westward] expansion remains unknown")  

means peoples in modern world who are Turkic -- and INCLUDES Turkish people, which in en.wikipedia.org means people in modern-day Turkey (the largest group/ people within Turkic Peoples).

Present-day Turkey speaks Turkish with Latin alphabet (in contrast with Arabs speaking Arabic with Arabic script).
(d) cardamom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardamom

choi

(4) Electronics manufacturing | The Great Chain of China. China's dominance of electronics supply chain has Westerners worried, but it will be hard to break.
("The SEG Electronics Market 深圳赛格电子市场 [at 赛格数码广场, owned by 深圳赛格股份有限公司; selling electronics parts, not final products] and similar places in the Huaqiangbei 华强北 [华强北路两侧] district of Shenzhen * * * has been described as sweet shops for hardware geeks. * * * Huaqiangbei's markets are also a perfect symbol of how dominant China has become in the electronics industry. The country is the core of the sector's global supply chain. Chips and other components pour in, mostly from other Asian countries; they are assembled in China; the finished devices are then sent all over the world. * * * More than half of the world's mobile phones are made in China, along with almost all of the printed circuit boards * * * Chinese factories install ['install' is misleading; here it means 'putting in' devices, but sounds like manufacturing chips] two-fifths of the world's semiconductors. * * * This dominance has shot up the political agenda -- in particular, in the United States. Add China's ambitious plan to move up the electronics value chain, called 'Made in China 2025,' and it is easy to see why America is worried. * * * The origin of China's dominance lay in cheap labour. In the early 2000s companies in all sorts of industries sent at least some manufacturing to China to stay competitive/ * * * Foxconn, Apple's main contract manufacturer, employs 250,000 people in Shenzhen")

My comment: There is no need to read the rest. I am surprised that this issue will be controversial. Many parts in Huaqiangbei markets, especially the advanced one, are foreign made.