China has spent 3.2 trillion yuan so far — that's $463 billion — tearing down substandard old dwellings and replacing them with brand-new tower blocks.
The big picture: The Shantytown Redevelopment Program (yes, that's its actual name) is now being accelerated. Between 2018 and 2020, China plans to build 15 million new homes; work has already started on more than 5 million of them.
The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, tweeted Sunday that there was not a potential deal on the table for Brexit after a day of frenzied speculation and "intense efforts."
The details: Barnier said, "Despite intense efforts, some key issues are still open, including the backstop for IE/NI to avoid a hard border." Britain's Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab had ignited speculation about a potential breakthrough when he took a surprise trip to Brussels Sunday ahead of a critical summit next week, per AP. An EU diplomat told Politico earlier today that the speculated deal was "at negotiator level [only]," implying there were plenty of potential roadblocks.
"Russia has been cultivating ties with the Taliban to increase its influence in Afghanistan three decades after Moscow’s humiliating defeat there helped hasten the Soviet Union’s collapse," Missy Ryan and Amie Ferris-Rotman of the Washington Post report.
Why it matters: "The Russian gambit is a relatively modest political investment that could yet yield outsize dividends as Moscow seeks to prove its global heft."
Brazil appears poised to elect Jair Bolsonaro — a longtime backbencher who has spoken fondly of military rule and was best known until recently for his penchant for racist, sexist and homophobic comments — as its next president.
The big picture: Bolsonaro’s campaign has been fueled by anger over crime, corruption and a sputtering economy. But the fury isn’t contained to Brazil.
The more advanced economies had thought the forces of globalization — ever-opening trade and the free movement of people — were inexorable.
Instead, they have been overwhelmed by the forces of tribal identity — a feeling across the West of a loss of stature, self-dignity, and power over your own destiny.
