The World Today: December & January 2014/15: Who owns English?

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That the English language is now dominant in the world should make life easier for its native speakers, one might think. Alas no. It means everyone else is at least bilingual and in a globalized market, more employable

The Queen’s English is being pulled in many different directions around the world, but this is something to be celebrated

Ellen Bialystok is Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology at York University, Toronto, and a leading researcher on the cognitive effects of bilingualism

The Republicans may have won convincingly but they don’t feel the love

The Kremlin was taken off-guard by the speed and severity of western sanctions, now exacerbated by the falling oil price

Sanctions are crippling the Iranian economy but internal politics still guides the leadership’s hand

Native speakers of English may congratulate themselves on being born with the global language preprogrammed into their brains.

Articles

A mural depicting the Crimean landscape in central Moscow. Photo: VASILY MAXIMOV/AFP/Getty Images

Power politics not blood ties is the cause of unrest

But the rise of China need not mean the demise of the West

The Malta summit poured oil on stormy waters but the problems finessed 25 years ago are threatening stability today

Apartments in Lisbon are being snapped up by foreign investors. Photo: Mario Proenca/Bloomberg via Getty

Portugal’s golden visa attracts the rich, but not everyone is happy

The Cloche d'Or economic activity zone which host companies and multinationals in Luxembourg. Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images

They create few jobs and the investment they attract is footloose. Corporate tax rates are being slashed from 28 per cent in 2010 to 20 per cent in 2015, and a couple of other wheezes are turning Britain into a corporate tax haven to compete with Ireland or Luxembourg.