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University students gesture as they shout slogans during a protest against planned controversial revisions to election law outside the Indonesian Parliament building in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Aug. 22, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Indonesian protesters attempt to storm Parliament, PwC expects China ban, Revenge of the non-competes, Golden era, How many Indians are there?
1,000s: Thousands of Indonesians attempted to storm the Parliament building in Jakarta on Thursday, clashing with police, tearing down fences, and ultimately forcing legislators to delay a vote that would overhaul election laws. The proposed changes would enable current President Joko Widodo’s son to take a regional governorship despite being too young and make it easier for Widodo to influence politics through his political party. Protests were also reported in other major cities across the vast archipelago.
6: Consulting powerhouse PwC’s Chinese branch told its clients it expects to be hit with a six-month ban on doing business in China as punishment for auditing the collapsed property developer Evergrande. PwC said in March that Evergrand had inflated its assets in China by $80 billion before defaulting on debts in 2021.
30 million: Bad news for the roughly 30 million American workers who thought their binding noncompetes had been rendered void by the Federal Trade Commission: A court has overturned the FTC’s regulation. District Judge Ada Brown of Texas wrote the ban was “arbitrary and capricious because it is unreasonably overbroad without a reasonable explanation.” The FTC says it may appeal.
2,531: The price of gold reached $2,531 per troy ounce on Tuesday, a record high, as the continuing bull market in the metal has begun to attract investors in Western economies. Chinese consumers have been driving the price up by investing in gold as a stable alternative to their topsy-turvy property and securities markets, but with the US Federal Reserve eyeing a rate cut in September, prices may be buoyed further as money flows out of US bonds seeking higher returns.
15: Indian officials plan to conduct a long-postponed census next month and aim to publish the results in 2026, resulting in a 15-year gap between polls rather than the customary 10. The census – likely the world’s largest ever – was meant to be done in 2021 but was delayed by the pandemic. New Delhi has faced ardent criticism from the civil sector for the delay, as the country’s rapidly growing population and economy need to be accurately accounted for to ensure the government’s programs are fit to task.