finance

Real Madrid Reportedly to Target Mohamed Salah in Response to Philippe Coutinho CHRISTOPHER SIMPSON JANUARY 10, 2018 CRISTINA ALDEHUELA/Getty Images Real Madrid  will reportedly pursue  Liverpool 's  Mohamed Salah  in response to Barcelona's purchase of Philippe Coutinho from the Reds. According to  Gianluca Di Marzio , Los Blancos are eager to snap up the Egyptian after their rivals splashed out a club-record £142 million on Coutinho. Coutinho's arrival at Barcelona is a worrying sign for Real, who are already 16 points behind the Catalan giants in La Liga, so it's unsurprising they're evaluating ways to respond. Los Blancos have struggled significantly this season and no player has scored more than four goals for them in the Spanish top flight, so it's clear an injection of firepower would go a long way. Salah would be a superb choice. As football writer Leanne Prescott demonstrated, he had a truly exceptional 2017, with his form improv...

More treatment. Stronger oversight. And above all, bolder leadership. By  Michael R. Bloomberg January 10, 2018, 3:00 PM GMT+5 Time to clean up.   Photographer: Liz O. Baylen/Los Angeles Times The opioid epidemic is now a full-blown national crisis, yet the federal government continues to dawdle. President Donald Trump declared opioid addiction a public health emergency, and he talks a tough game. But he has not taken forceful action. If he will not lead, Congress must -- and now, before the crisis grows even worse. Opioid overdose deaths rose 28 percent in 2016, to 42,000 men, women and children. Some 2.6 million more Americans are addicted to opioids, and communities in every region of the country are suffering from the resulting trauma. Largely as a result, life expectancy declined in 2016 for a second straight year -- something that has not happened since the early 1960s. This is a solvable problem, and through  philanthropy ...

One of the BBC's most senior international journalists has resigned her post, slamming the news organization's   "secretive and illegal pay structure." The BBC "is breaking equality law and resisting pressure for a fair  and  t ransparent pay  structure," Carrie Gracie, who quit as the news organization's China editor last week, wrote in an  open letter  addressed to BBC viewers on Sunday. Gracie said she will now return to her former position in the BBC's TV newsroom "where I expect to be paid equally." The BBC said in a statement that it previously carried out an "independent judge led audit of pay for rank and file staff which showed 'no systemic discrimination against women.'" "A separate report for on air staff will be published in the not too distant future," it said. Carrie Gracie has covered China for nearly three decades and speaks fluent Mandarin. Male and f...