大象传媒

The deal to make the biggest drugs company in the world is off. America's Pfizer was planning a one-hundred-and-sixty billion dollar merger with the maker of Botox, Allergan, of Ireland. But the driver for the deal wasn't a wish to look younger or less wrinkly. It was because Pfizer could have moved its official address to Ireland - where the corporate tax rate is twelve and half percent - as opposed to thirty five percent in the US a 'tax inversion'. It was scuppered by new rules announced on Tuesday by the US tax authorities aimed at the practice. We hear from Richard Rubin, who covers US tax policy for the Wall Street Journal.

One of the most interesting aspects of the mass of papers leaked from the secretive Panamanian law firm -- Mossack Fonseca -- is that China has been the company's biggest source of business. China's super-rich are the regularly breaking the law and smuggling their money out of the country through Hong Kong. An estimated one trillion dollars was taken out of mainland China last year. The 大象传媒's Celia Hatton reports from Hong Kong.

Diabetes has become something of a global crisis. The World Health Organisation has announced that the number of adults with diabetes has almost quadrupled in the past thirty-five years, with nearly one-in-eleven worldwide now living with the condition. The report reveals that poor and middle income countries have seen the steepest rises, and there are fears its impact could bankrupt some health systems. The reason - lifestyle, including diets high in sugar. Some scientists believe food companies are deliberately targeting developing countries with high-calorie high-sugar processed food.

Did you know there is a world shortage of coloured pencils? The reason: the immense popularity of adult colouring books, dominating the bestsellers list in the UK and America. It's just the latest in somewhat childish fads among adults. Professor Benjamin Barber, author of Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults and Swallow Citizens Whole, explains why is it happening.

All this and more discussed with our two guests on either side of the Pacific: David Kuo, of the Motley Fool, in Singapore and Hasit Shah of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, in Boston.

(Photo: The Pfizer headquarters in New York City. Credit: Getty).