Trade negotiators have missed a deadline to help protect fish stocks
Jan 2nd 2020WASHINGTON, DCIN 2015 WORLD leaders signed up to a long list of sustainable development goals, among them an agreement to limit government subsidies that contribute to overfishing. Negotiators at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) were told to finish the job “by 2020”. They have missed their deadline.Overfishing is a tragedy of the commons,…
The causes of a booming stockmarket are unlikely to last through 2020
Jan 2nd 2020NEW YORKTHE CHRISTMAS of 2018 was a dismal one for American stockmarket investors. Meagre gains eked out through a volatile year were reversed at its end, on fears of slowing global growth and all-out trade war between America and China. The S&P index of large companies tumbled by 15% between November 30th and…
Australia’s bushfires intensify its debate about climate change
Jan 2nd 2020SYDNEYTHE FIRES eased over Christmas. But as 2020 neared, Australia’s inferno blazed anew. In the state of Victoria, thousands of people fled to the seashore on New Year’s Eve as bushfires ringed the coastal town of Mallacoota. Samuel McPaul, a volunteer firefighter, died earlier in neighbouring New South Wales when a “fire tornado”,…
Iran vows vengeance after America kills Qassem Suleimani
The strike on Iran’s most prominent commander will have profound consequences for the regionJan 3rd 2020WASHINGTON, DCPERHAPS HE CAME to believe his own myth, the aura of invincibility he worked so hard to cultivate. Early on January 3rd General Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s most storied and feared commander, stepped off a plane from Syria or Lebanon…
Lessons from a radical education experiment in Liberia
Jan 2nd 2020IN 2016 GEORGE WERNER faced an unenviable task. Liberia’s education minister was in charge of one of the most difficult school systems in the world. More than a decade of civil war and an outbreak of Ebola in 2014 had stopped many children from going to class. Those who did learned little. Just…
The new generation trying to overhaul a once racist and sexist club
Jan 2nd 2020JOHANNESBURGWHEN ALICIA THOMPSON was a student in Johannesburg before the end of apartheid, she would often walk past the beautiful cars parked outside a club she was not allowed to join. It was not by chance that the Rand Club, the oldest private-members’ club in the city, was filled with old white men.…
An Algerian general takes over from another general
Jan 2nd 2020ALGIERSIT WAS AS if the old general running the country behind the scenes for the past eight months had not died after all. A bare week after a heart attack felled General Gaid Salah on December 23rd, another septuagenarian in a green uniform under a brocaded peaked hat harangued a hall full of…
Celeb Kept The Skeleton And Penis Of His Dead Dog As An Ornament
Orlando Bloom was so overcome with anguish that he couldn’t wish farewell to his dog when the pooch died – and went to drastic measures to keep his pet ‘alive.’ The Pirates Of The Caribbean star chose to contact a company that would strip the dead dog down to its bones, in order for it…
DNA Analysis Discloses The Identity Of 19th Century Connecticut Vampire
Remains in a Connecticut grave arranged in a manner to forestall the ‘vampire’ from ‘rising and feeding,’ has been identified as laborer John Barber. Back in 1990, kids in Griswold, Connecticut playing near a gravel pit stumbled upon a pair of skulls that were unearthed from graves in an unmarked cemetery from the 19th century.…
Woman Dies After Being Set On Fire During Surgery
A woman in Romania has perished during surgery after being set on fire, said the country’s health ministry, in a case that has aimed a spotlight on the regressing Romanian health system. The victim, who had pancreatic cancer, passed away on Monday after enduring burns to 40% of her body after surgeons utilized an electric…