Criticism of the army or government lands many Burmese in court
Jan 18th 2020BURMESE GENERALS are not accustomed to criticism. During the long years of military rule, they tended to lock up anyone who crossed them. Even after they handed most authority back to a civilian government in 2016, they have continued to torment their critics—in the courts. Over the past four years the Tatmadaw, as…
Asia’s hunger for sand is harmful to farming and the environment
THE MINERS usually prefer to work under cover of darkness. This dredger is more brazen. It is not yet sunset when the boat’s crew begin hoovering sand up from the riverbed and pumping it onto a nearby bank, where it will be collected and sold. At least seven barges are doing the same thing on…
How America deals with Africa, despite Donald Trump
Feb 22nd 2020WASHINGTON, DCTHESE DAYS it is notable when both Republicans and Democrats oppose a foreign policy of Donald Trump’s in strident unison. When it was reported that Mark Esper, the secretary of defence, was set to remove American forces from the Sahel, where jihadists have been wreaking havoc across a vast swathe of Africa,…
Iran’s leaders risk being overwhelmed by crises they created
Jan 16th 2020SO UPSET WERE they over the crash of a Ukrainian passenger jet that not one but two officials in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including its leader, said they wished they were dead. The IRGC, the regime’s Praetorian guard, shot down the plane by mistake over Tehran on January 8th, then tried…
Sultan Qaboos, ruler of Oman for almost 50 years, has died
The popular sultan modernised Oman and played an outsize role in world diplomacyJan 11th 2020HIS FUNERAL is likely to be a scene unimaginable almost anywhere else. Among the foreign dignitaries who will mourn Sultan Qaboos of Oman, whose death was announced on January 10th, will be those from America and Iran, longtime enemies that recently…
Turkey is set to send troops to Libya
FROM WEAPONS purchases to energy deals to Syria, the presidents of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have had no shortage of things to ponder in the past couple of years. At a meeting in Istanbul on January 8th, they added another to the menu, chewing over the war in Libya, into…
Do not rely on facial expressions for how people are feeling
ARISTOTLE RECKONED the face was a window onto a person’s mind. Cicero agreed. Two millennia on, facial expressions are still commonly thought to be a universally valid way to gauge other people’s feelings, irrespective of age, sex and culture. A raised eyebrow suggests confusion. A smile denotes happiness. A frown indicates sadness.Or do they? An…
Knowing how plants and microbes work together can boost crop yields
INTERACTIONS WITH microbes in the soil are crucial to the health of plants. Some bacteria turn nitrogen from the air into ammonia, and thence into nitrates, thus “fixing” that element in a form which plants can absorb and turn into proteins. Others, by secreting antibiotics, protect plants from pathogens. Others still, through the formation of…
The sex of researchers affects the language of research papers
Jan 9th 2020“LEAN IN,” advises Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, in a book of that name. Her advice to women—be more assertive to grab influence at work, rather than waiting for it to be offered—was met with scorn by some feminists. They say that women are not shying away from the higher rungs of…
New Zealand was once a land of giants
SQUAWKZILLA, AS HE (or possibly she) has come to be known, is not the sort of parrot that would sit on your shoulder while you cooed “pretty polly”. Instead, this huge flightless bird (weighing around 7kg and about a metre tall) would probably have pecked a chunk out of you with its massive beak. Although,…