A growing number of Jews are voting for Arabs in Israel
THE AUDIENCE in Kfar Saba, a Jewish city near Tel Aviv, came from as far away as the Golan Heights in the north and Beersheva in the south. They crowded onto the terrace of a packed penthouse to hear a politician who promised to stop missiles from Gaza and counter hatred of Jews. With the…
Why African farmers struggle to export to the United States
Feb 29th 2020HUNGRY AMERICANS chomping into one of Philadelphia’s famous cheesesteaks may soon get a taste of Africa. Last week MeatCo, Namibia’s state-owned meat firm, shipped 25 tonnes of beef to Philadelphia. It was the first ever export of red meat from Africa to the United States. Namibian meat producers are delighted. America is the…
Will Israel’s third election in a year finally produce a government?
THE BLUEPRINTS had been gathering dust for 25 years. No Israeli leader, not even Binyamin Netanyahu, prime minister for the past decade, was willing to face the international criticism that would follow from building 3,500 new homes near Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank. The new district would cut off the Palestinian part of Jerusalem…
With its epidemic slowing, China tries to get back to work
Officials shift their focus to reviving growth. But that isn’t easyIF CHINA IS the world’s factory, Yiwu International Trade City is its showroom. It is the world’s biggest wholesale market, spacious enough to fit 770 football pitches, with stalls selling everything from leather purses to motorcycle mufflers. On February 24th, as is customary for its…
Markets wake up with a jolt to the implications of covid-19
Could market turmoil add to the economic disruption?Feb 26th 2020WHEN AMERICA, the hub of global capital, is this far into an economic expansion and a bull market, investors feel two conflicting impulses. They hope that the good times will last, so they are reluctant to pull their money out. They also worry that the party…
Donald Trump and Narendra Modi hug as Delhi burns
Neither America’s president nor India’s prime minister had much to say about a bout of sectarian riotingFeb 26th 2020THE CONTRAST could not have been starker. At one end of the city, Donald Trump and Narendra Modi, America’s president and India’s prime minister, were celebrating a new “strategic partnership”. With the shared passion of politicians eager…
McDonald’s is Auctioning Off a Shamrock Shake Cup That’s 18k Gold
Via eBay, McDonald’s is auctioning off a Shamrock Shake cup made of 18 karat gold, studded with hundreds of white diamonds, yellow diamonds, and emeralds. When we caught wind that McDonald’s was launching a new Oreo Shamrock McFlurry this year additionally to revamping its traditional St. Patrick’s Day dessert, we patterned that would be the…
Wise words are not enough to fix South Africa’s economy
The country’s reformist finance minister bumps up against political realityFeb 26th 2020JOHANNESBURGTWO DAYS before he outlined South Africa’s budget, Tito Mboweni shared a Photoshopped picture of himself in a spacesuit. The caption read: “man on a mission”. It was characteristic skylarking by the finance minister, an ebullient reformer who spends much of his time warning…
Scientists Discover First-Ever Animal That Doesn’t Need Oxygen to Survive
Scientists recently found a jellyfish-like organism which doesn’t possess a mitochondrial genome – the first multicellular being identified to have this absence. In layman’s terms, it does not breathe; in reality, it lives its life totally free of oxygen reliance. Life began developing the aptitude to metabolize oxygen – respirate, that is – a little…
First Known Case of a Human Who Urinates Alcohol Reported
A Pittsburgh woman has become the first documented case in a human of an untypical condition where alcohol naturally infuses in the bladder from yeast fermentation. The condition, which experts propose to call either ‘urinary auto-brewery syndrome’ or ‘bladder fermentation syndrome’, is similar to another super rare ailment, auto-brewery syndrome, where merely consuming carbohydrates can…