How hybrids have upturned evolutionary theory
Oct 3rd 2020IN 1981 PETER and Rosemary Grant, a husband-and-wife team of evolutionary biologists, spotted something odd on Daphne Major. Every year for the previous decade they had travelled from Princeton University to this island in the Galápagos, to study its three endemic tanager species, part of a group known colloquially as “Darwin’s finches”. On…
Anwar Ibrahim is in a familiar place, close to leading Malaysia
Oct 3rd 2020WHEN ANWAR IBRAHIM declared in late September he had a “strong, formidable majority” of MPs ready to unseat the government of Muhyiddin Yassin, some in Malaysia wondered whether Mr Anwar’s moment had come at last. Others groaned. Mr Muhyiddin’s government, which itself came to power in a parliamentary coup, is just seven months…
Myanmar’s government makes life difficult for Western investors
IN A SPEECH last year, Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s president in all but name, laid out the many reforms her government had undertaken to attract foreign investors. In return, she went on, “we only ask our investors to ensure that their investments are responsible, by incorporating environmental, social and governance factors”. The subtext, although…
Iraq is too broken to protect itself from covid-19
Oct 3rd 2020PITY THE doctors of Iraq. Thousands are thought to have contracted covid-19. If the disease doesn’t get them, local tribesmen might. “Every time a patient dies we all hold our breath,” says Dr Tariq al-Sheibani, the director of a hospital in southern Iraq. A month ago a young man from the Hasnawi tribe…
A possible oil leak in the Red Sea adds to Yemen’s crises
FOR FIVE years the Safer, a tanker, has been slowly corroding in the Red Sea, a time-bomb waiting to go off. Or perhaps it already has. Built in 1976, sent to Yemen in 1988, it has served ever since as a floating storage unit and export terminal. It sits off the coast of Ras Issa…
Pastor-turned-stripper ‘blesses’ fans with her ‘sacred’ eroticism via OnlyFans
In July 2017, Nikole Mitchell gave her final sermon at church and now makes a good living selling explicit videos and photos on OnlyFans. Mitchell, 36, was raised in a strict Baptist family with stereotypical, immutable gender roles. She was expected to be reserved, sweet, and quiet, and working as an entertainer was totally improbable.…
How the One of the World’s Heaviest Men Beat Coronavirus
The world’s former heaviest man survived a grueling battle with COVID-19. Originally fighting underlying illnesses brought about by his obesity, Juan Pedro Franco is considered a high-risk individual in this pandemic. This means that his risk of catching the disease is high, and suffering from a weakened body from secondary infections is highly likely. It…
Psychological scars of downturns could depress growth for decades
Aug 27th 2020FOR THE past 40 or so years, economists, central bankers and other eminences have gathered against the imposing backdrop of Wyoming’s Teton mountains every August, in order to chew over the great monetary challenges of the day. Not this year. As The Economist went to press the proceedings of the Jackson Hole symposium,…
Efforts to rein in house prices are fuelling discontent in Seoul
JUDGING FROM the chatter on the streets of Gangnam, it is a bad time to buy property in the South Korean capital. “It’s been a nightmare looking for an apartment,” says Lee, a 30-year-old who lives in a rented studio in the glitzy district in southern Seoul. “I think about what to buy and where…
Is Pakistan really handling the pandemic better than its rival?
IN STATISTICS IF not in cricket, India tends to trump its perennial rival Pakistan. It is four times larger in area, seven times in population and ten times in GDP. Yet in the dismal realm of covid-19, bigger numbers are nothing to boast of. According to both countries’ official tallies, every week of the past…