Kill one unwanted species and another arises
Oct 31st 2020IN THE HIERARCHY of conservationists’ concerns, animals often seem to trump plants. For example, feral rats that live on islands after having been introduced accidentally by passing ships are excoriated because of the damage they do to local wildlife. More than 100 island-based animals have been exterminated or are imperilled by these rodents—birds…
Stopping some fishing would increase overall catches
Oct 31st 2020IN 2018, THE most recent year for which relevant data are available, people consumed more fish than they did either pork or beef or poultry. Humanity’s appetite for the sea’s bounty has more than doubled since 1990. Fish, whether wild caught or farmed, now make up nearly a fifth of the animal protein…
If China’s economy is so strong, why isn’t its currency stronger?
CHINA, AS ITS leaders like to observe, has fared better than any other big country this year. It has all but halted the covid-19 pandemic, got its economy back on track and, to top it off, reaped a cash windfall from abroad. The last has stemmed from a surge in its trade surplus, thanks in…
What next for the EU’s fiscal rules?
THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN question, a 19th-century diplomatic teaser, was said to be so complicated that of the three people who had ever understood it, one had forgotten it all, another was dead and the third driven mad. Readers of the European Commission’s 108-page “Vade Mecum” on the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), the European Union’s fiscal…
Sri Lanka’s president is amassing personal power
Oct 31st 2020NEVER SAY Gotabaya Rajapaksa leaves things to chance. After decisively winning the presidential election last November, putting family in charge of important government departments, suspending Parliament and finally winning postponed elections in early August in a landslide for his Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and supporting parties, still the president insisted that “obstacles”…
Singapore’s government helps old food hawkers but not young ones
SOME COUNTRIES build palaces or temples as monuments to their greatness. Singapore builds hawker centres. In these open-air food courts lined with stalls and formica tables it is possible to taste Singapore’s history. Dolloped unceremoniously on a plate or banana leaf or scooped steaming into a plastic bowl, dishes such as roti prata and Singapore…
The battle over where to put Israel’s new airport
BIRD-WATCHERS in northern Israel are spoiled for choice. Griffon vultures, imperial eagles and long-legged buzzards swoop over the Golan Heights. Cranes, cormorants and kingfishers congregate in the wetlands around the Sea of Galilee. And flying over them all are the biggest birds in the sky, Israel’s F-16 fighter jets, which climb steeply from the runways…
A disputed election leads to violence in Guinea
“LONG LIVE democracy, long live peace,” said Kabinet Cissé, the head of Guinea’s electoral commission, as he announced on October 24th that Alpha Condé had won a third term as president. But on the streets of Conakry, the capital, there was little sign of peace—perhaps owing to a lack of democracy. Wounded protesters lay next…
Progressive Fibrosis Lab Model Leads to Evaluation of Therapeutic Candidates
The human body possesses a remarkable ability to repair its organs after injury. It uses a highly regulated process that not only serves to halt blood flow and destroy bacteria and contaminants but also fills and covers the damaged area so it can regenerate fresh scar tissue. Occasionally, something can go awry with the healing…
Rooster Kills Police Officer in Cockfighting Raid Gone Wrong
During a cockfighting raid, a policeman was killed after a rooster inadvertently slashed his femoral artery resulting in heavy blood loss. Christian Bolok, a central Philippines police lieutenant, was picking up the cock as evidence during the Wednesday operation when he was sliced by the spur or blade affixed to the rooster’s leg. He perished…