Are vaccine passports a good idea?
ON MARCH 7TH, after six months of selling takeaways, the beer was once more flowing in the pizzeria at Bet Romano in Tel Aviv. The bar and restaurant upstairs were packed. Most patrons carried proof that they had received a double dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, but no one asked to see it. At nearby…
China’s government is cracking down on fintech. What does it want?
FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGIES “cause turmoil when loosed” yet “perish once regulated”, a deputy governor of China’s central bank observed last year. This is an apt description of the dilemma facing the country’s regulators. Innovation has swept its financial markets over the past decade. It has produced some of the world’s most valuable technology companies, such as…
The perils of asking central banks to do too much
Mar 13th 2021THE PARLIAMENTARY act that chartered the Bank of England in 1694 begins by describing the motivation of its authors, “to promote the publick Good and Benefit of our People”. Ideas about how best the bank can serve the publick have changed a bit over the centuries, from managing the market for government debt,…
Myanmar’s generals have not thought their coup through
Mar 13th 2021SIX WEEKS after the armed forces under General Min Aung Hlaing launched a coup d’état with calamitous implications for Myanmar, two factors become more salient by the day. The first is the scale of popular revulsion at the return to naked military rule.Listen to this storyYour browser does not support the element.Enjoy more…
Getting information about North Korea’s gulag is harder than ever
ONE FAMILY was sent to a prison camp after a relative was accused of, and then executed for, opposing the regime. Another family was detained after one of them was caught searching for relatives of a man who had escaped to South Korea. One unfortunate fled to China, only to be arrested and sent home,…
Remote working is a lifeline for Kenya’s beach resorts
ON BEACH BEDS under palm trees in Kenya’s Diani Beach, the usual throng of swimsuit-clad tourists dozing in the sun has been replaced by a more industrious crowd of laptop-bashers. Over the sound of the ocean comes the murmur of business jargon. Above the gurgling call of black-and-white colobus monkeys reverberates the cry of the…
Why some ships vanish before unloading in the Middle East
ON A RADAR map, the northern mouth of the Suez canal resembles a Bermuda Triangle-sur-Mer: ships have a habit of disappearing. So it was with the Emerald, an oil tanker which went through the canal on February 1st and vanished. Two days later it reappeared off the coast of Syria. What happened in the interim…
Skin Color of Meghan Markle’s Son May be What Prevented Him From Having Prince Title
Published on Mar 10, 2021 by AnneBoth Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, are trending again after multiple bombshells were dropped in their latest interview with Oprah. Among their bombshells include that their son’s skin color may be among the reasons why he is not given the style of ‘Royal Prince’.British media…