A malaria vaccine shows promising results in clinical trials
If successful, it could prevent thousands of childhood deaths in AfricaApr 23rd 2021RESEARCHERS HAVE tried to develop an effective malaria vaccine for decades. But this has proved tricky. One of the main challenges is the very nature of the disease. Plasmodium species, the parasites that cause malaria, are extremely good at evading the body’s immune-system…
NASA’s Martian helicopter, Ingenuity, takes off
Apr 22nd 2021IN DECEMBER 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright’s Flyer lifted off the ground for the first time, near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and proved that powered, controlled flight was possible on Earth. On April 19th, at 7.34am Universal Time, a small American helicopter called Ingenuity proved it works on another world, too. Following an…
Tracking the economic impact of India’s second covid wave
May 1st 2021RIVERS CHANGE course, forests catch flame, glaciers melt: Raj Bhagat Palanichamy of the World Resources Institute India, a research centre, has tracked all of these injuries to India’s landscape through satellite images. In the past year, he has been trying to map a different kind of harm, identifying infection hotspots, pinpointing hospital beds…
Why private-credit markets are due a growth spurt
May 1st 2021THERE ARE many ways to tell the story of the turnaround in America’s capital markets since last spring. The focus has been on public markets, notably the wondrous surge in share prices. Yet the change in fortunes of private equity (PE) is perhaps more remarkable. A year ago Blackstone, a PE giant, reported…
For many Australians, quarantine cannot be too tough
IT TOOK TWO cases of covid-19 to plunge Perth, the capital of Western Australia, into lockdown on April 24th. The state government announced a three-day “circuit-breaker” just as locals were gearing up for a long weekend. “We can’t take any chances,” declared the premier, Mark McGowan.Listen to this storyYour browser does not support the element.Enjoy…
The pandemic has accentuated South Korea’s two-speed economy
TWO ENORMOUS grey buildings decorated with blue, red and yellow rectangles meant to resemble a painting by Piet Mondrian dominate an industrial park south of Seoul. Inside, the world’s largest production lines for semiconductors churn out chips for Samsung Electronics 24 hours a day. Robots zip along rails on the ceiling, carting stacks of silicon…
Firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and America move closer in Iraq
IRAQ’S HEALTH ministry did not think to install smoke detectors or a sprinkler system when it renovated the Ibn al-Khatib hospital in Baghdad last year. So when oxygen tanks for covid-19 patients exploded on April 24th, the fire spread fast, killing at least 82 people. The blaze also singed the reputation of Muqtada al-Sadr (pictured),…
Binyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas try to hold onto power
May 1st 2021DUBAI AND JERUSALEMBINYAMIN NETANYAHU and Mahmoud Abbas (pictured, right and left) have ruled for so long that it is hard to imagine other people in their places. Yet neither is looking very secure at the moment. Mr Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel since 2009, is struggling to form a new government, as…
May the Best ‘Josh’ Win: Mock Fight in Nebraska for the Right to Use the Name ‘Josh’
Published on Apr 26, 2021 by AnneIt all started with a simple text message inviting all ‘Joshes’ for a pool noodle fight where the winner will get the right to use the name, exclusively. Known as the Josh Fight, a heated but fun, mock fight ensued in a US park where all the invited participants…
Man accused of playing hooky from work for 15 years straight
A man amassed roughly $647,000 over 15 years without ever showing face at his hospital gig.Authorities have crowned 67-year-old Salvatore Scumace the “king of absentees” for his purportedly unrestrained maltreatment of public-sector monies in the metropolis of Catanzaro. Police say Scumace used scourge to ensure that his pay wouldn’t be docked for missing work at…