Israel’s opposition has finally mustered a majority to dislodge Binyamin Netanyahu
NAFTALI BENNETT, the tech millionaire turned politician (pictured) who is poised to become Israel’s next prime minister, began his political career in 2006 as chief of staff to Binyamin Netanyahu, then the leader of the opposition. Mr Bennett admired him for years and played a key role in his return to power in 2009. His…
Pinning Summer: Popular Parenting Pinterest Pin Picks
Yesterday marked the longest day of the year and the first day of summer. For my Popular Parenting Pinterest Pin Picks of the week, here are my top pins inspired by the summer season.Popular Simple Water Activity PinSprinklers are a fun activity for staying cool during the summer for children and adults alike. To make…
An Inmate Serving a Murder Sentence Made a Historic Math Discovery
Christopher Havens, who’s serving a 25-year murder sentence, published a new mathematical study in Research in Number Theory earlier this year.Prisoners frequently mail requests to publications and publishers because access to particular books and whole genres of books even is exceedingly minimal in prisons. The guidepost is convoluted, and inmates’ rights organizations hold up circumscribed…
A growing number of governments hope to clone America’s DARPA
May 30th 2021USING MESSENGER RNA to make vaccines was an unproven idea. But if it worked, the technique would revolutionise medicine, not least by providing protection against infectious diseases and biological weapons. So in 2013 America’s Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) gambled. It awarded a small, new firm called Moderna $25m to develop the…
An ex-president is on trial, but graft still blights South Africa
AT TIMES IT can be hard to find the right metaphor for the dysfunction of the South African state. But then, on a recent morning, your correspondent found himself in the middle of a broken sewage works, knee-deep in excrement. Like the other six plants in the municipality of Maluti-a-Phofung, the one in the town…
Which euro-zone economies are bouncing back quickest?
May 27th 2021KNOCKED BACK by several bouts of covid-19, Europe’s economy is now finding its feet. Its vaccination drive is charging ahead, and lockdown restrictions are easing. On May 17th Italy’s curfew moved from 10pm to 11pm, and on May 19th Parisians were allowed to return to their beloved cafés, after six months without. German…
What it means to invest in Chinese offshore assets could be changing
DISSIDENTS, SMUGGLERS and rogue executives have been hiding out on either side of the 40km border between Hong Kong and China for generations. Despite being part of the same country since 1997, the two jurisdictions have separate legal systems with limited interaction. Chinese companies have crossed the border in droves since the 1990s to access…
Australian whales are breeding like rabbits
LOOK OUT from a clifftop in Sydney around this time of year, and you may witness one of nature’s great migrations. Between May and November some 40,000 humpback whales commute along Australia’s eastern coast. It is a highway from their feeding grounds in Antarctica to the Great Barrier Reef, where their calves are born.Listen to…
The pandemic revives interest in a morbid French financial scheme
WHO HAS not dreamed of owning a pied-à-terre in Paris, or perhaps overlooking the Mediterranean? How about betting on the timing of a perfect stranger’s death? In France you can combine the two. In sales of property en viager a buyer pays upfront for a residence while getting the keys only when the current owner…
The boundary between crypto and fiat money is becoming more permeable
May 27th 2021FINANCE HAS its squabbling tribes, much like the rest of society. A contest that attracts a lot of attention just now is the demographic-cum-digital divide between crypto kids and fiat dinosaurs. The crypto kids believe that blockchain-based finance is the future and a haven from the inevitable degradation of fiat money. In the…