Mongolia’s ruling party secures a thumping victory
UNLIKE THE shenanigans that came before it, the result was remarkably clear. Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh romped to victory in Mongolia’s presidential elections, held on June 9th. He became the first candidate in recent history to snaffle more than two-thirds of the vote. His Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) already holds a supermajority in parliament. After Mr Khurelsukh…
Singapore’s migrant workers have endured interminable lockdowns
IT IS MORE than a year since Mohammad Sharif Uddin leafed through a book at the National Library or wandered beneath Singapore’s skyscrapers, two of his favourite pastimes. Since early 2020 migrant workers such as Mr Sharif, a Bangladeshi who oversees safety on construction sites, have endured lockdowns far stricter and longer than those imposed…
Few things are harder than building a state in Iraq
AROUND NOON on June 9th, a sudden hubbub echoed through the Imam Hussein shrine in Karbala. Qassem Musleh, a militia boss who had been arrested two weeks earlier on suspicion of murder, was free and visiting one of Shia Islam’s holiest sites. A happy crowd surged around him as he walked out into the blazing…
Coelacanths live for as long as people
Jun 19th 2021ON DECEMBER 23rd 1938 Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, a curator at the East London Museum, in South Africa, dropped by her local fish market. While there, she spotted the most beautiful fish she had ever seen. It was pale mauve, nearly two metres long, and had silvery markings. Though she had no inkling at the…
A midsummer bug hunt
Jun 19th 2021DEPENDING ON WHERE you live, June 21st is either the summer or the winter solstice. For some, this is a moment of celebration, accompanied by strange rituals. And among the celebrants are members of the International Metagenomics and Metadesign of Subways and Urban Biomes Consortium (MetaSUB). If, in Bogotá, Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London,…
Is the pandemic accelerating automation? Don’t be so sure
Jun 19th 2021AS ECONOMIES REOPEN, labour shortages are still worsening. In America the number of unfilled vacancies, at 9.3m, has never been so high. Job postings in Canada are 20% above pre-pandemic levels. Even in Europe, slower out of the post-lockdown gates, a growing number of employers complain of how hard it is to find…
America’s high-yield debt is on ever-shakier foundations
Jun 19th 2021INVESTORS IN COMPANIES issuing high-yield or “junk” debt have had a relatively benign pandemic. Usually such highly leveraged borrowers are stung by economic hardship. During the global financial crisis over a decade ago around a seventh of such firms in America defaulted on their debt in one year. Yet according to Moody’s, a…
Climate change is remaking South Asia’s monsoon
Jun 19th 2021SINCE ARRIVING two days late at its usual landing point at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala near India’s southern tip, South Asia’s annual summer monsoon has made up for lost time. Tearing north, the south-westerly, rain-bearing winds covered four-fifths of the country in the first two weeks of June, reaching even India’s north-easternmost states. The…
Young men in South Korea feel victimised by feminism
WAS IT MERELY an innocent sausage? Last month a poster promoting camping kit sold by GS25, a chain of shops in South Korea, included an illustration of two fingers reaching out to grasp a steaming banger. Angry young men complained. They said the detail, which resembled an emoji that depicts a hand making a pinching…
Africa is blasting its way into the space race
Jun 19th 2021IN THE HOURS after Hurricane Katrina slammed into America in 2005, destroying large parts of New Orleans, the people co-ordinating the disaster response urgently needed satellite pictures to show them what they were facing. The first images to come in were not from the constellations launched by NASA or the space agencies of…