What the spread of Omicron means for the world
Dec 17th 2021IT HAS BEEN less than a month since Omicron, the latest covid-19 variant of concern, was first spotted by scientists in South Africa. In just a couple of weeks Omicron has probably reached almost every country in the world and is now the predominant variant in several countries, including Britain, Denmark, Norway and…
Omicron latest: What the variant’s spread means for the world
Dec 16th 2021IF THERE IS one lesson the covid-19 pandemic has taught the world, it is that acting early pays off. So when news emerged on November 25th in South Africa of a worrying new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, countries immediately began scrambling to tighten the rules on international travel. By November 29th suspected…
Omicron latest: The Omicron variant advances at an incredible rate
Dec 16th 2021IF THERE IS one lesson the covid-19 pandemic has taught the world, it is that acting early pays off. So when news emerged on November 25th in South Africa of a worrying new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, countries immediately began scrambling to tighten the rules on international travel. By November 29th suspected…
The hidden costs of cutting Russia off from SWIFT
Dec 18th 2021FOR WEEKS Russia has been massing troops and tanks near the Ukrainian border. Neither talks with nor threats from the West have stemmed the flow. With America and its allies loth to commit forces, another option is gaining prominence: cutting Russia off from SWIFT, the messaging network used by 11,000 banks in 200…
The Bank of England surprises investors by raising interest rates
Dec 16th 2021THE BANK OF ENGLAND has sprung its second surprise in as many months. In November it failed to raise interest rates after it had steered markets to expect an increase. On December 16th it did raise rates after all, surprising investors—despite the most obvious change in the economic outlook being a worsening of…
Democracy declined across Asia in 2021
Dec 18th 2021IT WAS, IN much of Asia, not a good year for fair, free and open societies. “Democratic recession”, the phrase used by some analysts, does not really do service, especially in so motley a region. It is too clinical, eliding the profound human impact of lurches towards authoritarianism. It is also too optimistic:…
New Caledonia votes against independence from France for the third time
“FRANCE IS MORE beautiful,” Emmanuel Macron, its president, said on December 12th, “because New Caledonia has decided to stay part of it.” The French territory, some 17,000km away from Paris in the Pacific Ocean, emphatically rejected independence earlier that day by 96.5% to 3.5%. It was the last of three referendums laid out in the…
Iranian saffron dealers are struggling
Dec 18th 2021ALEXANDER THE GREAT stewed in it in the bath, believing that it helped heal wounds. Roman newly-weds sprinkled it on their beds, hoping for a bit of arousal. Today saffron is mainly used to season and colour dishes such as paella. But the spice, made of the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus…
Libya’s presidential election was meant to unite the country
Dec 18th 2021BENGHAZI AND TRIPOLIFOR WEEKEND relief in war-torn Libya, there is little better entertainment than cheering the Arabian steeds at the racetrack in Tripoli, the capital. The competitors can be a stubborn bunch. It often takes six men to bundle a horse into its starting box. They place a sack over its head and…