Omicron latest: Omicron comes to Mexico
Jan 21st 2022IF 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…
Just how gummed up are supply chains?
Jan 22nd 2022WASHINGTON, DCTHE GENERAL public learned far more about supply chains last year than it probably cared to. A host of disruptions to production and shipping interacted with soaring demand for goods to produce bare shelves and rising prices. Although goods have been in short supply, the number of measures tracking supply-chain woes has…
As China’s economy slows, policymakers seek to revive growth
CHINA HAS not enjoyed much success at the sport of curling, which will feature in the Beijing winter Olympics beginning on February 4th. But the country’s economic policymakers could draw inspiration from the obscure event. Like curlers, they have a difficult target to hit. They are thought to be aiming for growth of 5% or…
Drug-resistant infections kill almost 1.3m people a year
Jan 22nd 2022RUMINA HASAN peers at a sample of bacteria taken from a three-day-old baby suffering from fever and fits. What she sees in her laboratory in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, is alarming. The bugs causing the illness–Serratia marcescens–are resistant to every antibiotic available. Meanwhile at a hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, Jobayer Chisti struggles…
Both main candidates for the South Korean presidency are reviled
Jan 20th 2022ALL OF SOUTH KOREA’S past presidents have been tainted by corruption investigations. Both of the surviving ones have served time in prison for corruption. Park Geun-hye was pardoned only last month, for health reasons; Lee Myung-bak remains in his cell. Even Moon Jae-in, the current president, who prides himself on his probity, has…
Babies learn about the world by looking at who shares saliva
Jan 22nd 2022THE COMPLEXITIES of human relations are difficult enough for adults to navigate—and they have at least some idea of the rules. Children have yet to learn those rules. Infants are, nonetheless, able quickly to identify close relationships between other people, and thus to build up a map of the social world around them.…
Why bank stocks are tumbling even as interest rates climb
Jan 22nd 2022MUCH AS HIGHER milk prices are typically good news for dairy farmers, higher interest rates are meant to be good news for bankers. Conventional lenders make their money on the difference between the interest they pay out to depositors and the interest they earn on loans and investments. As rates rise, that gap…
Economists are revising their views on robots and jobs
Jan 22nd 2022WHEN THE pandemic first struck, unemployment soared. Not since the Depression had American joblessness surpassed 14%, as it did in April 2020. But fears of a prolonged period of high unemployment did not come to pass. According to the latest available data, for November, the unemployment rate for the OECD club of mostly…
Virat Kohli, India’s cricket captain, was more than a sporting hero
FEW POSITIONS in India confer as much prestige as captain of the country’s Test cricket team—or as much weight. Carrying the hopes of a billion cricket-mad Indians requires a very broad back. For them it is not enough that the skipper be an exceptional sportsman and inspire a winning team. He must also project a…
The damage from Tonga’s volcanic eruption is still unclear
WORD CAME at last. Three days after Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano in the Kingdom of Tonga erupted on January 15th, the prime minister’s office released a statement. The eruption was an “unprecedented disaster” for the archipelago and three deaths were confirmed. The blast created a vast ash cloud and led to a tsunami (two people…