Vast sums of money have gone missing from pandemic stimulus programmes
IT WAS A criminal’s paradise. In June 2020 a firm in Milan secured a €60,000 ($63,300) government loan to cope with the pandemic-induced downturn. But the business did not exist. The Italian government had in fact sent cash to the ’Ndrangheta Mafia of Calabria. The same month six French citizens swindled €12m in unemployment benefits…
Slow pain or fast pain? The implications of low investment yields
IN 1988 STEVE GUTTENBERG, a comic actor, appeared on a British talk show. At one point he was asked why he had not appeared in “Police Academy 5”, having starred in the earlier films. He replied that, in his view, all the important philosophical questions had been addressed in the first four movies.This brings us…
Sri Lanka’s ruling family is running out of road
The Rajapaksas hang together. Now they are falling apartAS THE SUN goes down the numbers swell on Galle Face Green, a promenade facing the Indian Ocean in downtown Colombo where families and lovers typically come to stroll and fly kites. These days it hosts a more purposeful crowd. Families are there, but so are farmers,…
Pakistan is losing patience with the Taliban
Insurgents continue to attack it from AfghanistanPAKISTAN’S DAPPER spy chief was all smiles when he swanned into Kabul, the Afghan capital, three weeks after the Taliban regained power. During his visit in September Faiz Hameed (who has since stepped down) tried to reassure a nervous world that Afghanistan’s future would be rosy. America and its…
Debt repayment costs are rising fast for many African countries
They are unlikely to default this year, but face trouble by 2024AFRICAN FINANCE ministers trying to manage debt must be cursing their luck. First the pandemic slammed their finances. In December a pandemic-inspired scheme to suspend interest payments to bilateral creditors ended. It had delayed debt problems but did not fix them. In February Russian…
The war in Ukraine has stirred old arguments over history
Israel is entangled with politicised distortions of the HolocaustMOUNT OF REMEMBRANCE on the western edge of Jerusalem is encircled by thousands of trees, many with a sign naming a person and a country. The Avenue of the Righteous among the Nations, a project begun in 1962 by Yad Vashem, Israel’s national authority for Holocaust remembrance,…
Business
Elon Musk struck a deal to buy Twitter, capping three weeks of drama during which he had revealed he had amassed a 9.2% stake and rejected a seat on the board and Twitter had tried to block a sale. In the end its big investors forced Twitter to the table when Mr Musk revealed a…
Politics
Emmanuel Macron was re-elected as president of France, again trouncing his nationalist-populist challenger Marine Le Pen. He won 58.5% of the vote to her 41.5%. However, Ms Le Pen increased her vote share by eight percentage points since their previous contest, in 2017, and turnout was the lowest since 1969. Mr Macron, a pro-European centrist,…
A genetic discovery could help fight an African cattle disease
That may allow the introduction of higher-yielding breedsIT BEGINS WITH a bite near the cow’s ear. In the next few days, the animal’s lymphocytes multiply. Its lymph nodes swell. It stops feeding and starts coughing as fluid fills its lungs. It develops a fever as high as 41°C. A few weeks after the bite, it…
Russia cuts off gas to two European countries. Who’s next?
NOT LONG ago it seemed that the game of energy poker played by Europe and Russia, though dangerous, was under control. Oil and gas was one of the few sectors Europe had not targeted with sanctions. Russia had kept supplies flowing. Yes, Europe was mulling a ban on energy imports, and Russia demanded in late…