Man Downloaded Child Pornography as a ‘Boredom Killer’
A man who was busted downloading thousands of pictures that contained either child erotica or child pornography said he viewed the content as a “boredom killer.” Authorities said they started investigating in April 2019 after getting a tip from the NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) that guided them to an address in…
Families Name Their Newborn Children “Lockdown” and “Corona”
Two families have named their newborn babies “Lockdown” and ”Corona” with a wish that they would remind folks about taking precautions. A girl born on the day of Janata Curfew has been named ”Corona,” while a baby boy born seven days later has been named ”Lockdown”. Validating the development, R P Tripathi of Khukhundu Primary…
Emerging-market lockdowns match rich-world ones. The handouts do not
Editor’s note: The Economist is making some of its most important coverage of the covid-19 pandemic freely available to readers of The Economist Today, our daily newsletter. To receive it, register here. For more coverage, see our coronavirus hubWHEN THE global financial crisis struck emerging economies in 2008, two kinds of exodus ensued. Footloose capital…
Economists’ forecasts for GDP growth in 2020 vary widely
ECONOMISTS cannot revise down their forecasts of GDP growth for the effects of the coronavirus pandemic fast enough. All agree that 2020 will be dreadful, but some expect recovery to take longer than others, making for a much grimmer year.■This article appeared in the Finance and economics section of the print edition under the headline…
Magical spells are a booming business in Myanmar
MIN KYAW THEIN is just 26, but he has a commanding presence. In his home in a suburb of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, he sits cross-legged on the floor in front of a shrine festooned with tea lights, flowers and magical diagrams. His family and students gather round and listen intently as he explains how…
Lockdowns in Asia have sparked a stampede home
Apr 2nd 2020DELHI AND SINGAPOREEditor’s note: The Economist is making some of its most important coverage of the covid-19 pandemic freely available to readers of The Economist Today, our daily newsletter. To receive it, register here. For more coverage, see our coronavirus hubWHERE DO YOU belong? This is not a metaphysical question. For English-speaking Indians,…
Mozambique’s mysterious conflict is intensifying
MICHAEL SMELLED trouble before he saw it. In January the 28-year-old from Bilibiza, in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, caught a whiff of smoke. A village had been torched nearby. Within hours houses and schools in Bilibiza were burning as 10,000 residents fled.It was the second time in two years that Michael (not…
Can mobile networks handle becoming stay-at-home networks?
Apr 4th 2020AS COUNTRIES ACROSS the rich world placed themselves under restriction over the course of March, journalists there turned to the question on everyone’s lips: “will the coronavirus break the internet?” For them, the answer in the main is “no”. Most broadband networks are built for peak evening usage, when lots of people settle…
Formula 1 comes up with a breathing machine for covid-19 patients
Apr 4th 2020THE SEVEN Formula 1 teams in Britain have high-tech engineering centres stuffed with the latest production equipment. And they employ hundreds of staff with the talent to use this gear to design, test and manufacture parts rapidly, in the days between races. With the season suspended, they have been collaborating on ways to…
How Allianz is dealing with market turmoil
OLIVER BÄTE still goes to his office every day on Munich’s Königinstrasse, next to the English Garden, but it is mostly empty. “You are always alone as a CEO,” says the boss of Allianz, who took the reins of the 130-year-old insurance giant in 2015. And never more so than during a pandemic, when you…