Food is a fulcrum in Indian politics
Dec 7th 2019IN SOUTH ASIA the ruling classes ignore the quotidian at their peril. Just ask them about onions. This autumn the humble bulb has challenged titans.The trouble began when unseasonably heavy rains followed drought across the onion-growing belt of north and central India. That not only all but destroyed the crop; the wet caused…
A vast smuggling ring is exposed in Kyrgyzstan, to popular outrage
Dec 5th 2019THE VICTIM was a Chinese citizen. He was shot in a gangland-style killing in Istanbul, the biggest city in Turkey. But the smuggling racket on which he had just blown the whistle was centred on Kyrgyzstan, a poor Central Asian country of 6m which has been a transit point between China and Europe…
India’s economy is growing at its slowest pace since 2013
Dec 5th 2019GLOBAL INVESTORS once fell in love with India’s growth “story” because of people like Shanmuga Subramanian. Educated in mechanical engineering, he became a computer programmer, working with Cognizant, an outsourcing firm, and Lennox, which makes heaters and air-conditioners. But that was not enough to exhaust his technological enthusiasms. He recently devoted four days…
African countries are struggling to build robust identity systems
Dec 5th 2019JOHANNESBURGTHE FIRST thing that visitors to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg see is a wall of identity cards—the pieces of paper that determined where people could live and work and whom they could love. From the outset, the apartheid regime’s ability to discriminate against “nie-blankes” (non-whites) depended on having a robust system of…
Jammed streets highlight the challenges of Sudan’s transition
Dec 5th 2019KHARTOUMSOUAD AL-SAWY squints in the glare of the mid-afternoon sun, searching for a bus home. The 18-year-old student’s commute used to take 20 minutes, but these days it can take up to 90. “It’s getting worse every day,” she sighs. Although life after the revolution has improved in many ways—for instance, a hated…
Elites backed by Iran are clinging to power in Iraq
Dec 5th 2019THE TOMB of a dead Shia cleric might seem an odd target for Iraqi protesters angry about corruption, poor governance and a lack of jobs. Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim resisted Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s old dictator, and helped to create the modern state. But he also had close ties to Iran, which has assisted the…
Protesters in Iraq topple a prime minister but want more
Many want to bring down the whole sectarian political systemNov 29th 2019FOR TWO months Iraq has been buffeted by big protests. Tens of thousands of people, angry over corruption, poor governance and a lack of jobs, have taken to the streets in Baghdad and the Shia south. The government has promised reforms. The security forces…
The world’s oldest picture gallery
Dec 12th 2019THIS PHOTOGRAPH shows the world’s oldest known art gallery. It is in a cave in Sulawesi, an island in Indonesia. It was discovered by a team led by Adam Brumm of Griffith University, in Australia, and is reported in this week’s Nature. The most ancient pictures in it date from 43,900 years ago—27,000…
If aircraft can copy the way geese fly, they will save fuel
Dec 7th 2019IN THE CUT-THROAT business of civil aviation, every little helps. So researchers at Airbus, Europe’s biggest aircraft manufacturer, have been experimenting with a wheeze which they hope might shave up to 10% off an airliner’s fuel consumption. This is to hitch a ride on the wake of the plane in front.It is a…
Even aggressive centipedes will co-operate if they have to
Dec 7th 2019CENTIPEDES DO NOT generally get on well together. Even members of the same species may attack one another when they meet. So it is a surprise to find mother centipedes sharing nests and a double surprise to find that those co-residents are sometimes not even conspecifics. This, though, is the conclusion of research…