Unconditional handouts benefit recipients—and their neighbours too
Nov 23rd 2019ECONOMISTS HAVE long argued that people should give each other money rather than gifts, since it is hard to know…
Ethiopia’s Sidama people vote for autonomy
Some fret it could lead to a messy break-up of the country’s southern regionNov 23rd 2019THEY ROSE at dawn, quietly assembling…
A former president’s crocodiles are terrorising Ivory Coast’s capital
Nov 21st 2019YAMOUSSOUKROTHE FIRST president of Ivory Coast, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, liked to build monuments to himself. After…
Teacher Fired After Smoking Cannabis In Classroom Full Of Students
A North Attleborough High School substitute teacher was fired after reportedly smoking weed in a classroom full of students on…
Male nightingales spend the winter practising
Nov 30th 2019DESPITE THE ideas of Julia Monk and her colleagues on the frequency and normality of same-sex mating behaviour among…
Slowly, HIV is being beaten
Nov 28th 2019ON THE PRINCIPLE that no news is good news, the fact that AIDS has dropped out of the headlines is surely a good…
How ear bones evolved
Nov 28th 2019EVOLUTION HAS NO foresight. But occasionally it flukes something ideally suited to develop into something else. Biologists…
An emergency landing system that passengers can activate
Nov 28th 2019ON NOVEMBER 9TH 2018 a Piper Dakota light aircraft flying over Iowa broadcast a distress call. The pilot seemed to…
Japan’s economic troubles offer a glimpse of a sobering future
Dec 5th 2019JAPAN ONCE offered a cautionary tale of how macroeconomic mismanagement could transform a juggernaut into a laggard….