Новости за 03.12.2020

BUSINESSES ARE still struggling to understand which of the pandemic’s effects will be temporary and which will turn out to be permanent. Three new reports attempt to analyse these longer-term trends. One is from Glassdoor, a website that allows workers to rank their employers. Another is from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a management consultancy. The third is from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), a British professional body. Read together, they imply that firms stand to benefit—but... Читать дальше...

COVID-19 HAS, received wisdom has it, been terrible for hotels. The share prices of the eight biggest listed Western groups by room count have slipped by 14%, on average, this year. The glum consensus is, though, being challenged by two big Chinese chains. Both are enjoying resurgent demand for domestic travel as China has tamed its epidemic. And strength at home is fuelling ambitions abroad.

CORPORATE CHIEFTAINS can barely keep tabs on what their own staff are up to, let alone suppliers and subsidiaries in far-flung places. A referendum in Switzerland on November 29th proposed to change that, making Swiss multinationals liable in domestic courts for lapses in human rights or environmental stewardship along their global supply chains. The proposal failed by the narrowest of margins—a watered-down version will come into force instead.

WHEN JOKO WIDODO was elected president of Indonesia in 2014, it marked a turning-point in the country’s politics. Jokowi, as he is better known, hails from a humble background—he grew up in a riverside shack—yet managed to vault himself into the nation’s highest office. It was the first time that somebody who did not belong to the political or military elite was in charge of the country. True to his image as an outsider, he vowed that budding politicians in his family would not ride on his coat-tails... Читать дальше...

THE MORE than 13m tourists who visit Nara, an ancient capital of Japan, each year tend to follow a well-worn path. On their way into a park at the edge of the city they pass the towering wooden pagoda of Kofuku-ji, a temple complex founded in 710. They continue to nearby Todai-ji, gazing in awe at Japan’s largest Buddha, a bronze behemoth weighing 400 tons and standing 15 metres tall. And finally they feed shika senbei, a special kind of rice cracker, to the sacred deer, some 1,300 of which live in the park. Читать дальше...

THE FARMERS—43 of them—were found in the rice fields where they had gone to work. Some had their throats slit. Others were beheaded. In the days that followed locals found evidence of yet more butchery, taking the toll to 78. Boko Haram, a jihadist group that has been fighting since 2009 to carve out a caliphate in north-east Nigeria, was quick to claim credit for the murders. It said they were revenge for the capture of a militant by locals.

A YEAR AGO, when Canada’s government promised to end net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, Jason Kenney, Alberta’s Conservative premier, erupted. The government’s ideas were a “fantasy plan for a mythical country”, he said. He scoffed at the “California-style pieties” of the Liberals who govern Canada. They imagine that people in poor countries like India “are all going to be driving Teslas 15 years from now”, Mr Kenney said. In fact, “they want to stop burning cow dung”.

IN DEATH, as in life, Diego Armando Maradona represented his country to the full. The funeral of Argentina’s most famous footballer on November 26th was as passionate and chaotic as his country’s affairs (see Obituary). In defiance of his own government’s health rules, President Alberto Fernández ordered that Mr Maradona’s coffin lie in state in the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace. Like the president, El Diego was a lifelong supporter of Peronism, Argentina’s populist-nationalist movement. Читать дальше...

“THE WHOLE job of the intelligence community (IC),” explains Angus King, a senator from Maine whom Joe Biden considered naming Director of National Intelligence, “is to seek the truth and tell the truth…[and to] provide absolutely unvarnished information without worrying what the leader wants to hear.” Most presidents value such independence. Donald Trump, less so. Over the past four years, he has compared intelligence agencies to Nazis, rubbished intelligence that displeased him and replaced professionals with unqualified sycophants. Читать дальше...

THE GOVERNMENT is urging businesses to step up preparations for the end of Britain’s transition out of the European Union on December 31st. This week Michael Gove, the cabinet office minister, announced the setting up of a new border operations centre, adding that significant change was coming with or without a trade deal. Yet many companies retorted that uncertainty over the negotiations made proper preparation all but impossible.

OLENA HRABOVENSKA, who owns several Polish food shops in Huntingdon and Peterborough, shudders to remember the Brexit referendum in 2016. The campaign to leave the EU had unleashed ugly prejudices. Cards about “Polish vermin” were posted through letterboxes. Her customers seemed despondent, asking: “what’s the point of being here if we’re not appreciated?” Soon afterwards, eastern Europeans’ numbers started to decline, but not because they rushed for the exit.

SENT ON AN errand, or packed off to school, Diego Maradona didn’t walk. He practised keepie-uppies, instep to thigh to back-heel to head, with anything roughly round he could find. Scrumpled paper would do, or an orange, or a ball of rags. Tac-tac-tac, on and on and on. Then he hopped on his right foot, especially up the steps of the railway bridge, while his left foot tried out skills. If no one was wanting him he would head for the waste ground of Villa Fiorito, one of the worst shanty-towns in Buenos Aires... Читать дальше...

More. By Philip Coggan. Hachette; 496 pages; $34. Profile Books; £25

A history of the global economy by our Bartleby columnist. Covering the development of key sectors such as manufacturing and energy production, it shows how links between people and countries have allowed individuals to grow not just more prosperous, but taller and stronger, and to live longer and have more choice in how they run their lives. A “brilliant survey”, thought the Times; a “fantastic sweep”, reckoned the Financial Times. Читать дальше...

Politics and current affairs

Kleptopia: How Dirty Money is Conquering the World. By Tom Burgis. Harper; 464 pages; $28.99. William Collins; £20

It is hard to write about international corruption in an accessible and colourful way, while retaining an urgent sense of moral condemnation. This book beautifully captures both the murkiness and turpitude involved. Its ultimate theme—the intersection of politics and personal enrichment—is one of the most important stories of the age.

Putin’s People. Читать дальше...

IF ALL GOES well, Elon Musk’s plan to conquer the universe will soon take another step forward, with the flight of Starship SN8, a rocket built by his company, SpaceX. SN8 is expected to rise from its launch pad at Boca Chica, in Texas, sometime between December 4th and 6th. (SpaceX have not confirmed this, but a local flight restriction has been imposed on the area for that period.) The idea is that it will fly to an altitude of 15km, cut its engines, tip slowly forward until it is parallel with Earth’s surface... Читать дальше...

ON DECEMBER 2ND Britain became the first country to permit the general use of a fully tested covid-19 vaccine. The decision to grant this emergency authorisation had been made late the previous evening by the country’s Medicines and Healthcare-products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

FISH ARE being plundered from the ocean at an alarming rate. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation some 90m tonnes of commercial catch are hauled from the sea every year. And that is only for legitimate, commercial fishing vessels. Even setting aside the huge amount of illegal fishing that goes on, few authorities monitor the activities of the 50m or so fisherfolk who operate small boats in local waters with the aim of feeding their families, or of selling their catch harbourside or into local markets. Читать дальше...

TRADERS AND their Bloomberg terminals are seldom parted. Some 330,000 people fork out around $25,000 annually to access Bloomberg’s suite of services: financial-market data; graphing and pricing tools; the ability to chat with other market participants. These functions are so vital for bond traders, hedge-fund managers and pension-fund investors that, when the pandemic closed offices worldwide, many lugged their terminals home in taxi cabs.

JOE BIDEN’S record as president may well hinge on his response to America’s economic woes. On December 1st the president-elect launched his effort to right the economy, when he formally unveiled his choices for top policy jobs. His economic team stands out for its diversity, its interest in climate change, and its emphasis on the welfare of working people, sending a clear signal of Mr Biden’s priorities. Its overriding challenge, though, will be to repair an economy battered by covid-19.

TWO MEN are sitting in adjacent restaurant booths. One is talking at length—about train journeys, women, morality, taking chances, living one day at a time. The other is captivated. “When you die, you’re going to regret the things you don’t do,” says the speaker. After more of this, he sighs, pauses and offers his new friend a drink. He then takes out a map. “This is a piece of land,” he says. “Listen to what I’m going to tell you now.”

IMAGINE IT IS 2035 and a financial crisis is raging. Credit is drying up; banks’ share prices look like ski slopes and every news report features sweaty traders in shirtsleeves tugging at their collars. You log on to your banking app and peer anxiously at your savings. You could transfer them to another bank, but none seems safe. Fuelling a traditional bank run by withdrawing physical banknotes, even if there were any branches left, would be tragically passé. Luckily, there is a new escape route. Читать дальше...

Editor’s note: Some of our covid-19 coverage is free for readers of The Economist Today, our daily newsletter. For more stories and our pandemic tracker, see our hub

THE ZHAOTOU-CLASS cutter may be a lowly coastguard ship. But it is no pushover. At 12,000 tonnes, it is the world’s largest vessel built for such use. It looms over most American or Japanese destroyers. Its roomy deck accommodates two helicopters, a 76mm gun and a thicket of other weaponry. China has two of them. One is deployed on its east coast. The newest, CCG 3901 (the letters stand for “China Coast Guard”), set sail in 2017 on its maiden patrol of the South China Sea, its designated sphere of operation. Читать дальше...

JOSHUA WONG, one of the best-known faces of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, was sentenced on December 2nd to more than 13 months in prison for his role in a protest last year. Mr Wong, pictured, has been riling the Chinese Communist Party for over a decade with his activism. Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam, co-leaders of his now-disbanded group, Demosisto, also received jail sentences of several months each.■

WHEN HONG KONG’S legislature was stripped last month of an opposition after the government expelled four pro-democracy lawmakers and the remaining 15 resigned in sympathy, many in the territory feared this would allow the passage of controversial bills with a minimum of critical scrutiny. In the coming weeks, one proposed law is likely to prove that such worries are justified.