Новости за 28.11.2019

ON THE PRINCIPLE that no news is good news, the fact that AIDS has dropped out of the headlines is surely a good thing. Nevertheless, it does no harm for the world to be reminded from time to time that the illness has not gone away. To that end, UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation, the international agencies charged with dealing with the epidemic, promote December 1st as World AIDS Day.

IN THE PAST few decades wind and solar power have gone from being exotic technologies to quotidian pieces of engineering that are competitive, joule for joule, with fossil fuels. Those fuels retain what edge they have only because of their reliability. The wind may not blow, or the sun may not shine, but—short of a blockade or strike—a coal or gas power station will always have something to burn.

ON NOVEMBER 9TH 2018 a Piper Dakota light aircraft flying over Iowa broadcast a distress call. The pilot seemed to have suffered a heart attack. One of the other three people on board, a student aviator, had taken over the controls, but to no avail. The plane crashed shortly afterwards, killing all four.

FOR A SO-CALLED ghetto, Mjolnerparken seems rather pleasant. The public-housing complex in Copenhagen contains well-tended playgrounds full of cavorting children and their Somali- and Pakistani-Danish mothers. But it is a bit of a maze, and it can be hard for outsiders to find people, especially if they plan to kill them.

IT HAS NOT been the easiest of starts for Ursula von der Leyen. In July the EU’s government heads alighted on the former German defence minister as their surprise choice to run the European Commission, Brussels’s largest institution. She immediately suffered a series of reverses. The European Parliament approved her candidacy by the slimmest of margins. Of 26 proposed commissioners—one from each EU member government except for Britain, which refused to make a nomination despite having failed to Brexit—three were rejected. Читать дальше...

NO ONE EVER got rich betting against Angela Merkel. Germany’s chancellor has outlasted every prediction of her premature demise. She has survived domestic and international crises galore. Having won four elections on the trot, she is now on her fourth French president, her fifth British prime minister and her seventh (and counting) Italian prime minister. As she enters her 15th year in office, she remains one of Germany’s most popular politicians.

SOLAR AND wind power are the glamorous twins of the clean-electricity revolution. It is thrilling to see a field of glistening panels absorbing the sun’s energy or a vast turbine twirling above the ocean. Stationary power storage does not have quite the same allure—think of a large metal shed stuffed with piles of big batteries. Nonetheless, the ability to stockpile energy on a massive scale will be of supreme importance if the world is to wean itself off filthy fossil-fuel power plants. The technology... Читать дальше...

DISTRICT ELECTIONS in Hong Kong are normally about rat control and bus routes. The polls on November 24th were a vote on Hong Kong’s future as a liberal Chinese enclave. The question, in effect, was whether ordinary people support the government and its backers in Beijing in their illiberal methods. The answer was a resounding no. The turnout, of over 70%, was higher than any recorded in any kind of election in Hong Kong in which the public has a say (see article). Pro-democracy politicians almost swept the board. Читать дальше...

ONE WAY of thinking about the world’s trading system is as a sports match featuring a sprawling, brawling international cast of players, each with their own tactics and tricks. The game works best when there is a referee, and for nearly 25 years a group of seven judges at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has done the job. But on December 11th this body will cease to function, because America is blocking new appointments to it. The referee’s departure will make cross-border commerce unrulier and... Читать дальше...

Mandi Fraser said she relies on her brothers Brian and Colin to provide guidance as she continues to improve her volleyball game.

EIGHT TIMES Raymond Poulidor stood on the podium at the end of the Tour de France, soaked in sweat, exhausted and smiling his big gap-toothed smile. He was just never on the top step. In 14 Tours someone else always pipped him or, to be honest, passed him by quite a lot. He came second three times, third five times (including in his last tour, not bad for a 40-year-old), but never put on the treasured yellow jersey, the greatest prize in cycling. The closest he came to that was when winners offered to let him wear it at dinner parties... Читать дальше...

The Innocents. By Michael Crummey. Doubleday; 289 pages; $26.95.

EVERED AND Ada Best are “still youngsters” when their parents die, leaving them alone on the bleak Newfoundland coast. “They were left together in the cove then with its dirt-floored stud tilt,” writes Michael Crummey, “with its garden of root vegetables and its scatter of outbuildings, with its looming circle of hills and rattling brook and its view of the ocean’s grey expanse beyond the harbour skerries.” In “The Innocents”... Читать дальше...

IMAGINE DINING in a European capital where you do not know the local language. The waiter speaks little English, but by hook or by crook you manage to order something on the menu that you recognise, eat and pay for. Now picture instead that, after a hike goes wrong, you emerge, starving, in an Amazonian village. The people there have no idea what to make of you. You mime chewing sounds, which they mistake for your primitive tongue. When you raise your hands to signify surrender, they think you are launching an attack. Читать дальше...

Letters are welcome and should be addressed to the Editor at letters@economist.com

'I had my umbrella set out, my food, I haven't even been to sleep so I've just been awake the whole time'

As quoted by Sky Sports, Burnley manager Sean Dyche has revealed that the future of Danny Drinkwater, currently on loan with the Clarets from Chelsea, remains unclear at this point. The midfielder has played only once since arriving to Turf Moor, in the Capabao Cup defeat at the hands of Sunderland back in August, and […]

BJP working president JP Nadda is holding a meeting with the party's general secretaries in the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters in Delhi on Thursday.Discussions on the ongoing organisational elections of the BJP, which are being conducted across the country, are likely to take place in the meeting which is underway.Nadda is also scheduled to hold discussions on the celebration of the 10-day-long program on the occasion of the Constitution Day which is being organised from November 27 to December 6 at all district centres.Apart from this... Читать дальше...

NINTENDO Switch fans will know that the console is rarely discounted, which is why we’re so excited about Black Friday this year. We’ve found the best Nintendo Switch Black Friday deals, and whether you’re a Mario Kart, Pokemon Shield or LEGO fan, you won’t be disappointed. Nintendo’s Switch deals 2019 Bundles are a great way […]

Download this eBook to discover how metagenomics provides scientists with a means to better capture the extraordinary diversity present within microbial communities!

Hillsborough match commander David Duckenfield has been cleared of the gross negligence manslaughter of 95 Liverpool fans in the 1989 football disaster.

Field Entertainment transports the action of the smash-hit animated adventure “Frozen” onto ice, complete with amazing scenery and cool special effects. 

An American champion rock climber survived a horror fall while she scaled Yosemite's 3,000ft peak El Capitan.

They truly found their partner in crime.

A convenience store clerk and her boyfriend came up with an unconventional — and illegal — way to get engaged without spending a dollar, authorities in North Carolina said this week.

Callie Carswell and her partner, Clarence Moore III, staged an armed robbery...