As the year began, so it ended. Early in 2020, the pandemic blindsided governments, which dithered over both the scientific and moral imperatives while much of the populace indulged in selfish and conflicted behaviour that seemed to belong in “Glengarry Glen Ross” or “Lord of the Flies” rather than in a modern democracy. Those same problems now afflict the distribution ...

Count 2020 as a lucky year. This may sound odd given that the world grappled with a pandemic that has killed close to 1.8 million people and crippled many countries’ economies. The “luck” relates to the more than 90% efficacy of the two vaccines — Pfizer Inc-BioNTech SE’s shot and Moderna Inc’s candidate — that gained emergency approval after thorough ...

Bloomberg News recently reported that pandemic-induced economic deprivation, two fierce hurricanes and the hope that a new administration might ease security threaten to create a new wave of migrants at America’s southern border. “There are going to be caravans, and in the coming weeks it will increase,” said the head of a civil-society organisation in Guatemala. With the pandemic far ...