WILDFIRES IN THE Arctic have produced more carbon emissions this year than in any year on record, according to scientists at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), an EU agency. So far in 2020, millions of acres inside the Arctic Circle have gone up in flames, releasing 244m tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, compared with 182m tonnes in the whole of last year. (Before 2019, the record was 110m tonnes in 2004.) Figures from the Global Carbon Project, a network of scientists, suggest that this year’s fires have generated more carbon emissions than, say, Malaysia or Spain does in an entire year.

Experts worry the fires may be evidence of a vicious circle of climate change. Arctic wildfires—especially those burning in the carbon-rich zone between tundra and boreal forest—emit a wide range of pollutants including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds and solid aerosol particles. As they consume organic matter, they also release...

IN HIS WRITINGS Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish-born author and columnist, has argued there is no logical reason why Islam should not thrive in conditions of personal liberty. After all, in a much-debated verse, the Koran insists that “there is no compulsion in religion”. But the reality of the Islamic world is drearily repressive, and has in some ways been getting worse, according to a report he has just published for the Cato Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC. It looks mainly at 51 countries where Muslims form at least a plurality of the population.

Only 60m of the world’s 1.9bn Muslims live in countries where the general level of personal freedom is greater than the global mean, while more than 1.8bn live in places where liberty levels are clearly below average, he finds. To reach this conclusion he uses the Human Freedom Index, which his think-tank has developed in collaboration with two others. It measures a range of entitlements, including freedom of movement,...

COVID-19 IS NOT all bad, as any city-dweller who stepped outside this year will have seen. The virus has killed hundreds of thousands of people and decimated economies around the world. But as GDP has fallen so has air pollution. This spring marked the first time in decades that residents of Jalandhar in northern India were able to see the snow-capped Himalayan mountains, 160km (100 miles) away.

One particularly common pollutant is nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The World Health Organisation (WHO) reckons that NO2 levels above 40 micrograms in every cubic metre of air (40µg/m3) are harmful to people. In Delhi, one of the world's most polluted big cities, NO2 fell sharply after the city imposed its lockdown, from 46µg/m3 in March to 17µg/m3 in early April. Similarly, NO2 levels in London fell from 36µg/m3 in March to 24µg/m3 two weeks later.

Air-pollution levels do not depend on human activity alone—weather conditions such as wind speed, rainfall and humidity matter, too....

COVID-19 IS NOT all bad, as any city-dweller who stepped outside this year will have seen. The virus has killed hundreds of thousands of people and decimated economies around the world. But as GDP has fallen so has air pollution. This spring marked the first time in decades that residents of Jalandhar in northern India were able to see the snow-capped Himalayan mountains, 160km (100 miles) away.

One particularly common pollutant is nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The World Health Organisation (WHO) reckons that NO2 levels above 40 micrograms in every cubic metre of air (40µg/m3) are harmful to people. In Delhi, one of the world's most polluted big cities, NO2 fell sharply after the city imposed its lockdown, from 46µg/m3 in March to 17µg/m3 in early April. Similarly, NO2 levels in London fell from 36µg/m3 in March to 24µg/m3 two weeks later.

Air-pollution levels do not depend on human activity alone—weather conditions such as wind speed, rainfall and humidity matter, too....

IN HIS WRITINGS Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish-born author and columnist, has argued there is no logical reason why Islam should not thrive in conditions of personal liberty. After all, in a much-debated verse, the Koran insists that “there is no compulsion in religion”. But the reality of the Islamic world is drearily repressive, and has in some ways been getting worse, according to a report he has just published for the Cato Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC. It looks mainly at 51 countries where Muslims form at least a plurality of the population.

Only 60m of the world’s 1.9bn Muslims live in countries where the general level of personal freedom is greater than the global mean, while more than 1.8bn live in places where liberty levels are clearly below average, he finds. To reach this conclusion he uses the Human Freedom Index, which his think-tank has developed in collaboration with two others. It measures a range of entitlements, including freedom of movement,...

COVID-19 IS NOT all bad, as any city-dweller who stepped outside this year will have seen. The virus has killed hundreds of thousands of people and decimated economies around the world. But as GDP has fallen so has air pollution. This spring marked the first time in decades that residents of Jalandhar in northern India were able to see the snow-capped Himalayan mountains, 160km (100 miles) away.

One particularly common pollutant is nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The World Health Organisation (WHO) reckons that NO2 levels above 40 micrograms in every cubic metre of air (40µg/m3) are harmful to people. In Delhi, one of the world's most polluted big cities, NO2 fell sharply after the city imposed its lockdown, from 46µg/m3 in March to 17µg/m3 in early April. Similarly, NO2 levels in London fell from 36µg/m3 in March to 24µg/m3 two weeks later.

Air-pollution levels do not depend on human activity alone—weather conditions such as wind speed, rainfall and humidity matter, too....

IN HIS WRITINGS Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish-born author and columnist, has argued there is no logical reason why Islam should not thrive in conditions of personal liberty. After all, in a much-debated verse, the Koran insists that “there is no compulsion in religion”. But the reality of the Islamic world is drearily repressive, and has in some ways been getting worse, according to a report he has just published for the Cato Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC. It looks mainly at 51 countries where Muslims form at least a plurality of the population.

Only 60m of the world’s 1.9bn Muslims live in countries where the general level of personal freedom is greater than the global mean, while more than 1.8bn live in places where liberty levels are clearly below average, he finds. To reach this conclusion he uses the Human Freedom Index, which his think-tank has developed in collaboration with two others. It measures a range of entitlements, including freedom of movement,...

WESTERN AUDIENCES will be familiar with at least some of China’s favourite films of 2019. Superhero flicks “Avengers: Endgame” and “Spider-Man: Far from Home” make appearances, as does the latest installment of the Fast & Furious franchise. Other titles may be less recognisable. “Ne Zha”, an animated fantasy-adventure, made more than $700m at the box office. “The Wandering Earth”, a sci-fi thriller, brought in $690m. Of the ten highest-grossing films in China last year, only three came from Hollywood. The rest were made locally.

The bounty of home-grown blockbusters in Chinese cinemas is relatively new. For years, moviegoers preferred Hollywood features. In 2007 14 of the 25 highest-grossing films in China were made in America. Yet as China’s box office has grown—receipts reached $9.2bn last year, up from just $800m a decade ago—mainland studios have captured a bigger share. In 2019, 17 of the top 25 films in China were Chinese. Only eight were American (see...

ARE YOU looking for a new electric toothbrush? A cordless vacuum cleaner? A foot massager? Amazon has just the product for you. It has been highly rated by scores of “verified purchasers”, with receipts proving that they bought the item. Some of these satisfied customers have left five-star ratings; others have also composed lengthy reviews with photos. No doubt you will be happy with your new gadget, too.

Unless, that is, these glowing recommendations are fraudulent. A new working paper by economists at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles explores an elaborate scheme by sellers to hoodwink Amazon’s customers into buying their mediocre products. The authors conclude that companies can cheat their way into extra sales, temporarily at least, by paying for fake reviews.

COVID-19 IS NOT all bad, as any city-dweller who stepped outside this year will have seen. The virus has killed hundreds of thousands of people and decimated economies around the world. But as GDP has fallen so has air pollution. This spring marked the first time in decades that residents of Jalandhar in northern India were able to see the snow-capped Himalayan mountains, 160km (100 miles) away.

One particularly common pollutant is nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The World Health Organisation (WHO) reckons that NO2 levels above 40 micrograms in every cubic metre of air (40µg/m3) are harmful to people. In Delhi, one of the world's most polluted big cities, NO2 fell sharply after the city imposed its lockdown, from 46µg/m3 in March to 17µg/m3 in early April. Similarly, NO2 levels in London fell from 36µg/m3 in March to 24µg/m3 two weeks later.

Air-pollution levels do not depend on human activity alone—weather conditions such as wind speed, rainfall and humidity matter, too....

WESTERN AUDIENCES will be familiar with at least some of China’s favourite films of 2019. Superhero flicks “Avengers: Endgame” and “Spider-Man: Far from Home” make appearances, as does the latest installment of the Fast & Furious franchise. Other titles may be less recognisable. “Ne Zha”, an animated fantasy-adventure, made more than $700m at the box office. “The Wandering Earth”, a sci-fi thriller, brought in $690m. Of the ten highest-grossing films in China last year, only three came from Hollywood. The rest were made locally.

The bounty of home-grown blockbusters in Chinese cinemas is relatively new. For years, moviegoers preferred Hollywood features. In 2007 14 of the 25 highest-grossing films in China were made in America. Yet as China’s box office has grown—receipts reached $9.2bn last year, up from just $800m a decade ago—mainland studios have captured a bigger share. In 2019, 17 of the top 25 films in China were Chinese. Only eight were American (see...

COVID-19 IS NOT all bad, as any city-dweller who stepped outside this year will have seen. The virus has killed hundreds of thousands of people and decimated economies around the world. But as GDP has fallen so has air pollution. This spring marked the first time in decades that residents of Jalandhar in northern India were able to see the snow-capped Himalayan mountains, 160km (100 miles) away.

One particularly common pollutant is nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The World Health Organisation (WHO) reckons that NO2 levels above 40 micrograms in every cubic metre of air (40µg/m3) are harmful to people. In Delhi, one of the world's most polluted big cities, NO2 fell sharply after the city imposed its lockdown, from 46µg/m3 in March to 17µg/m3 in early April. Similarly, NO2 levels in London fell from 36µg/m3 in March to 24µg/m3 two weeks later.

Air-pollution levels do not depend on human activity alone—weather conditions such as wind speed, rainfall and humidity matter, too....

WESTERN AUDIENCES will be familiar with at least some of China’s favourite films of 2019. Superhero flicks “Avengers: Endgame” and “Spider-Man: Far from Home” make appearances, as does the latest installment of the Fast & Furious franchise. Other titles may be less recognisable. “Ne Zha”, an animated fantasy-adventure, made more than $700m at the box office. “The Wandering Earth”, a sci-fi thriller, brought in $690m. Of the ten highest-grossing films in China last year, only three came from Hollywood. The rest were made locally.

The bounty of home-grown blockbusters in Chinese cinemas is relatively new. For years, moviegoers preferred Hollywood features. In 2007 14 of the 25 highest-grossing films in China were made in America. Yet as China’s box office has grown—receipts reached $9.2bn last year, up from just $800m a decade ago—mainland studios have captured a bigger share. In 2019, 17 of the top 25 films in China were Chinese. Only eight were American (see...

WESTERN AUDIENCES will be familiar with at least some of China’s favourite films of 2019. Superhero flicks “Avengers: Endgame” and “Spider-Man: Far from Home” make appearances, as does the latest installment of the Fast & Furious franchise. Other titles may be less recognisable. “Ne Zha”, an animated fantasy-adventure, made more than $700m at the box office. “The Wandering Earth”, a sci-fi thriller, brought in $690m. Of the ten highest-grossing films in China last year, only three came from Hollywood. The rest were made locally.

The bounty of home-grown blockbusters in Chinese cinemas is relatively new. For years, moviegoers preferred Hollywood features. In 2007 14 of the 25 highest-grossing films in China were made in America. Yet as China’s box office has grown—receipts reached $9.2bn last year, up from just $800m a decade ago—mainland studios have captured a bigger share. In 2019, 17 of the top 25 films in China were Chinese. Only eight were American (see...

COVID-19 IS NOT all bad, as any city-dweller who stepped outside this year will have seen. The virus has killed hundreds of thousands of people and decimated economies around the world. But as GDP has fallen so has air pollution. This spring marked the first time in decades that residents of Jalandhar in northern India were able to see the snow-capped Himalayan mountains, 160km (100 miles) away.

One particularly common pollutant is nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The World Health Organisation (WHO) reckons that NO2 levels above 40 micrograms in every cubic metre of air (40µg/m3) are harmful to people. In Delhi, one of the world's most polluted big cities, NO2 fell sharply after the city imposed its lockdown, from 46µg/m3 in March to 17µg/m3 in early April. Similarly, NO2 levels in London fell from 36µg/m3 in March to 24µg/m3 two weeks later.

Air-pollution levels do not depend on human activity alone—weather conditions such as wind speed, rainfall and humidity matter, too....

ARE YOU looking for a new electric toothbrush? A cordless vacuum cleaner? A foot massager? Amazon has just the product for you. It has been highly rated by scores of “verified purchasers”, with receipts proving that they bought the item. Some of these satisfied customers have left five-star ratings; others have also composed lengthy reviews with photos. No doubt you will be happy with your new gadget, too.

Unless, that is, these glowing recommendations are fraudulent. A new working paper by economists at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles explores an elaborate scheme by sellers to hoodwink Amazon’s customers into buying their mediocre products. The authors conclude that companies can cheat their way into extra sales, temporarily at least, by paying for fake reviews.

OF THE DOZENS of provisions tucked into America’s CARES Act, the $2.2trn fiscal-stimulus package passed in March, none was as popular as the one-off payments to households. Taxpayers earning less than $99,000 a year ($198,000 for couples) were sent cheques worth up to $1,200, with an additional $500 for each child. In total, the Internal Revenue Service made 159m payments worth $265bn. The hope was that consumers would spend the windfall and pep up the economy, which shrank by 9.5% in the second quarter.

But a new working paper by three economists—Olivier Coibion, Yuriy Gorodnichenko and Michael Weber—suggests that Americans did not use the payments quite as Uncle Sam had hoped. Using data from a recent survey of 12,000 Americans conducted by Nielsen, a market-research firm, the authors found that just 42% of the money was spent. Another 27% was saved. The remaining 31% was used to repay debts.

ARE YOU looking for a new electric toothbrush? A cordless vacuum cleaner? A foot massager? Amazon has just the product for you. It has been highly rated by scores of “verified purchasers”, with receipts proving that they bought the item. Some of these satisfied customers have left five-star ratings; others have also composed lengthy reviews with photos. No doubt you will be happy with your new gadget, too.

Unless, that is, these glowing recommendations are fraudulent. A new working paper by economists at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles explores an elaborate scheme by sellers to hoodwink Amazon’s customers into buying their mediocre products. The authors conclude that companies can cheat their way into extra sales, temporarily at least, by paying for fake reviews.

OF THE DOZENS of provisions tucked into America’s CARES Act, the $2.2trn fiscal-stimulus package passed in March, none was as popular as the one-off payments to households. Taxpayers earning less than $99,000 a year ($198,000 for couples) were sent cheques worth up to $1,200, with an additional $500 for each child. In total, the Internal Revenue Service made 159m payments worth $265bn. The hope was that consumers would spend the windfall and pep up the economy, which shrank by 9.5% in the second quarter.

But a new working paper by three economists—Olivier Coibion, Yuriy Gorodnichenko and Michael Weber—suggests that Americans did not use the payments quite as Uncle Sam had hoped. Using data from a recent survey of 12,000 Americans conducted by Nielsen, a market-research firm, the authors found that just 42% of the money was spent. Another 27% was saved. The remaining 31% was used to repay debts.

DO VACCINES CAUSE autism? Are politicians scaremongering about covid-19 to drum up profits for drug firms? Will Bill Gates use injections to implant microchips in your children?

The answer to all three questions is no, though scientists once debated the first. In 1998 the Lancet, a medical journal, published a study showing a link between jabs and developmental disorders. However, it was retracted after an investigation found that Andrew Wakefield, the lead author, had been paid by people suing vaccine producers. The British doctor was struck off, and large trials did not replicate his results.

Nonetheless, Mr Wakefield’s hoax transformed “anti-vaxx” sentiment into a mainstream belief. The Centre for Countering Digital Hate, an NGO, reckons 58m people follow English-language social-media accounts spreading such misinformation—including conspiracy theories about covid-19, big pharma and Mr Gates.

Polls from 2018 by the Wellcome Trust, a charity, show this idea...

DO VACCINES CAUSE autism? Are politicians scaremongering about covid-19 to drum up profits for drug firms? Will Bill Gates use injections to implant microchips in your children?

The answer to all three questions is no, though scientists once debated the first. In 1998 the Lancet, a medical journal, published a study showing a link between jabs and developmental disorders. However, it was retracted after an investigation found that Andrew Wakefield, the lead author, had been paid by people suing vaccine producers. The British doctor was struck off, and large trials did not replicate his results.

Nonetheless, Mr Wakefield’s hoax transformed “anti-vaxx” sentiment into a mainstream belief. The Centre for Countering Digital Hate, an NGO, reckons 58m people follow English-language social-media accounts spreading such misinformation—including conspiracy theories about covid-19, big pharma and Mr Gates.

Polls from 2018 by the Wellcome Trust, a charity, show this idea...

SINCE LAUNCHING a policy on “misleading information” in May, Twitter has clashed with President Donald Trump. When he described mail-in ballots as “substantially fraudulent”, the platform told users to “get the facts” and linked to articles that proved otherwise. After Mr Trump threatened looters with death—“when the looting starts, the shooting starts”—Twitter said his tweet broke its rules against “glorifying violence”. On July 28th the site took down a tweet by Donald Trump junior promoting a malaria drug for covid-19 that plenty of studies discredit.

The president says that “social media platforms totally silence conservatives’ voices.” However, a study by The Economist finds the opposite. Twitter’s feed used to show people the latest posts from accounts they followed, but in 2016 it launched an algorithm to serve “relevant” tweets to users, even if they were days old and from unfamiliar accounts. We compared the two systems, and found that the recommendation engine...

DO VACCINES CAUSE autism? Are politicians scaremongering about covid-19 to drum up profits for drug firms? Will Bill Gates use injections to implant microchips in your children?

The answer to all three questions is no, though scientists once debated the first. In 1998 the Lancet, a medical journal, published a study showing a link between jabs and developmental disorders. However, it was retracted after an investigation found that Andrew Wakefield, the lead author, had been paid by people suing vaccine producers. The British doctor was struck off, and large trials did not replicate his results.

Nonetheless, Mr Wakefield’s hoax transformed “anti-vaxx” sentiment into a mainstream belief. The Centre for Countering Digital Hate, an NGO, reckons 58m people follow English-language social-media accounts spreading such misinformation—including conspiracy theories about covid-19, big pharma and Mr Gates.

Polls from 2018 by the Wellcome Trust, a charity, show this idea...