Over the last decade or so, South America’s emerging economies have had it good. A global commodities boom driven largely by Chinese economic expansion opened up a dash for oil and mineral reserves, and helped raise millions of South American people out of poverty. The continent’s several left-leaning governments, united by their social visions and a mutual suspicion of neoliberal countries, reaped the benefits of the prosperity.
Those good times suddenly seem distant. Economic stagnation coupled with a series of political scandals – systemic corruption in Brazil, the suspicious death of a prosector in Argentina – have brought thousands on to the streets and shown leaders across the continent how quickly the tide of consensus can change. After the boom years, is Latin America’s left now in retreat? Jonathan Watts investigates for our cover story this week.
In Israel, the Arab population has been trying to find slender reasons for hope following Binyamin Netanyahu’s unexpected re-election. Relations with the US, meanwhile, have dipped to a new low following Netanyahu’s bewilderingly fluctuating pronouncements on the two-state Palestinian solution.
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad has visited Yemen, where sectarian fighting is driving more people into the hands of jihadi extremists. Tunisia, meanwhile, has been coming to terms with an Islamic State terror attack likely to be devastating for its fragile tourist industry.
Also conscious of its reputation to visitors is Costa Rica, where the unresolved murders of several conservationists are having an effect on environmental tourism. Meanwhile, in South Africa, the defacement of a colonial statue in Cape Town has stirred national anxieties about equality and identity.
In the UK, immigration remains a hot topic as the election nears, but we look at why politicians are afraid to discuss a surprising economic truth about the country’s workers from abroad.
The Weekly Review takes us to Alaska, where there are calls to revive the Native American tradition of hunting sea otters, a creature once almost rendered extinct by demand for its fur. From France, we find out how a progressive approach to working women and the family has helped to bolster the birthrate. And in Malawi, women are showing their daughters the first-hand benefits of education by running their own businesses.
In Discovery we investigate whether the era of scientific testing on laboratory mice is nearing its end. Culture meets the wunderkind of Canadian cinema, Xavier Dolan, while the Books pages weigh up how the Catholic church is inching painfully into the modern world under the leadership of Pope Francis.
Notes & Queries attempts to decipher the difference between brilliance and genius. Good to meet you hears from a land development engineer in Alberta, Canada.
To round off, Sport reports on a quite astonishing finale to rugby union’s Six Nations Championship, won deservedly for a second year running by Ireland, albeit by the slenderest of margins. Hopefully though, it’s a taster of the World Cup to come in England in September.
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