The efficacy of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine continued to dominate the news in the UK and beyond this week. Results from a small trial in South Africa seemed to suggest that the vaccine offers only limited protection from mild disease against the South African strain of the virus – though it will likely still stop severe illness and death. This seems like bad news, as the cheap, low-maintenance vaccine was seen as a workhorse that could be used across the developing world. For the UK, which is relying on the Oxford jab for its so-far excellent vaccine deployment, it means a mad scramble to contain the other variants of the virus. Will it mean a wider change in how the world tackles the next stage of the crisis? Sarah Boseley reports.
After a swift trial in Moscow, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison last week. But despite that and a previous near-fatal poisoning attempt, Navalny appears resistant to efforts to break him. The risk for Vladimir Putin is that Navalny will become an almost Mandela-like figure for Russians sick of state corruption, and a symbol for democrats around the world. As Luke Harding and Andrew Roth report, the battle between the two men for the soul of a nation looks set to continue – no matter what happens to Navalny in the future.
Last week also saw the announcement that Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos was moving himself upstairs to become the company’s executive chairman. In this week’s cover story, Mark O’Connell looks at how his own life has been transformed by Bezos’s dedication to seamless, relentless consumption – and what the erstwhile world’s richest person’s legacy will be.
