Pestilent peninsula: covid in North Korea

North Korea’s <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2022/05/17/covid-19-is-spreading-like-wildfire-in-north-korea" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">zero-covid strategy</a> appears to have failed. The country has officially acknowledged 162 cases; the true number is probably orders of magnitude more. The country’s health-care system is inadequate, and pre-existing conditions such as tuberculosis and malnutrition are rampant. With elections impending in Turkey, politicians have begun competing with each other to scapegoat <a href="https://www.economist.com/europe/2020/04/23/as-turkey-locks-down-refugees-are-the-first-to-suffer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">refugees</a>. And why <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2022/05/07/why-arab-schoolboys-are-getting-trounced-by-girls" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">girls outperform boys</a> in the Arab world’s schools.<hr /><p style="color: grey; font-size: 0.75em;"> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>