Which countries still haven’t had a single case of Covid?

French lessons

France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to three years in jail, with two of them suspended, for corruption and ‘influence peddling’ after seeking to bribe a judge. Some other French leaders who have been convicted in criminal courts:
— Jacques Chirac got a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for setting up fake jobs to claim public funds for political purposes.
— Christine Lagarde was convicted in 2016 of making payouts to a businessman while she was finance minister in 2008. She was not punished and went on to be appointed head of the European Central Bank.
— In 2020 former PM François Fillon was given a five-year sentence, three suspended, for paying his wife for a job she never did.

Taxing times

Off the rails

Rail fares rose by 2.6 per cent. How do traffic levels compare with a year ago?

Heavy goods vehicle 100%
Cycling 90%
Light goods vehicle 83%
Cars 61%
London bus 38%
Bus outside London 28%
Tube 18%
National rail 15%

Zero Covid

The 14 countries and territories listed by the World Health Organisation as still not having officially had a case of Covid-19:
Tuvalu, Turkmenistan, Tonga, Tokelau, St Helena, Pitcairn, Palau, Nieu, Nauru, Micronesia, Kiribati, North Korea, Cook Islands, American Samoa.

In Barometer on 20 February we carried an item on the gender balance in gender studies departments, suggesting that in future the subject would be taught at the University of St Andrews by two men. The university has asked us to make it clear that it will in fact be taught by several women and men from disciplines across the university.