China executes many more people than anywhere else. Changes to its laws may reduce a grim total

CHINA executes more of its own citizens than any other country, and more than all others in the world combined. “Thousands” of Chinese were executed in 2009 according to Amnesty International's annual study, which states that an exact number is impossible to determine because information on the death penalty is regarded as a state secret. But this gruesome record may yet change. The National People's Congress is reported to be reducing the number of offences that are punishable by execution. Among the crimes that currently carry the death penalty are bribing an official and stealing historical relics.

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Bosses who walked away with large payouts

ON TUESDAY July 27th BP announced its chief executive, Tony Hayward, was stepping down after just three years in the job. He leaves with a year’s salary, GBP1m ($1.6m), and a pension reported to be worth GBP11m, accrued over 28 years of service. On the same day the company revealed a quarterly loss of GBP17 billion, reflecting the cost of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr Hayward has received criticism over his handling of the Deepwater Horizon spill. For all the opprobrium heaped on him over the last few months, Mr Hayward's payout is modest compared with those enjoyed by many similarly high-profile bosses.

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Our latest Big Mac index suggests the euro is still overvalued

Correction to this article

THE Big Mac index is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity (PPP), according to which exchange rates should adjust to equalise the price of a basket of goods and services around the world. Our index shows that Asia remains the cheapest place to enjoy a burger, while those on the hunt for a value meal should steer clear of Scandinavia. The euro, despite its troubles, continues to be expensive when compared with many other rich-world currencies, though the British pound is trading close to its fair value. China's recent decision to increase the "flexibility" of the yuan has not made much difference yet—the yuan is undervalued on the burger gauge by 48%. For more on the Big Mac index see article. ...

Facebook has become the third-largest nation

THE world's largest social network announced that it had reached 500m members on Wednesday July 21st. If Facebook were a physical nation, it would now be the third-most populous on earth. And if the service continues to grow as rapidly as in the three months to July, it will reach one billion in about 15 months—almost the size of India. Not least because of its gigantic population, some observers have started to talk of Facebook in terms of a country. “[It] is a device that allows people to get together and control their own destiny, much like our nation-state,” says David Post, a law professor at Temple University, Philadelphia. For more on social networks and statehood see article.

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Asian and Middle Eastern airlines’ share of the world’s aircraft fleet is set to grow

BY THE third day of the Farnborough Airshow on Wednesday July 21st, aircraft-makers had announced new orders worth around $25 billion. A whopping $9 billion order for 40 Boeing 777s from Emirates highlighted the ambitious expansion plans of the Gulf’s airlines. Analysis by Ascend, an aerospace consultancy, shows that the Middle Eastern airlines’ fleets have more than doubled in the past ten years. They have placed orders for over 1,000 new aircraft for delivery by 2020—or 14% of the industry’s entire order book. Even so, the Asian airlines, especially China’s, will be the planemakers’ biggest customers in the coming decade. By 2020, the North American and European airlines will no longer dominate the skies to the extent they do now.

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Deepwater Horizon may be the world's biggest accidental oil spill

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA meets Britain's prime minister, David Cameron, for talks in Washington on July 20th. The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and allegations over the company's involvement in an “oil-for-terrorists” deal with Libya are likely to be on the agenda. BP is under pressure to satisfy government officials that the containment cap placed on the leaking well on July 15th is holding. Using the government task force's upper estimate, as many as 4.4m barrels of oil have escaped into the Gulf. This would make it the largest accidental oil spill in history (military attacks have created far bigger spills). Despite that, this quantity of refined oil is enough to keep America's cars and trucks on the road for just a quarter of a day. BP has spent almost $4 billion on clean-up costs to date, with the eventual total estimated at $39 billion.

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Is the Tour de France getting easier?

THE 97th Tour de France finishes on Sunday July 25th in Paris after 3,642km (2,263 miles) of cycling over 21 gruelling days. Although this year's route is regarded by many as particularly tough, it could be considered a mere jaunt through the sunflowers compared to earlier Tours. When the first race was staged in 1903 riders cycled 2,428km over six stages. But distances rapidly climbed to reach a peak of 5,745km in 1926, with the winner completing the race in 238 hours and 44 minutes at an average speed of 24.3km/h. Since then the length of the Tour has fallen steadily but the average speed of the winner has risen to around 40km/h.

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The share of foreign-born labour in rich countries

AS ECONOMIES across the developed world fell into recession in 2008, legal permanent immigration to the mostly rich members of the OECD declined by 6%, after five years during which growth averaged 11%. Despite the slowdown in the arrival of new migrants, the number of foreign-born workers in most OECD countries rose in 2008 from a year earlier. In 2007 one in every four workers in Australia was born abroad; in 2008 that share rose further, to 26.5%. Among the 18 OECD countries for which 2008 data are available, the share of the foreign-born in the labour force fell only in Luxembourg (not shown), Austria, Belgium and France. The number of foreign-born workers in America rose by 308,000 in 2008, to 25.1m.

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Who restricts travel for people with HIV

THERE are some 33m people living with HIV in the world today, estimates UNAIDS, the United Nations agency charged with combating the disease and supporting the rights of those affected. Travel restrictions are one type of discrimination these people can face. In the past year, both China and America have lifted 20-odd-year bans stopping individuals with HIV from entering, but 51 countries still restrict movement in some form (be it entry to the country or a stay therein) based on a person's HIV status. Our tables show those countries applying the severest restrictions to HIV sufferers, including the denial of entry visas and even deportation. Many countries in the Middle East impose strict restrictions—and also report among the lowest HIV prevalence rates.

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The economics of biodiversity and business

While climate scientists lament the fact that their flagship compendia, such as the IPCC reports, come under endless attack, scientists working on other environmental issues would love such high-profile pronouncements, even if they came with a similar cost. IPCC-envy was one of the rationales for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, published in 2005, and it is the main impetus behind the current development of an Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. When the equally inelegantly named TEEB process (it stands for The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) was set up at the G8+5 meeting in Potsdam in 2007 its political patrons had a clear model in mind. They hoped that just as Lord Stern’s review of the economics of climate change, published in 2006, firmed resolve for action among governments and helped set in motion the processes that led to last year’s Copenhagen climate conference, so this new report should encourage a more serious global approach to the costs that damaged and dysfunctional ecosystems impose on people.

It’s worth noting that this approach implicitly assumes, as do many people, that the point of the IPCC and such endeavours is to find reasons for action, rather than dispassionately to assess the issue. Another caveat is that, as far as the climate is concerned, big and well publicised reports have manifestly not delivered the goods in terms of what UN negotiators call “environmental integrity”—producing actions that really do reduce emissions. But that does not mean that the TEEB process is either propagandistic or pointless. Treating the services provided by ecosystems as part of the economy is a good idea, and the various ways in which their value can be sustained, or even enhanced, deserve study. ...