There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES

IN Illness as Metaphor, Susan Sontag wrote: “Any disease that is treated as a mystery and acutely enough feared will be felt to be morally, if not literally, contagious.” Although the Covid-19 situation is changing rapidly by the day — at the time of writing, five people have died in Britain and there are 319 confirmed cases — the disease has not yet truly arrived.
Normal life continues, nervously. For most people, Covid-19 remains a mystery and the main contagion is fear. So far, the government has held off putting in place drastic public health measures. Major disruption has not yet arrived. But with evidence from the spread elsewhere, it is certain that it will, and soon.

What’s behind the stubborn gender gap in Stem disciplines ask ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT in their column Science and Society

While politicians condemned fascist bombing of Spanish civilians in 1937, they ignored identical RAF tactics across the colonies. Today’s aerial warfare continues this pattern of applying different moral standards based on geography and race, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

The distinction between domestic and military drones is more theoretical than practical, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

Nature's self-reconstruction is both intriguing and beneficial and as such merits human protection, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT