Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Foreign-born fighters have served in America's armed forces since the war that led to the

country's founding. And until recently, military service was a straightforward route to citizenship.

These days, though, it's getting less and less straightforward.

And the pandemic has robbed sports fans of their favorite entertainment just in their hour

of need. How will matches come back? How will the players be kept safe? And how long will

there be mannequins in the stands?

First up, though.

Carbon emissions have plummeted as planes have been grounded and industrial activity wound down.

It's not the first time this has happened. The global financial crisis had the same effect.

At the time, environmentalists saw opportunity. A green-minded recovery could set the planet

on a safer path. Those hopes were quickly dashed, though. Economies and emissions bounced back.

But this time around, the world is better placed to seize an unexpected moment.

The COVID-19 crisis has already had a quite a remarkable impact on emissions, actually. A study

that came out last week found that between January and April, global CO2 emissions dropped by 8.6%.

And when you look at what this could look like by the end of the year, which several groups have,

you find expectations that for all of 2020 globally, emissions will be somewhere between 4 and 7

or 8% lower than anticipated. We've got two estimates at 7 to 8%. I think we can assume something

at the higher end of that. So that sounds enormously significant. How do you see that playing out

when the pandemic begins to wind down? Is there a chance to build on those drops?

8% for one year is actually really quite a large drop. It's roughly half of what America

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