The Economist.

Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist.

I'm Jason Palmer.

Today on the show, how Europe is trying to wean itself off American tech,

and the resurgent phenomenon that is the sticky toffee pudding.

First up, though.

... First up, though. In the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo, attempts to control a worrisome outbreak of Ebola are being hampered by the very people they're meant to help.

Medical tents on fire, burned out beds, the sporadic warning shots of police.

Health officials know that safely burying Ebola victims is crucial.

Contact with bodies can spread the disease further. But local custom often

has it that community members ritually wash the dead, and more to the point, they don't trust

the warnings that authorities are giving them. And so you get scenes like this in Rampara,

with fights over a burial. Arson and protest met with tear gas.

It's just one of the dynamics that's complicating a crucial response.

The world faces a huge task to combat the latest Ebola outbreak.

John McDermott is our chief Africa correspondent.

There is no vaccine for this strain,

and the on-the-ground realities make tackling it incredibly difficult.

So there's a growing recognition that both in Congo,

where the outbreak is centered and in the rest of the region,

everyone is playing catch-up.

And before we talk about the challenges that you mentioned, just give us a sense of what the current state of the outbreak is.

...