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.

There hasn't been an election in Palestine for more than 15 years.

Mahmoud Abbas keeps making noises about holding one, but it never really happens.

This time it might, but Mr. Abbas is likely to end up the only viable candidate.

So why bother?

And there's long been a push to make meat in laboratories,

to meet consumer demands for animal welfare and environmental friendliness.

But all things considered, it might not be people

that are the first big consumers of lab-grown meat.

First up, though,

just as soon as it became clear that a novel virus outbreak in China was going to become

a global concern, it became clear that the world would need a vaccine.

In those early days, that seemed impossibly distant. Vaccines it became clear that the world would need a vaccine.

In those early days, that seemed impossibly distant.

Vaccines often take the better part of a decade to develop and test.

Now just a year on, and several are already approved in many jurisdictions.

Then in the space of a day last week, encouraging results from two more.

But in that intervening year, the coronavirus has done what all viruses do.

It's mutated.

And that adds a complicating factor to an already complicated global rollout.

So the two vaccines are quite exciting.

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