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.

Science has done much to improve the humble seed, making for a partier and more nutritious

crops in much of the world. It's a different story in parts of Africa though, where there's

a dearth of seed knowledge, seed availability, and seed capital.

And the Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar was a bit of an animal lover. He surrounded

himself with exotic beasts in his own private zoo. After his death, many were simply released,

and now Colombia is developing a problem with hippos.

First, in the past few days, protests in Hong Kong have revealed shocking levels of violence,

both on the parts of Prodemocracy demonstrators and the police. What started months ago as

peaceful weekend demonstrations on Hong Kong Island have spread into the working week and

throughout the territory. Where once there were just chants and marches, now there are

a molotov cocktails, water cannon, and tear gas. The core five demands of the demonstrators

have been the same since large scale protests began in June. Only one of them has been met,

the withdrawal of a bill that would have allowed extradition of alleged criminals to mainland China.

But opposition to the extradition bill was emblematic of a desire by many Hong Kongers

for greater independence from the mainland, for more democracy. The police force, which

in the early days of the unrest, seemed remarkably calm, now appears willing to match the escalating

violence of the protesters.

So there's been an escalation over the past few days in Hong Kong.

Caroline Carter is our deputy agent news editor and is based in Hong Kong.

On Friday afternoon, it was announced that a student, a local student who had fallen off

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