The open borders of the past are still a thing of the future

Who’s Up?

Am I allowed to talk about Covid anymore? In a world where many have moved on from the pandemic — yawn, so last year — or are downright hostile to any mention of it, it hardly bears acknowledging that infection rates and deaths are soaring across Europe. Oh, and there’s a new version around which has slammed shut Israeli borders again. But while the jury’s still out on what some scientists suspect — that Omicron could be a blessing in disguise as a fast-spreading version less lethal than previous mutations — the surge is a reminder that whether or not we’re done with the disease, the open borders of the past are still a thing of the future.

Who's Down?

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s departure from his position as CEO at the social-media company this week was the latest ruction in the tech world, after Facebook’s recent move to rebrand itself. Dorsey, who founded the company 15 years ago, stressed that it was his decision to pull back in order to focus on his crypto-currency interests, but the company is in the spotlights for its erratic profitability.

A user base of just under 400 million puts it far behind other platforms. But that may not matter: Twitter remains the social-media outlet of choice for politicians and serious opinion makers, which should give it a lease of life that long outlasts the incoming boss.

“I slept like a baby. I woke up every two hours and cried.”

These famous words apparently rolled off the sharp tongue of Republican senator Bob Dole after his 1996 presidential run went up in smoke. The long-serving majority leader, who died this week at 98, was a famously acerbic observer, saying once of his own party’s politicians, “If we had known we were going to win control of the Senate, we’d have run better candidates.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 889)