In the past 20 years, China has built ever closer bonds with African nations. It has spent billions transforming infrastructure across the continent, and extending its influence into politics and society. It even placed its only overseas military base there. How worried should the West be?

Researchers believe they have discovered that Black Death originated in the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan in the 1330s. It’s been 600 years since the disease killed tens of millions in Europe, Asia and north Africa. The mid-14th Century health catastrophe is one of the most significant disease episodes in human history, but despite y