The 1999 earthquake which killed about 18,000 people near Istanbul was something of a wake-up call. The Erdogan government then embarked on an urban renewal program under which 3 million or over 3 million housing units have been earthquake-proofed. But that's just not enough; the country's housing agency revealed that over half of the housing stock fell short of building codes.
Our correspondent visits town after devastated town. Poorly enforced building codes are one clear factor in the rising death toll—and a political backlash looms. Britain’s productivity problem is at least partly a problem with bad managers; we look at the substantial gains to be had from better-run companies. And the valuable data to come from an ambitious, national-scale sex survey.
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