The Rockers Calls of Monk Parakeets

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Lebanon has had almost three consecutive years where inflation has been above 100%. People who were once in the middle class have now been pushed down into abject poverty. In Egypt, the official inflation figures are running in the mid 30s with food inflation above 50%. And this has been going on for years, so people don't have savings to try and deal with this.

If there is one thing Facebook’s parent company does well, it is aping other social-media features and platforms—and it is a propitious time to steal Twitter’s thunder. Deeply indebted Arab countries desperately need loans from the IMF, but have good reasons to balk at the fund’s terms (10:00). And New Yorkers love their invasive parakeets; the birds’ enormous nests, less so (18:41).

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