Category: 3-DailySometimeCommentary

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More or Less: Behind the Stats - Bernie Sanders and the cost of having a baby

Bernie Sanders, a Senator in the United States and one of the front-runners in the campaign to be the Democratic presidential candidate, said on Twitter that it costs $12,000 to have a baby in his country. He compared that figure to Finland, where he said it costs $60. In this edition of More or Less, Tim Harford looks at whether Sanders has got his figures right. With Carol Sakala of US organisation Childbirth Connection and Mika Gissler of the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland.

Producer: Darin Graham Presenters: Tim Harford and Charlotte McDonald

Image: A newborn baby's hand. Credit:Getty Images/TongRo Images Inc

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - Inside the Crisis at the NRA

The NRA is in a financial mess of its own doing. A number of executives, vendors, and contractors have used their positions to enrich themselves, extracting hundreds of millions of dollars from the organization in the process. How did secrecy, poor judgement, and sweetheart deals toss the NRA into an existential crisis?

Guest: Mike Spies, reporter at The Trace.

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More or Less: Behind the Stats - Hottest Easter, Insects, Scottish villages

Was it a surprise that Easter Monday was so hot?

A heatwave struck the UK over Easter ? and in fact Easter Monday was declared the hottest on record in the UK. But listeners asked - is it that surprising that it was the warmest when the date fell so late in April? We crunch the numbers supplied by the Met Office.

Insectageddon

Insects live all around us and if a recent scientific review is anything to go by, then they are on the path to extinction. The analysis found that more than 40% of insect species are decreasing and that a decline rate of 2.5% a year suggests they could disappear in 100 years. And as some headlines in February warned of the catastrophic collapse of nature, some More or Less listeners questioned the findings. Is insect life really in trouble?

Collecting income tax from the 1%

Recently Lord Sugar said in a Tweet ?The fact is if you taxed everyone earning over ?150k at a rate of 70% it would not raise enough to pay for 5% of the NHS.? Is that true? Helen Miller, Deputy Director and head of tax at the Institute for Fiscal Studies looks at how much such a policy might raise from the 1% of tax payers who earn over ?150,000.

Where is Scotland?s highest village?

A battle is brewing in the Southern Scottish uplands between two rival villages. How can statistics help determine which village should take the crown? Wanlockhead and Leadhills both lay claim to the title of Scotland?s highest village but there can only be one winner. More or Less attempts to settle the age old dispute once and for all.

Image: A man and woman sitting on deckchairs on the beach Credit: Getty Images

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - How Black Feminists Exposed the Alt-Right Online

Back in 2014, a mysterious hashtag started trending on Twitter: #EndFathersDay. The accounts tweeting the extremist sentiments appeared to be the accounts of black women. But black feminists on Twitter knew something was amiss. So they got to the bottom of the hashtag—and used their own to fight back. 

Guest: Rachelle Hampton, Slate writer. 

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What Next | Daily News and Analysis - This Immigration Judge Has a Fix for Immigration Courts

Immigration judges walk into work everyday knowing that the system they operate in is broken. It has been for decades, through multiple administrations. So what’s the fix? The answer isn’t as radical as you might think.

Guest: Judge A. Ashley Tabaddor, immigration judge in Los Angeles and president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.

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