America’s lacklustre response to the covid-19 pandemic was clear at the time. The government’s slow vaccine rollout caused needless deaths. But instead of considering the worst excesses of the response, Republicans are attacking Anthony Fauci, who advised Donald Trump and then Joe Biden on covid. Their obsession with embarrassing him will do nothing to make the next pandemic less deadly.

Elsewhere, a piece in our culture section ponders what AI has in common with dogs. When humans domesticated wolves, their new companions made them better hunters and warriors. Dogs complemented rather than replaced human labour and, for the most part, remained obedient to their masters. Will AI do the same? Or will it become more powerful than Homo sapiens, reducing us to labradors? We review two books that mull whether the technology will be tame or savage.

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