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Beginning in May 2020, after the police killing of George Floyd, ‘Black Lives Matter’ demonstrations and riots engulfed the United States, the United Kingdom, and several European countries. Though Mr. Floyd’s killing served as the immediate catalyst for the unrest, many scholars suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis played a deeper, more pivotal role in creating conditions that led to the protests.

This year, the ICEF Conference on Applied Economics will be held online for the first time ever. On September 12, experts from around the world will discuss the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the global economy. The HSE News Services describes the papers that will be presented and why the organizers decided to devote this event to COVID-19.

Since 2010, Russia has been consistently pursuing an anti-alcohol policy. Its goal is to reduce the burden of disease and deaths due to alcohol consumption. The official figures show that, over the last decade the population has started drinking less, leaning towards wine and beer instead of vodka.

Almost 77% of households in Russia have access to the Internet. This is not an outstanding result compared to other countries—for instance, in South Korea, 99% of families have access to the Internet. Russia's lag is caused not by technical problems with connectivity, but by the reluctance of 16.3% of households to go online. This is stated in the digest Digital Economy Indicators :2020, released by the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge.

The Faculty of Humanities is switching to project-based research and teaching, which includes many new collaborative research endeavours. Professor Evgeny Kazartsev, who recently became the head of the HSE School of Philological Studies, told the HSE News Service about Computer Methods for Literary Textual Analysis project.

The sharing economy involves shared use of assets and services. This means that users do not need to purchase or own them outright. Assets can be exchanged, borrowed or leased. But not everyone is ready for this model. What factors determine whether or not someone is willing to participate in the sharing economy?

Countries across the world announced support measures in the amount of USD 11 trillion to pull the economy out of the crisis caused by the pandemic and lockdown. Such hefty money injections into the economy will promote GDP recovery but at the same time may raise the spectre of growing public debt. Sergey Pukhov, the lead expert of HSE Centre of Development Institute, talked to the portal's News Service about the matter in question.

The Commission on Counteracting Falsification of Scientific Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) has published a report, ‘Foreign Predatory Journals in Scopus and WoS: Plagiarism by Translation and Unprincipled Russian Authors.’ HSE Vice Rector Maria Yudkevich discusses the main findings of the report and suggests possible measures to prevent violations of scholarly ethics by university staff.

ICEF not only trains professionals in economics and finance, but also provides a perfect start for an academic career. Daniil Esaulov, lecturer, coordinator of student research work at ICEF and manager of ICEF Academia project, talked to us about how ICEF develops research skills, what students do at ICEF Academia, and why one shouldn’t be afraid of authorities in research.

Many people in Russia believe that they had COVID-19 as early as December 2019 or January 2020. Is it possible to find out when the epidemic really started in Russia and where it came from? Bioinformatics provides an answer.