By 2050, 30% of Europeans will be over the age of 65 – and reasearch indicates we will need 23.5% more care workers to help us deal with old age. The continent’s workforce is currently nowhere near large enough to cater for its aging population. An answer, therefore, lies in migrant labour. This is the reality behind immigration into Europe, regardless of the vitriolic political positioning that so often characterises the debate. In an assessment of the mismatch between supply and demand, we learn that we are going to have to adapt our thinking about our workforces if we’re to cope with the challenge ahead.

One would hope that an American president would be acquainted with the events of the Great Depression, especially when they set economic policy. Were Donald Trump slightly more historically-minded, he may have learnt some lessons from a period in which extreme protectionism made an already dire situation far worse, triggering massive inflation, job losses and geopolitical tensions. Here, then, is a reminder of that dark period.

It has been ten years since the Pope wrote to bishops calling for the Catholic church to do better on environmental issues. The Laudato Si’ encylical, which criticised over-consumption and irresponsible growth, has been called an ecological turning point for the church. And the author of this analysis thinks it’s worth a re-read now.

Researchers in Sweden have been concerned about what happens to fish when rivers become polluted with drugs, including antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication. We pass these chemicals into waste water and then forget about them but an experiment involving salmon has shown that this is far from the end of the story. The researchers found that salmon were more likely to complete their migration journeys when they had human sedatives in their bloodstreams. They also completed their migrations faster than sober fish. That might sound like a good thing but you can find out why it really isn’t in this write-up of their work.