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“THE grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” originates from a Latin phrase, quoted by Ovid, to do with envying another man’s fruitful harvest. Fittingly, modern day Italians also have a chlorophyll-tinted view of their neighbours. According to new data from Livewhat, a Geneva-based survey, Ovid’s successors tend to believe that life is better in other countries than the locals do. Over 70% of Italians imagine life to be good in France, when asked to rate it on a scale from one to ten, whereas only 43% of the French have the same opinion.

Eradicating a disease is the sort of aim that rich countries come up with, and poor ones struggle to reach. But for some diseases, the pattern is now reversed. These are the ailments for which vaccinations exist. The trend is most obvious for measles, which is so contagious that at least 95% of people must be vaccinated to stop its spread (a threshold known as “herd immunity”). Many poor countries are well above that. Eritrea, Rwanda and Sri Lanka manage to vaccinate almost all children. By contrast several rich countries, including America, Britain, France and Italy, are below herd immunity.

THE BLASTS that ripped through a Brussels airport and metro station on March 22nd killed at least 30 people and injured hundreds of others. The attacks will stir anxiety in Europe over the compatibility of Islam with secular-minded, liberal European values. The increasing frequency of attacks will also further strain relations between Muslims in Europe and their compatriots, particularly against the backdrop of the refugee crisis and growing support for anti-immigrant parties. Europeans regard Islam as more threatening to their national cultures than other faiths (or indeed atheism), according to a 2013 poll by the Bertelsmann Foundation, a non-profit organisation in Germany.

AS ISLAND dwellers, it is hard for the British not to think in an insular way. Brexit (the prospect of Britain departing from the European Union) is a major talking point around dinner tables of Blighty, so the same must surely be true on the continent? Or so the thinking goes. Yet poll results from Lord Ashcroft—a Tory bigwig turned pollster—reveals a surprising degree of indifference on Europe’s mainland. Although around half of Europeans would prefer Britain to stay in the Union, over a quarter simply do not care. The apathy is strongest among women (32% are not bothered either way) and the young (30% of 24-34 year-olds).

HILLARY CLINTON has pulled ahead in the race to win the Democratic presidential nomination. She has been jockeying with Bernie Sanders since February 1st but is now the undisputed front-runner; a photo-finish is unlikely. This is not the first time she has stayed the course, but back in 2008 the going was a lot tougher for the then senator. Her thoroughbred reputation became a handicap when voters decided that Barack Obama was the more trusty steed. She never made it to the winners’ enclosure in terms of delegates. This time she is odds-on favourite to win as she approaches the home stretch of the primary season.

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CHINA’S housing market has long been a story of two parts: bubbly prices in major cities and a glut of unsold homes in much of the rest of the country. Over the past year this gap has grown even wider. Prices in a handful of megacities, especially Shenzhen and Shanghai, have soared, while those elsewhere have barely budged. The contrast is illustrated by this affordability index, which was created by the Economist Intelligence Unit, to track the relationship between prices and incomes in different cities.