The Week Unwrapped: Ethiopia, passwords and a plague of mice

Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

In this week’s episode, we discuss:

Ethiopia’s PM

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Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian prime minister, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for bringing to an end his country’s war with Eritrea, is going to the polls amid another bloody conflict. Abiy sent troops to northern Ethiopia last year in response to an uprising by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which he characterised as an attempted coup. Since then, the fighting has led to food shortages - and reports of a famine.

Police and passwords

The Irish government is seeking to change the law so that suspected criminals could be forced to hand over passwords for their mobile phones and laptops. Ministers say that more and more crime is moving online and that the new powers are “vital to strengthen searches”. Privacy campaigners have condemned the proposals.

Mouse apocalypse

Tens of millions of mice are wreaking havoc on an area of Australia the size of England. The authorities in New South Wales have approved more powerful poisons and set aside more than £25m to deal with the plague, which is causing huge damage to crops and property. Some Australians have reported waking up to find mice nibbling on their faces.

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