Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Concession stand: Trump’s intransigence
18 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
America’s outgoing president is sticking with an insidious fiction, lashing out at those who deny ...
Out on a LegCo: Hong Kong under pressure
17 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Following a purge based on a harsh new security law, the territory’s Legislative Council lacks a s...
Disrupter, disrupted: Britain’s government
16 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The chief aide to the prime minister had been a driving force in policy but a dividing force in gove...
Going to cede: Armenia and Azerbaijan
13 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The longest-running conflict in the Caucasus could well be over. We examine a peace deal that benefi...
Sahel of a mess: France’s impossible peacekeeping mission
12 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jihadism is growing in a continent-wide strip of Africa, and the riskiest operations to contain it f...
We’ll again have Paris: Biden’s ambitious climate plans
11 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign had the environment front and centre. We analyse his pledges—...
Nine out of ten, doctors say: a promising coronavirus vaccine
10 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A vaccine claimed to be 90% effective represents an enormous achievement. We discuss what questions ...
Brought to heal: Biden’s chance to unite America
09 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump will go, but Trumpism will remain. Our editor-in-chief considers how Presiden...
Abiy damned: Ethiopia’s looming civil war
06 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has taken drastic steps to quieten a state stacked with trained militias. ...
The lawyers of diminishing returns: America’s election
05 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As President Donald Trump’s re-election path slims, his pledges to fight the results in court are ...
Tally forth: America’s elections
04 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The outcome remains unclear as vote-counting continues. We look at some of the surprise results, ask...
Poles’ position: an abortion-law backlash
03 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Poland already had some of the strictest laws on terminations, but the ruling party’s bid to tight...
Lock step: England to shut down, again
02 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Prime Minister Boris Johnson all but ruled out a second lockdown, but his hand has been forced by En...
Net losses: plunder of the oceans
30 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The staggering extent of illegal fishing, and its human and environmental costs, are only just becom...
What Xi said: China’s five-year plan
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The party’s Fifth Plenum sets out a five-year vision; we mine the plan for clues about how China v...
Stumbling bloc: Europe’s second wave
28 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Across the continent, covid-19 cases are rising steeply and containment measures are still divergent...
Chagrin, and Barrett: America’s Supreme Court
27 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation marks the first time since the 1930s the court has leaned so cons...
Coming write-up: Chile votes to overhaul its constitution
26 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The country has roundly rejected its dictatorship-era charter and mapped out how to fashion a new on...
Civil proceedings: America's presidential debate
23 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
America’s final presidential debate had less noise and more substance. But polls seem immovable an...
Pandemic power-grabs: autocrats’ covid opportunism
22 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As it has with so many other trends, the pandemic has hastened the decline of democracy and human ri...
Secular-stand nation: terror in France
21 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The brutal murder of a schoolteacher comes amid warnings of mounting Islamism in the country. The at...
The persecution of a people: China’s repression of the Uyghurs
20 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Reporting by The Economist reveals deepening efforts by Chinese authorities not just to imprison the...
Loved Labour’s won: landslide in New Zealand
19 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After a term spent steering the country through crises, Jacinda Ardern has led her Labour party to a...
Más MAS? Bolivia’s election
16 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After last year’s vote was marred by fraud allegations, the electorate is split ahead of Sunday’...
A close-it call: Nigeria’s uprising
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Angry protests following an alleged police killing continue, even after a hated police unit was shut...
Scared strait: Taiwan
14 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rhetoric and sabre-rattling from mainland China are rapidly ramping up; we examine the risk of an in...
Food chain broken: famine in Yemen
13 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The country yet again faces widespread starvation as a civil war grinds on, and both sides are to bl...
In their own Swede time: pandemic pragmatism
12 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
By the numbers to date, Sweden's light-touch covid-19 measures may not seem successful. But its prag...
Buy the way? Kyrgyzstan’s post-election chaos
09 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Citizens are furious after a poll seemingly tainted by vote-buying; its annulment leaves a power vac...
More-civil discourse: Pence and Harris debate
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
That a housefly could steal the show at America’s only vice-presidential debate is telling, but a ...
Clerical era: Iraq in a hard place
07 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A pilgrimage that is sure to become a covid-19 hotspot is a sign of how much the country’s governm...
Sailing into the wind: Boris Johnson
06 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Britain’s prime minister will outline big wind-energy plans at his party’s annual conference, ev...
Ill-disposed: Trump’s hospital stay
05 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Amid a flurry of conflicting information over the weekend, details of Donald Trump’s progress and ...
In Syria’s trouble: an embattled despot digs in
02 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Unexpected defeats at rebels’ hands, a cratered economy, a hungry citizenry and a runaway covid-19...
Enclave on edge: Armenia and Azerbaijan
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been the subject of dispute and skirmishes for decades—but the ...
Shoutshow: Trump and Biden clash
30 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
America’s first presidential debate was unmitigated chaos, revealing little more than the rancour ...
No-tax-and-spend policy: Trump’s tax returns
29 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Just ahead of the first presidential debate, a trove of tax documents suggests the president has som...
Bench press: Trump’s Supreme Court pick
28 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
On gun rights, abortion policy and health care Amy Coney Barrett, the seemingly unstoppable successo...
Another matter: the Breonna Taylor verdict
25 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A grand jury’s decision has re-energised months-long protests. We ask how much another tragic deat...
Winter is coming: covid-19’s next phase
24 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Soon the pandemic will have claimed a million lives. We take a broad look at what has been learned—...
America’s next top chamber, modelled: the Senate battle
23 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Congressional elections will decide the direction of America’s governance irrespective of the pres...
Stumbling block: the battle over WeChat
22 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump administration’s bid to block the Chinese app has been stymied—for now. The tussle ref...
Judge dread: the fight for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat
21 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a liberal icon. Her death last week opens a Supreme Court vacancy for Donald...
Uneasy lies the head: Thailand’s under-fire king
18 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Thailand is bracing for a large anti-government protest, with some of the anger directed at the usua...
Conviction politics: Florida’s disenfranchised felons
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
More than a million former felons in Florida regained the right to vote in 2018. Last week, many of ...
Sanctuary in Sochi: Belarus’ dictator clings on
16 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Belarus dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, has travelled to Sochi amid major protests at home to ask Vl...
After Abe: Japan’s new prime minister
15 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Japan’s new prime minister will be Yoshihide Suga, the son of a strawberry farmer from the country...
Homework: the future of the office
14 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic has been a giant experiment in working from home. We examine whether workers are happie...
Great walls of fire: America’s west coast burns
11 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Relentless climate change will make devastating blazes more likely; urbanisation in woodland areas w...
Genocidal intent? Deserters recount Rohingya atrocities
10 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Two Burmese soldiers have described in harrowing detail what has long been alleged: that the army ta...
Unpicking the thread: forced labour in Xinjiang
09 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sanctions are tightening around the Chinese province amid suspicions of forced labour. Western firms...
Subcontinental drift: India’s covid spike
08 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A hurried lockdown early in the pandemic has cratered the country’s economy, and infection rates a...
Pact unpacked: wobbly Brexit talks
07 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Negotiations on Britain’s post-Brexit relationship with Europe were floundering—even before reve...
Back to the future-planning: France
04 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Alongside a green-minded, 100bn-euro stimulus, President Emmanuel Macron’s recovery plan borrows i...
Rough seas and safe seats: Caribbean elections
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The outcome of Jamaica’s election isn’t much in doubt. What’s uncertain is how the wider Carib...
In a class, by themselves: pupils head back to school
02 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Millions of schoolchildren are heading back to classes, many of them online. We examine the evidence...
Integration, differentiation: migrants in Germany
01 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Five years ago, a vast wave of migrants and refugees began to spill into the country. We examine the...
Ill be going: Abe Shinzo’s legacy
31 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Japan’s longest-serving prime minister leaves behind a mixed bag of policy successes and shortcomi...
Shot down, in flames: Kenosha, Wisconsin
28 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Another shooting of an unarmed black man by police has reopened wounds still not healed after George...
Team-building exercise: America’s Middle East diplomacy
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
American officials hope more Arab states will follow the United Arab Emirates in normalising relatio...
The grande scheme of things: corruption in Mexico
26 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The former head of the state-owned oil firm has presented stunning claims of high-level graft. Are t...
Insecurity services? Alexei Navalny’s poisoning
25 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Doctors believe Russia’s opposition leader was poisoned, and suspicion naturally falls on the Krem...
Isle take it: Turkey’s adventures in the Med
24 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The considerable oil and gas reserves beneath the eastern Mediterranean have sparked Turkey’s inte...
In over its head of state: Mali’s coup
21 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The military has again ousted the president, after months of protests and years of ethnic violence. ...
Not free, not fair, not finished: Belarus’s election
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Huge protests following a rigged election reveal that the people have had enough of “Europe’s la...
Blast from the past: a long-awaited verdict in Lebanon
19 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For 15 years, the truck-bomb killing of a former prime minister went unpunished. But an even more de...
From Chapo to Mencho: Mexico’s cartels
18 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mexico’s new top cartel, led by a kingpin called El Mencho, has taken the country’s shocking vio...
Insufficient postage: the fight over America’s mail service
17 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The US Postal Service is one of America’s most popular and necessary public institutions. Now it i...
To a concerning degree: dire climate assessments
14 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Recent reports paint a dark picture, from heatwaves to hurricanes to high-water marks. But some prom...
Youngish, gifted and black: Kamala Harris
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Biden’s choice of running mate is simultaneously groundbreaking and conventional, and reveals ...
Therein Lai’s a tale: Hong Kong’s revealing arrests
12 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The dramatic arrest of Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy newspaper owner, reveals just how enthusiastically...
Buy now, save later: financing vaccine candidates
11 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As clinical trials progress, policymakers must determine how heavily to fund the pre-emptive manufac...
Bytes and pieces: America’s Chinese-tech attack
10 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
First it was Bytedance’s app TikTok, now it’s Tencent’s WeChat: the Trump administration’s f...
That history should not repeat: Hiroshima’s storytellers
07 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings are now in their eighties. A new generation is lear...
A broken system, a broken city: Beirut
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Some 300,000 people are homeless after an explosion of unthinkable size. The culprit appears to be s...
One nation, under gods? India’s divisive temple
05 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Consecration at Ayodhya, the country’s most contested holy site, is another tick box in Prime Mini...
Going old Turkey: a regional power spreads
04 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Since the Arab spring the country has vastly expanded its military and diplomatic efforts—filling ...
Ballot blocks: the squeeze on Hong Kong
03 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The territory’s elections have been postponed, its activists barred from running—police are even...
Living larger: Google’s challenges
31 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Enormous growth over 22 years has brought challenges, both from within and from outside; we examine ...
Barriers to entry: covid-19 and migration
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The crisis has disproportionately squeezed migrants and has given many leaders an excuse to tighten ...
One mightily damaging backstory: 1MDB
29 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Five years ago a $4.5bn hole in a development fund scrambled Malaysia’s politics. Now the inquiry ...
Feds up: Trump orders troops on America’s streets
28 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Camouflaged personnel with no insignia, protesters bundled into unmarked vans: the President Donald ...
Bat out of elsewhere? Tracing SARS-CoV-2’s origins
27 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists are looking to South-East Asia to find how the virus got its start in humans. Knowing tha...
For old timers’ sake: covid-19 and care homes
24 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic has taken its greatest toll in the world’s nursing homes—but the systemic problems ...
Without a trace: Israel’s covid-19 spike
23 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has gone from boasting about progress to battling protests as the ...
Full-meddle racket: Britain’s “Russia Report”
22 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
It remains unclear whether influence and misinformation campaigns have had significant effects on Br...
Grant them strength, or loan it: Europe’s historic deal
21 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After days of gruelling debate, European leaders have agreed a recovery plan. It includes, for the f...
Cheques imbalances: America’s partisan stimulus battle
20 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As Congress reconvenes and covid-19 rages largely unabated, the biggest question is how much to prop...
Laughing all the way: banks’ pandemic windfall
17 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Pandemic panic has subsided, and economic pain deferred—so far. But never mind investment banks’...
No school, hard knocks: developing-world students hit hard
16 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For many of the 1.5bn pupils affected by school closures, fewer lessons just means more labour—or ...
Eastern exposure: Russia’s telling protests
15 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The arrest of a popular governor in the country’s far east has sparked unrest that reveals Preside...
Crude awakening: the Arab world after oil
14 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Historic price fluctuations are hastening a post-oil transition that many Arab countries were alread...
Binary choice: a tech cold war looms
13 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Tensions between China and America are hastening a global technology-industry split. That is not jus...
Return to centre? Poland’s presidential run-off
10 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Integration or isolation? Conservative family values or liberal ones? The knife-edge election will d...
Centrifugal force: attacks on Iran
09 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Another strike, evidently on a nuclear-fuel centrifuge facility, is being blamed on Israel—and, by...
In front, and centred: Joe Biden
08 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The former vice-president has shifted leftward with his party, but it is his centrist tendencies tha...
Off like a shot: the race for a covid-19 vaccine
07 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A British team is leading the race for the one innovation that could, in time, halt the coronavirus ...
Attention deficit: China’s campaign against Uighurs
06 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Unparalleled surveillance, forced labour, even allegations of ethnic cleansing: atrocities in Xinjia...
Into left field? America's chief justice
03 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Recent Supreme Court rulings might seem like a leftward shift. But Chief Justice John Roberts is lea...
Unsettled question: Israel’s annexation threat
02 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A once-fringe position on annexing the West Bank is now a real prospect. But both international supp...