The Intelligence from The Economist

Feeling un-Wellington

23 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacinda Ardern resigned as New Zealand’s prime minister last week. As Chris Hipkins prepares to take over, we reflect on Ms Ardern’s legacy, and l...

A rarefied air: a dispatch from Davos

20 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The global elite’s annual Alpine jamboree may have lost some of its convening power, our editor-in-chief says, but the many encounters it enables st...

Turkey stuffed? A democracy’s last stand

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dismantled the country’s institutions. As an election looms we ask what democratic guardrails remain, and examine...

Tanks-giving parade? Arming Ukraine

18 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For nearly 11 months Western powers have resisted providing tanks to Ukraine, fearing an unpredictable Russian escalation. What happens now that red l...

Get down to Syria’s business: coming talks with Turkey

17 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Through years of Syria’s messy civil war, Turkey has been a foe. As the conflict slowly fades, the countries have a mutual interest in rapprochement...

What did the president stow and when did he stow it? Biden‘s mess

16 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A drip-feed of discoveries of classified material in Joe Biden’s home and offices—and the president’s botched messaging around them—are a gift...

Zero-sum: the imperilled global economic order

13 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Countries across the world are turning inward, embracing protectionism, subsidies and export controls. This threatens the global order that has lifted...

Unveiled threats: Iran's patient protesters

12 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Iran’s protests may have gone quiet for the moment, but that does not mean they’ve been defeated. Beneath a calmer surface, Iranians are seething ...

Doctors’ disorders: Britain’s overwhelmed health service

11 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Britain’s National Health Service is in crisis. Wait times are rising, nurses and paramedics are striking, and doctors are overworked—leading to h...

Unquiet on the eastern front: fighting in the Donbas

10 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Russian troops have turned Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, into a charnel house—and a proving ground for its mercenary army. The booming North Sea regi...

Cloud coup-coup land: riots in Brazil

09 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a scene reminiscent of the US Capitol riot two years ago, supporters of Brazil’s defeated president rampaged through government buildings yesterd...

Bibi’s got backup: Israel’s right-wing government

06 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Israel’s new government is its most right-wing ever—but, in a break from the past, that may not derail deepening relations with neighbouring Arab ...

Silva’s mettle: Brazil’s newish president

05 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our Brazil correspondent surveys the state of the country, as Lula assumes the presidency precisely 20 years after his first inauguration. We ask why ...

We need to balk about Kevin: Congress opens in chaos

04 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Republican control of America’s House of Representatives began in chaos: they failed to elect a speaker, the first time in a century that’s happen...

Ill news, spreads apace: covid in China

03 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The sudden rescinding of zero-covid strictures has, as expected, led to a spike in cases. Our correspondent visits overstretched hospitals and cremato...

The dragon chasing: China and a new nuclear order

02 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

China’s arsenal of nuclear weapons has swiftly expanded; it is now roughly the size of Russia’s and America’s. That will make for a different—...

In passing: the notable lives lost in 2022

30 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From Pelé, the “king of football”, to Britain’s longest-reigning queen, our editors and correspondents reflected on the accomplishments of many...

Best-of three: our country, books and games of the year

29 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It is that best-of time of year. We outline the case for our country of the year, after an uncharacteristically easy nomination process. Our correspon...

Debasement all around: lessons from 16th-century inflation

28 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 2022 global inflation spiked at a rate not seen in decades. A look at the world’s very first such bout reveals eerie echoes of today’s woes—a...

Cattle lines are drawn: cows in India

27 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Cows are venerated in India, but precisely how intensely often depends on politics. And being venerated does not necessarily yield a pleasant life for...

Land, sea and air: let us move you

26 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In a special episode, our Paris bureau chief witnesses the political divides that become apparent as she switches from France’s famed high-speed rai...

An oily sheen: Nicolás Maduro in from the cold

23 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Waves of protest after a stolen election in 2019 came to nothing. Now, thanks to the luck of geopolitics and petro-economics, President Nicolás Madur...

A figure of speeches: Volodymyr Zelensky in his own words

22 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At the beginning of the war, editors from The Economist went to Kyiv, the first Western journalists to interview Ukraine’s president. Our Russia edi...

Needs Musk? Tumult at Twitter

21 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elon Musk may be stepping down as chief executive, but he has already changed the firm’s fortunes—and shown that social media’s free-speech stru...

Trump card marked: the January 6th investigation

20 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Congressional committee probing the riot at America’s Capitol recommended that the Justice Department bring four charges against Donald Trump. B...

Under the missile flow: North Korea

19 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The country has been slinging missiles skyward at an alarming pace, and with ever-greater technological advancement. We ask why things are heating up,...

More generals, less pacific: Japan’s new defence policy

16 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A strategy approved today peels back some of the country’s constitutional pacifism; in large part that is because of its tense relationship with a h...

No rest for the weary: meeting Ukraine’s high command

15 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our correspondent sits down with President Volodymyr Zelensky and two top military commanders—concluding that the next few months will determine the...

Precious joules: a fusion-energy result

14 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Scientists have reported a long-awaited nuclear-fusion breakthrough, using lasers to ignite hydrogen-isotope fuel in a self-sustaining burn. But that ...

Continental drift: Europe’s challenges

13 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A pair of crises will bedevil Europe, starting with crippling energy prices in the short term. And American protectionism threatens a longer-term dent...

Zero to sickly? China’s covid climbdown

12 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With astonishing speed, the machinery of testing, tracing and lockdowns is being dismantled. We examine the risks that will pose to a country that is ...

Second time as farce: Peru’s president falls

09 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Perhaps Pedro Castillo thought he could repeat the coup staged by his predecessor, Alberto Fujimori, in 1992. He did not, and is now behind bars. We a...

Like biding a Reich: Germany’s alleged coup plot

08 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Raids across the country netted 25 far-right extremists suspected of trying to overthrow the government. We look into what is known about a hare-brain...

Pastor present: Georgia’s Senate runoff

07 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Democrats will have a bit more breathing room in the Senate, with an outright majority provided by Reverend Raphael Warnock’s win. We ask what the s...

Suspension of this belief? Iran’s morality police

06 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The enforcers of the hardliners’ mores may have been disbanded; it is hard to know if the regime is bending to protesters or sowing confusion. Eithe...

The for-sixty-dollar question: a cap on Russian oil

05 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Shippers and insurers of Russian crude are now subject to a $60-per-barrel price cap. That may spark Russian production cuts—or an oil-market realig...

In sofa as I can recall: troubles for Cyril Ramaphosa

02 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

South Africa’s leader says a pile of cash stashed in a sofa represents no wrongdoing. The outcome of an investigation could be the undoing of his pr...

Square dealing: Jiang Zemin dies

01 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Chinese leader who took over a squabbling party following the Tiananmen Square massacre surprised the world by stifling dissent, overseeing a stag...

On the Horn’s dilemma: meeting Somalia’s president

30 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Horn of Africa’s resurgent jihadists of al-Shabab pose the biggest problem to Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. He tells us his plans—political, economic...

The French connection: Macron’s state visit to America

29 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Behind the pageantry, Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron will have much to chew over, from a unified response in Ukraine to tricky trade negotia...

Patience zero: China’s remarkable unrest

28 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Protests have become as bold as they are widespread—mostly against the country’s unsustainable zero-covid policies, but increasingly against the r...

Forgoing a song: protest inside and beyond Iran

25 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Players’ refusal to sing their national anthem at the World Cup has brought their country’s protests onto the global stage. We ask whether the dis...

Scar from the madding crowd: Korea probes a tragedy

24 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Grief about the deaths of more than 150 people in a crush has turned to anger, and the investigation into what actions were taken—or not taken—has...

A whole other kettle of fission: Ukraine’s imperilled nuclear plant

23 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The power station in Zaporizhia has served as an impromptu military base for Russian forces—but danger is mounting and there are signs that troops m...

Ploy story: a defenestration at Disney

22 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Executives have squeezed out Bob Chapek and re-anointed Bob Iger as boss. But the firm’s woes are less about leadership and more about the new econo...

Damage collateral: a tide turns at COP27

21 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

An issue ignored for three decades came to dominate the summit’s agenda: reparations to poor countries for climate-driven “loss and damage”. Ala...

In come taxes: Britain’s austere economic plan

18 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The “Autumn statement” was filled with belt-tightening, from stealthy tax rises to public-service cuts. But perhaps the bitterest part of the pill...

Musketeers heading for the exits: chaos at Twitter

17 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elon Musk gave Twitter’s remaining staff an ultimatum: commit to “working long hours at high intensity” for “hardcore” Twitter, or leave. We...

Strike price: missiles fall in Poland

16 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How did apparently Russian-made munitions kill two people on NATO soil? An accident in the fog of war seems likely, but listen closely: the immediate ...

Get the Bali rolling: the G20 meet begins

15 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The G20 Summit gets under way in Bali today at a time of tensions over Ukraine and Taiwan, and worries about high food and energy prices. We look at w...

Bolt from the blue: Democrats hold the Senate

14 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

America’s upper legislative chamber remains in Democrats’ hands; they may even expand their majority. We explain what that means for the Biden adm...

Tales from the crypto: An exchange implodes

11 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At the start of this week, FTX was the world’s third-largest crypto exchange. After rumours of illiquidity swirled, customers pulled $6bn in assets....

Beaten, a retreat: cautious hope in Kherson

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Russia says it will withdraw from the only captured Ukrainian provincial capital. We ask how the drawdown might go and what it means for the wider war...

Red ripple: America’s midterm elections

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

America’s midterm elections have finished. While the full results may not be known for some time, Democrats appear to have outperformed expectations...

Who counts wins: Election-administration fears

08 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the final episode of our midterms series, we examine how the Republican party’s anti-democratic turn is putting pressure on election administrato...

Degrees of risk: COP27 and the 1.5C myth

07 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the UN’s annual climate jamboree begins, our correspondent calls for a strong dose of realism: limiting warming to 1.5C is just no longer feasibl...

Red fights and blue: America’s midterm elections

05 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

America’s midterm elections, which will determine control of both chambers of Congress, end on Tuesday. For the past three months our correspondents...

Peace meal: Ethiopia’s civil war

04 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A surprise peace agreement should permit desperately needed humanitarian relief for millions in the region of Tigray—but there are reasons to doubt ...

The elephant in the chamber? America’s midterms

03 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our election model suggests that at least one legislative chamber will revert to Republican control; we ask what sort of government would result. The ...

The curious case of Binyamin’s butt-in: Israel’s election

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After a 16-month absence from leadership, Binyamin Netanyahu is back at the centre of the country’s messy politics. We ask how his divisive ways wil...

Falling tsar? Russians eye life after Putin

01 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine continues to falter, Russian elites are now daring to consider the once unthinkable: a life after his l...

Once and future: Brazil’s Lula wins again

31 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist former president, has won again. Even if President Jair Bolsonaro gracefully concedes, his followers and fellow ...

Elon-gate: the Musk-Twitter story

28 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After months of wrangling, Elon Musk completed his deal to buy Twitter, and immediately sacked several top executives. We ask what’s next for the pl...

Power play: electricity in Ukraine

27 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with missiles and drones. Ukraine’s air defences are struggling to keep up, and many hou...

Tough Roe to go: abortion and the midterms

26 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When America’s Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, the conventional wisdom was that it would help Democrats by galvanising them for the midterm ele...

Third time’s the charm? Britain’s new prime minister

25 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Rishi Sunak becomes Britain’s prime minister today, making him the third in the past seven weeks. Our correspondent explains who he is, and analyses...

Number three for Xi: power in China

24 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Xi Jinping won a third term as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. Our correspondent explains how the recent party congress solidified X...

No wilt to go on: let us bid Truss goodbye

21 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Economist’s comparison of Liz Truss’s staying power to that of a lettuce captured global imaginations. Will the next prime minister have a lon...

Redrawing the lines: cocaine policy in Latin America

20 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Regional leaders recognise the abject failure of the war on drugs. We speak with Colombia’s president about some bold new ideas to tackle the proble...

Variety in the price of life: inflation and the midterms

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the next instalment of our American midterms series we visit Rhode Island to see how inflation—at its highest since the early Reagan era—is aff...

Hell hath no fury: a look inside Iran’s protests

18 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Unrest is only spreading and the authorities trying to quell it are looking increasingly desperate. We hear from one protester among many who are rack...

Helmsman’s high water: China’s Communist Party Congress

17 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

State media have taken to calling President Xi Jinping “the helmsman”; at the five-yearly meeting he defended his means of steering the country. W...

Witness self-protection programme? Trump and the Capitol riot inquiry

14 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The former president may well ignore the January 6th committee’s summons; the whole affair may be unceremoniously shut down next year. But that is n...

Gilt trip: Liz Truss’s hobbled leadership

13 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Paroxysms in the market for gilts—British-government bonds that were once safe-haven assets—reveal just how wounded the new government’s plans h...

Don kingmaker: Trump and the midterms

12 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The latest instalment of our series asks how much difference Donald Trump’s imprimatur has made to candidates—and whether that influence will carr...

Help them, Obi: one hopeful candidate in Nigeria

11 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our correspondent meets with Peter Obi, who has a handsome poll lead and an appeal that spans the country’s religions and ethnicities. But his presi...

Crimea and punishment: Russia’s reprisals

10 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

An attack on the Kerch bridge—a pet project of President Vladimir Putin that links Russia with annexed Crimea—has prompted a swift and brutal resp...

The gains in Ukraine: stalled Russia plainly wanes

07 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ukraine’s army has pushed Russian forces back in the south and east. We ask how they’ve managed to make such impressive gains so quickly, whether ...

Bloody and forgotten: Conflict in eastern Congo

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our correspondent reports from eastern Congo, where a three-decade-long conflict has killed thousands, and forced more than five million people from t...

It does mean a thing: America’s swing voters

05 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the next instalment of our midterms series, we head to the suburbs of Atlanta in search of that rarest of political creatures: the swing voter. The...

Misplaced Truss? Britain’s ruling party meets

04 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Prime Minister Liz Truss has had a bruising first few weeks in office. Amid policy U-turns and plummeting poll numbers, her Tory party’s annual shin...

Poll vaulter: Brazil’s surprise election result

03 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jair Bolsonaro, the incumbent president, did unexpectedly well—giving his campaign a boost and foreshadowing a tough run-up to the second round. Mal...

Form-annex trick: Russia’s Ukraine-seizure bid

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After a series of sham referendums, President Vladimir Putin is expected to annex four partly occupied regions of Ukraine. We ask what risks that move...

Lula loop: meeting Brazil’s presidential front-runner

29 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist former president, looks well-placed to win a third term. But which Lula would Brazil get—the fiscal conservati...

Off the top of their heads: Iran’s widespread protests

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Women are burning their hijabs on bonfires and hacking off their hair—but the unrest has come to be about far more than the heavy hands of the moral...

In for a penny, in for a pounding: Britain’s economic gyrations

27 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The markets are so far entirely unconvinced that the new administration’s Reagan-esque economic plans will work to spur growth—just look at sterli...

Giorgia on my mind: Italy’s far-right government

26 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Italians have voted decisively for a coalition of right-wing parties, with Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy, the likely next prime mini...

Empire State v real-estate empire: Donald Trump’s legal woes

23 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, announced a sweeping lawsuit against Donald Trump, his businesses and three of his children. He’s also...

Inflation nation: The Fed raises rates, again

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

America’s Federal Reserve made its third straight 0.75% interest-rate hike, with Jerome Powell, the Fed’s chair, warning that more hikes would fol...

The 300,000 body problem: Russia mobilises and threatens

21 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This morning Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would call up more troops to fight in Ukraine, said his goal of “liberating” eastern Ukraine rem...

Charles in charge: the future of the Commonwealth

20 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth II was devoted to the Commonwealth, a club of countries that are home to one-third of the world’s population. What is its future under Cha...

The first draft is history: Chile’s rejected constitution

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Two years in the making, the country’s new foundational document was summarily swatted down in a referendum. We ask how it went so wrong, and what c...

Minority report: the Rohingya, five years on

16 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Five years after a brutal campaign that drove nearly 750,000 out of Myanmar and into Bangladesh, conditions for the Muslim minority remain appalling o...

Xi sells sanctuary: a telling Putin meeting

15 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the presidents of China and Russia meet in Uzbekistan, we examine their friendship. They have much in common—but Russia’s prosecution of the wa...

Cautiousness in the Caucasus: Azerbaijan and Armenia clash

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A conflict smouldering since a war in 2020 has again caught alight; Azerbaijan may feel emboldened by a distracted Russia and its own energy prospects...

Joule of denial: Russia’s energy games

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Vladimir Putin hopes the threat of cutting off fuel supplies this winter will weaken Europe’s support for Ukraine. European leaders are trying to co...

Russian rush-out: Ukraine’s stunning gains

12 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Russia has lost in a week what cost it months to gain in eastern Ukraine. We ask what the lightning counter-offensive means for the war. What is more ...

Beyond the call of duty: Britain’s queen dies

09 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The death of Queen Elizabeth II marks the end of an era. We explore her long, dutiful reign and how it shaped the modern monarchy. The country has cha...

Playing his Trump card: Bolsonaro and the election

08 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Brazil, fears are growing that if Jair Bolsonaro loses in October, as polls suggest is likely, he may try to stage a coup or foment violence. He’...

America’s next top model: predicting the midterm results

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our model, built to predict the outcome of this year’s midterm elections, tips Republicans to take the House and Democrats to retain control of the ...