The Intelligence from The Economist

Assassins’ deed: Haiti’s president killed

08 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jovenel Moïse presided, in an increasingly authoritarian way, over a country slipping toward failed-state status. The unrest is likely to worsen foll...

Dropped shots: Russia’s third wave

07 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Despite registering the world’s first coronavirus vaccine, the country is being lashed by covid-19. Mixed messages and a long-cultivated mistrust ar...

Taken for a ride: why China is leaning on Didi

06 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Just after the ride-hailing giant made a splashy stockmarket debut, Chinese regulators came down hard. Why is the country crimping its tech champions?...

Leave them in no peace: America’s Afghan exit

05 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Passport queues are lengthening; ad-hoc civilian militias are strengthening. As foreign powers bow out, Taliban militants take district after district...

Repetitive strains: SARS-CoV-2 variants

02 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The coronavirus’s Delta variant accounts for ever more infections; we ask about mutational surprises yet to emerge, and what can be done about them....

Party piece: China’s Communists at 100

01 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Pomp and rhetoric marked the centenary of what are arguably the world’s most successful authoritarians. We sit in on the celebrations, tinged with p...

No day in court: Jacob Zuma’s jail sentence

30 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

South Africa’s embattled former leader will be imprisoned for failing to show up to trial—a sign that, for all the rot in South Africa, its Consti...

Bear necessities: learning to handle Russia

29 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As both summitry and military near-misses proliferate, some want measured dialogue while others want markedly tougher talk. Our defence and Russia edi...

Third time’s the harm: Africa’s crippling covid-19 wave

28 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Hopes that the continent had escaped the worst of the pandemic have proved too hasty; our correspondent describes a slow-rolling tragedy with little h...

Iraq to its foundations: a chance to remake the state

25 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With elections looming, there is an opportunity to remake a state ravaged by war and riven by power struggles. We ask how to take Iraq out of a hard p...

Bench marks: weighing recent SCOTUS rulings

24 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The court’s term is not quite over, with contentious rulings still pending. We examine the latest decisions to gauge how its new conservative justic...

Hunger strikes: North Korea’s food shortages

23 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

An admission that the country’s food situation is “tense” is a rare glimpse into the compounding effects of pandemic policies and crop failures....

Drop it when it’s hot: the Fed’s consequential hint

22 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The merest mention of future interest-rate rises from America’s central bank sent markets into a tizzy. We consider the merits and the effects of si...

A vote with no confidence: Ethiopia’s untimely election

21 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The northern region of Tigray, consumed by war and facing famine, will not vote today. It is all a far cry from what Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed once pr...

Press to exit: Hong Kong’s media arrests

18 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The raid of an outspoken pro-democracy newspaper, carried out under the city’s newish security law, has further spooked its media outlets. We ask wh...

A hardline act to follow: Iran’s presidential election

17 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The supreme leader is consolidating theocratic power and ensuring a hardline legacy. Voters know they have little meaningful choice; many will simply ...

Present, tense: Biden and Putin meet

16 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin have much to hammer out today—but don’t expect it to be genial. We examine what is on the table, and how each preside...

Patrons’ taint: Brazil’s pork-barrel politics

15 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

President Jair Bolsonaro campaigned on a promise to overturn the country’s political patronage, but as his popularity has slipped he has come to nee...

Promises, promises: the G7’s fuzzy climate pledges

14 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Where they are clear, the summit’s commitments do not add much to existing targets; mostly, though, they are woefully short on detail. We pick throu...

Staying powers? The G7’s changing role

11 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For the seven world leaders meeting in Britain the immediate crises are clear. But a broader question hangs over them: how can the G7 maintain its rel...

An exit wounds: America’s Afghanistan retreat

10 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Air bases have been handed over; America’s remaining troops are shipping out and NATO forces are following suit. Can Afghanistan’s government forc...

You don’t say: Indonesia joins Asia’s digital censorship

09 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As governments across South-East Asia crimp online freedoms, the region’s healthiest democracy might have been expected to resist the trend. Not so....

Criminal proceedings: America’s spike in violence

08 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Piecemeal criminal-justice reforms following last year’s protests are coming up against hard numbers: violent crime is up. We ask what can, and shou...

Ballots and bullets: Mexico’s elections

07 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The run-up to the country’s largest-ever election has been bloody; the aftermath will set the tone for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whos...

Peace out: from bad to worse in Yemen

04 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Saudi-backed government is hobbled; separatism is spreading; a humanitarian crisis grows by the day. A rebel advance on a once-safe city will only...

Catch-up mustered: Europe’s vaccination drive

03 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The bloc seems at last to have a firm hand on inoculation and recovery—but efforts to engineer even progress among member states are not quite panni...

Swiping rights: Republicans’ vote-crimping bids

02 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A walkout in the Texas legislature is just the most dramatic of broad efforts to restrict voting rights—in particular of minority voters. We examine...

Bibi, it’s cold outside: Israel’s improbable coalition

01 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The only thing that unites the parties of a would-be government is the will to oust Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. What chance their coalition can...

From the head down: rot in South Africa

31 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jacob Zuma, a former president, at last answers to decades-old corruption allegations. But graft still permeates his ANC party and government at every...

Caught in the activists: oil majors’ shake-ups

28 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Activist investors installed green-minded board members at ExxonMobil; Chevron’s shareholders pushed a carbon-cutting plan; a Dutch court ruled Shel...

On the origins and the specious: the SARS-CoV-2 lab-leak theory

27 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The suggestion that the virus first emerged from a Chinese laboratory has proved stubbornly persistent; as calls mount for more investigation, it has ...

From out of thin air: Belarus dissidents' fates

26 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The regime got its quarry—a widely read, dissident blogger and his girlfriend—but faces international condemnation for its piratical means. How to...

To protect and serve: police reform one year after George Floyd

25 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Protests have followed police killings in America with saddening regularity, but the scope of demonstrations following George Floyd’s murder may mar...

From a tax to attacks: Colombia’s unrelenting unrest

24 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Protests that began last month show no sign of abating; our correspondent speaks with Iván Duque, the country’s increasingly beleaguered president....

The dust settles: ceasefire in Gaza

21 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After 11 days of fierce fighting, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire beginning in the early hours of Friday morning. But will the quiet ...

Game on: the Tokyo Olympics

20 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Tokyo Olympics are due to begin in just over two months. But with coronavirus cases climbing in recent months, 80% of Japanese people want the gam...

Populists poised: Italian politics

19 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, has been cheered by the markets since taking on the job in February. But a coalition of right-wing populists a...

Hot air: emissions reduction

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The International Energy Agency has published a report explaining what needs to happen if the world is to get to net zero emissions by 2050. It points...

Feast and famine: vaccine supply

17 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Though over 10bn doses of covid-19 vaccine may be produced this year, much of the poor world will see little of them. The supply of vaccines is much t...

Home front: Israel’s war within

14 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As Israel's war with Hamas has intensified, mob violence between Arabs and Jews within the country has made a tricky situation even more difficult. Is...

Purged: Liz Cheney’s sacking

13 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Liz Cheney had been a rising Republican star. Now the staunch conservative has been purged by her own party. Her removal shows that, even in defeat, D...

Baby bust: China’s census

12 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

China just unveiled the results of its first census in over a decade. The results are striking, if not surprising: the world’s largest country will ...

Rockets over Jerusalem: Israeli-Palestinian violence

11 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Tension in the holy city of Jerusalem has been rising for weeks, amid the attempted eviction of Palestinians and a march by Jewish nationalists. Yeste...

North poll: Boris Johnson’s election victory

10 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, is celebrating a wave of election victories for his Conservative Party in the north of England. But in Scot...

Down to brash tax: Colombia’s protests grow

07 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Demonstrations initially against tax reform have bloomed—and turned violent. The reforms have been shelved, but the protests now threaten President ...

Who’s to say? Facebook, Trump and free speech

06 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The social-media giant’s external-review body upheld a ban on former president Donald Trump—for now. We ask how a narrow ruling reflects on far br...

Cache and carry: American states’ gun-law push

05 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Today another state will enact a “permitless carry” law—no licence, checks or training required. We ask why states’ loosening of safeguards fa...

Strait shooting? The growing peril to Taiwan

04 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A decades-old policy of “strategic ambiguity” is breaking down; we ask about the risks and the stakes of a potential Chinese bid to take Taiwan by...

The turn at a century: Northern Ireland’s anniversary

03 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The province’s largest party aligned with Britain has lost its leader; in the 100 years since the island was split it has rarely seemed so close to ...

Illiberal-arts degrees: Hungary’s universities seized

30 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s proudly “illiberal democracy” has nobbled nearly every institution. Now that his ruling party will run the higher-...

A word in edgewise: Turkey, Armenia and genocide

29 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In calling the 1915 campaign against Armenians a genocide, President Joe Biden has rekindled tensions that never really faded—and has perhaps delaye...

A great deal to be desired: Europe-Britain trade

28 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Europe’s parliament has overwhelmingly voted to extend a stopgap trade agreement. But the rancour behind the vote, and the deal’s thin measures, s...

SPAClash: the buzz and the bust

27 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Special-purpose acquisition companies offer a novel way for companies to list on stockmarkets. We look behind the buzz, and something of a recent bust...

Extremist prejudice: rebranding Navalny

26 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Russian courts’ bid to designate opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s movement as a terrorist organisation is unsurprising: it fits a narrative of i...

Carbon date: Biden’s climate summit

23 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

President Joe Biden laid out ambitious emissions targets yesterday, but in order to be taken seriously on climate change, America has some reputation ...

Growth negligence: India’s covid-19 failings

22 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mass gatherings and in-person voting continue, even as new case numbers smash records and fatalities spiral in public view. We ask how a seeming pande...

Insuperable: Europe’s football fiasco

21 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A “Super League” plan wrong-footed fans, clubs, even governments. We examine what the failed bid says about the sport’s economics. We return to ...

A case rests, a city does not: Derek Chauvin’s trial

20 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The former police officer involved in George Floyd’s death awaits a verdict. What would conviction mean in a case emblematic of a far wider racial-j...

Lai of the land: Hong Kong’s democrats quashed

19 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Some of the territory’s most outspoken activists—from media mogul Jimmy Lai to “father of democracy” Martin Lee—have been sentenced. We look...

The path of increased resistance: Myanmar

16 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Protests against February’s military coup are only growing, even as the army becomes more murderous. The economy is paralysed. What can be done to p...

Boots off the ground: America’s Afghanistan drawdown

15 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Few believe President Joe Biden’s withdrawal plan is wise; it is already prompting allied forces to go. We ask about the risks of that untimely vacu...

Arms’ reach: Russia flexes at Ukraine border

14 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The troops and hardware piling up at the border are probably just posturing. But look closely: Russia’s military is swiftly getting better-equipped ...

Fission expedition: nuclear-site attack in Iran

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

An apparent act of sabotage at an Iranian nuclear site, blamed on Israel, has complicated the prospect of America returning to the 2015 nuclear deal; ...

Plagued by uncertainty: German politics

12 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As the country wrestles with another covid-19 wave, the battle to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel is building. We look at the political and epidemiol...

Like a tonne of bricks: violence in Northern Ireland

09 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The ostensible reason for continuing clashes relates to a well-attended funeral. But the terms of Brexit have raised tempers, inflaming centuries-old ...

Clotting factors: the AstraZeneca vaccine

08 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

British and European regulators have addressed a possible link with blood clots. Expect more rare side-effects to emerge; what seems clear for now is ...

Deaths spiral: America’s spike in murders

07 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Estimates suggest that last year’s rise in murder rates was the greatest in perhaps half a century, reversing a long decline; we ask what is behind ...

Crown and thorn: Jordan’s royal ruckus

06 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Pressure on the king’s half-brother may represent a mere family feud, but Prince Hamzah’s complaints resonate with the country’s people. We ask ...

He said, Xi said: America-China ructions

05 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Biden administration’s early moves suggest no “reset” in relations; we recall a time when the game of ping-pong brought the countries back t...

Battle acts: France beefs up its forces

02 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After years of peacekeeping and counter-insurgency campaigns, the country is getting tooled up and trained up for serious military conflict. The “ba...

Cresting: India’s second covid-19 wave

01 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Case numbers are on the rise—at a more worrying rate even than the first wave. We ask why, and what is being done to slow the spread. As revenues at...

Takeaway lessons: Deliveroo’s listing disappoints

31 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The tepid debut of Britain’s dominant food-delivery app signals doubts not only about the gig economy but also about London’s ability to lure tech...

High threat-count: boycotts in China

30 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Western fashion brands are in Chinese consumers’ crosshairs, the victims of political wranglings over sanctions and human-rights issues—a spat tha...

The smell of gas: insurgency in Mozambique

29 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In a province that is home to a massive natural-gas project, a long-simmering insurgency has burst into horrific violence; we ask why the government s...

Growth and stagnation: Bangladesh’s first 50 years

26 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The country has empowered its women, established itself as a garment-industry powerhouse and vastly improved public health—but its politics remains ...

Export-control panel: the EU meets on vaccines

25 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

European leaders will address the thorny question of vaccine-export controls today. We look at the row with Britain and what it means for the broader ...

Can’t take a hike: more economic turmoil in Turkey

24 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan just does not like interest-rate rises. So he has again sacked a central-bank governor given to imposing them—again, ...

Always be their Bibi? Israel votes, again

23 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the fourth poll in two years, but a stable government is still far from guaranteed. We examine the firm grip Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ...

Not-purchasing power: boycotts in Myanmar

22 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As demonstrations against February’s coup continue, many are trying a subtler form of resistance: starving army-owned businesses of revenue. We ask ...

Another race question: murder in Atlanta

19 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A shooting in the city left eight dead, six of them women of East Asian descent. We examine the past and present of anti-Asian sentiment in America. F...

Forces to be reckoned with: Afghan peace talks

18 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Negotiations in Moscow may at last forge agreement between the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents; that, in turn, would inform America’s long-...

Harms weigh: AstraZeneca vaccine fears

17 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Scattered reports of blood clots have sparked curbs across Europe, even though the jab is almost certainly safe. We take a hard look at the risks in r...

Earning them: Stripe’s monster valuation

16 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The firm got in early providing online-payment software to tech startups. Now it’s the most valuable Silicon Valley darling yet. We look at its futu...

Redrawing the map: a fragmented Syria

15 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As the country marks ten years of civil war, the economy is crippled; it has broken up into statelets and ethnic enclaves that may never be reunified....

Casting the net wider: remaking the welfare state

12 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As the Biden administration fires a $1.9trn pandemic-relief bazooka, we consider how governments might rethink welfare: providing more-flexible benefi...

Nuclear inaction: the legacy of Fukushima

11 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The cleanup effort in and around the melted-down power plant is still progressing, but rebuilding communities—and, crucially, trust—is proving far...

Whither permitting? Vaccine passports

10 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Formalising systems to divide the vaccinated from the unvaccinated is neither as risky nor as useful as many people think. In any case, vaccine passpo...

Reconciled to it: America’s stimulus bill

09 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Thanks to a parliamentary contortion called reconciliation, the $1.9trn covid-relief plan is likely to sail through—we examine what is in it and wha...

Despair and disparities: covid-19 consumes Brazil

08 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

State and local pandemic responses are scattershot; a national effort is all but nonexistent. A creeping sense of fatalism makes for peril far beyond ...

Rubber-stamping ground: China’s parliament meets

05 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The National People’s Congress kicked off with two big signals of Beijing’s intentions: a return to economic-growth targets and a plan to eradicat...

Exit stages left: America and the Middle East

04 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Biden administration would like to pull back from the region; America’s strategic interests have changed, as have regional dynamics. We examine ...

Owing to the pandemic: Britain’s budget

03 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The finance minister has a plan that will keep many safeguards in place—for now. We ask how the country will then dig itself out of a financial hole...

A dark picture emerges: atrocities in Ethiopia

02 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It is becoming more certain that war crimes are being committed in the northern region of Tigray. Yet, despite increasing international pressure, ther...

Coup fighters: Myanmar’s persistent protesters

01 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The temperature keeps rising: as demonstrations continue to grow, the army is becoming more brutal. We ask how the country can escape the cycle of vio...

Mutual-appreciation anxiety: Putin and Erdogan

26 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The presidents of Turkey and Russia make an odd couple; their former empires have clashed over centuries. We look at the fragile—but nonetheless wor...

Hell for Tether: a cryptocurrency crimped

25 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The notionally dollar-pegged “stablecoin” quietly underpins many crypto-market moves. We ask what the currency issuer’s clash with New York auth...

Let the games be thin: Tokyo’s Olympic tussles

24 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Planners are in a corner. Delaying or cancelling the summer tournament looks like defeat; pressing ahead looks like a danger. We take a look at the sp...

Confirmation biases: Biden’s cabinet picks

23 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

President Joe Biden’s top posts are shaping up as Senate confirmation hearings continue—but some controversial nominations await a vote. We look a...

Contrary to popular opinion: Mexico’s president

22 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Andrés Manuel López Obrador roared into office with a grand “fourth transformation” agenda. Even after two years of policy failures and power-gr...

Have I not news for you: Facebook’s Australian battle

19 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A media code that would obligate tech giants to pay for linking to news stories looks set to pass. In response, Facebook pre-emptively took down those...