AI bosses on what keeps them up at night

2025-02-18

We investigate China’s under-the-radar push (https://www.economist.com/international/2025/02/09/chinas-stunning-new-campaign-to-turn-the-world-against-taiwan?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners) to get other countries to change their official language on Taiwan’s independence. Would it make a difference in a bid to reunify by force? The case of a nurse jailed for killing babies exposes deep problems

2025-02-13

On February 12th, President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin, without co-ordinating the details beforehand with Ukraine, and announced that negotiations to end the war would start “immediately”.

It was exactly the sort of unilateral American move that, just hours earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky warned against in this interview with The Economist. “If Russia is left alone with America, Putin with Trump, or their teams, they will receive manipulative information,” the Ukrainian president warned.

2025-02-10

Greenland, the world’s largest island, could be at the centre of the greatest resource rush ever seen. President Trump has said he wants it. So why is Greenland so valuable?

2025-02-07

Donald Trump is the first president in more than a century to call for new American territory. He says he’s interested in acquiring Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal, and now, Gaza. Does he really harbour imperial fantasies, or is this all just a negotiating ploy? #DonaldTrump #Greenland #uspolitics #Geopolitics #Canada #panamacanal #politics #usa #republican

2024-12-04

The country’s increasingly unpopular president, Yoon Suk Yeol, backed down six hours after his shocking move of imposing martial law. South Korea’s democracy has held firm (https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/12/03/martial-law-in-south-korea-and-then-not-next-constitutional-crisis?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners)—so far. Brazil’s gangsters have found a neat way to launder assets through the legal economy: by getting involved with politics

2024-10-10

In 2023, a story about Olena Zelenska’s spending habits spread on social media. It was a lie. But how did it circulate so quickly—and what does it reveal about Russia’s disinformation war against the West?

2024-10-07

*This episode was first published 20/07/24

After a year of war in Gaza, people are beginning to discuss the aftermath. Schools, hospitals, the sanitation system are in ruins. Just clearing the rubble will take years.

Focusing on the long term, many neglect what needs to happen on day one. Gazans say the territory is becoming lawless. Who will control security, and with what legitimacy? Does anyone have a coherent plan?

In this special episode of The Weekend Intelligence The Economist’s editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes considers the dangerously rosy thinking about Gaza’s future and asks what happens when the dust settles.

Music credit: Epidemic Sound and Blue Dot Sessions

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2024-09-27

Ukraine’s president is again on American shores, trying to secure support of all kinds. He needs it (https://www.economist.com/briefing/2024/09/26/ukraine-is-on-the-defensive-militarily-economically-and-diplomatically?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners)—diplomatically, militarily and politically. America’s tendencies toward “woke” discourse and policies have permeated its politics, but our analysis finds that “peak woke” is already in the past