Donald Trump’s team has called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/03/10/how-doge-is-driving-americas-public-health-guardians-mad?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) “the most incompetent and arrogant agency” in the federal government. Our correspondent talks to staff who fear that jobs and crucial public-health projects are under threat. Is silver (https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/03/05/why-silver-is-the-new-gold?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) the new gold

Bored of battling through big books? Here are five novels you can read in a day

Ice is melting faster in the Arctic than anywhere else on earth. But this devastating consequence of the climate crisis could create a great economic opportunity

The International Criminal Court has arrested Rodrigo Duterte, a former president of the Philippines. The case highlights both the strengths and the weaknesses (https://www.economist.com/asia/2025/03/11/the-global-importance-of-rodrigo-dutertes-arrest?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) of international justice. We examine the spate of bombings (https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/02/27/swedish-businesses-are-being-bombed?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) plaguing Sweden—carried out by young people who are in it for the money (8:18).

Donald Trump’s decision to dismantle USAID is an extreme example of a global trend: rich countries are pulling back on foreign aid. Our international economics correspondent, Cerian Richmond Jones, travels to Malawi to find out whether decades of aid has worked

The Trump administration’s dedication to tariffs now seems more fervent than the first time around. Markets (https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/03/10/how-trump-provoked-a-stockmarket-sell-off?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) are noticing (https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/03/11/will-americas-stockmarket-convulsions-spread?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). We ask what might temper the trade war. Europe’s once-fringe hard-right parties are now leading polls

Bullying allies, making threats and demanding tribute: Donald Trump’s style of diplomacy is one Don Corleone might recognise. Will his mob boss approach make America richer and stronger, or isolated and weaker? #uspolitics #trump #donaldtrump #diplomacy

The ceasefire proposal (https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/03/11/ukraine-hopes-its-ceasefire-offer-will-turn-the-tables-on-russia?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) hatched by American negotiators and agreed by Ukraine is now a matter for Russia to consider. We ask how the not-yet-a-breakthrough will land in both countries. Our correspondents ask one of NATO’s very-top brass about Europe’s defence stance and how it should shift (10:44). And the shockingly life-shortening

Donald Trump has paused military aid and intelligence to Kyiv. Our defence editor, Shashank Joshi, analyses whether European countries can plug the gaps

Horrifying attacks on Alawites, the sect of deposed leader Bashar al-Assad, throw into question the power—or the will—of Ahmed al-Sharaa, the country’s leader, to maintain peace (https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2025/03/10/a-horrific-killing-spree-shakes-syria?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). For the first time in decades it now makes more sense to pay off a mortgage early (https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/02/13/why-you-should-repay-your-mortgage-early?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) (10:36).

As the former central banker faces his toughest job so far, how will his premiership be shaped by Donald Trump?

The governing Liberal party is enjoying a stunning turnaround in the polls, and now it has a new leader. We ask how Mark Carney will tussle (https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2025/03/10/mark-carney-must-keep-an-expansionist-america-at-bay?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) with Donald Trump’s tariffs and taunts. China has a vibrant new wintertime economic sector: skiing and snowy tourism (https://www.economist.com/china/2025/02/13/hail-chinas-new-ice-and-snow-economy?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) (10:45). And a tribute to Rose

After a turbulent seven days (https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/03/04/the-lesson-from-trumps-ukrainian-weapons-embargo?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), how will President Volodymyr Zelensky tackle the domestic and international challenges ahead? Our correspondent attends “Ode to Resilience”, a concert of defiance in Ukraine (9:55). And how “The Economist” reported on the Allies’ advance across Europe in the second world war: a sample from our interactive archive

The leader of Turkey’s Kurdish rebels has called on the group (https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/02/27/one-of-the-worlds-longest-conflicts-may-be-ending?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 disband. That could end one of the world’s longest running conflicts. How tariffs and political volatility may affect the American economy (https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/03/02/america-is-at-risk-of-a-trumpian-economic-slowdown?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) (10:16). And the craze for eating caviar

American presidents often use their first meeting with Congress as a chance to lay out their agenda for the next four years. Donald Trump, by contrast, treated last night’s address (https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/03/03/trumps-new-tariffs-are-his-most-extreme-ever?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) like a campaign rally. Meet Ecuador’s tenacious anti-corruption champion (https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2025/02/27/the-bravest-woman-in-latin-america?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) (12:18). And co-host Jason

European leaders met in London this weekend (https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/03/02/europe-vows-to-defend-ukraine-but-prays-for-trumps-support?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) after Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky’s public row shattered hopes for a US-led truce in Ukraine. What did the summit achieve? Our correspondent visits Mexico’s border (https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2025/02/23/mexico-deploys-10000-troops-to-the-us-border?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 find out if strengthened force will stem the flow of

This week European leaders have lined up to charm Donald Trump. But the broad smiles belie a bigger fear: what would it mean for the continent’s security if America forsakes its security guarantees (https://www.economist.com/international/2025/02/25/can-europe-confront-vladimir-putins-russia-on-its-own?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)? What the pull-out of French (https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2025/02/01/frances-bitter-retreat-from-west-africa?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) forces will mean for Africa (10:56).

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the occupied West Bank in the last month because of Israel’s latest operation. It’s reignited a long-standing question about the Palestinian territory: who controls the West Bank?

As the baby-boom generation starts to die and economic growth slows many more people are getting rich from family wealth. Are we returning to the age of Jane Austen? The latest EIU Democracy Index (https://www.eiu.com/n/campaigns/democracy-index-2024?utm_campaign=MA00001507&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=eiu-intelligence-podcast) reveals what a bumper election year did to country rankings (9:36). And our correspondent takes an ice bath (https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/01/31/are-ice-baths-good-for-you?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) (16:40).

Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, often says the East is rising and the West is in decline. Do recent events in America prove him right? The Economist’s Geopolitics editor, David Rennie, gives his insight

The meeting between France’s and America’s presidents had a familiarly chummy feel. We ask whether Emmanuel Macron’s charm offensive (https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/02/25/has-emmanuel-macron-managed-to-reason-with-donald-trump?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) might have changed Donald Trump’s mind on security matters. Norway’s stocks of wild salmon are in trouble—owing in part to their farmed brethren

Instead of needing three parties to cobble together a majority, the country’s two traditional main ones have the numbers (https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/02/23/friedrich-merz-wins-germanys-election-but-forming-a-coalition-will-be-hard?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). What to expect once the talks are done? Donald Trump claims America has supported Ukraine far more than Europe has; we comb through the data

Donald Trump seems to relish causing chaos. But what if there’s a method to the madness? Adam O’Neal, our Washington Correspondent, explains the “madman theory”  #donaldtrump #uspolitics #madman #madmantheory #nixon #diplomacy

Following LA’s wildfires in January, workers have spent weeks clearing the debris and removing hazardous waste. Our West Coast correspondent, Aryn Braun, has been following their progress

Three years after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, it is still not clear what “winning” his war really means. As talks with the Trump administration begin our Russia editor, Arkady Ostrovsky, explains what Putin really wants #ukrainewar #vladimirputin #geopolitics #war #warinukraine #zelensky

Europe must move boldly (https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/02/20/how-europe-must-respond-as-trump-and-putin-smash-the-post-war-order?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) as the American-led world order shatters beneath it; we explain how. Many people view the freedom to work from home as a perk. Some academics reckon there should be, in effect, a tax on it (https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/02/06/when-will-remote-workers-see-their-pay-cut?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) (10:41). And we pay tribute to Pableaux

Africa’s young are educated, ambitious side-hustlers. But they are hampered by their economies and dispirited by their politicians. How to harness their vast potential? America’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is, in a real-world accounting (https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/02/12/elon-musk-is-failing-to-cut-american-spending?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), not actually budging the budget much (8:25). And why Germans take more days off sick

Only around 10% of Britain’s and America’s biggest companies have female CEOs. Addressing the "motherhood penalty" and making recruitment processes uniform are two ways to redress this imbalance.

Video supported by @mishcon_de_reya

00:00 – Will CEO gender parity happen?
00:50 – Vodafone CEO, Margherita Della Valle
01:51 – Women CEOs: why so few?
02.11 – Motherhood penalty
03:31 – How Nordic countries get it right
04:20 – Unconscious bias in the boardroom
05:33 – Diversity, equity and inclusion
06:30 – Record year for female bosses exiting
07:12 – Glass cliff
07:49 – Business case for diversity

The possibilities for an inevitable coalition government are a head-spinning colour wheel of party logos. We look at the most likely outcomes (https://www.economist.com/interactive/2025-german-election-polls-prediction-forecast?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), and the smaller parties that may well play kingmakers. A series of scandals (https://www.economist.com/asia/2025/02/06/japan-could-finally-face-its-own-metoo-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) in Japan has propelled the country to a belated #MeToo crisis (10:35). And

Google DeepMind and Anthropic founders, Demis Hassabis and Dario Amodei, are two of the world’s foremost leaders in artificial intelligence. Our editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, sat down with them to discuss AI safety, timelines for artificial general intelligence and whether they fear becoming the Oppenheimers of our time, in a conversation for Visionaries Club.

How AI will divide the best from the rest: https://econ.st/3X8yVhv
After DeepSeek, America and the EU are getting AI wrong: https://econ.st/3ELKkgX
Chinese AI is catching up, posing a dilemma for Donald Trump: https://econ.st/4hUcDs0

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