Cryptic message: why arrest Telegram’s founder?

2024-08-27

Since the invasion of Ukraine, the West has deployed massive economic restrictions (https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/08/19/the-mysterious-middlemen-helping-russias-war-machine?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) on Russian trade. So why is Russia’s economy growing? A survivor’s story from the forgotten conflict (https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2024/08/24/the-war-the-world-ignores?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 Sudan (10:47). And Turkey tries to rid its streets of stray dogs

2024-08-06

Sheikh Hasina, who led the country for 20 of the past 28 years with an increasingly authoritarian grip, was ultimately undone (https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/08/05/bangladeshs-dictator-flees-leaving-behind-a-dangerous-vacuum?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) by student protests that would not be quelled. China may be world-leading in autonomous taxis (https://www.economist.com/business/2024/07/24/chinas-robotaxis-are-racing-ahead-of-teslas?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)—but our ride in one is not without complications (9:00).

2024-08-02

The biggest exchange of prisoners (https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/08/01/the-deal-that-freed-evan-gershkovich-was-not-just-a-prisoner-swap?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) between Russia and the West since the Cold War included opposition leaders, journalists and prisoners of conscience. Our correspondent accompanies America’s defence secretary on a tour of Asia designed to bolster military alliances (https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/07/27/america-recreates-a-warfighting-command-in-japan?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)

2024-07-25

Anyone hoping to glean hints of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s plans for the Gaza war and its aftermath will have been disappointed: it was a political speech aimed at Israelis. Nigerians spend more than anyone on food, as a fraction of income. We look at the factors making the squeeze even tighter (https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2024/07/11/soaring-food-price-inflation-is-hurting-nigerias-poor?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) (11:44). And Starbucks franchises as community-level drivers of innovation

2024-07-11

Democrats’ worried murmurs have become public statements. Polls give Donald Trump a widening lead. Why won’t President Biden make way (https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/07/10/joe-biden-is-failing-to-silence-calls-that-he-step-aside?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 a younger successor? Off Colombia’s coast a shipwreck bursting with treasures is about to be plundered, but who owns that loot is hotly contested

2024-07-07

Why are two old, unpopular men the main candidates for the world’s most demanding job? It’s the question John Prideaux, The Economist’s US editor, gets asked the most. And the answer lies in the peculiar politics of the baby boomers.

The generation born in the 1940s grew up in a land of endless growth and possibility, ruled by a confident, moderate elite. But just as they were embarking on adult life, all that started to come apart. The economy faltered, and the post-war consensus came under pressure from two sides: from the radical right, who hated government moves on civil rights – and from the ‘New Left’, as boomers rebelled against their parents’ generation and its war in Vietnam.

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2024-06-27

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2024-06-18

The post-war generation reaped the benefits of peace and prosperity. Yet rather than spend that bounty, retired boomers are hoarding their riches (https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/05/26/baby-boomers-are-loaded-why-are-they-so-stingy)–and upending economists’ expectations. The science of menstruation is baffling, partly because most animals don’t do it. Now clever innovations (https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/05/29/progress-on-the-science-of-menstruation-at-last) may help improve women’s health (9:13). And how old-fashioned wind-power is blowing new life (https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/05/21/a-new-age-of-sail-begins) into the shipping industry–and cutting its emissions (16:13).

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