The most important elections to watch in 2024

2024-02-29

Four years ago Belarus’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, stole a presidential election. Belarusians have just voted again, in parliamentary and local polls. This time there was little chance of a repeat of the protests that followed the rigged vote in 2020. How has Mr Lukashenko tightened his grip?

00:00 – Why Lukashenko is called “Europe’s last dictator”
00:57 – How Lukashenko came to power
01:29 – Why Lukashenko is dependent on Putin

Sign up to The Economist’s daily newsletter: https://econ.st/3QAawvI

Read more about the region: https://econ.st/3OV7JP1

Belarus prepares for another fraudulent election: https://econ.st/49OehXU

How much power does Alexander Lukashenko have?:https://econ.st/3SVVeUH

Why Belarus is called Europe’s last dictatorship: https://econ.st/3SVVeUH

Belarus’s

2024-02-19

The Economist interviewed Alexei Navalny, who has reportedly died in an Arctic penal colony, in the run-up to Russia’s 2018 presidential election. He discussed the breadth of his political support, his experiences in prison and offered some predictions for the future of Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

00:16 – The death of Navalny
00:41 – Navalny in prison
02:00 – Putin’s goals

Sign up to The Economist’s daily newsletter: https://econ.st/3QAawvI

Alexei Navalny didn’t just defy Putin—he showed up his depravity: https://econ.st/48mUUE0

What Navalny’s death means for Russia, Putin and the world: https://econ.st/3T366RZ

Russia’s opposition has lost a crucial leader but gained a martyr: https://econ.st/3I2qa0u

Graphic detail: A short history of Russia and Ukraine: https://econ.st/4bLbwZ6

2024-01-18

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, speak to The Economist’s editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, about what the future of AI will really look like.

00:00 Sam Altman and Satya Nadella talk to The Economist
00:25 What’s next for ChatGPT?
1:33 How dangerous is AGI?
2:32 AI regulation

Sign up to The Economist’s daily newsletter: https://econ.st/3QAawvI

Read more of our AI coverage: https://econ.st/3O9fK2v

Watch the full interview here: https://econ.st/3O7qXk5

Read our write up of the interview: https://econ.st/3HpwbUL

2024-01-18

If artificial general intelligence is achieved, it will be able to outperform humans on most intellectual tasks. The Economist asks Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI, how worried the world should be about AGI.
Watch the full interview here: https://econ.st/3RUSgzm

2024-01-11

Guam, an island in the northern Pacific, is just 48km long and has a population of about 170,000. So why is it so important to America’s strategy to defend Taiwan from a potential Chinese invasion?

00:00 – Where is Guam?
00:13 – Why is it so important?
01:00 – What makes it vulnerable?

Sign up to The Economist’s daily newsletter: https://econ.st/3QAawvI

Guam, where America’s next war may begin: https://econ.st/47lP9WN

America is lavishing attention on Pacific island states: https://econ.st/47of0xd

How the Pentagon thinks about America’s strategy in the Pacific: https://econ.st/3tG49RG

Read more of our US coverage: https://econ.st/4aRvOj4

Read more of our China coverage: https://econ.st/3S9G6nC

2024-01-09

Ethiopia’s president, Abiy Ahmed, has signed a deal with Somaliland to get his landlocked country direct access to the sea. Abiy hails this as an act of diplomacy, but could it destabilise an already volatile part of the world?

00:00 – a new dispute in the Horn of Africa
01:00 – the historical context
01:29 – the implications of the new deal

Sign up to The Economist’s daily newsletter: https://econ.st/3QAawvI

Read more about the region: https://econ.st/4b1lIwv

Ethiopia’s deal with Somaliland: https://econ.st/3tJGQGB

Why does Ethiopia want access to a seaport?: https://econ.st/3H9RA45

Why Somaliland isn’t a recognised state: https://econ.st/48pfwMY

Conflict in the Horn of Africa: https://econ.st/48mt7of

2024-01-02

As 2024 begins President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks to The Economist’s Editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, about his political and military goals for the coming year and why he won’t compromise with Vladimir Putin.

00:00 – 2024 military goals
01:35 – Why he won’t negotiate

A New Year’s interview with Volodymyr Zelensky: https://econ.st/48A4Nim

Read our coverage from the war in Ukraine: https://econ.st/41MgGjc

Sign up to The Economist’s daily newsletter: https://econ.st/3QAawvI

Russia tries to overwhelm Ukraine with missiles: https://econ.st/41PnIni

How five Ukrainian cities are coping, despite Putin’s war: https://econ.st/41MgJLU

A majority of congressmen want more military aid for Ukraine: https://econ.st/3tuWKVl

Ukraine’s army is struggling to find good recruits:

2023-11-13

In America the fear of gun crime in schools is being weaponised. More and more SWAT teams are having to respond to hoax calls about school shootings.

00:00 – America’s hoax school shooting crisis
01:07 – Hoax calls are becoming more commonplace
02:00 – Aspen Elementary School
03:29 – What happened on February 22nd 2023?
05:10 – Who was behind it?
07:35 – The fight against SWAT hoax calls

Sign up to The Economist’s daily newsletter: https://econ.st/3QAawvI

Read our full investigation: https://econ.st/477yzLd

Why some teachers in America are learning how to fire guns: ?si=fBZbTiT2gaD-9n2U

One response to school shootings in America: arm the teachers: https://econ.st/3u1KzPm

A report sheds light on the deadliest school shooting in Texas’s history: https://econ.st/3FWoe8Z

The AR-15