The Economist Radio (All audio)

Huge protests following a rigged election reveal that the people have had enough of “Europe’s last dictator”, Alexander Lukashenko. How long can he hang on? Indonesia’s leaders risk repeating an environmental disaster on Borneo, allegedly in the name of food security. And checking the writing chops of the world’s best-read artificial intelligence. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For 15 years, the truck-bomb killing of a former prime minister went unpunished. But an even more devastating recent blast overshadowed a court’s ruling on the culprits. Chinese students hoping to study in America have been caught in the middle of the countries’ rising animus—not for the first time. And the origins of all the hair in Nigeria’s wildly popular wigs.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mexico’s new top cartel, led by a kingpin called El Mencho, has taken the country’s shocking violence to a terrifyingly brazen new level. In Tunisia, ten years after a self-immolation sparked the Arab Spring, voters are disillusioned with democracy and even nostalgic for the old days. And reflecting on the pianist who lost the use of his right hand, and reinvented his playing around his left. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The US Postal Service is one of America’s most popular and necessary public institutions. Now it is at the centre of a battle over November’s election. The growth of microfinance in Cambodia has been for the most part positive, but the pandemic is posing challenges to its sustainability. And if you want to buy a used Airbus A380, it’s a buyer’s market. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recent reports paint a dark picture, from heatwaves to hurricanes to high-water marks. But some promising trends—and pandemic-era economics—provide reasons for hope. We examine the night-time economy of the very swankiest parties, discovering a kind of beauty brokerage at work behind the scenes. And what baseball season reveals for other sports that yearn for a return. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe Biden’s choice of running mate is simultaneously groundbreaking and conventional, and reveals much about the state of the Democratic party. In China, a surprise court ruling draws attention to the plight of oft-overlooked LGBT people in the workplace. And Japan’s broad push for self-driving ships. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The dramatic arrest of Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy newspaper owner, reveals just how enthusiastically Beijing’s new security law will be deployed to quash any dissent. A reservoir is filling behind an enormous new dam in Ethiopia—and that has soured relations with Egypt downriver. And why Britain’s “urban explorers” may soon have far fewer derelict buildings to conquer.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As clinical trials progress, policymakers must determine how heavily to fund the pre-emptive manufacture of candidate vaccines, and how to distribute the successful ones. Given Britain’s bungled pandemic response, the separatist mood in Scotland has surged to record levels. And travel tips from the vloggers of illegal migration.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

First it was Bytedance’s app TikTok, now it’s Tencent’s WeChat: the Trump administration’s fervour to ban or dismantle wildly popular Chinese apps is increasing. In these straitened times, employees naturally worry that robots and software are coming for jobs—but the pandemic may actually slow that transition. And Britain’s government suggests slimming down even as it subsidises meals out.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings are now in their eighties. A new generation is learning to tell their tales, in hopes of preventing more atomic tragedies. Belarus’s president of 26 years will probably win in Sunday’s election, but an invigorated—and unexpected—opposition has him on the back foot. And the horror movie that will make you nervous to use Zoom. Additional archive courtesy of Soka Gakkai Women’s Peace Committee. Additional sounds by InspectorJ at Freesound.org. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some 300,000 people are homeless after an explosion of unthinkable size. The culprit appears to be sheer negligence, brought on by a broken system of governance. The Economist’s data team has updated its excess-death tracker, giving ever-better insight into just how deadly covid-19 is. And the tricky trade-offs for both bosses and workers as they return to the office. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Consecration at Ayodhya, the country’s most contested holy site, is another tick box in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist agenda. Is India’s foundational secularism at risk? The pandemic has been particularly cruel for those with dementia and Alzheimer’s; we examine new research that gives them a ray of hope. And the massive, wheel-terms growth in e-bike sales. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since the Arab spring the country has vastly expanded its military and diplomatic efforts—filling an evident power vacuum and harking back to the days of the Ottoman Empire. Tanzania’s economy was recently upgraded to “middle-income” status, but our analysis suggests something is fishy in its data. And why an Athens hotel will have two floors lopped off its top. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The territory’s elections have been postponed, its activists barred from running—police are even targeting them abroad. What next for the democracy movement? We ask whether the global protests about race will affect rampant discrimination in Arab countries, most of which host a minority black population. And the solution to a viniferous mystery that dates back a century and a half. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Enormous growth over 22 years has brought challenges, both from within and from outside; we examine the tech behemoth’s prospects. Wealth has always exploded wherever humans interacted more—and so have epidemics. We look back on the historical links between economic success and hygiene. And Dubai tries to lure tourists for its sweltering summer season. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The crisis has disproportionately squeezed migrants and has given many leaders an excuse to tighten borders. Will the restrictions outlast the pandemic? Balkan countries were notorious for organised crime in the 1990s—but a new report suggests the next generation of tech-savvy gangsters is even more formidable. And a look at this summer’s clutch of Mars missions.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Five years ago a $4.5bn hole in a development fund scrambled Malaysia’s politics. Now the inquiry has claimed its first scalp: that of Najib Razak, a former prime minister. We examine the grand shift of business to “shadow banks”—a more innovative, if less regulated, end of the industry. And we join a mushroom-picking expedition in China’s Yunnan province. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Camouflaged personnel with no insignia, protesters bundled into unmarked vans: the President Donald Trump's plan to put federal officers into American cities is a worrying political ploy. Our annual Big Mac index examines which currencies are over- and undervalued; we take a meaty look at what burgernomics reveals. And Indian scientists simultaneously solve a water problem while taming a fire problem. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scientists are looking to South-East Asia to find how the virus got its start in humans. Knowing that could head off future pandemics. It is often hard to blame climate change unequivocally for weather events, but there is no other explanation for this year’s searing Arctic temperatures. And why well-to-do Africans are shopping around for more permissive passports. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The pandemic has taken its greatest toll in the world’s nursing homes—but the systemic problems surrounding elderly care long predate covid-19. Economists’ usual barometers have gone topsy-turvy during the crisis, so statisticians are turning to “real-time” data; we ask if these novel measures measure up. And reflecting on the life of America’s civil-rights icon John Lewis.For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.