The Intelligence from The Economist

Reporting by The Economist reveals deepening efforts by Chinese authorities not just to imprison the Muslim-minority people but also to reduce their number , to wipe out their culture and to hound them wherever in the world they may go. Yet a visit to Yunnan province reveals that the party’s hostility to ethnic minorities is not absolute . For full access to print, digital and audio editions of Th...

After a term spent steering the country through crises, Jacinda Ardern has led her Labour party to a thumping victory ; what will they do with their historic majority? Far from taking on water as the pandemic progresses, the shipping industry is steaming ahead . And as museums sell off parts of their collections, we consider art’s value beyond the dollar signs. For full access to print, digital an...

After last year’s vote was marred by fraud allegations, the electorate is split ahead of Sunday’s poll: will the country return the socialist MAS party of exiled leader Evo Morales to power? A private tutor to the rich and anxious reveals the costs —to students and tutors—of heightened academic pressure. And a new book yields a cat’s-eye view of 18th-century London. For full access to print, digit...

Angry protests following an alleged police killing continue, even after a hated police unit was shuttered. That exposes far-deeper discontent. Banks’ earnings this week show that belt-tightening earlier in the year has held them in good stead. What to do with the growing cash-pile? And misguided infrastructure plans have many Egyptians in a roads rage. For full access to print, digital and audio e...

Rhetoric and sabre-rattling from mainland China are rapidly ramping up; we examine the risk of an invasion that would have global consequences . A decision by World Rugby to ban trans women from the women’s game stokes a notoriously ill-tempered debate. And listening to an album built entirely from the songs of endangered British birds. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The E...

The country yet again faces widespread starvation as a civil war grinds on, and both sides are to blame for the misery visited upon civilians. With the stroke of a pen, Argentina recently doubled in size —setting a precedent with big diplomatic and resource-extraction implications. And remembering the man who set hundreds of thousands of Indians free from indentured servitude. For full access to p...

By the numbers to date, Sweden's light-touch covid-19 measures may not seem successful. But its pragmatism takes an instructively long view of the pandemic. China’s high-level party machinery brooks no political dissent; among street-level functionaries, stories of disobedience and tolerance are far more nuanced . And a devilishly clever way to stem the poaching of endangered turtles’ eggs. For fu...

Citizens are furious after a poll seemingly tainted by vote-buying; its annulment leaves a power vacuum that may yet draw in China and Russia. An author’s journey through the history of America’s racist militias, including the Ku Klux Klan, starts with his own family tree. And why not everyone is happy with Europe’s “golden passport” schemes . For full access to print, digital and audio editi...

That a housefly could steal the show at America’s only vice-presidential debate is telling, but a discussion with more substance than bombast was a welcome respite. Cuba is experiencing its worst food crisis in decades, and that at last may spur changes to its confused and market-distorting dual-currency system. And geopolitics sticks its beak into an enormous annual bird migration. For full acces...

A pilgrimage that is sure to become a covid-19 hotspot is a sign of how much the country’s government is losing legitimacy to its clergymen and tribal leaders. Social-media giants’ efforts to scrub violent content from their platforms simultaneously hobbles efforts to bring war criminals to justice. And why south-west England may soon be reviving its long-lost mining industry. For full access to p...

Britain’s prime minister will outline big wind-energy plans at his party’s annual conference, even as the pandemic and Brexit blow his government off course . The sombre tone at a thanksgiving festival in Ethiopia reveals how the country’s largest ethnic group is not getting the reforms it was promised. And a carcinogenic nut that remains wildly popular in China. For full access to print, digital...

Amid a flurry of conflicting information over the weekend, details of Donald Trump’s progress and prognosis remain worryingly unclear. How will this brush with the virus change the campaign, or the president? Asia’s migrant workers had difficult, precarious lives that the pandemic made even worse ; only now are matters improving. And the perplexing preponderance of Albanian pop stars.  For fu...

Unexpected defeats at rebels’ hands, a cratered economy, a hungry citizenry and a runaway covid-19 epidemic: can anything unseat Bashar al-Assad? When Germany reunified, many worried it would upset the balance of Europe; 30 years on and if anything the country must wield more of its power. And celebrating the centenary of Agatha Christie’s most beloved detective, Hercule Poirot. For full access to...

The region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been the subject of dispute and skirmishes for decades—but the current conflict threatens to draw in both Turkey and Russia. Rule changes accelerated by the pandemic have revealed a better way to handle early-stage abortions. And, unravelling the mystery of the funnel-web spider’s deadly bite. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist...

America’s first presidential debate was unmitigated chaos , revealing little more than the rancour between the candidates. In Chicago a newish musical genre called drill has a strong relation to the city’s gang violence; we ask whether it is a causal one. And amid a global rise in hand-washing, we look at the fascinating, fragrant history of soap. For full access to print, digital and audio editio...

Just ahead of the first presidential debate , a trove of tax documents suggests the president has some staggeringly loss-making businesses and a staggering amount of debt coming due. We examine China’s pledge to become carbon-neutral by 2060 and what it will have to do to get there. And why a Swiss referendum campaign involved a giant game of pick-up-sticks. For full access to print, digital and a...

On gun rights, abortion policy and health care Amy Coney Barrett, the seemingly unstoppable successor to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, will shift the court’s balance for decades. In China, the visually impaired are usually shuffled off to the massage industry; we meet blind students with greater ambitions. And tracing the origins of the boring supermarket spud . For full access to print, digital and audio...

A grand jury’s decision has re-energised months-long protests. We ask how much another tragic death at the hands of police may spur meaningful reforms. A once-fringe movement to “re-wild” the Highlands of Scotland is gaining momentum. And how the promising German startup incubator Rocket Internet left shareholders on the launchpad . For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Econo...

Soon the pandemic will have claimed a million lives. We take a broad look at what has been learned—and the deadly mistakes still being made. Our correspondent visits Wuhan, site of the first known outbreak, to find a city that beneath the surface has much healing yet to do. And a close look at New York’s much-loved, much-derided accent. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The E...

Congressional elections will decide the direction of America’s governance irrespective of the presidential pick; we reveal our statistical model of the Senate races. Tesla steals the headlines in the electric-vehicle stakes, but a vast, global industry is nipping at its heels. And remembering the astrophysicist who explained the celestial light show of the aurorae. For full access to print, digita...

The Trump administration’s bid to block the Chinese app has been stymied—for now. The tussle reflects a change in how America does business, and how the internet itself may evolve. Migration in the Mediterranean is picking up again ; the pandemic is making it even more perilous and political. And Japan’s canned-coffee obsession steams ahead in foreign markets. For full access to print, digital and...

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a liberal icon. Her death last week opens a Supreme Court vacancy for Donald Trump to fill, which could tip the court further right ahead of what might be a legally fraught election. And there is nothing that Democrats can do about it. The majority of land in Africa is neither mapped nor documented . People who can’t prove that they own their land, cannot unlock its value....

Thailand is bracing for a large anti-government protest , with some of the anger directed at the usually-revered monarchy. Some fear that the establishment’s patience will snap, with bloody results. Freemasonry has been one of the most contagious ideas of the modern age, spreading to every corner of the world. But the number of masons is shrinking. And in Britain, social distancing may have s...

More than a million former felons in Florida regained the right to vote in 2018. Last week, many of them lost it again. We look at the barriers to voting in America. Colombia’s militarised police force are khaki-klad, poorly paid and heavy-handed. A case of police brutality has now provoked big protests and calls for reform. And in the Netherlands, covid-carrying Minks have been spared the slaught...

Belarus dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, has travelled to Sochi amid major protests at home to ask Vladimir Putin for help. We examine whether he will get it—and what the price might be. The possible discovery of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus could be a tantalising hint of life beyond Earth. And K-Pop, marred by sexual abuse scandals, is shedding its misogynistic image. For full access...