Base motives? China in the Pacific
The country has just one foreign military base, but there are fears it wants to dot the Pacific region with more—and that is, so far, proving tricky. With ties between Western and Russian scientists s...
30 Touko 202222min
Take the first left? Colombia’s election
POLLS SUGGEST // Polls suggest the country might get its first-ever leftist leader. Whatever the outcome, a fresh outbreak of violent protest may await. Africa’s increasingly crippling fuel shortages ...
27 Touko 202223min
Let’s get the parties charted: the Partygate report
A long-awaited inquiry into lockdown gatherings on Boris Johnson’s watch reveals lurid details of brash bashes. Yet the prime minister will be able, once again, to brush off the controversy. We ask wh...
26 Touko 202225min
Active shooters, inactive politics: America’s latest school massacre
After 19 children and two adults were gunned down in Texas, we ask why gun laws are actually loosening in many states and why even moderate gun controls do not get passed. The rapid spread of monkeypo...
25 Touko 202223min
The city that never slips: Beijing and covid
China’s Communist Party leaders have painted themselves into a corner: they cannot be seen to put the capital into lockdown, but permitting covid to spread could be catastrophic. We look into the myri...
24 Touko 202225min
Labor’s day: Australia’s election
Anthony Albanese, the first Labor prime minister in a decade, has pledged to do far more on climate change. His party’s slim win shows how Australian politics is changing. Bosses are increasingly turn...
23 Touko 202222min
Straight out of Orwell: Russia’s propaganda machine
The Kremlin’s propaganda machine ensures that Russians have a much different view of the war in Ukraine than the rest of the world. Our correspondent spent a day immersed in Russian media, to learn wh...
20 Touko 202226min
Pestilent peninsula: covid in North Korea
North Korea’s zero-covid strategy appears to have failed. The country has officially acknowledged 162 cases; the true number is probably orders of magnitude more. The country’s health-care system is i...
19 Touko 202224min
