Bitcoin of the realm: El Salvador’s experiment
President Nayib Bukele thinks obliging businesses to take the cryptocurrency will help with remittances, inclusion and foreign investment. So far, few are convinced. From after-school tutoring to endl...
7 Sep 202120min
Heartbeat of the matter: Texas’s draconian abortion law
The Supreme Court’s surprise decision to let the country’s harshest “heartbeat bill” stand bodes ill for the landmark Roe v Wade decision; we ask what happens next. Brazil’s police kill six times as m...
6 Sep 202122min
Taking the fifth: Venezuela’s talks
Four previous resolution meetings involving President Nicolás Maduro have changed little. This time international backing and aligned incentives might at last spur fair elections. Madagascar already h...
3 Sep 202123min
Reeling and dealing: how to engage the Taliban
In some ways America has more leverage now that its forces have left; we ask how diplomatic and aid efforts should proceed in order to protect ordinary Afghans. A global pandemic has distracted from a...
2 Sep 202121min
Out for blood: the Theranos trial
Elizabeth Holmes founded a big blood-testing startup; her claims were founded on very little. As her trial begins we ask how the company got so far before it all crumbled. Research on primates is incr...
1 Sep 202121min
CDU later? Germany’s topsy-turvy election
The party of Angela Merkel, the outgoing chancellor, is flailing in polls. We ask why the race has been so unpredictable and what outcomes now seem probable. In America, obtaining a kit to make an unt...
31 Aug 202120min
Banks note: the Jackson Hole meeting
The message for central bankers at the annual jamboree: relax a bit about inflation and be loud and clear about plans to stanch the cash being pumped into economies. The halt to an Albanian hydroelect...
30 Aug 202121min
The terror of their ways: Kabul and global jihadism
The suicide-bombings that have killed scores of people signal how the Taliban will struggle to rule Afghanistan; meanwhile the rest of the world’s jihadist outfits are drawing lessons from the chaos. ...
27 Aug 202121min
