A decade decayed: South Sudan
The world’s youngest state was born amid boundless optimism. But poverty is still endemic and ethnic tensions still rule politics; what hope for its next decade? Mass graves found at Canada’s “residen...
9 Jul 202122min
Assassins’ deed: Haiti’s president killed
Jovenel Moïse presided, in an increasingly authoritarian way, over a country slipping toward failed-state status. The unrest is likely to worsen following his assassination. The Democratic primary rac...
8 Jul 202121min
Dropped shots: Russia’s third wave
Despite registering the world’s first coronavirus vaccine, the country is being lashed by covid-19. Mixed messages and a long-cultivated mistrust are to blame. DARPA, America’s agency that funds blue-...
7 Jul 202121min
Taken for a ride: why China is leaning on Didi
Just after the ride-hailing giant made a splashy stockmarket debut, Chinese regulators came down hard. Why is the country crimping its tech champions? There is something missing at many American embas...
6 Jul 202120min
Leave them in no peace: America’s Afghan exit
Passport queues are lengthening; ad-hoc civilian militias are strengthening. As foreign powers bow out, Taliban militants take district after district—and the fear of the people is palpable. The pande...
5 Jul 202121min
Repetitive strains: SARS-CoV-2 variants
The coronavirus’s Delta variant accounts for ever more infections; we ask about mutational surprises yet to emerge, and what can be done about them. The ousting of Ethiopia’s army from the Tigray regi...
2 Jul 202123min
Party piece: China’s Communists at 100
Pomp and rhetoric marked the centenary of what are arguably the world’s most successful authoritarians. We sit in on the celebrations, tinged with paranoia; we look back to 1921 and how the party came...
1 Jul 202122min
No day in court: Jacob Zuma’s jail sentence
South Africa’s embattled former leader will be imprisoned for failing to show up to trial—a sign that, for all the rot in South Africa, its Constitutional Court still has teeth. Our environment editor...
30 Jun 202120min
