Present, tense: Biden and Putin meet
Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin have much to hammer out today—but don’t expect it to be genial. We examine what is on the table, and how each president will be judged. Competition in the cryptocurrency w...
16 Jun 202123min
Patrons’ taint: Brazil’s pork-barrel politics
President Jair Bolsonaro campaigned on a promise to overturn the country’s political patronage, but as his popularity has slipped he has come to need it. The latest bids to return to commercial supers...
15 Jun 202121min
Promises, promises: the G7’s fuzzy climate pledges
Where they are clear, the summit’s commitments do not add much to existing targets; mostly, though, they are woefully short on detail. We pick through the pledges. Germany is facing up to a colonial-e...
14 Jun 202122min
Staying powers? The G7’s changing role
For the seven world leaders meeting in Britain the immediate crises are clear. But a broader question hangs over them: how can the G7 maintain its relevance? A ruling in Britain excites a debate that ...
11 Jun 202122min
An exit wounds: America’s Afghanistan retreat
Air bases have been handed over; America’s remaining troops are shipping out and NATO forces are following suit. Can Afghanistan’s government forces hold off the Taliban? In parts of China, a playful ...
10 Jun 202121min
You don’t say: Indonesia joins Asia’s digital censorship
As governments across South-East Asia crimp online freedoms, the region’s healthiest democracy might have been expected to resist the trend. Not so. President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua is using a new...
9 Jun 202118min
Criminal proceedings: America’s spike in violence
Piecemeal criminal-justice reforms following last year’s protests are coming up against hard numbers: violent crime is up. We ask what can, and should, be done. The man who led a coup in Mali last yea...
8 Jun 202123min
Ballots and bullets: Mexico’s elections
The run-up to the country’s largest-ever election has been bloody; the aftermath will set the tone for President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose record so far is woeful. Our analysis of listed gree...
7 Jun 202121min
