Vote with no confidence: Zimbabwe goes to the polls
Arranging friendly media coverage, giving handouts to voters, stifling opposition rallies: once again the country’s ruling party has put its thumb on the scales. It has to, after decades of failed gov...
23 Aug 202326min
Home groan: China’s housing-sector crisis
Once again, fears are ripping through the industry—this time starting from a firm once thought too big to fail. In an economy so dependent on housebuilding, that will have wide-ranging consequences. W...
22 Aug 202326min
Latin lessons: two contrasting elections
Ecuador and Guatemala faced similar preoccupations with violence and corruption—one of Ecuador’s candidates was assassinated on the campaign trail—but their electoral outcomes were very different. Wha...
21 Aug 202321min
Gun-shy: why Niger’s coup stands, for now
For weeks, the regional bloc ECOWAS has threatened to undo the putsch by force. But appetite for a military response—the ultimate deterrent in a coup-prone region—seems small and waning. Russia’s roub...
18 Aug 202323min
Make ore break: Latin America’s commodities
The region is home to most of the world’s known lithium. Given the mineral’s usefulness in batteries and electric vehicles, could it be on the cusp of a commodities boom? Germany’s auto industry is at...
17 Aug 202325min
Through the fire: an update from Hawaii
As the death toll surpasses 100, we report from Maui where fires have ravaged the island in the deadliest American wildfire in over a century. Why was this one so catastrophic? The plummet of coca pri...
16 Aug 202323min
“Witch hunt”, Part Four: Trump indicted, again
The former president has been hit with a new set of charges, under a catch-all racketeering act that has been used to prosecute everyone from rappers to teachers. It’s Mr Trump’s fourth indictment, bu...
15 Aug 202323min
West-siding story? Turkey’s tactical shift
Despite cosying up with Russia and accusing America of trying to topple him, the newly re-elected president now appears to be flirting with old allies. But there is reason to be sceptical. A global su...
14 Aug 202324min
