Forces to be reckoned with: Afghan peace talks
Negotiations in Moscow may at last forge agreement between the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents; that, in turn, would inform America’s long-promised drawdown. The International Criminal Court ...
18 Mar 202122min
Harms weigh: AstraZeneca vaccine fears
Scattered reports of blood clots have sparked curbs across Europe, even though the jab is almost certainly safe. We take a hard look at the risks in relative terms. After Canada arrested a Huawei exec...
17 Mar 202122min
Earning them: Stripe’s monster valuation
The firm got in early providing online-payment software to tech startups. Now it’s the most valuable Silicon Valley darling yet. We look at its future prospects. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo faces a...
16 Mar 202120min
Redrawing the map: a fragmented Syria
As the country marks ten years of civil war, the economy is crippled; it has broken up into statelets and ethnic enclaves that may never be reunified. Violence against women is sparking a global wave ...
15 Mar 202122min
Casting the net wider: remaking the welfare state
As the Biden administration fires a $1.9trn pandemic-relief bazooka, we consider how governments might rethink welfare: providing more-flexible benefits, investing in human capital and acting as an in...
12 Mar 202122min
Nuclear inaction: the legacy of Fukushima
The cleanup effort in and around the melted-down power plant is still progressing, but rebuilding communities—and, crucially, trust—is proving far more difficult. As Rupert Murdoch turns 90 we look at...
11 Mar 202122min
Whither permitting? Vaccine passports
Formalising systems to divide the vaccinated from the unvaccinated is neither as risky nor as useful as many people think. In any case, vaccine passports are coming. On the anniversary of Tibet’s upri...
10 Mar 202118min
Reconciled to it: America’s stimulus bill
Thanks to a parliamentary contortion called reconciliation, the $1.9trn covid-relief plan is likely to sail through—we examine what is in it and what its passage portends for lawmaking in the Biden er...
9 Mar 202121min
