Syria’s condition: Bashar al-Assad
The country’s dictator has spent nearly half his time in power waging war on his own people. His patchwork support network is fading, but he will not go easily. America’s racial unrest has put reparat...
19 Jun 202022min
Painting the red towns: covid-19 in America
Coronavirus cases are easing in Democrat-held jurisdictions and rising in Republican-held areas. What is behind the shift, and what will it mean for President Donald Trump? Ireland at last has a coali...
18 Jun 202021min
Himalayan assault: India and China clash
The first deaths at the contested border in 45 years signal broader geopolitical shifts—and mark an escalation that will be difficult to reverse. “Mercenary” is less and less a dirty word in Africa; i...
17 Jun 202020min
No port in a storm: the world’s stranded sailors
Pandemic policies seem to have overlooked the key workers who keep the global trade system afloat: merchant seamen. More than a quarter of a million are at sea unwillingly. Misinformation was a plague...
16 Jun 202021min
A shifting alliance: NATO
As the organisation’s defence ministers meet this week we look at two of its principal challenges: China’s rising influence and America’s declining interest. After more than three decades, a grand mur...
15 Jun 202021min
Heavy lifting: India’s lockdown tradeoffs
As the world’s largest lockdown loosens, we examine how it went wrong and the challenges ahead for a health-care system pushed to its limits. As statues fall across the globe our culture correspondent...
12 Jun 202022min
Spend, sometime: Germany’s economic shift
After decades as the continent’s penny-pincher, the country seems to be splashing out. That isn’t just a covid-19 response; a big thrift shift was already under way. Burundi’s brutal outgoing presiden...
11 Jun 202021min
Haftar be going now: the balance shifts in Libya
Tripoli has long been under siege by Khalifa Haftar, a warlord bent on toppling the internationally backed government. At last he has been pushed back from the capital; now what? North Korea is no lon...
10 Jun 202020min
