The Intelligence from The Economist

Britain’s National Health Service is in crisis. Wait times are rising, nurses and paramedics are striking, and doctors are overworked—leading to hundreds of excess deaths each week. We visit the front...

11 Jan 202332min

Russian troops have turned Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, into a charnel house—and a proving ground for its mercenary army. The booming North Sea region could reshape Europe’s economy. And how women acr...

10 Jan 202325min

In a scene reminiscent of the US Capitol riot two years ago, supporters of Brazil’s defeated president rampaged through government buildings yesterday. Our Brazil correspondent surveys the damage. We ...

9 Jan 202321min

Israel’s new government is its most right-wing ever—but, in a break from the past, that may not derail deepening relations with neighbouring Arab countries. Thousands of Africans are killed each year ...

6 Jan 202327min

Our Brazil correspondent surveys the state of the country, as Lula assumes the presidency precisely 20 years after his first inauguration. We ask why America’s armed forces are facing recruitment stru...

5 Jan 202325min

Republican control of America’s House of Representatives began in chaos: they failed to elect a speaker, the first time in a century that’s happened. China’s fishing fleet is the world’s largest—and a...

4 Jan 202326min

The sudden rescinding of zero-covid strictures has, as expected, led to a spike in cases. Our correspondent visits overstretched hospitals and crematoria, and considers what will happen next. Aerial d...

3 Jan 202323min

China’s arsenal of nuclear weapons has swiftly expanded; it is now roughly the size of Russia’s and America’s. That will make for a different—and far trickier—landscape of three-way deterrence. We ask...

2 Jan 202326min