Teutonic plague: is Germany the sick man of Europe?
Owing to a host of deep-rooted economic and political challenges, it could be the only G7 economy to contract this year. How might it turn the tide? More people want flashy, bigger electric vehicles, ...
29 Aug 202324min
Going non-nuclear: East Asia’s changing families
From Japan to South Korea, from China to Taiwan, family structures are becoming less traditional. More premarital cohabitation, single parenthood and two-income households are influencing demographics...
28 Aug 202329min
Fellow-BRICS road: a club expands
The alliance was always based more on common fortunes than common interests. We ask what to make of the six new members, and whether the bloc’s motley nature undermines its purpose. Regulation has str...
25 Aug 202324min
Flight of the long knives: Prigozhin’s reported death
History would suggest that the crash of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane was an assassination. Our correspondent considers what the supposed death of the Wagner Group’s leader means for Ukraine—and what it s...
24 Aug 202321min
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
