Clerical era: Iraq in a hard place
A pilgrimage that is sure to become a covid-19 hotspot is a sign of how much the country’s government is losing legitimacy to its clergymen and tribal leaders. Social-media giants’ efforts to scrub vi...
7 Okt 202019min
Sailing into the wind: Boris Johnson
Britain’s prime minister will outline big wind-energy plans at his party’s annual conference, even as the pandemic and Brexit blow his government off course. The sombre tone at a thanksgiving festival...
6 Okt 202022min
Ill-disposed: Trump’s hospital stay
Amid a flurry of conflicting information over the weekend, details of Donald Trump’s progress and prognosis remain worryingly unclear. How will this brush with the virus change the campaign, or the pr...
5 Okt 202021min
In Syria’s trouble: an embattled despot digs in
Unexpected defeats at rebels’ hands, a cratered economy, a hungry citizenry and a runaway covid-19 epidemic: can anything unseat Bashar al-Assad? When Germany reunified, many worried it would upset th...
2 Okt 202022min
Enclave on edge: Armenia and Azerbaijan
The region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been the subject of dispute and skirmishes for decades—but the current conflict threatens to draw in both Turkey and Russia. Rule changes accelerated by the pandemic...
1 Okt 202019min
Shoutshow: Trump and Biden clash
America’s first presidential debate was unmitigated chaos, revealing little more than the rancour between the candidates. In Chicago a newish musical genre called drill has a strong relation to the ci...
30 Sep 202023min
No-tax-and-spend policy: Trump’s tax returns
Just ahead of the first presidential debate, a trove of tax documents suggests the president has some staggeringly loss-making businesses and a staggering amount of debt coming due. We examine China’s...
29 Sep 202021min
Bench press: Trump’s Supreme Court pick
On gun rights, abortion policy and health care Amy Coney Barrett, the seemingly unstoppable successor to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, will shift the court’s balance for decades. In China, the visually impaire...
28 Sep 202023min
