Watts the problem: Texas’s energy failings

Tocqueville saw America’s faith in its own democracy as a vital force. But these days the majority of Americans think the country is headed in the wrong direction. Can a group of maximum security prisoners in Sing Sing offer a vision of how to get back on track?Guests and HostsJo ...  Show more

John Prideaux, The Economist’s US Editor, embarks on a roadtrip to see how America’s democracy is faring in the era of Trump. His companion is a long-dead French aristocrat called Alexis De Tocqueville, author of arguably the best book ever written about America. When Tocqueville ...  Show more

An intense winter storm has plunged Texas into darkness. The state’s electricity grid has failed in the face of the worst cold weather there in decades.

The Texas blackouts could be a glimpse into America’s future as a result of climate change. Today, we explore the reas ...

Our correspondent travels to the border of the locked-down Hubei province, finding among the people a mixture of resignation, fear and distrust. Was the draconian response appropriate? Big oil firms have just the kind of expertise needed to make a vast transition to renewables; i ...  Show more

The country’s war-torn north-west has been getting far less aid than it needs in the earthquakes’ aftermath. We investigate <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/02/16/bashar-al-assad-does-not-want-to-let-a-calamity-go-to-waste?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_me ...

To an outsider, it seems like the state of Texas now has no choice but to make huge changes to its energy policies, with last week's freeze-induced power outages and utility failures becoming nothing short of catastrophic. But Rachel Adams-Heard isn't too sure about that.The Bloo ...  Show more