Good, bad and ugly: the Taliban and Afghanist...

Last night, the populist-right leader announced that she will run in the French presidential election next year. Our correspondent analyses the Le Pen dynasty and explains how this decision will shape the campaign. The world’s first refuge for whales once held in captivity. And o ...  Show more

As NATO leaders gather for the annual summit in Turkey today, the thorniest issue is off the agenda: fractures within the alliance. Our correspondent travels to the Baltics, where a strategic shift is already evident. First there was vibe coding, now vibe lawyering is coming to c ...  Show more

Their return to rule is unequivocally bad for the country’s women and girls. But wholesale collapse has not come and some aspects of government have <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/05/01/life-under-the-rule-of-the-taliban-20?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podc ...

When the Taliban resumed power, there were hopes that women might not be as excluded, repressed and abused as they were previously. Those hopes <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2022/04/02/the-taliban-are-pushing-females-out-of-public-life?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio ...  Show more

Rights for women and girls have regressed by decades; the economy is cratering. Yet, for many rural Afghans, things are actually <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2022/08/11/afghanistan-is-poorer-and-hungrier-than-a-year-ago?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np& ...

It is unclear whether better governance lies ahead after a <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2021/09/05/alpha-conde-the-president-of-guinea-is-apparently-ousted-in-a-coup?utm_campaign=the-intelligence&utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=third-party-host&utm_c ...