Babbage: How to avoid a battery shortage

After decades of overpopulation worries, the country now has the opposite concern. We examine India’s unusual demographic turn, and why it is a wider warning to the world. Vegan substitutes have broadly improved in recent years—so why is there no good vegan cheese? And rememberin ...  Show more

Nigel Farage, leader of the populist-right Reform UK party, wants Britons to be enraged by a killing in the street. We ask why his tone has changed from “colour-blind” to race-baiting. NATO must now take seriously the idea that America is pulling back; we ask how it is adjusting. ...  Show more

At last President Vladimir Putin’s regime has <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/02/16/how-alexei-navalny-robbed-putin-of-his-power?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_ ...

Melting ski slopes, floods and droughts are enraging the continent’s citizens, but not quite enough for them to consider <a href="https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/03/04/europes-new-look-winter-floods-high-sea-levels-and-melting-glaciers?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio. ...

No energy source has ever increased as fast as solar photovoltaics. The technology will transform humanity’s energy consumption–even when the sun doesn’t shine. Many people associate champagne with success but wine collectors often shun it. Now global sales are fizzing (10:51) ...

Renewables and electric vehicles are on a tear, and they’ll soon likely attract $2 trillion in yearly investment. But global emissions have not peaked.  So what are the new frontiers of technology that will make renewables and storage more valuable – and draw down emissions at th ...  Show more