Country of the year: The Economist picks

From impasse in Iran to still-unresolved conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, a trend is clear: President Donald Trump’s scant, early plans for peace do not actually forge a path to it. Our correspondent says that in the driverless-car future, it will often be Chinese AI behind the whe ...  Show more

A dive into the data reveals that, despite dire past predictions, the prevalence of dementia is actually waning. We take a look at Pix, a beloved Brazilian digital-payments system, and why it so bothers President Donald Trump. And we attend one of the concerts that reveals how th ...  Show more

In the past 12 months, there has been no lack of news. Editors at The Economist have picked their way through the rubble to uncover some optimism: <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/12/19/the-economists-country-of-the-year-for-2024?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=aud ...

Which <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/12/20/the-economists-country-of-the-year-for-2023?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners" rel="noope ...

Each year The Economist selects its country of the year: a place that has improved the most. Improvement, though, was damnably rare in 2021. We run through our nominations and the shortlist, and take a close look at <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/12/1 ...