The Weekend Intelligence: Shire folk

OpenAI’s claim to have solved one of the great problems in mathematics has itself created problems. We ask why the breakthrough has shaken the field. On the 25th anniversary of 9/11 we examine the vast counterterrorism machinery that followed in America, and nascent efforts to pa ...  Show more

The labour data are in from America and a trend is becoming clearer: on balance AI is starting to create more jobs than it hoovers up. Despite advancements of just about every other kind, China cannot seem to escape its food-safety problems. We ask why not. And why Kenya’s ants h ...  Show more

The country’s dictator has spent nearly half his time in power waging war on his own people. His patchwork support network is fading, but he will not go easily. America’s racial unrest has put reparations back in the national conversation—but how best to pay slaves’ descendants, ...  Show more

As Syrians continue to suffer under Bashir al-Asaad, Christiane asks a Syrian journalist and a former US ambassador why world leaders are welcoming him back into the fold … The story behind the emotional reunion of a US Army vet who refused to leave his Afghan counterpart behind ...  Show more

As the country marks ten years of civil war, the economy is crippled; it has broken up into statelets and ethnic encl ...  Show more

Widespread looting and the worst violence since apartheid continue, exposing ethnic divisions and the persistent influence of Jacob Zuma, a former president. <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/07/14/south-africas-war-for-the-rule-of-law?utm_campaign=the-intelligen ...