Laughing all the way: banks’ pandemic windfal...

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

The markets are so far entirely unconvinced that the new administration’s <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/09/22/liz-trusss-selective-reaganomics-wont-work?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.ano ...

State and local pandemic responses are scattershot; a national effort is all but nonexistent. A creeping sense of fatalism makes for peril far beyond the country’s borders. Aggregate American jobs numbers are promising, but our correspondent digs deeper to find <a href="https://w ...  Show more

While Britons followed covid strictures, the prime minister’s residence hosted boozy gatherings; <a href="https://www.economist.com/britain/boris-johnsons-career-of-rule-breaking-runs-into-crisis/21807144?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&ut ...  Show more

Desperate scenes in the city of Manaus may foretell a dire wave throughout the country. A misguided sense of “herd immunity” has worsened matters, as has the president’s persistent scepticism. We examine history to see how lasers progressed from practical impossibility to utter u ...  Show more