Author: The Economist

BioNTech, the German firm behind the first licensed coronavirus jab, reveals its attempts to stuff its technology into shipping containers—to be used where they are most needed. In the second instalment of our French-election series, we ask what is left of the country’s left. And, as the Olympics wrap up, putting numbers to judges' biases that favour their compatriots. 

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Last summer President Kais Saied nobbled the legislature; now he has abolished the judiciary. We ask where the country is headed, and why there is so little protest. Brazil’s modern-art scene, born a century ago this week, flourished despite rocky politics—but the current president has a chokehold on it. And the Thai army’s quixotic mission to evict Bangkok’s legendary street-food hawkers. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer

Today’s figures showing the first annual economic growth in three years may seem promising. But the grand plans of Prime Minister Kishida Fumio resemble past policies that have not worked. The finely tuned government of Bosnia is under grave threat from some of the same forces that caused its brutal war. And why roadkill is now on the menu in Wyoming.

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It has become much more than a fight against proof-of-vaccination strictures. The anti-government mood has spread in Canada and abroad. What happens next? Haiti has received billions upon billions in foreign assistance but its situation remains dire; we ask why all that aid has not aided much. And Reader’s Digest, a surprisingly influential American snappy-excerpts magazine, turns 100.

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Since American forces left, pessimism has skyrocketed—and with good reason. Starvation is driving Afghans to sell their organs and even their children in order to eat. The artificial snow of this year’s winter Olympics is unsustainable and environmentally troubling; we meet a “snow consultant” pioneering a better way. And remembering Lata Mangeshkar, who gave voice to a newly liberated India.

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The state-legislature poll in Uttar Pradesh is in effect a vote on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s increasingly stringent Hindu-national agenda—and will hint at his party’s chances in 2024. Oil majors are getting points for selling off their dirtiest oil-and-gas operations; we ask who is buying them. And which countries are up and which are down in our annual Democracy Index. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer

So far Germany’s new chancellor has been all but invisible at home and on the international stage. We examine the motives behind his reticence—and his abilities during a European crisis. As space becomes a battleground and satellites become targets, new research aims to bring nuclear power to bear. And visiting a red-hot art exhibition in three ways at once. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer

 For years, the big tech firms Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google were seen as a collective good bet; investors will soon judge them each on their merits—or demerits. After Israel’s creation, Jews were shunned in the Arab world; that now seems to be changing, and quickly. And, on the frozen ground at Ukraine’s border, there will be mud.

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After protracted negotiations, at last a conclusion appears nigh—but depending on whom you ask, a breakthrough is as likely as a breakdown. The regime in Bangladesh has been growing more brutal, yet some American sanctions seem to have had a swift and surprising effect. And Japan focuses on healthier, happier sunset years.

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Our correspondent describes the fraught effort to attend the opening ceremony. It is a pageant highlighting a divided world, with party leaders aiming for zero covid, zero mistakes and zero dissent. An investigation reveals the brutal treatment meted out by Libya’s coast guard dealing with Europe-bound migrants—an outfit bankrolled by the European Union itself. And America’s gun-owners become surprisingly diverse.

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