The Intelligence from The Economist

Here comes the son? Brazil’s election tips rightward

Flávio Bolsonaro, populist-right son of the imprisoned coup architect Jair, received the most votes in the presidential first round. We ask why Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,

Coffer stop: AI may shrink tax base

If Artificial Intelligence results in job losses or lower salaries, government revenues will fall. Our correspondent explains how best to tax the windfalls from AI. Paint

Trial and terror: Russia escalates Kyiv campaign

Russia has embarked on a new campaign to quell Ukraine, focused on supermarkets, playgrounds and other civilian targets. Our correspondent reports on the toll on daily li

Cheques and the City: Premier League disgrace

An independent commission has found Manchester City guilty of breaching over 100 rules. What penalty will the Premier League exact? Russia’s increasingly brazen attempts

Brazil rut: Lula v Bolsonaro, again

On October 4th, Brazil faces a polarising general election: re-elect the octogenarian incumbent or pick the son of a former president jailed for attempting a coup. In som

Foiled plot: did Iran plan British base attack?

Five men are in custody under suspicion of explosives and terrorism offences after being arrested near a British military base used by American aircraft. This could mark

Big meet, little meat: the Trump-Xi summit

Not much of real substance appears to have emerged from the get-together. But our correspondent says there are clues of how both sides view an evolving relationship. Tomm

Home disadvantage: risks in housing markets

Rich-world house prices survived the last fit of interest-rate rises; our correspondent lays out why they may not this time. Nine months after Australia banned social med

National front-runner: who can beat Le Pen?

Marine Le Pen, party leader of France’s populist-right National Rally, starts her fourth presidential bid with a commanding lead. The country’s political centre is broad,

The mob rule: criminality consumes South Africa

An illicit shadow economy, rampant extortion and the capture of the criminal justice system: mafia members and tactics are eating away at the state. Oura seems to have ca

Centre punch: Germany’s state-election shocker

Two more state-election results reveal surging support for both the far-right AfD and the populist-left Die Linke parties. Chancellor Friedrich Merz himself described the

Drone truth: Russia has the upper hand

After a visit to Ukraine last week, our defence editor reports on a new phase of the war as Kyiv and other civilian targets are bombarded by Russian missiles. He also vis

Rise and shine: Warsh’s Fed rate test

The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates for the first time since July 2023. For the central bank’s new chair Kevin Warsh, that decision was a test both of monetary

The end of the world is AI? An existential threat

Is artificial intelligence becoming uncontrollably powerful? Our correspondent analyses whether a pause to breakneck development is possible or feasible. We have entered

Islamism in Britain: what is the threat?

Though a growing share of the British population is anxious about Islam, they have no reason to be. Islamism, a fringe ideology that believes government and society shoul

Strait and narrowing: the Houthis’ striking advance

After years of stalemate, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis are taking territory, including on a Red Sea strait. We ask what has changed, and how the shift fits into the wider

The Weekend Intelligence: Shire folk - Episode 1: Tommy's Town

For 15 years, the British media dismissed Tommy Robinson as a far-right extremist. We kept him off our televisions, and out of our newspapers.  Today his rallies attract

Out-numbered: AI’s contentious maths milestone

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 annivers

Working through it: the AI jobs boom dawns

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

Chainsaw sputtering: Milei’s experiment falters

President Javier Milei has tamed inflation and improved the lot of many Argentines. But an election season approaches, and the promised economic and wage growth are not m