Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group fighters are said to be welcome in safe-haven Belarus. We ask how Aleksandr Lukashenko, the country’s puppet president, ended up in the role of peace broker. Our correspondent investigates why so many American states are having to bail out public-transport companies. And the diplomatic benefits of wearing red on visits to China.

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A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, the trouble with sticky inflation, the challenge of building Ukraine 2.0 (10:30) and why Modelo Especial is the new king of beers (18:45). 

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Yevgeny Prigozhin, nicknamed “Putin’s chef”, leads the Wagner Group of mercenaries fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. He had lambasted Russia’s military leaders for months, but the mutiny he began over the weekend lasted less than a day. Nevertheless it is a sharp blow to President Vladimir Putin’s leadership—and may prove to be a boon for Ukraine’s counter-offensive.

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A year ago the Supreme Court upended abortion access in America. The court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade allowed states to ban abortion, leaving a patchwork of policies across the country. What difference has the ruling actually made, and what will happen next in the fight over abortion access?

Dr Ushma Upadhyay from the Society of Family Planning shares the latest numbers. Dr Alicia Gutierrez-Romine, author of “From Back Alley to the Border”, remembers Ronald Reagan’s surprising role in widening abortion access. And The Economist’s Stevie Hertz travels to Ohio, where voters are being asked to decide the future of the state’s abortion rights.  

John Prideaux hosts with Charlotte Howard and Idrees Kahloon.

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In the months since America’s Supreme Court gave states the power to ban abortions, those in support of the ruling have become more splintered. And with the help of leftist language, they are finding new recruits. A new discovery about the intelligence of a human-like species is changing how we understand evolution. And, a tribute to the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers.

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Cities across the world are in the midst of an identity crisis. With fewer workers commuting into offices and more shoppers heading online, what are they now for? It’s a question that commercial real estate investors are scrambling to find an answer to.

On this week’s podcast, hosts Tom Lee-Devlin, Mike Bird and Alice Fulwood explore an office block that’s been repurposed to find out what the future holds for cities. Nick Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford who’s been researching home working for more than two decades, tells them fully remote work can dent productivity by 10%. And Ed Glaeser, chair of the economics department at Harvard and one of the world’s leading experts on urban economics, says that troubled cities like San Francisco need to focus on making their downtown areas safe.

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Members of the alliance are conflicted over the prospect of Ukraine’s membership. In particular, America has changed its mind, and this could affect the future of the war. Because of rapidly rising sea levels, China’s coastal cities are on sinking sand. Will another great wall slow the tide? And, say hello to our new Style Guide.

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The Biden administration is expected to declassify some information gathered on the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, hoping to end a three-year battle over whether covid-19 came from a seafood market or a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Some scientists say they have strong evidence for a market origin—although many are far from convinced. Will this mystery ever be solved? 

Natasha Loder, The Economist’s health editor, asks James Wood, an epidemiologist at the University of Cambridge, how to trace a virus back to its source—and why interpreting the patchy data is so complicated. Plus, Alison Young, the author of “Pandora’s Gamble” explains the implications of this investigation on laboratory safety. Alok Jha, The Economist’s science and technology editor, hosts. 

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Narendra Modi is cosying up to America, but not at the expense of valuable relationships with Russia and China. Our correspondent speaks with the country’s foreign minister who details its unique worldview. After losing its charismatic leader, what does the future hold for the Scottish National Party? And a change the supply of body parts in Britain.

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Last year, China’s population began to decline for the first time since 1962 and its reign as the most populous country in the world is over.

The Economist’s Beijing bureau chief, David Rennie, and senior China correspondent, Alice Su, discuss what China’s shrinking population means for its future and what scars the one-child policy has left behind. They travel to Yichan, a city in Heilongjiang province, where children are a rarity to ask what lessons can be learned on how to manage decline.

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