The Intelligence from The Economist

The president is using racist hate-mongering as both a rallying tool and a distraction mechanism. It is the oldest trick in the autocrat playbook and it proving effective. Why are some Americans flocking to start new lives in Europe (10.36)? And, a tribute to a Ukrainian pilot who made the case for his country to get F-16 fighter jets (18.03).

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Putsches in Africa are becoming more common and there appears to be a trend. Are there more to come and is there any hope of restoring democracy? Lebanon’s tourism sector is bringing foreign money back into the economy, but it’s not trickling down (10:27). And, the American right is propelling a new song to chart-topping popularity (16:44).

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Three months into the counteroffensive, the military is reaping the fruits of several months of drone development. But as the war continues, will it be able to scale up its capacity and outpace Russia? New international laws cracking down on Caribbean tax havens seem to be working (10:03). And politicians reignite an old debate on official language use in Spain (17:21).

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Owing to a host of deep-rooted economic and political challenges, it could be the only G7 economy to contract this year. How might it turn the tide? More people want flashy, bigger electric vehicles, but are the added environmental costs counterproductive (10:00)? And examining the decline in Mandarin learning (18:18).

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From Japan to South Korea, from China to Taiwan, family structures are becoming less traditional. More premarital cohabitation, single parenthood and two-income households are influencing demographics—with worrying consequences. And we pay tribute to 50 years of hip-hop. The New York-born genre is taking the world by storm, and picking up new influences along the way (9:22).

Additional music “HIP-HOP” courtesy of RayZa.

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The alliance was always based more on common fortunes than common interests. We ask what to make of the six new members, and whether the bloc’s motley nature undermines its purpose. Regulation has struggled in an era when children can become “influencers”, but it is starting to catch up (9:36). And remembering Bindeshwar Pathak, who realised India’s future depended on toilets (16:28).

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History would suggest that the crash of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane was an assassination. Our correspondent considers what the supposed death of the Wagner Group’s leader means for Ukraine—and what it says about Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Indonesia has fostered a more moderate version of Islam that it would now like to export (9:58). And meeting an indigenous pioneer of Peruvian pop (16:21).

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Arranging friendly media coverage, giving handouts to voters, stifling opposition rallies: once again the country’s ruling party has put its thumb on the scales. It has to, after decades of failed governance. Our correspondent visits fire-ravaged Lahaina in Hawaii, finding equal parts shock and anger among residents (10:32). And the curious rise of Britain’s self-pitying lawmakers (18:38).

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Once again, fears are ripping through the industry—this time starting from a firm once thought too big to fail. In an economy so dependent on housebuilding, that will have wide-ranging consequences. We take a ride in one of the autonomous taxis that have flooded onto San Francisco’s streets (10:22). And crunching the numbers on Antarctica’s worrisome dearth of sea ice (19:40). 

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Ecuador and Guatemala faced similar preoccupations with violence and corruption—one of Ecuador’s candidates was assassinated on the campaign trail—but their electoral outcomes were very different. What does that reveal about the region? Once rare in America, leprosy is on the rise again, particularly in Florida (8:04). And how Singapore leads the charge for “alternative proteins” (14:08). 

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