logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2022
27m 23s

In sofa as I can recall: troubles for Cy...

The Economist
About this episode

South Africa’s leader says a pile of cash stashed in a sofa represents no wrongdoing. The outcome of an investigation could be the undoing of his presidency and his party. We examine Britain’s hydrogen-economy plans as representing the tradeoffs that many countries will face. And remembering Jay Pasachoff, the world’s foremost expert on and exponent of eclipses.

Help us make the show better: take our listener survey at http://economist.com/intelligencesurvey

For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Today
That warm buzzy feeling: malaria and climate change
As temperatures climb, mosquitoes will migrate to places where natural resistance to malaria is lower. More and more severe natural disasters will make for more breeding grounds. How to stop a deadly disease getting deadlier? In China’s cut-throat food-delivery war, absolutely no ... Show More
24m 43s
Aug 22
Rule and divide: opposition grows in Syria
Less than nine months after Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad was toppled, the honeymoon is over. How is the new regime responding to rising dissent? Introducing Britain’s revolutionary retirees: why pensioners increasingly dominate political protest. And celebrating the life of o ... Show More
23m 38s
Aug 21
Stake and chips: will America take 10% of Intel?
Intel was once synonymous with chip-making, but in recent years it has fallen behind. Now the Trump administration may become its biggest shareholder. A political assassination in Colombia raises fears about a return to violence. And what an annual snail race tells us about rural ... Show More
21m 2s
Recommended Episodes
Dec 2022
In sofa as I can recall: troubles for Cyril Ramaphosa
South Africa’s leader says a pile of cash stashed in a sofa represents no wrongdoing. The outcome of an investigation could be the undoing of his presidency and his party. We examine Britain’s hydrogen-economy plans as representing the tradeoffs that many countries will face. And ... Show More
27m 23s
Dec 2022
Square dealing: Jiang Zemin dies
The Chinese leader who took over a squabbling party following the Tiananmen Square massacre surprised the world by stifling dissent, overseeing a staggering economic awakening—and occasionally breaking into song. We examine the lessons to be drawn from his legacy. After scores of ... Show More
25m 37s
Dec 2022
Pastor present: Georgia’s Senate runoff
Democrats will have a bit more breathing room in the Senate, with an outright majority provided by Reverend Raphael Warnock’s win. We ask what the state-level victory reveals about national politics. Algeria’s leadership has benefited from an oil-and-gas boom; lamentably, its lon ... Show More
28m 12s
Jul 2020
The Economist Asks: David Malpass
The Economist Asks: David MalpassThe president of the World Bank talks to host Anne McElvoy and Henry Curr, our economics editor, about how to stop covid-19 undoing decades of progress on global poverty. A veteran of the Trump and Reagan administrations, David Malpass argues that ... Show More
28m 18s
Dec 2022
Like biding a Reich: Germany’s alleged coup plot
Raids across the country netted 25 far-right extremists suspected of trying to overthrow the government. We look into what is known about a hare-brained plan to dissolve the republic and restore a king. Spates of spontaneous violence in Chicago reveal the unintended consequences ... Show More
25m 21s
May 2023
In from the cold: Assad’s diplomatic redemption
Tomorrow, Syria’s president will be welcomed back into the Arab League as regional leaders meet in Jeddah. Is this the dictator’s first step in a journey to restore ties with the rest of the world? America’s small banks are capturing rural communities in a way that the big ones c ... Show More
23m 49s
Jun 2020
Spend, sometime: Germany’s economic shift
After decades as the continent’s penny-pincher, the country seems to be splashing out. That isn’t just a covid-19 response; a big thrift shift was already under way. Burundi’s brutal outgoing president of 15 years has died. Will his chosen successor be any better? And after some ... Show More
21m 46s
Oct 2023
The Intelligence: Navalny’s peril deepens
President Vladimir Putin has long had it in for Alexei Navalny, Russia’s principal opposition figure. But now his lawyers are in peril, too, and Mr Navalny’s privations in prison are ramping up. Gaza’s need for aid may be urgent but is not new—Israel’s economic stranglehold goes ... Show More
27m 22s
Nov 2023
The Intelligence: Sam Bankman-Fried convicted
From can-do-no-wrong wunderkind to one of the biggest fraudsters in the history of finance: we look at Sam Bankman-Fried’s fall and conviction, and what it has done to the wider cryptocurrency industry. The evident successes of IVF treatment mask many disappointments; how to impr ... Show More
28m 49s
Feb 2024
The Intelligence: Russia after Navalny
At last President Vladimir Putin’s regime has succeeded in silencing the country’s most prominent opposition figure. What happens next? Demand for electric cars is weakening, particularly in Britain; we ask how to recharge the market (11:47). And what is remarkable about a stage ... Show More
23m 50s