logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2023
24m 44s

In the big leagues now: Saudi Arabia’s p...

The Economist
About this episode

Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman says a presence in top-level global sport is one route to modernising; critics call the effort a distraction from the country’s appalling human-rights record. Brazil’s government is pushing reforms that are clearly calming investors, who had fretted about a return to ruinously spendthrift policies (9:20). And how speedy “first-person-view” drones are changing the fight in Ukraine (16:25).


For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, try a free 30-day digital subscription by going to www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer



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

Up next
Today
Grand theft global: the business of street crime
Car and phone theft were once the preserve of petty crooks in London. Now they underpin a vast and spreading international criminal network. Why you should consider consulting a new oracle for making big life decisions: an economist. And the cult of the private chef.Listen to wha ... Show More
19m 37s
Yesterday
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
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2023
In the big leagues now: Saudi Arabia’s push into sport
Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman says a presence in top-level global sport is one route to modernising; critics call the effort a distraction from the country’s appalling human-rights record. Brazil’s government is pushing reforms that are clearly calming investors, who had frett ... Show More
24m 44s
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
Nov 2021
Putin’s defiers: repression in Russia
As the economy has deteriorated and the internet has bypassed television, persecution of opponents has become the president’s main tool of political control. Even the pandemic has been harnessed to silence dissent. An Economist film reports on the young women standing up to Vladi ... Show More
19m 58s
Jan 2023
Editor’s Picks: January 16th 2023
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, the destructive new logic that threatens globalisation, how Brazil should deal with the bolsonarista insurrection (11:55) and our review of Prince Harry’s autobiography (16:45).  ... Show More
21m 16s
Dec 2022
More generals, less pacific: Japan’s new defence policy
A strategy approved today peels back some of the country’s constitutional pacifism; in large part that is because of its tense relationship with a hawkish China. Despite some promising reforms, violence against women remains rampant in India. And our obituaries editor looks back ... Show More
26m 25s
Dec 2023
The Intelligence: Putin’s growing advantage
Even before America’s tussle over funding Ukraine’s war effort, it seemed as if Russia was gaining the upper hand—by exploiting Ukraine’s widening political cracks. A drought-induced traffic jam in the Panama Canal will only get worse in the coming dry season, and consumer-price ... Show More
23m 31s
Mar 2024
The Intelligence: Russia’s sham election
Voting begins today in an election that has already been won – all the opposition politicians are dead, in prison or in exile. Vladimir Putin wants to give the illusion of legitimacy. Will the rumblings of a protest deprive him of that goal? There is evidence that Sudan is becomi ... Show More
23m 20s
Nov 2023
The Intelligence: Swede demons
Drug-related shootings and bombings are on the rise. Policies are changing and law-enforcement budgets rising, but stemming the violence is proving politically tricky. Our columnist considers how China is using the war in Gaza to burnish its diplomatic credentials (9:36). And the ... Show More
25m 26s
Apr 2024
The Intelligence: Britain’s latest bad idea
As Parliament has now agreed to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, many members of the ruling Conservative party want to quit the court that tried to block it. It would be yet another costly mistake. Earth’s largest refrigerator, Antarctica, is defrosting. What does this mean for the ... Show More
26m 5s
Oct 2023
The Intelligence: Israel’s Gaza offensive
The long-anticipated invasion is not the expected blitzkrieg; we ask how a longer, more cautious war will be fought. Kemal Ataturk is still wildly popular a century after he founded modern Turkey—so instead of undoing his legacy, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is simply claiming ... Show More
28m 40s