State capture is a growing threat. Reversing it is hard
BANK REGULATORS are seldom celebrities. But Ahsan Mansur, the governor of Bangladesh’s central bank, is an exception. Since h...
China has a thriving black market for personal data
Chinese netizens joined people around the world in marvelling that an American journalist could be accidentally invited into ...
China could greatly reduce its reliance on coal. It probably will not
In Shuozhou, a nondescript city of 1.6m people in northern China’s Shanxi province, the veins of the local economy run black ...
Celebrations as South Korean Court Removes Impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol
South Korea’s top court ended months of political turmoil when it unanimously decided to remove the impeached president Yoon ...
Latin American migrants transfer money like never before
Antonio Orduña has lived in Arizona for 30 years as an undocumented migrant, now working as a gardener. In January, after Don...
Brazil’s government-run payments system has become dominant
In november 2020 the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) launched Pix, a digital payment system, into the teeth of the covid-19 pand...
Khartoum changes hands, marking a new phase in Sudan’s civil war
Nearly two years after being forced to fall back to Port Sudan on the coast, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under General Ab...
America steps up bombing the Houthis but lacks a clear strategy
WHEN America started bombing the Houthis on March 15th, your correspondent messaged a diplomat: was this déjà vu or something...
Donald Trump is attacking what made American universities great
The conservative counter-revolution began with a secret memo, at least as the tale is often told on America’s political left,...
Russia’s army is being subordinated to its security services
TWO WEEKS after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Sergei Beseda’s mobile phone went dead. Mr Beseda, a general in the ...