• The Weekend Intelligence: Detoxified
    Sep 14 2024

    How do you detoxify a Nazi monument? Do you tear it down and start over, or memorialise it and acknowledge past sins?


    Vendeline von Bredow visits the Die Das academy in Saaleck, a place where west (Germany) meets east, past meets present, and history is contested.

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    46 mins
  • Come on out, the vacuum’s fine: SpaceX
    Sep 13 2024

    Capsule that can withstand vacuum? Check. Low-pressure spacesuit? Check. Space-friendly Doritos? Check. The first spacewalk by private citizens showcases SpaceX’s prowess, the viability of privately funded exploration—and extraplanetary product placement. Gene editing has revolutionised the treatment for certain conditions, but can the staggering prices be brought down (11:30)? And some big news about Espresso, our daily briefing app (20:20).


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    27 mins
  • Chip wreck: Intel is on the rocks
    Sep 12 2024

    One of America’s stalwart tech giants is on the ropes, having first missed the move to mobile and then the one to AI. We ask what fate awaits it. Our correspondent meets with Vadym Sukharevsky, head of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces—the world’s first drone commander (9:05). And what is behind Donald Trump’s outlandish claim of immigrants eating pets in Ohio (16:40).


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    24 mins
  • Don wan: Harris keeps Trump tame
    Sep 11 2024

    The vice-president turned in a confident if imperfect performance, leaving Donald Trump flustered. But will it change anything? A global shortfall of blood plasma is hampering the development of new medicines; we argue for some simple market forces that could plug the gap (11:40). And how Nigerians are slimming their legendarily lavish weddings amid a cost-of-living crisis (18.10).


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    23 mins
  • Mario druthers: Draghi’s plan for Europe
    Sep 10 2024

    The EU’s unofficial chief technocrat issued a doorstop of a report outlining how the bloc can boost growth and keep up in a changing world. Is it all too ambitious? Mexico’s lame-duck president has one last project in mind: undermining the judiciary (10:44). And as the film “Fight Club” turns 25 our correspondent finds many of its disturbing messages still resonate (17:49).


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    24 mins
  • Plainly reigns but on a plane to Spain: Venezuela’s leader
    Sep 9 2024

    Nicolás Maduro has stolen an election, again—but this time the rightful winner felt so threatened that he has fled to Spain. We ask what happens next. A valedictory dispatch from our global business columnist asks why the forces of “creative destruction” seem to have faded (10:27). And the youth clubs that stitched together the fabric of young Britons’ lives are disappearing (18:55).


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    24 mins
  • Grand Barnier: France’s new prime minister
    Sep 6 2024

    Two months ago, French politics was thrown into crisis after a snap election left no party with a clear majority. Michel Barnier, the new prime minister, has a huge task ahead. Donald Trump’s campaign took time to adjust to the nomination of Kamala Harris. Now he’s on the attack again (9:40). And celebrating the life of stonemason, Simon Verity (17:37).


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    25 mins
  • Current affairs: how batteries will green the grid
    Sep 5 2024

    Though we use more renewable energy than ever before, electricity grids need ways to cope with intermittent wind or solar power. Innovations that make batteries to store that energy bigger, cheaper and more efficient can help. Why tourists are flocking to Asia (9:41). And a listener asks how we should talk to our children about AI (16:59).


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    24 mins