It has been a particularly busy term for America’s Supreme Court. Big decisions have arrived on guns, abortion, homelessness, presidential power—and more.
The long-developing deregulatory goal of the conservative legal movement has had a banner year—a trajectory that would probably be supercharged if Donald Trump wins a second presidential term.
And the chances of another four years for Mr Trump improved when the six conservative justices gave the candidate something approaching a stay-out-of-jail card in a case concerning presidential immunity.
Tap the link in our bio to discover how America’s highest court has ticked the three boxes of the conservative legal movement over the past three years.
Illustration: @ben_jones_illustration
When it comes to politics, age is not just a number. The recent debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump proved as much: as the two elderly candidates struggled to make coherent arguments, millions of Americans grew alarmed about the state of their country’s leadership.
Societies governed primarily by old people have arisen in different periods and places. They often aspire to lock a lost political order in place and fear passing the torch to a new generation. But that isn’t what’s happening in America. Tap the link in our bio to find out more about the country’s peculiar gerontocracy.
Illustrations: @klauskremmerz
For the past 30 years all of America’s presidents, with the exception of Barack Obama, have been white men born in the 1940s. John Prideaux, our US editor, investigates why in “Boom!”, a new six-part podcast series about how the boomer generation blew up American politics. Tap the link in our bio to listen #Biden#Trump#boomers#politics
Ever since the day after Hamas’s attack last October, Hizbullah, another Iran-backed militia, based in Lebanon, has battered northern Israel with rocket and drone strikes.
A dangerous conflagration with Hizbullah looms. An outright war could be one of the biggest conflicts in the region for decades.
The threat from Hizbullah is not new, but it is more serious than it was. Another war now would be disastrous for Israel. That means it should seek to build deterrence.
To deter the militia, Israel’s leaders must repair ties with America. To find out why—and to learn what another war could mean for the region—tap the link in our bio.
Photo: Getty Images
The West’s relations with countries in the Sahel seemed to have hit rock bottom in May when Niger ordered America to withdraw its forces by September—having already booted out a French counter-terrorism mission—and welcomed Russian military advisers. Then even this bottom fell out.
Last month Niger, which supplies about a quarter of Europe’s uranium, revoked the mining licence of France’s state-owned nuclear fuel company. Many fear the country will now hand over the rights to one of the world’s biggest uranium mines to a Russian state-owned firm.
Niger’s turn against the West comes amid what many in French-speaking west Africa are calling a second “independence”. It is being spurred by a new generation of nationalists who have taken power in former French colonies from Senegal to Chad and the three core countries of the Sahel: Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
West Africa’s new nationalism is inchoate, sometimes contradictory, and vulnerable to authoritarian drift. But it would be a mistake to assume that its standard-bearers are unbending ideologues destined for Russia’s orbit. Click on the link in our bio to learn why.
Photo: Getty Images
The presidential debate was awful for Joe Biden, but the cover-up has been worse. It was agony to watch a befuddled old man struggle to recall words. His inability to land a blow against a weak opponent was dispiriting.
But the operation by his campaign to deny what millions of Americans saw with their own eyes is even more toxic. Its dishonesty provokes contempt. The effect has been to put the White House within Donald Trump’s grasp.
Mr Biden deserves to be remembered for his accomplishments and his decency rather than his decline. So it is right that the first senior Democrats have begun to call openly for him to step aside.
Click the link in our bio to read why more must do so—and why Mr Biden must withdraw.
Cover image: @teteerck
Swipe to discover some of the key battlegrounds in Britain’s upcoming election ➡️
For the third time in just over seven years, Britons are heading to the polls to elect a new Parliament.
The Economist will be offering expert analysis throughout what is likely to be a monumental election.
Will you be following along? Tap the link in our bio to explore and bookmark our results page where we will have the latest seat outcomes, battleground analysis and more.
In Queshan county, on the plains of central China, fields that are usually green with maize plants are brown and dusty. It has barely rained for two months and village wells are running dry.
The drought, which has affected eight Chinese provinces, is the worst many locals can remember.
With just 6% of the world's freshwater China must quench the thirst of 20% of the world’s population. The uneven distribution of China's water supply adds to the challenge. Leaders past and present have relied on big infrastructure projects to move it from wetter to drier places.
But now climate change is testing the entire country. In just the past month China has suffered through the drought in the north and flooding in the south which killed dozens of people.
Tap the link in our bio to learn how a looming water crisis threatens everything from farms to data centres—and why the government's response to the problem could prove shortsighted.
Photo: Getty Images
Some fires are hard to snuff out. The one that started after Joe Biden’s recent disastrous debate performance, through which he stammered only semi-lucidly, is developing into a blaze.
For a few days it was only the media—albeit including the columnists and commentators closest to the president—who were calling for him to abandon his bid for re-election. But now his support within the Democratic Party has started to crack.
Lloyd Doggett, a representative from Texas, has become the first sitting Democratic congressman to call for him to stand aside. Betting markets have since raised the odds of Mr Biden leaving the race to 75%.
Leaks are proliferating of meetings in which Democratic congressmen and governors cast doubt on his ability to continue his campaign. Yet Mr Biden’s surrogates continue to try to quell anxieties.
Click the link in our bio to read how his implosion has left all Democrats wondering what could possibly re-float what appears to be a foundering campaign.
Photo: Getty Images
An astonishing 74% of Ukrainians report being separated from a close family member because of the war, according to a recent survey by the International Rescue Committee. Many have been apart for more than two years.
Some 6m Ukrainians, mostly women and children, have taken refuge abroad. Another 3m or more have been internally displaced; some since 2014 when the war in the Donbas began and Russia illegally annexed Crimea.
Elderly parents and siblings are cut off in occupied territories; mothers and fathers are deployed for months at a time, and, as the army has been stretched thin with new Russian offensives, home leave is often deferred.
What Ukrainians have begun to call “the Big War” is now in its third year. Tap the link in our bio to discover why, for many families, there are difficult decisions to make.
Photo: Getty Images
Sir Ed Davey, the leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats, has performed another publicity-seeking stunt in an election campaign full of them—bungee jumping.
Dangling by his ankles on Monday, he shouted: “Do something you’ve never done before: vote Liberal Democrat!”
It is far from the likeliest outcome but his party could be about to do something it has never done in the post-war era: become the country’s official opposition.
A few things would have to happen for that to come to pass, though. Tap the link in our bio to read how the Lib Dems could overtake the ruling Conservatives in terms of seats when Britons head to the polls.
Photo: Alamy
After 14 years in power Britain’s Conservative Party is on the verge of losing it.
Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, and his party are polling 20 points behind Labour as Thursday’s election approaches.
Our prediction model suggests that the Tories could end up with their lowest share of seats in history.
Incumbents globally are having trouble winning elections.
But the Conservatives’ troubles look especially bad. Tap the link in our bio to see seven charts that summarise some of their most important policy missteps, plus a couple of cases in which they got things right.
