Sweeping rural gains made as American forces have slipped out are now giving way to bids for urban areas; an enormous, symbolic victory for the insurgents looms.
Singapore has enjoyed relative racial harmony for decades, but shocking recent events have revealed persistent inequalities. And why chewing gum has lost its cool.
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week: growth in emerging markets, Tunisia faces a constitutional crisis (9:53) and dry bars of Ireland (16:03)
Emma Nelson covers the weekend’s biggest and most interesting news stories with Rob Cox, Simon Brooke, Christof Münger and Christoph Amend from ‘Zeit Magazin’. Plus: Olympic updates from Monocle’s Tokyo bureau chief, Fiona Wilson.
The weekend’s top news stories, with Georgina Godwin and regular Monocle 24 contributor Stephen Dalziel. Plus: a check-in from the Balkans.
America’s pandemic-driven measures granting relief on mortgages and rent arrears will soon expire, and millions of people are in danger of losing their homes.
The Netherlands’ history of slavery is often overlooked; a new exhibition goes to great lengths to confront it. And how Marmite’s love-it-or-hate-it reputation represents an unlikely marketing coup.
Researchers debate whether an ancient fossil is the oldest animal yet discovered, and a new way to eavesdrop on glaciers.
In this episode:
01:04 Early sponge
This week in Nature, a researcher claims to have found a fossil sponge from 890-million-years-ago. If confirmed, this would be more than 300-million-years older than the earliest uncontested animal fossils but not all palaeontologists are convinced.
Research Article: Turner
10:13 Research Highlights
A caffeine buzz appears to improve bees’ memory, and reconstructing an Iron Age man’s final meal.
Research Highlight: A caffeine buzz gives bees flower power
Research Highlight: The guts of a ‘bog body’ reveal sacrificed man’s final meal
12:34 Eavesdropping on a glacier’s base
We hear about one researcher’s unorthodox attempt to listen in to the seismic-whisper at the foot of a Greenland glacier – a method that might reveal more about conditions under these enormous blocks of ice.
Research Article: Podolskiy et al.
We discuss what’s on the agenda as US secretary of state Antony Blinken arrives in India. We then get the lowdown on Russia’s recent talks with the Taliban and assess the Kremlin’s intentions in the region.
Plus: the latest action from Tokyo 2020.
The president has sacked the prime minister and suspended parliament. It is clear that the country needed a shake-up in its hidebound politics—but is this the right way?
A sprawling trial starting today involving the most senior Catholic-church official ever indicted is sure to cast light on the Vatican’s murky finances. And how climate change is already changing winemaking.
A.M. Edition for July 26. WSJ’s Paul Hannon examines where world economies stand amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the highly contagious Delta variant.
Wall Street traders prepare for a long list of corporate earnings this week. American swimmers win medals at the Tokyo Olympics. And, a push for government-funded diapers.
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