The Taliban’s Dangerous Collision Course With the West
After barring girls from high school — and harboring an Al-Qaeda leader — the regime now risks jeopardizing the billions of dollars of global aid that still keeps Afghans alive.
Economic devastation looms across the Caribbean, which is facing a future of climate crisis and spiraling debt. Mia Mottley, the first woman to lead Barbados, is fighting to end this fiscal spiral — and ensure her country’s survival, @AbrahmL reports.
Budget constraints have gone missing. That presents both danger and opportunity
It is sometimes said that governments wasted the global financial crisis of 2007-09 by failing to rethink economic policy after the dust settled. Nobody will say the same about the covid-19 pandemic. It has led to a desperate scramble to enact policies that only a few months ago were either unimaginable or heretical. A profound shift is now taking place in economics as a result, of the sort that happens only once in a generation. Much as in the 1970s when clubby Keynesianism gave way to Milton Friedman’s austere monetarism, and in the 1990s when central banks were given their independence, so the pandemic marks the start of a new era. Its overriding preoccupation will be exploiting the opportunities and containing the enormous risks that stem from a supersized level of state intervention in the economy and financial markets.
If you are the type of person who is loth to invest in firms that pollute the planet, mistreat workers and stuff their boards with cronies, you will no doubt be aware of one of the hottest trends in finance: environmental, social and governance (esg) investing. It is an attempt to make capitalism work better and deal with the grave threat posed by climate change. It has ballooned in recent years; the titans of investment management claim that more than a third of their assets, or $35trn in total, are monitored through one esg lens or another. It is on the lips of bosses and officials everywhere.
Even as temperatures soar Europe faces a bitter energy crisis later this year
There may be a heatwave in Europe, but winter is coming. It promises to be brutal and divisive: the energy crisis is rapidly worsening as Vladimir Putin strangles gas supplies https://econ.st/3aJz3ir
In this issue, Kim Tingley on the quest to make the most of our body clocks with “circadian medicine”; Virginia Eubanks on her partner’s PTSD and her struggle as a caregiver; Mark Binelli on Yuval Sharon, the most visionary opera director of his generation; Jake Bittle on the restaurateur who changed America’s energy industry; and more.
How animals perceive the world, a return to Chagos, Steve Bannon, and a mad hunt for Civil War gold. Plus Jack White, how the U.S. has no nuclear strategy, dad rage, Ulysses at 100, one family’s doll test, downsides of beach resorts, and more.
COVER STORY
How Animals Perceive the World – Every creature lives within its own sensory bubble, but only humans have the capacity to appreciate the experiences of other species. What we’ve learned is astounding.
FEATURES
American Rasputin – Steve Bannon is still scheming. And he’s still a threat to democracy.
They Bent to Their Knees and Kissed the Sand – Half a century ago, the British government forcibly removed 2,000 people from a remote string of islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean. They’ve never stopped struggling to return.
Ukraine won the short war. Now comes the long war, and so far, Russia is winning. But it does not have to be fought on Vladimir Putin’s terms
Ukraine won the short war. Mobile and resourceful, its troops inflicted terrible losses and confounded Russian plans to take Kyiv. Now comes the long war. It will drain weapons, lives and money until one side loses the will to fight on. So far, this is a war that Russia is winning.
In recent days its forces have taken the eastern city of Severodonetsk. They are advancing on Lysychansk and may soon control all of Luhansk province. They also threaten Slovyansk, in the north of next-door Donetsk. Ukrainian leaders say they are outgunned and lack ammunition. Their government reckons as many as 200 of its troops are dying each day.