The Economist

Misty Copeland: why ballet has so few black dancers

Misty Copeland

Misty Copeland, the first Black female principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre, leverages her historic breakthrough and advocacy for arts education to challenge systemic discrimination and narrow aesthetic standards in classical ballet. Drawing from personal experiences with colorism and her research into predecessors like Raven Wilkinson, she critiques the industry's reliance on blackface and typecasting while urging a shift toward viewing technique as transcending race. Copeland further contextualizes her career milestones as irreversible progress comparable to the Obama presidency, emphasizing how such visibility fundamentally expands the perceived future for marginalized young artists.

The World in 2021: five stories to watch out for

Maria, Tom Standage

The event outlines a convergence of critical global shifts, including a widespread deterioration of democratic institutions in 80 nations alongside accelerating electric vehicle production and China's emergence as the world's largest cinema market by 2021. Concurrently, major economies like the US, EU, and China are preparing for the COP26 summit to enforce stricter emissions targets, while NASA advances planetary defense capabilities with the DART asteroid-mission launch. These developments collectively highlight a pivotal year defined by geopolitical constraints, industrial electrification, and evolving scientific strategies for space and climate security.

What is history's deadliest pandemic?

A comprehensive analysis reveals malaria's profound historical role in shaping human migration, the transatlantic slave trade, and the geopolitical outcomes of World War II through its influence on genetics, economies, and military campaigns. While global infection rates have declined due to advanced treatments and targeted strategies like Senegal's genomic surveillance, the legacy of DDT usage remains linked to the origins of the modern environmental movement. Current eradication efforts face significant hurdles as researchers repurpose genomic tools for new pathogens while struggling to secure the estimated $2.7 billion in annual funding required to eliminate the disease by mid-century.

How to restore trust in politics

Shirley Islam, Matthew Taylor, Emma Hogan

Matthew Taylor and participants like Shirley Islam advocate for citizens' assemblies as a deliberative alternative to adversarial representative democracy, aiming to restore public trust through random selection and expert-guided consensus building. Data from the OECD and case studies in Ireland and Scotland demonstrate that governments implementing these recommendations see high rates of policy adoption, often transforming contentious issues like abortion and drug reform into actionable legislation. Despite initial political reluctance to cede control over outcomes, proponents argue that these assemblies provide voters with continuous agency between elections and signal a global shift toward more inclusive governance models.

Life after Trump: what’s the future of the Republican Party?

Trump, Joe Biden, Idris Kahloun, James Astle

Despite his 2020 election loss, Donald Trump maintains dominant control over the Republican Party, compelling former critics like Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio to align with his populist platform to avoid electoral backlash. This entrenched loyalty, reinforced by base support for the 2020 election fraud narrative, has created a fragmented media ecosystem and left Trump with minimal internal opposition as he contemplates a 2024 run. Analysts warn that the party's future trajectory remains volatile, with the strength of Trump's personal appeal serving as the decisive factor in either cementing a populist era or allowing for a potential succession.

Care after covid: the future of elderly health-care

Sasha Nauta

Amidst a rapidly aging global population where the 80-and-older demographic is set to double, rising dementia costs and severe care home mortality rates have exposed the fragility of current long-term care systems. While some nations explore controversial international outsourcing to manage labor expenses, the sector remains crippled by chronic understaffing driven by wages significantly lower than those in acute hospital settings. In response, pilot programs utilizing remote monitoring technology are proving that half of institutional care could shift to home settings, offering a potential pathway to mitigate resource strain and improve patient outcomes.

Covid-19: why vaccine mistrust is growing

Professor Jonathan Heaney, Professor Heidi Larson, Dr Jonathan Kennedy, Kristin Urquiza, Neil Johnson, Fadi Kouran, Slavia Chankova

With over 20 COVID-19 vaccine candidates in development, experts warn that failing to achieve 70% population uptake due to widespread hesitancy could necessitate indefinite social restrictions. This crisis of trust is driven by political polarization, the legacy of the retracted Andrew Wakefield study, and algorithmic amplification of misinformation on social media platforms that have disproportionately spread falsehoods from figures like President Trump. In response, health organizations and tech-savvy clinics are launching counter-misinformation campaigns to protect herd immunity goals against hostile narratives that link political populism with declining public confidence.

Joe Biden wins: what next for America?

Joe Biden, Sarah Collinson, Zannie Minton-Beddoes, John Prudhoe

Joe Biden secured the presidency with a decisive victory, winning the popular vote by approximately 4 million votes while facing a divided government as Republicans retain control of the Senate. Although legal challenges to the results lack traction due to Biden's substantial margins in key swing states, the election exposed significant polling errors and deep national divisions driven by mutual animosity. Looking forward, the incoming administration plans to govern through legislation and executive orders to reverse Trump-era policies, while the Republican Party prepares to shed Donald Trump's personal divisiveness to maintain its populist platform for future elections.

Election 2020: What has President Trump done to America?

Trump, Samaya Keynes

The Trump administration's term was defined by aggressive domestic policy shifts, including major tax cuts, the withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, and the appointment of 217 federal judges that solidified conservative judicial control. Internationally, the "America First" strategy dismantled NAFTA, initiated a trade war with China, and drastically reduced refugee admissions while relying on executive orders to enforce strict immigration borders. These actions collectively accelerated political polarization and rewrote institutional norms in ways that analysts project will constrain future Democratic ambitions and persist beyond the administration's tenure.

Covid-19: how to fix the economy

Henry Kerr

The pandemic triggered an unprecedented synchronized global economic shock, forcing governments in the US, UK, and Europe to deploy trillions in stimulus and innovative income support to mitigate record unemployment and prevent social instability. This crisis has accelerated structural shifts toward remote work, digital adoption, and supply chain protectionism, challenging policymakers to balance immediate fiscal relief with long-term sustainability while avoiding the austerity errors of the past decade. Ultimately, the scale of government intervention offers a critical window to reform the relationship between the state and citizens, though success depends on managing rising debt burdens and emerging populist tensions.

Election 2020: what the data tell us

Elliott Morris

Forecasters predict a Biden victory by November 9 if early indicators hold, leveraging adjusted polling models that account for underrepresented non-college white voters and a shrinking undecided electorate. Economic indicators and state-level turnout dynamics in diverse Sunbelt states drive these projections, though potential ballot rejections among minority populations could narrow the margin by one to two percentage points. Ultimately, a projected victory margin of eight to nine points is expected to provide the stability necessary to prevent post-election unrest despite differing partisan fears regarding result legitimacy.

Mining the deep sea: the true cost to the planet

Kerry Howell, Matt Upton, Claire

As global demand for green technology minerals outstrips land-based reserves, deep-sea mining operations utilizing vehicles like the ROV Isis target vast deposits of critical metals in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone and hydrothermal vents. While proponents cite Japan's recent successful extraction and the urgency of replacing ethically problematic land mining, scientists warn that the unregulated exploration licenses issued by the International Seabed Authority threaten to destroy unique species and disrupt essential carbon-sequestering ecosystems. The International Seabed Authority is currently evaluating applications that could launch large-scale industrial extraction, prompting urgent calls to weigh these economic gains against the irreversible loss of unknown biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Election 2020: can the Democrats win the Senate?

Dan Rosenhack

As of October 2020, The Economist's forecasting model projected a 71% probability of Democrats regaining Senate control by leveraging a statistical algorithm that combines real-time polling with historical fundamentals to identify likely flips in states like Arizona and Colorado. Despite these favorable indicators, the analysis acknowledged significant uncertainty regarding the 2020 election due to the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that potential unquantifiable shifts in voter behavior and record mail-in turnout introduce logistical variables the model cannot yet explicitly adjust for. This probabilistic assessment underscores the critical importance of a net gain of four seats for Democrats to secure a majority, with a slightly lower threshold available should President-elect Joe Biden cast a tie-breaking vote as Vice President.

How to tackle corruption

Avril Andrews, Leslie Weingard, Shamila Bhattoyi, Max Nefudov, Cynthia Agnes Soraya Stimple

This event examines the global $3 trillion cost of corruption through critical case studies in South Africa, Ukraine, and the UK, highlighting specific outcomes such as South Africa's Zondo Commission, Ukraine's ProZorro digital transparency system, and the UK's AI-driven Rolls-Royce prosecution. It details high-level leadership efforts to restore integrity, including President Ramaphosa's restructuring of state institutions and the appointment of Shamila Bhattoo to lead the National Prosecuting Authority, while contrasting these with the systemic impunity that often penalizes whistleblowers like Cynthia Stimpell. Ultimately, the discussion underscores that sustainable anti-corruption requires a cultural shift toward protecting whistleblowers and replacing box-ticking compliance with genuine ethical accountability supported by technological innovation.

Will covid kill globalisation?

Vijay Vaitheeswaran

Driven by the 2008 financial crisis, the US-China trade war, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy is rapidly shifting from hyper-connectivity toward a fractured, regionalized structure where supply chain resilience outweighs pure efficiency. This transformation forces multinational corporations to localize operations while simultaneously triggering technological decoupling and political nationalism that risks leaving developing nations behind in the industrialization race. Experts conclude that while the era of unfettered global trade has ended, the optimal future path lies in fostering "resilient interdependence" rather than isolationist barriers.