Latest Interviews
Showing 136–139 of 139 interview transcripts.
Clear all filters- The Economist21 min
French anti-foreign legion: an EU-election shock
Emmanuel Macron, Rosie Bloor, Jason Palmer, Chris Lockwood, Tamara Jilkes-Bohr
Following shock defeats for centrist leaders Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, the European Parliamentary elections highlighted a significant surge for far-right parties in France and Germany despite a marginal overall EU-wide shift. Concurrently, U.S. schools are grappling with a post-pandemic absenteeism crisis driven by economic instability and lost learning habits, prompting a pivot from punitive measures to supportive interventions like high-impact tutoring and basic needs assistance. In the automotive sector, manufacturers increasingly rely on alphanumeric or abstract naming conventions to distinguish models, though these strategies risk consumer confusion and cultural blunders ranging from mistranslations to legal disputes over regional naming rights.
- The Economist23 min
Modi’s mess: a shock election result spells uncertainty for India
Modi, Rosie Bloor, Jason Palmer, Jeremy Page, Anjani Trivedi, Emily Steinmark
Prime Minister Narendra Modi secured a third term with his BJP party relying on coalition partners after failing to win an absolute majority, forcing a shift from centralized governance to a consensus-based approach. In parallel, foreign investment in Africa contracted by $32 billion due to global economic headwinds, prompting businesses to pivot toward regional supply chains despite persistent logistical hurdles like visa restrictions. Meanwhile, researchers from the University of Milan successfully demonstrated that running along a suspended circular wall could simulate lunar gravity using only two minutes of daily exercise, offering a potential low-tech solution for long-term space health.
- The Economist21 min
Out on a ledger: Trump convicted
Trump, Ora Okunbiyi, Jason Palmer, Sumi, Kenneth Werner, John McDermott
Former President Donald Trump became the first U.S. ex-president criminally convicted on 34 felony counts, a verdict he attributes to political retaliation while likely facing a suspended sentence and using the outcome to bolster his fundraising ahead of the November election. Simultaneously, South Africa's African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since 1994, forcing President Cyril Ramaphosa into difficult coalition negotiations between pragmatic centrist partners and populist allies. In personnel news, The Economist's Auret van der Merwe transitioned from on-air host to its Africa correspondent in Lagos to lead coverage of the continent's emerging business and cultural landscape.
- The Economist28 min
The Intelligence: Rishi Sunak’s report card
Rishi Sunak, Jason Palmer, Ora Ogunbiyi, Matthew Holhouse, Ana Lankas, Katrin Braik
Britain's July 4th general election concludes Rishi Sunak's technocratic yet polarizing tenure, pitting a disunited Conservative Party struggling with a twenty-point polling deficit against a disciplined Labour opposition amidst a global security landscape resembling the Cold War. Concurrently, Latin America faces a homicide crisis driven by shifting drug markets, prompting Ecuador to adopt El Salvador's "iron fist" military strategies despite expert warnings that the region's wealthy, diversified gangs differ fundamentally from the impoverished extortion networks previously targeted. In a third distinct domain, climate-induced ice melt is altering the Earth's rotation by redistributing mass toward the equator, a phenomenon that temporarily offsets core-driven acceleration and delays the technical need for a negative leap second in global timekeeping systems.