The Intelligence from The Economist

Tariffs against China were the centrepiece of Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” [https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/05/07/america-and-china-prepare-for-an-alpine-trade-clash?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners] trade plans. Our correspondent explains the significance of a new 90-day hiatus. Will Ukraine and Russia [https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/05/11/uncertainty-and-tension-ahead-of-possible-ukraine-peace-talks?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners] come to the negotiating table this week (7:51)? Why new techniques to compress [https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/05/07/compressed-music-might-be-harmful-to-the-ears?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners]the contrast between loud and quiet music could be damaging our hearing (15:35). And help us improve the show by taking this survey [http://www.economist.com/TIsurvey].  Listen to what matters most, from global politics and business to science and technology—Subscribe to Economist Podcasts+ [https://subscribenow.economist.com/podcasts-plus] For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page [https://myaccount.economist.com/s/article/What-is-Economist-Podcasts] or watch our video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gczo71bg1uY] explaining how to link your account.

The choice of Robert Prevost reflects a desire for unity and compromise [https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/05/08/what-it-means-to-have-an-american-on-the-throne-of-st-peter?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners]. But insofar as Pope Leo XIV represents a middle path, how will he lead on the church’s trickiest questions? The Trump administration has axed [https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/05/08/donald-trump-is-right-to-ditch-joe-bidens-chip-export-rules?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners] Biden-era export controls on AI chips. Good. Now they must enact simpler, more-effective ones (11:29). And remembering Martin Graham [https://www.economist.com/obituary/2025/05/01/martin-graham-was-determined-to-see-his-dream-come-true?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners], founder of the Longborough Festival Opera (19:34). Economist Education is running a new six-week online course on international relations—a window into shifting geopolitical trends and a guide to navigating uncertainty and risk. Listeners to “The Intelligence” can save 15% by clicking here [https://education.economist.com/intelligence] and using the code INTELLIGENCE.

Eighty years since the surrender of Nazi forces, we consider the differing ways that nations frame that distant history for today; none does so more gravely than Russia. Our “Archive 1945 [https://www.economist.com/interactive/archive-1945?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners]” project relives The Economist‘s reporting on the last days of war in Europe. And we examine how European defence has changed, and how Britain’s celebrations hint at a world perhaps forever lost.  Get a world of insights by subscribing to Economist Podcasts+ [https://subscribenow.economist.com/podcasts-plus]. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page [https://myaccount.economist.com/s/article/What-is-Economist-Podcasts] or watch our video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gczo71bg1uY] explaining how to link your account.

Two weeks after a terrorist attack in Kashmir, Indian missiles streaked into Pakistan [https://www.economist.com/asia/2025/05/06/india-strikes-pakistan-to-avenge-a-terrorist-attack?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners]. Will the retaliation end this latest flare-up or intensify it? Our correspondent meets Alexandre de Moraes [https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2025/04/16/the-judge-who-would-rule-the-internet?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners], a swashbuckling Brazilian supreme court justice who is taking sides in the global free-speech fight (8:35). And appetite for Sweden’s rare-earth minerals will pose difficulties for the Sami people and their reindeer [https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/04/24/europe-wants-swedens-minerals-thats-more-bad-news-for-the-sami?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners] (tk). Please take a moment to fill out our listener survey [http://www.economist.com/TIsurvey]—let us know what you like about the show, and what you don’t.

In a post-war first, Germany’s round of parliamentary voting for a chancellor did not produce one. We ask why members of Friedrich Merz [https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/05/01/germanys-staid-seeming-new-chancellor-has-a-mercurial-streak?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners]’s coalition turned on him, and what happens next. Daring raids on scam compounds in Myanmar freed many slave-labour scammers [https://www.economist.com/briefing/2025/02/06/online-scams-may-already-be-as-big-a-scourge-as-illegal-drugs?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners]—but thousands remain trapped there (9:42). And diving into the data that show young Americans are getting (slightly) happier [https://www.economist.com/united-states/2025/03/11/young-americans-are-getting-happier?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.content.anonymous.tr_shownotes_na-na_article&utm_term=sa.listeners] (16:23). Economist Education is running a new six-week online course on international relations—a window into shifting geopolitical trends and a guide to navigating uncertainty and risk. Listeners to “The Intelligence” can save 15% by clicking here [https://education.economist.com/intelligence] and using the code INTELLIGENCE.