Every year EIU, our sister company, produces a cost-of-living index that ranks 173 cities around the world based on the price of more than 200 products and services. Here are some of the highlights of the 2023 survey 👇econ.st/48E8vrd Tied in first place were Singapore and Zurich. Singapore is no stranger to the top spot: it has ranked as the priciest place to live in nine of the past 11 years econ.st/48E8vrd

This week’s episode of “Checks and Balance”, our podcast on American politics, is a bit different. @arynbraun explores a decades-old murder, exposed by climate change. Follow her investigation below 🧵 economist.com/podcasts/2023/… As the American West dries up, the shoreline of the country’s largest reservoir is retreating. Last May, the shallows revealed a barrel with a body inside. The victim had been shot, entombed in metal and then sunk to the bottom of Lake Mead econ.trib.al/GSigYzp

War pushed Russia’s free-thinkers into exile. Can they get their country back?

Join us as we investigate in “Next Year in Moscow”, our new podcast econ.st/3Yo6NEW “Russians opposed to Putin’s war now face a choice which, we thought, was resigned to 20th century history books.”

In episode one, @ArkadyOstrovsky asks some of them about their hopes for the future of Russia econ.st/3kLvyNJ

🇺🇦 After a year of fighting in Ukraine, what comes next? 👇economist.com/leaders/2023/0… If the country succumbs to Russian chaos, perceptions of Western decline will deepen. But if it thrives, the lesson will reverberate around the world economist.com/briefing/2023/…

It’s election day in America. Find out what to expect with our latest midterms coverage👇 econ.st/3FVZcYH In late summer, Democrats seemed to have a good chance of keeping the Senate—and even, perhaps, the House. But in the lead up to election day, polls and The Economist’s own statistical forecast put the Republicans in a stronger position
econ.st/3G0cWl8

Over the past decade owning a house has meant easy money. But today if your wealth is tied up in bricks and mortar it is time to get nervous ⬇️ econ.st/3MWBmO1 For years more established homeowners took comfort in the thought that, even if real-wage growth was terrible, at least the price of their house was rising. Those days are over econ.st/3VX8Rnq

A group of illusionists got rich making addictive videos for social media. Did it cost them their souls? 👇 From 1843 magazine econ.st/3oKPGxR The two most-viewed Facebook creators in 2021, Rick Lax and Julius Dein, both started out as magicians econ.st/3oKPGxR

What is critical race theory?

We’re taking a deep-dive into how this once obscure academic topic became a new frontline in America’s culture war with a special three-part series on our “Checks and Balance” podcast.

Join us👇 econ.st/3PAQn8h Our US policy correspondent @TamaraGilkes has spent months reporting on the issue. In the first episode, she goes back to basics to find out what the phrase “critical race theory” means to people on both sides of the debate econ.st/3PAQn8h

For more than 60 years motor-vehicle crashes were the leading cause of death for young people in America. But since 2017 guns have killed more people between the ages of one and 24 ⬇️ econ.trib.al/0zzgC81 The school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, is the latest addition to a deadly pattern. The toll is the biggest at a school since a gunman killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 econ.trib.al/0zzgC81

At the beginning of 2022 the global system that makes the trade of food possi­ble already looked precarious. Now it is on the brink of crisis econ.trib.al/MSIHnqh Together, Russia and Ukraine supply 12% of the world's traded calories.

In 2021 they were also the world’s first and fifth biggest exporters of wheat, shipping 39m tonnes and 17m tonnes respectively. That amounts to 28% of the world market economist.com/podcasts/2022/…

More than 1bn people in India and Pakistan are enduring a severe heatwave. We explain why temperatures are so high, and how to combat extreme heatwaves👇econ.st/3NrFip3 The heat has come unusually early this year. Parts of Pakistan are already experiencing temperatures of around 50°C econ.st/3FXDhOL

The era of ultra-cheap money is coming to an end.

One way or another, renters and homeowners will face an intensifying squeeze econ.st/39oov7r You wouldn’t know a global recession looms when looking at the rich world’s housing markets, many of which continue to break records

econ.st/39oov7r

The war in Ukraine is a great leap backward for Russia.

We recap the second week of the invasion ⬇️ econ.st/3KyxGQ3 Russia continued its advances around Ukraine, but took few cities econ.st/3KyxGQ3

A Russian military convoy, no less than 60km long, has been moving at snail’s pace towards Ukraine’s capital econ.st/3MESyHg The convoy stretches from Prybirsk, a town near Chernobyl, down to at least Antonov airport, as this map shows econ.st/3MESyHg

Will Vladimir Putin launch his war in Ukraine? We explain why Russia’s military build-up has entered a more dangerous phase ⬇️ econ.trib.al/8FUWYm5

📷: @Maxar Around 100 Russian battalion tactical groups—fighting formations of 1,000 or so troops, accompanied by air defence, artillery and logistics—have gathered on Ukraine’s borders with Russia and Belarus.

More are incoming econ.trib.al/8FUWYm5

Is Vladimir Putin’s menacing of Ukraine just posturing—or does he intend to go to war? A thread 👇 On Monday the Pentagon put 8,500 troops on alert to deploy to eastern Europe. NATO is dispatching jets and warships to shore up its eastern flank econ.st/3rQWXx8

A grim new phase of repression is under way in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. This thread explains how he is silencing his opponents 👇 Russia now has more than twice as many political prisoners than at the end of the Soviet era, according to Memorial, a human-rights group econ.st/3Cxs6ce

Should you give up eating meat? Thread 👇 🐄 Animal-based foods account for 57% of agricultural greenhouse gases, versus 29% for food from plants econ.st/304993l

Germany's election results are in—and it’s close. Take a deep dive into how the parties have performed #BTW21 👇 econ.st/3ib2lXH Preliminary numbers indicate that the centre-left SPD, with 25.7% of the vote, will be the largest party in the new Bundestag.

It’s a marked improvement on their showing last time, in 2017 #BTW21 econ.st/3ib2lXH

It is too soon to call who will lead Germany’s next government. Exit polls indicate a tight outcome, leaving the election on a knife edge.

A thread on how the parties stand 👇 econ.st/3m5aTAL The centre-left SPD is forecast to be narrowly the largest party, with of 27.9% of seats. Who is Olaf Scholz, its chancellor-candidate, and what kind of Germany would he lead? econ.st/2WhjR52

How the world changed after 9/11—as told through 20 years of The Economist’s covers.

In our first issue afterwards, we likened the moment to the attack on Pearl Harbour. We called for America, and its allies, to offer up a response that remained “measured” Two months on, our focus was squarely on Afghanistan.

In our cover story we wished for the Taliban to be in “total, not merely tactical, retreat”, hoped for the UN to help to bring stability, and called for any new rulers to shun Osama bin Laden and his like