May was meant to be French President Emmanuel Macron’s Africa month, a chance to show off France’s influence on the continent — and not just among its former colonies. But Mali’s second coup in less than a year is an embarrassing reminder of the limitations of French leverage and of the president’s personal clout in the region. Authoritarian rulers of ...

With Covid-19 cases trending downward across the US, it’s getting easier to say the worst of the pandemic is behind us. Meanwhile, predictions that the pandemic will change our way of living forever are getting louder. Not surprisingly, many prognosticators see big cities such as New York and San Francisco declining, as urbanites tired of being cooped up in their ...

Some of the world’s biggest emitters of carbon are also becoming the loudest advocates of climate change, frequently spouting all the buzzwords that go with it: net-zero, decarbonisation and neutrality. Most earnings calls and various corporate sustainability reports are now peppered with this jargon. The plans sound lofty but the reality for shareholders is vague, at best. In recent months, ...