Africa’s Donkeys Are Coveted by China. Can the Continent Protect Them?

For years, Chinese companies and their contractors have been slaughtering millions of donkeys across Africa, coveting gelatin from the animals’ hides that is processed into traditional medicines, popular sweets and beauty products in China. But a growing demand for the gelatin has decimated donkey populations at such alarming rates in African countries that governments are now moving to put a brake on the mostly unregulated trade. The African Union, a body that encompasses the continent’s 55 states, adopted a continentwide ban on donkey skin exports this month in the hope…

Should Trump Be on the Ballot? And Other 2024 Sticky Wickets

Listen to and follow ‘Matter of Opinion’Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music Is Donald Trump an insurrectionist who should be barred from the ballot? On this episode of “Matter of Opinion,” the hosts discuss who should get to decide if the former president can try to return to the White House. Plus, the hosts lay out what other stories are on their 2024 political bingo cards. (A full transcript of the episode will be available midday on the Times website.) Mentioned in this episode: Thoughts? Email us at matterofopinion@nytimes.com.…

Two Superpowers Walk Into a Garden

Edward Wong contributed reporting. The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao,…

Paul Krugman’s Economic Advice to China: ‘Live a Little’

China’s economic problems are growing: a real estate sector that’s going bankrupt, too many unemployed young workers and, remarkably, people saving too much. And, as the Nobel Prize-winning economist and Opinion columnist Paul Krugman argues in this audio essay, the Chinese government’s reluctance to encourage spending could make things worse. How did one of the world’s largest economies get here? And what’s next? (A full transcript of this audio essay will be available midday on the Times website.) The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the…

A Marriage, a Secret and a Crackdown in China

Vivian Wang contributed reporting. Fact-checking by Susan Lee. Translations by Vickie Wang. The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Robert Jimison, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Anita Badejo, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky,…

When Great Power Conflict and Climate Action Collide

Produced by ‘The Ezra Klein Show’ The global decarbonization effort is colliding headfirst with the realities of great power politics. China currently controls more than 75 percent of the world’s electric vehicle battery and solar photovoltaic manufacturing supply chains. It also processes the bulk of the so-called critical minerals, like lithium, cobalt and graphite, that are essential to building out clean energy technologies. There is no clean energy revolution without China. What would happen if China decided to weaponize its clean energy resources in the same way Russia recently weaponized…

The Sunday Read: ‘The Ongoing Mystery of Covid’s Origin’

By David Quammen Produced by Adrienne Hurst and Aaron Esposito Edited by John Woo Original music by Aaron Esposito Engineered by Corey Schreppel and Brian St. Pierre Listen to and follow “The Daily”Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher Where did it come from? More than three years into the pandemic with untold millions of people dead, that question about the origin of Covid-19 remains widely disputed and fraught, with facts sparkling amid a tangle of analyses and hypotheticals like Christmas lights strung on a dark, thorny tree. One school of…

The Global Economy Is Fracturing. What Comes Next?

Produced by ‘The Ezra Klein Show’ The world economy has experienced many shocks over the past few years: A pandemic. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Skyrocketing inflation. These are the stories that have dominated headlines — and for good reason. But they’ve also overshadowed a set of deeper, more fundamental shifts — the rise of China as an economic superpower, the fracturing of trade relations, the realities of the climate crisis — that are transforming the global economic order and prompting ambitious policy responses from leaders across the world. [You can…

China’s Economic Rebound Hits a Wall

Daisuke Wakabayashi contributed reporting. The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Robert Jimison, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Anita Badejo, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto,…

Fareed Zakaria on Where Russia’s War in Ukraine Stands — and Much More

[MUSIC PLAYING] ezra klein Russia invaded Ukraine 15 months ago. For a time following the invasion, it was all the world could talk about. It’s all the show could talk about. And now, as happens with a lot of stories huge at the outset, now the Russia-Ukraine war is treated as one news story — I mean, a major one — but one news story among many. But it’s still more than that. It’s a kind of hyper story. There is the conflict itself, which matters enormously. And then there’s…