Shocks from underground
What’s driving the terrible conflict in Congo? The 2025 Oscar-nominee Johan Grimonprez on a history of violence and the costs of global competition over critical minerals.
Speaking Russian in Riyadh
Member’s despatch, Week VIII
Note: ‘Ô Signe des Temps (Iueke Dub Remix)’
‘Ô Signe des Temps (Iueke Dub Remix).’ In 1986, the Québécois artist Bernardino Femminielli put together a cover of Prince’
‘Gold rush’
How is AI changing global energy consumption? Nicholas Kumleben on the sudden transformation of the power industry—and its implications for climate change.
Note: ‘When We Swam Together’
111 MHz: ‘When We Swam Together.’ The Lebanese composer and producer Fadi Tabbal is back with I Recognize You From
Men in gray
What’s the Trump administration doing to the U.S. federal bureaucracy? Francis Fukuyama on the real drivers of waste in the American civil service and the democratic peril in attacking it politically.
Retreat from Europe
Member’s despatch, Week VII
It’s a sabotage
What’s behind the wave of clandestine Russian attacks in Europe? Darrell Driver on the psychological campaign to change European hearts and minds about Ukraine.
Imperial presidency
Is there really an autocratic threat coming from inside American democracy? Daniel Bessner on the growth of U.S. presidential power and the resiliency of the remaining checks on it.
Coming soon
Coming soon. Next Friday, The Signal will debut the member’s despatch, a weekly digest on current affairs. The despatch
