Our summer special: a despot, a magic trick and a star

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In a bumper episode, we highlight a summer’s-worth of deeply reported stories from 1843, our sister magazine: we profile <a href="https://www.economist.com/1843/2022/07/28/mbs-despot-in-the-desert" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Muhammad bin Salman</a>, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, who is both a liberalising reformer and a fearsome consolidator of power. We ask why <a href="https://www.economist.com/1843/2022/07/28/how-magicians-won-facebook" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">magicians</a> are behind so many viral videos. And we explore humanity’s long-running ambivalence toward <a href="https://www.economist.com/1843/2022/07/28/the-sun-is-both-our-creator-and-destroyer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the sun</a>. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of <em>The Economist</em>, subscribe here <a href="http://www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer</a> <hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>