Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Pet ownership is on the rise around the globe and people have ever more ways to pamper

their furry friends. But are all those products and services actually good for pets? And what

benefits do creature companions really bring their owners anyway? And the science of

homeopathy is clear. These diluted remedies couldn't possibly work as described. Yet in

France they've been subsidized by the state until recently. We look into the business

of the bogus.

Let's get started.

Yesterday the president of Tunisia, Beiji Kaid-Sabsi passed away. He was elected in 2014

in the wake of the Arab Spring which started in December 2010 when a Tunisian fruit vendor

set himself on fire. This single act of protest sparked a wave of revolution across

the Arab world. Huge demonstrations erupted in Tunisia and spread to neighboring countries.

But Tunisia was the only one to emerge from the uprisings with a democracy.

Mr. Sabsi was key to the country's transition away from authoritarian rule. But in the end

he failed to fix some of its biggest problems. Whoever takes his place now faces huge challenges,

not least a failing economy and a disenchanted public that questions what the revolution was

for.

But Sabsi had been ill for weeks. He was hospitalized in June and many saw this day coming.

Roger McShane is our Middle East editor.

A transfer of power in Tunisia was imminent anyway. The presidential election was scheduled

for November parliamentary elections were scheduled for October. Now the presidential

...