Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist.

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

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

In Zambia, voters ostensibly have a choice today, the incumbent Edgar Lungu or his most

credible challenger, Hakainda Hichilema, who's on his sixth run for the presidency.

We ask just how fair the fight really is and what it means for the country.

And Germany is gurdying for its own federal election next month.

The country's complex electoral system makes this one an unusually wide open contest.

Fear not, our journalists have cut through the data and built an up-to-the-minute election

tracker.

At first, on this vote, the A's are 69, the A's are 30, the bill as amended is passed.

Late on Tuesday, America's Senate passed a landmark infrastructure package worth a trillion

dollars.

Nineteen Republicans joined the entire Democratic Caucus in backing the bill, which was

hailed by Senator Rob Portman, the lead Republican negotiator, as a bipartisan success.

To me, not only does this investment make sense, but importantly, what we're doing here

today also demonstrates to the American people that we can get our act together.

More than half of the mammoth package is earmarked for America's biggest investment in decades

in roads, bridges, airports, and improved internet access.

But it won't be signed into law just yet.

In the early hours of yesterday morning, the Senate fired the starting gun for the drafting

of a separate budget bill.

...