Hello and welcome to the intelligence from the economist.

In New York, I'm John Fassman.

And in London, I'm Jason Palmer.

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

For years, despite Mexican cartels blooming business and sending illegal drugs north,

drug use rates in Mexico itself remain quite low.

But with the rise of synthetic drugs, that's starting to change, with grievous social consequences.

And you can't carry a knife onto a flight or fireworks.

You can't even carry more than 100 milliliters of liquid, so it seems pretty obvious that

toting a gun on board is out of question, yet a surprising number of Americans try just

that.

But first, Kenya has a new president, William Ruto, probably.

The longtime leader Uhuru Kenyatta is stepping down, revealing a respect for term limits that's

lamentably rare in Africa.

Kenya has become a beacon of stability and prosperity compared with its neighbors.

It's arguably Africa's third most important democracy and its elections matter, and not

just because a clean fight sends a good regional signal.

The country's been ravaged by protests and violence after past polls.

In 2007, claims of vote-rigging led to a evil that lasted for two months.

In years later, a similarly contested outcome resulted in the deaths of dozens of people.

In both cases, the opposition candidate was Rila Odinga, a former prime minister who ran

yet again this time.

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