Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist.

In London, I'm Jason Palmer.

And in New York, I'm John Fassman.

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

Since the earliest days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, we've been reporting on the transformative

effects that drones have had for both sides, but unmanned attack craft don't just travel

by air, and Ukraine is making much of those that travel by sea.

And few countries guard their linguistic purity as rigorously as France.

Millennials, for instance, are properly termed by the Academy of France as,

« En fond du numérique » but when it comes to brand names, all bets are off.

But first, a cross-China crowds gathered to sea in 2023.

For many, it will have seemed like a return to normality after years of stifling COVID restrictions.

But life in China at the moment is far from normal.

COVID is tearing through the country.

The Chinese Communist Party has scrapped domestic travel restrictions, mass testing requirements,

and its sudden precision lockdowns.

As expected, that has brought rising case numbers, though the government is proving

less than open about how big those numbers are.

What seems to be the case, though, is that China has gone from an incredibly small number

of infections to being perhaps the world's largest COVID hotspot, with all of the

horrors that brings.

So in the last few weeks, I've been visiting hospitals and crematoriums in Beijing,

...