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.

After a decade of crushing civil war and the punishing effects of international sanctions,

Syria's regime is pressed for cash. It would seem it's found one way of keeping the lights on,

trafficking in a party drug that's only growing more popular. And how do you like the sound of a

kelp martini? Offshore farms of the seaweed are bobbing up off the coasts of New England.

It's good both for humans and marine environments,

and kelp is finding its way into cocktails, burgers, even toothpaste.

But first... Flooding in Europe that started last week is continuing to wreak havoc.

Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands have been worst hit, with a total death toll approaching

200. Hundreds more are missing.

It is a

I'm almost say the German-speche can't come words for the

for the vustung, that's angericted is.

Yesterday during a visit to one affected town, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel described the floods as terrifying.

She said, the German language knows hardly any words for this devastation.

The disaster has brought the notion of climate change to the fore.

Regardless of the proximate cause of this flooding, extreme weather events will become more common.

And sorrow is increasingly turning into anger as people question how well governments had prepared for this tragedy

and how their political parties are preparing for those yet to come.

The floods in Germany over the last few days have been visually striking and have had

...