Hello and welcome to the intelligence on Economist Radio.

I'm your host Anne McHelvoy in for Jason Palmer.

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

A 21st century scramble for Africa is underway as Russia, China and the West compete for financial and military spoils in the continent's emerging economies.

We explore what's at stake and who's winning.

Mark Twain lamented that a turnip is female in German while a girl is neuter. Now a lot of speakers have been pushing for these languages, like society in general,

to become less focused on gender.

First up, though.

British Prime Minister Theresa May was defeated in Parliament yesterday

after trying for a second time to get MPs to approve her plan to leave the European Union.

The eyes to the right, 242, the nose to the left, 391.

A hoarse Prime Minister expressed her disappointment at the deadlock.

Voting against leaving without a deal, and for an extension, does not solve the problems we face.

Nearly a quarter of the members of her own party voted against her deal alongside opposition parties.

Some politicians want a harder Brexit with the UK fully out of European institutions

such as the single market and the customs union.

The fate of the vote was sealed when the chief legal officer to the government, Jeffrey Cox,

indicated that the UK could have difficulties leaving the temporary backstop arrangement

put in place to avoid a hard border with Ireland.

The legal risk, as I set it out in my letter of the 13th of November, remains unchanged.

Many feel Mrs May hasn't provided a good enough answer to the issue of how to deal with the UK's border between the Republic of Ireland,

which is in the EU and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, which is in the EU, a northern Ireland, which is part

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