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.

There's not much left of Hong Kong's democracy.

On the anniversary of the city's hand over to China, we look at the techniques the mainland

government has used to throttle dissent and why the rest of the world should be on the

lookout for them.

And in much of the West, must stash us have been rather in decline since the days of Tom

Selleck and Bert Reynolds.

But in Iraq, they've long been a symbol of authority and machismo, and they're making

a comeback.

It's been a busy end of term for America's Supreme Court, which in the space of a week

has issued rulings on some of the most fundamental and live wire issues in the country.

Concealed weapons, abortion, the rights that are read to people being arrested.

But yesterday's ruling about the scope of the power held by America's environmental

regulator has troubling implications far beyond the country's borders.

What the Supreme Court was asked to look at is this question of whether or not a federal

agency, in this case the Environmental Protection Agency, had the authority to issue system-wide,

so country-wide regulations that would impose camps on power stations.

Contrarying briq is our environment editor.

These are regulations that would encourage the entire power generation system of the United

...