Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist. I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

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

As with any bureaucratic funding scheme, there is some fraud in America's social welfare

programs. We talk through how hard it is to curb those abuses in a way that doesn't come

to cost to needy, hungry families. And you've probably heard about ChatGPT, a powerful

bit of artificial intelligence that can hold conversations, write essays, even craft

recipes. Our language columnist looks at another surprising skill. It can sound human

like in all manner of languages.

You can't stop though.

American officials are poised to make a momentous designation in the case of Evan Gershkovic,

correspondent for the Wall Street Journal who disappeared in Russia on March 29.

His phrase that Secretary of State Antony Blinken used yesterday wrongfully detained

is actually a sign that the situation is escalating. Russian security services had arrested Mr.

Gershkovic on charges of espionage. A move not seen since the Cold War. But America now

moving to call it a wrongful detention would essentially be saying Mr. Gershkovic is

a hostage. Doing journalism in Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine was already

hard, but foreign reporters certainly had it easier than Russian nationals did. Now

that Western journalists can't count on those freedoms, the flow of truth out of Russia

will surely slow, and a diplomatic crisis is likely to build.

Evan Gershkovic, first and foremost, is a terrific journalist. He is a correspondent who cares

deeply about the story he's covering, who believes deeply in the importance of being

on the ground in places that are hard to get to shed light on the most important things

...