The Economist

Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist.

I'm Jason Palmer.

And I'm Rosie Bloor.

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

Our correspondent takes a trip to Baltimore, one of those American cities with a past reputation for violent crime.

But recent statistics show a dramatic national decline in violence. What are Baltimore and other cities at last getting right?

And our culture correspondent, and a familiar voice,

looks at a mammoth new biography of Mark Twain.

It argues that the author jump-started celebrity culture

and single-handedly invented a way of being American in the world and on the page.

But first...

I'm standing on the border between Lithuania and Belarus

in the middle of a beautiful forest of fir trees and pines

with the birds seeing on a spring day.

David Rennie, our geopolitics editor, has been spending some time in the Baltics.

But right in the middle there is a huge metal fence with razor wire on the top.

And then beyond that, still on the Lithuanian side,

coil after coil of razor wire in a thick mass to stop people even getting to the fence.

And cameras every few meters on posts guarded with sharp spikes against climbing to keep a watch

on what would be the front line if Russia ever tried to test NATO and the European Union at this

border with Lithuania. David, you're back in the UK after enjoying the birdsong of Lithuania.

...