Hello and welcome to the intelligence from the economist.

In New York, I'm John Fassman.

And in London, I'm Jason Palmer.

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

Flights from South Africa to Europe have been cancelled.

Lions at petrol stations in Cameroon extend on to the highway.

In Burundi, drivers sleep in station 4 courts.

The highway is running low on fuel and it's beginning to slow commerce and make government's

nervous.

And off the west coast of Scotland is a tiny island called Muck.

There's not much to do there and for 50 years that's how its owner, Lawrence McHugh,

and liked it.

Our obituaries editor reflects on how he helped the island to prosper while hanging on

to its history.

The first voters in Columbia are getting ready to head to the polls this weekend in the

first round of an election to replace Ivan Duke, the incumbent since 2018 who can't

run again.

It's the most important poll in the country's recent history.

Mr. Duke opposed the landmark peace deal that put an end to a decade's long insurgency

involving the FARC, a Marxist guerrilla group.

So the deal's provisions haven't got very far under him and violence against social

leaders has been rising sharply.

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