Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist. I'm Aure Oganbe.

And I'm Jason Palmer. Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping

your world.

For decades Britain has had a reputation for being a world leader in administering foreign

aid, but budget cuts and a recent change in the government arm and charge of it means

that the world's poorest aren't getting what they used to.

And you might think that with a transition to electric vehicles, the roads might become

a little quieter. Not so. Car makers are in a sonic battle to assert their battery-powered

brands. Prepare for new bleeps, bongs, and guitar legs.

First up though.

One year ago today, President Joe Biden bragged that some new legislation called the Chips

and Science Act would usher in a new era of American manufacturing.

With a promise of billions of dollars in subsidies and tax credits, the world's chip makers

would be lured to America to build their high-tech plants, known as fabs. Standing on the

White House lawn, he set expectations high, predicting that a hundred years in the future,

people will look back on this week. They'll know that we met this moment.

At the moment, America wants to weaken reliance on Asian supply chains, and it isn't alone.

Yesterday, the world's largest chip maker, Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturing company

or TSMC, announced plans to build a fab in Germany. It'll be the first of its kind in

Europe, and Germany's government will shell out as much as five billion euros to help

it along. It's clear that Western governments want to secure crucial chip supplies by making

them at home. But one year into America's new microprocessor policy, how much has changed?

...