Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist.

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

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

The Omicron wave is crashing across Mexico with a public response perhaps greater than

at any point in the pandemic.

Our correspondent takes stock of the situation in a country that essentially never shut down.

And the kerfuffle around Boris Johnson and his alleged boozy lockdown parties got our

columnist thinking about work drinks.

There are benefits and risks beyond what might happen to the photocopier.

We ask how employers should think about a drink.

First up though.

Russian troops have been parked on the Ukrainian border for weeks as more of them pile in

families of both American and Russian diplomatic staff are being pulled out of Ukraine.

It's a crescendo of tensions.

Yesterday America put 8.5 thousand troops on heightened alert ready to deploy.

Last night President Joe Biden projected a sense of unity among NATO countries.

I had a very, very, very good meeting, totally unanimity with all the European leaders.

Today the leaders of France and Germany will meet to examine possible sanctions on Russia.

Tomorrow negotiators from both will meet with Russian and Ukrainian counterparts to keep

the drip drip of diplomatic efforts going.

Elsewhere though rhetoric is hardening.

Last night Belarus's president Alexander Lukashenko said he would send a whole contingent

...