May 18th 2024

Is America dictator-proof?

The world this week

Leaders

Democracy

Is America dictator-proof?

The many vulnerabilities, and enduring strengths, of America’s republic

No news is bad news

Canada’s law to help news outlets is harming them instead

Funding journalism with cash from big tech has become a fiasco

Biden’s baleful barriers

America’s 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs: bad policy, worse leadership

The global trade system is disintegrating as you read this

The challenge posed by China

Xi Jinping is subtler than Vladimir Putin—yet equally disruptive

How to deal with Chinese actions that lie between war and peace

A trillion-dollar AI arms race

Big tech’s capex splurge may be irrationally exuberant

Beware of overhype and overbuild

Five more years?

Volodymyr Zelensky’s presidential term expires on May 20th

What does that mean for his country?

Letters

On college protests, farming, Emmanuel Macron, public opinion, Jeremy Clarkson, working on a plane, lonely-hearts ads

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

Mexico’s presidential election

The main opposition candidate on how to fight organised crime in Mexico

Briefing

In the worst case

Why America is vulnerable to a despot

Its democratic system is not as robust as it seems

United States

Spreading like a weed

Marijuana is already legal for a majority of Americans

Bombs, away

The Biden administration is trying to walk a fine line in arming Israel

Hush puppy

A mano-a-mano contest between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump

High-speed rail

The world’s slowest bullet train trundles ahead in California

Stacking the deck

Can playing cards help catch criminals?

The kids are still alright

After a season of Gaza protests, America’s university graduates are polarised but resilient

The Americas

Nothing to see here

Facebook turned off the news in Canada. What happened next?

Elections in the Dominican Republic

Luis Abinader is poised for a thumping re-election win

When the levee breaks

Huge floods in Brazil’s south are a harbinger of disasters to come

The other 19,999

Why Mexico’s largest-ever election matters

Asia

Heirs in races

Who could replace Narendra Modi?

A brutal civil war

The military dictatorship controls less than 50% of Myanmar

Justice in Kazakhstan

The murder that aroused a nation

Self help

Taiwan wants to prove that it is serious about defence

A fragile grid

Taiwan, the world’s chipmaker, faces an energy crunch

Banyan

Narendra Modi ramps up the Muslim-baiting

China

An autocratic bromance

The Xi-Putin partnership is not a marriage of convenience

Where Sun never sets

How Taiwan still hangs on to property in bits of China

Middle East & Africa

Slag to riches

How a Russia-linked mine may keep the ANC in power

Somalia’s never-ending crisis

War and climate change are overwhelming Somalia

The Hamas-Israel conflict

On Independence Day Israel is ripping itself apart

Israel in Gaza

The Israeli army is caught in a doom loop in Gaza

American arms to Israel

Israel has seen arms embargoes before

Europe

Three-body problem

Germany’s government is barely holding together

Time’s up

Volodymyr Zelensky’s five-year term ends on May 20th

Active measures

Russia is ramping up sabotage across Europe

Gabriel Attal

Meet Gabriel Attal, France’s young prime minister

What’s in a name?

Turkish women should soon be allowed to keep their maiden names

Charlemagne

The EU’s best-laid plans for expansion are clashing with reality

Britain

A new kind of threat

Spies, trade and tech: China’s relationship with Britain

The politics of students

Advisers to British government: don’t mess with graduate visas

Free speech and protest

Antisemitism is on the rise in Britain

Pick your projection

What police commissioners tell you about the British election

Levelling the terrain

Is Britain levelling up?

Bagehot

The narcissism of minor differences, Labour Party edition

International

From grey zone to red zone

Taiwan’s new president faces an upsurge in Chinese coercion

Business

Storing up trouble

App stores are hugely lucrative—and under attack

Clocked off

China’s youth are rebelling against long hours

Bartleby

How to be a good follower

Through the floor

Can Home Depot’s “amazing era” return?

Hot property

Meet the Swedish firm trying to shake up heat pumps

Marque to market

How not to name a new car

Schumpeter

What do Joe Biden and the boss of Starbucks have in common?

Finance & economics

Go get ‘em

America is in the midst of an extraordinary startup boom

The 100% manoeuvre

Biden outdoes Trump with ultra-high China tariffs

Farewell to the GOAT

How Jim Simons revolutionised investing

Buttonwood

Joe Biden, master oil trader

India’s economy

Narendra Modi’s flagship growth scheme is off to a sluggish start

Sleepless in Shenzhen

The property firm that could break China’s back

Free exchange

Diego Maradona offers central bankers enduring lessons

Science & technology

Generative AI

Today’s AI models are impressive. Teams of them will be formidable

Disinformation

A Russia-linked network uses AI to rewrite real news stories

Coral hazard

The Great Barrier Reef is seeing unprecedented coral bleaching

Reef-building

Some corals are better at handling the heat

Culture

Money and faith

God™: an ageing product outperforms expectations

Honey, will you be home for dinner?

#Tradwives, the real housewives of the internet, have gone viral

Back Story

The trial of Donald Trump, considered as courtroom drama

Mass tourism

Venice’s new admission fee cannot curb overtourism

Originalist to the core

How did the Founding Fathers want Americans to behave?

A literary life

Alice Munro was the English language’s Chekhov

The Economist reads

The Economist reads

Five novels that imagine dictatorship in America

The Economist reads

Understand South Korea, a success story with a dark side

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

The Economist explains

The Economist explains

The tawdry history of “catch-and-kill” journalism

The Economist explains

What are the Russian “turtle tanks” seen in Ukraine?

Obituary

Life is too short to stuff a mushroom