Sep 2nd 2023

AI voted: How artificial intelligence will affect the elections of 2024

The world this week

Leaders

AI voted

How worried should you be about AI disrupting elections?

Disinformation will become easier to produce, but it matters less than you might think

Global politics

How paranoid nationalism corrupts

Cynical leaders are scaremongering to win and abuse power

Destroyer of worlds

How to stop a three-way nuclear arms-race

America, China and Russia must agree on mutual restraints before it’s too late

Great Danes

To fix broken mortgage markets, look to Denmark

Rising interest rates have exposed the problems with many home loans

Beware side-effects

America’s new drug-pricing rules have perverse consequences

Medicare’s price mandate will deter innovation

Letters

On corporate lobbying, ultra-processed foods, life sciences, the British Virgin Islands, Chinese youth, the Luddites, public toilets, holey socks

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

The future of WFH

Nicholas Bloom predicts a working-from-home Nike swoosh

Briefing

Looters with flags

How cynical leaders are whipping up nationalism to win and abuse power

Hatemongers often erode checks on misrule and corruption

Asia

The Next Big One

Japan is preparing for a massive earthquake

Budding growth

What now for Thailand’s weed industry?

In the chicken coop

A mercurial billionaire, Terry Gou, shakes up Taiwan’s presidential race

Cemetery gates

North Korea’s borders are creaking open

Banyan

South-East Asian democracy is declining

China

No love for livestock

China has embraced pets, but animal welfare is still a problem

Instruments of power

China’s Communist Party has co-opted ancient music

Water fight

China is stoking anger over Japan’s release of nuclear wastewater

Coverage that counted

An old health insurance scheme in China may have saved millions

Chaguan

When China thought America might invade

United States

Mr Bot goes to Washington

AI will change American elections, but not in the obvious way

The Kia issue

American cities are suing car manufacturers over auto theft. They have a case

So sue me

Lawsuits over disabled Americans’ access to websites have surged

Bodice ripping

Romance (as a category) is far from dead

Lexington

Joe Biden’s re-election bid is in trouble

Middle East & Africa

Russia in Africa

Wagner’s customers will have to adjust to new leadership

Out for the count

Zimbabwe’s flawed election ensures that its pariah status endures

Here’s looking at coup, kid

The coup in Gabon is part of an alarming trend

Abraham discords

Why Libya’s cackhanded Israel diplomacy is bad for America, too

The Americas

Half a century later

Chile is still haunted by the coup in September 1973

Europe

Buzzing with ideas

Inside Ukraine’s drone war against Putin

Business and Germany’s far right

Business leaders worry about the rise of the AfD

Getting out

Why Europe is a magnet for more Americans

Charlemagne

A sexism scandal in Spanish football hides the country’s progress

Escaping the war

Thousands of Ukrainian men are avoiding military service

Britain

Scottish politics

Can Scotland help Labour form Britain’s next government?

Northern Ireland

Political dysfunction in Northern Ireland is the new normal

Local government

A blunder costs a British town billions

Slow coaches

Britain’s smaller cities desperately need better transport

Big trouble with the big C

Why Britain is so bad at diagnosing cancer

Clearing the air

Who is to blame in Britain for delayed and cancelled flights?

Bagehot

Britons should watch GB News, carefully

International

Oppenheimer’s nightmares

A new nuclear arms race looms

Business

The shopping channel

Amazon has Hollywood’s worst shows but its best business model

Flight risk

From social-media stars to the Mexican army, everyone wants to run an airline

A bitter pill

America’s plan to cut drug prices comes with unpleasant side-effects

Indian business

India’s scandal-hit Adani Group forges on

Shareholder shake-up

The rise of the Asian activist investor

Bartleby

The best bosses know how to subtract work

Schumpeter

Cherish your Uber drivers. Soon they will be robots

Finance & economics

The property paradox

How can American house prices still be rising?

How to make money

Which country’s genius deserves the €200 note?

Brace for impact

Europe’s economy looks to be heading for trouble

Cause and consequence

Germany’s economic model is sputtering. So are its banks

Buttonwood

High bond yields imperil America’s financial stability

Ubiquitous, opaque, tangled

China’s shadow-banking industry threatens its financial system

Free exchange

How will politicians escape enormous public debts?

Science & technology

A new world of hurt

Some forms of chronic pain are particularly mysterious

Culture

Pulp fiction

How to write a bestseller

The fierce urgency of NOW

Betty Friedan and America’s forgotten feminists

Some like it hot

Long feared, volcanoes help the planet

Coolly calculating

How the pocket calculator paved the way for the digital age

Hands up, don’t shoot

Some developers are pushing back against violent video games

World in a dish

Chinese food is more diverse than Western eaters might think

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

A bloody legacy

Wagner routinely targets civilians in Africa

The Economist explains

The Economist explains

What is “friendshoring”?

Obituary

How to win a war