Jan 13th 2024

Who rules the waves?

The world this week

Leaders

The Chinese EV onslaught

An influx of Chinese cars is terrifying the West

But it should keep its markets open to cheap, clean vehicles

Red Sea, Black Sea, South China Sea

America fights back

The war against the Houthis is part of an escalating struggle for the seas

The hole at the heart of the old continent

Why Olaf Scholz is no Angela Merkel

Germany is unable and unwilling to lead Europe

Business and the culture wars

How to cut through the cacophony over DEI

Outrage on right and left obscures both the costs of DEI and the benefits of diversity

Just sign the cheque

“No-strings giving” is transforming philanthropy

The rich can donate their money quickly and wisely

Letters

On America’s media, behavioural economics, Azerbaijan, London, military beards, forecasting

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

Taiwan’s election

Questions about China dominate Taiwanese elections, says Nathan Batto

Briefing

The car east

Western firms are quaking as China’s electric-car industry speeds up

Expertise in batteries and a vast domestic market give Chinese firms an edge

Asia

Beyond infrastructure

South-East Asia learns how to deal with China

Thumb on the scales

Women’s (in)justice in India

Beach bummer

India bridles at China’s growing presence in South Asia

Sheikh, rattle and roll

Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, wins a fifth term

Banyan

The favourite in Indonesia’s presidential election has a sordid past

China

Getting soft

Xi Jinping is struggling to stamp out graft in the PLA

Trading threats

China heaps pressure on Taiwan ahead of a big election

No laughing matter

A comical effort by China’s intelligence agency

Chaguan

Nostalgia for China’s boom years drives a TV hit

United States

First dance, and maybe the last one too

Donald Trump’s Iowa operation suggests his campaign will be formidable

Fed herring

The US Supreme Court is primed to recalibrate government power

Hospital pass

Joe Biden’s disappearing defence secretary

NRA on trial

A lawsuit in New York may shake things up at the NRA

Ya got trouble

Broadway is struggling to find its rhythm after the pandemic

Lexington

Ron DeSantis has some lessons for America’s politicians

Middle East & Africa

Inside the strip

Just how bad is it in Gaza?

The hub that once was Gaza

Under a real peace deal, Gaza could be an intercontinental crossroads

The dilemmas multiply

Israel has yet to destroy even half of Gaza’s tunnels

Struggling comrades

South Africa’s support for the Palestinian cause has deep roots

Blight of the Satellites

Can satellite cities help solve Africa’s urbanisation challenges?

The Americas

Cocaine-fuelled chaos

How Ecuador became Latin America’s deadliest country

Dire straits

The dwindling of the Panama Canal boosts rival trade routes

A new model for Central America?

Guatemala’s new president promises a better sort of government

Europe

Red, black and kaleidoscopic

Germany’s new party on the far left may eat into the far right

Laughter and fear

Ukrainian stand-up comedy has seen a renaissance during the war

Charlemagne

How the spirit of Jacques Delors might be rekindled

Meet a mini-Macron

The president appoints modern France’s youngest prime minister

A new pecking order

Who is in charge of Europe?

Britain

Rest in pieces

The housing ladder, 1950-2005

Hush-hush

A typically British way to smooth handovers of power

Justice in the mail

Britain’s worst miscarriage of justice sparks outrage at last

The Notional Health Service

Britain’s health-care system looks rather as it did in the 1930s

Cymrunavia

Wales wants to be more like Scandinavia

This sectored isle

Counting Britain’s beauties and leech-bleeders

Bagehot

Keir Starmer, Reform UK and Britain’s populist paradox

International

Gun, boat, diplomacy

Welcome to the new era of global sea power

Special report

Move fast and mend things

The super-rich are trying new approaches to philanthropy

Power to the people

No-strings philanthropy is giving charities more decision-making power

Cut out the middle man

GiveDirectly does what it says on the tin

Giving it away

A growing industry is emerging to make philanthropy simpler

Asian values

Philanthropy in Asia is becoming more professional

Nerds and cool kids

The “effective altruism” movement is louder than it is large

A mixed bag

The future of philanthropy will involve a mix of different approaches

Philanthropy

Sources and acknowledgments

Business

Silicon lowlands

Does Europe at last have an answer to Silicon Valley?

Labour’s love lost

German farmers and train drivers are scaring the country’s bosses

The other Saudi gold

Saudi Arabia wants to be the Saudi Arabia of minerals

Negative spillovers

Is Harvard Business School too woke?

Can’t exit emergency

Faulty door plugs open old wounds at Boeing

Bartleby

When your colleagues are also your rivals

Schumpeter

AI can transform education for the better

Finance & economics

Buttonwood

Bill Ackman provides a lesson in activist investing

Doesn’t compute

What happened to the artificial-intelligence investment boom?

Bottle job

Will spiking shipping costs cause inflation to surge?

Changes unseen

A guide to the Chinese Communist Party’s economic jargon

Free exchange

Has Team Transitory really won America’s inflation debate?

Steel yourself

Xi Jinping risks setting off another trade war

Science & technology

Slippers in the Oval Office

Heart attacks, strokes, dementia—can Biden and Trump beat the odds?

Power prose

Simine Vazire hopes to fix psychology’s credibility crisis

Climate change

2023 was the hottest year ever

Sharing the skies

Wind turbines are friendlier to birds than oil-and-gas drilling

A lift off and a loss

An American rocket has a fine debut; not so the Moon lander on board

Culture

Treasure quest

Inside the hunt for Ukraine’s stolen art

Classical music and conflict

Two Arab-Israeli musical initiatives reckon with the war in Gaza

Mighty minnows

What adroit small countries can teach the rest of the world

Earthly powers

A new book paints a damning portrait of America’s evangelicals

Superhero films

Marvel seems to be losing its powers

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

The Economist explains

The Economist explains

How the Iowa caucuses are changing in 2024

The Economist explains

Can Ukrainian drone attacks hurt Russia?

Obituary

Wind, sand and stars