Aug 24th 2024

How would she govern?

The world this week

Leaders

Personality and policy

Kamala Harris can beat Donald Trump. But how would she govern?

Being a politician is about more than campaigning. More policy detail is needed

A deadly virus

Countries should act faster to curb the spread of mpox

The slower the response, the more people will die

Artificial intelligence

Regulators are focusing on real AI risks over theoretical ones. Good

Rules on safety may one day be needed. But not yet

Recession scares

What to make of America’s topsy-turvy economy

Don’t panic just yet

Visas, vistas and vegetarian food

How to attract Indian tourists

Destinations are competing for the travelling rupee

Letters

On education, Africa, tourism, Russia, Lyndon Johnson

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

Artificial intelligence

Mark Zuckerberg and Daniel Ek on why Europe should embrace open-source AI

Briefing

Woolly warrior

Kamala Harris has revealed only the vaguest of policy platforms

Her record suggests she would be a pragmatist

Asia

A succession battle in Hanoi

Vietnam’s new ruler: hardman, capitalist, hedonist

Mining for memories

What a Japanese gold mine says about its approach to history

New city, new start?

Indonesia’s new capital is built on vanity

India’s women problem

The rape and murder of a doctor in India is fuelling outrage

Banyan

If a China and America war went nuclear, who would win?

China

Sizing up the ticket

China’s rulers are surprised by Kamala Harris and Tim Walz

Tossing eggs at a national pastime

Millions of Chinese people play guandan. Is that good or bad?

The other gas problem

Time for China to get serious about its methane emissions

Access delayed

Why are VPNs getting slower in China?

Chaguan

In China’s “median city” people are surprisingly risk-averse

United States

The view from the Bay

San Francisco Democrats are embracing “law and order” politics

More deaths, less outrage

Police are killing more Americans than ever. Where’s the outrage?

Spoiler alert

How Robert F. Kennedy junior’s effect on the election has shifted

The new frontier

Behind the surge in migrants crossing America’s northern border

Stuck in low-Earth orbit

NASA insists that two astronauts are not “stranded” in space

A smashing time

Where crashing cars is the point

Lexington

History will judge Joe Biden by Kamala Harris

Middle East & Africa

The Israel-Hamas war and Iran

The Middle East’s bizarre waiting game: ceasefire or Armageddon?

Iran’s new government

The threat of war is empowering the Islamic republic’s hardliners

The real action

Making love not war in the Middle East

The sun also rises

A shift towards green investment is under way in Africa

A new epidemic

In Congo, a desperate struggle to control the deadly mpox outbreak

Click click boom

YouTube in Africa offers a new kind of news

The Americas

Mexico’s incoming president (1)

Investors panicked after Mexico’s election. Were they right?

Mexico’s incoming president (2)

Confused and dirty: Claudia Sheinbaum’s energy plan

Military Mileise

Javier Milei is splurging on the army

Europe

The Russian economy

The mysterious middlemen helping Russia’s war machine

On the edge

The Kremlin is close to crushing Pokrovsk, a vital Ukrainian town

Gold rush

Turkey’s asset-price boom is good for some but terrible for most

The cash flows south

How Italy’s Mezzogiorno is benefiting from a flood of EU aid

Turning round

After decades of decline, Poland’s population seems to be increasing

Not very Teutonic

The rebuilding of Berlin’s Pergamon Museum is 40 years behind schedule

Charlemagne

What Europe’s comeback politicians can teach American voters

Britain

Two cultures

The trial of Lucy Letby has shocked British statisticians

Bayesian tragedy

Mike Lynch was Britain’s first software billionaire

Exaflop

Britain’s government pulls the plug on a superfast computer

Cancellarius culture

The tricky politics of choosing Oxford’s next chancellor

A place to be

Youth clubs in Britain have been vanishing

Righting wrongs

Britain’s boom in public inquiries into past disasters

International

From Bangkok to Dubai

Indian tourists are conquering the world

Business

Appetite for change

Can big food adapt to healthier diets?

Tech on wheels

Apple can’t do cars. Meet the Chinese tech giants that can

Burnt out

From Coachella to Burning Man, festivals are having a bad year

Blue-sky thinking

India’s largest airline is flying high

Konbini combination

What a takeover offer for 7-Eleven says about business in Japan

Changing times

Why Germany’s watchmakers are worried about the AfD

Bartleby

What to do about pets in the office

Schumpeter

Why America’s tech giants have got bigger and stronger

Finance & economics

Muddled and misguided

Kamala Harris’s cost-of-living plan will end in failure

Reds under the bed

America’s anti-price-gouging laws are too minor to be communist

Danger signs

America’s recession signals are flashing red. Don’t believe them

The new gender gap

Why don’t women use artificial intelligence?

Going cheap

Why investors are not buying Europe’s revival

Buttonwood

Investors should avoid a new generation of rip-off ETFs

Free exchange

Artificial intelligence is losing hype

Schools brief

Risks and rules

AI needs regulation, but what kind, and how much?

Science & technology

Red planet

Wildfires are getting more frequent and more devastating

Cryptography

The world needs codes quantum computers can’t break

Culture

RIP adulthood

Is Western culture stopping people from growing up?

Travel and leisure

Madrid, one of Europe’s largest cities, deserves more appreciation

Flights of fantasy

Whatever happened to flying cars and other promises?

Picture perfect

Is there such a thing as a classic?

World in a dish

In praise of mangoes

Lights, camera, Pentagon!

Hollywood has a behind-the-scenes helper you might not expect

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Obituary

Sweet stardom