Sep 7th 2024

China’s looking-glass economy

The world this week

Leaders

Going dark

The real problem with China’s economy

The country risks making some of the mistakes the Soviet Union did

Monster vehicles

What to do about America’s killer cars

The country’s roads are nearly twice as dangerous as the rich-world average. It doesn’t have to be that way

Red lines

The Labour government’s worrying lack of ambition in Europe

Sir Keir Starmer is trapped by the mindset of the post-Brexit years

AfDer Thuringia

How to deal with the hard-right threat in Germany

As extremists win more votes across Europe, forming moderate and effective governments is getting harder

Constitutional chaos

A make-or-break moment for Mexico

In America’s biggest trading partner the rule of law and democracy are under attack

Blocked and reported

As Brazil bans Elon Musk’s X, who will speak up for free speech?

Free expression has become a culture war, and those who should defend it are staying quiet

Letters

On exposure to the sun, education, Sudan, Robert Kennedy, growing up, cold-war diplomacy

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

The American election

Kamala Harris has good vibes. Time for some good policies

Artificial intelligence and society

Large language models will upend human rituals

Briefing

Lowering the veil

The Chinese authorities are concealing the state of the economy

But the Communist Party’s internal information systems may also be flawed

Asia

On the road to Mandalay

Myanmar’s military junta is battered by Chinese-backed forces

Is the past really past?

Could Japan and South Korea finally become friends?

Scary stuff sells

Why Indonesia’s horror films are booming

Amateur radio and ammo

Taiwan is trying to learn from the wars in Gaza and Ukraine

Banyan

Welcome to India, where the streets have four names

China

Yearning to think freely

Liberalism is far from dead in China

Not for the religious or lazy

How to get kicked out of China’s Communist Party

United States

Too much of a good thing

Americans’ love affair with big cars is killing them

Swing states

The Harris campaign hopes North Carolina will finally deliver

Back in black

The Onion’s cutting edge: paper

“Comrade Kamala”

The Trump campaign fires a barrage of negative advertisements

Nile-ism

America’s endless summers are good for mosquitoes, too

Campaign calculus

Where is Kamala Harris’s convention bounce?

Lexington

Why Kamala Harris has the advantage in debating Donald Trump

Middle East & Africa

Beyond Belt and Road

China’s relationship with Africa is growing murkier

Chilling prospects

How Africans can stay cool as the climate warms

Israel and Turkey’s war of words

The relationship between Israel and Turkey is at breaking point

Shoving a central banker aside

The fall of Libya’s central banker triggers a new struggle

Israel’s hostages

The one thing Israelis agree on: rescuing the hostages

The Americas

Mexican politics

Claudia Sheinbaum will inherit a poisoned chalice in Mexico

Hamstringing justice

Electing top judges has been a disaster in Bolivia

X is banned in Brazil

The all-powerful judge taking on Elon Musk

Europe

Of firewalls and fragmentation

Germany’s party system is coming under unprecedented strain

Taking the war to the invaders

American restrictions on hitting Russia are hurting Ukraine

No more blind eyes

Abuse by priests in Italy can no longer be tolerated by the Vatican

Succulent grapes, sometimes sour

The obstacles faced by Turkey’s winemakers

The awkward gas pipe

The West still needs Russian gas that comes through Ukraine

Charlemagne

Europe must beware the temptations of technocracy

Britain

Time to get closer

What’s next for Britain and the EU?

Hard power

Britain and the EU find it easier to talk about guns than butter

Labour’s Israel policy

Britain’s ban on arms sales to Israel mixes politics and legalism

Roll call

English kids are back in school. What about the teachers?

Public inquiries

A tardy, scathing report on the Grenfell Tower fire in London

Facial awareness

Police use of facial recognition in Britain is spreading

Bagehot

Why are Remainers so weak in post-Brexit Britain?

International

Signal boost

How encrypted messaging apps conquered the world

Business

Charging forward

Clean energy’s next trillion-dollar business

Broadly successful

How Broadcom quietly became a $700bn powerhouse

Flat-packing a punch

Can IKEA disrupt the furniture business again?

No quick fix

Closing factories will not be enough to save Volkswagen

New Silk Roads

Commercial ties between the Gulf and Asia are deepening

Bartleby

The mystery of the cover letter

Schumpeter

Has Warren Buffett lost his touch?

Finance & economics

Reds flag

China is suffering from a crisis of confidence

The leaves are turning

As stock prices fall, investors prepare for an autumn chill

Golden moment

Will interest-rate cuts turbocharge oil prices?

Long time coming

American office delinquencies are shooting up

Buttonwood

Has social media broken the stockmarket?

Trump v Harris

America has a huge deficit. Which candidate would make it worse?

Free exchange

Why Oasis fans should welcome price-gouging

Science & technology

Cold comfort

New tech can make air-conditioning less harmful to the planet

Too darn hot

Fewer babies are born in the months following hot days

Where no man has gone since 1972

Billionaire space travel heads for a new frontier

Waste management

The noisome economics of dung beetles

Culture

The devil watches Prada

How fashion conquered television

Identity politics

Technology and Hindu nationalism have transformed India

It’s all biology

The Oxford debate where evolution triumphed over creationism

Frenemies with benefits

Despots and oligarchs have many means to meddle in American politics

Speculative fiction

A gripping new novel about AI captures what it means to be human

A maestro, due an encore

Arnold Schoenberg was one of classical music’s most important rebels

The Economist reads

The Economist reads

What to read about the British economy

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Obituary

How to mend a cathedral