On the march: Ant Group and the rise of digital finance

The world this week

Politics this week
Business this week
KAL’s cartoon
Leaders

The economy after covid-19
Winners and losers
The pandemic has created big performance disparities between the world’s economies. They could get even larger

Nagorno-Karabakh
No one in charge
A vacuum of global leadership lets local conflicts expand

American democracy
Don’t rob them, count them
In the midst of the pandemic, the plague of voter suppression spreads

Sweden and covid-19
Land of the mask-free
Sweden is held up as a champion of liberty. Its experience with covid-19 contains a more pragmatic lesson

China’s fintech champion
On the march
The blockbuster listing of Ant Group shows how fintech is revolutionising finance

Letters

Letters to the editor
On Mexico, “Cuties”, democracy, Milton Friedman, the Supreme Court, Harold Evans, tanks
Briefing

Ant’s jumbo IPO
Queen of the colony
Does the giant Chinese fintech upstart represent the future of finance?

Asia


War over Taiwan
Strait shooting
Kyrgyzstan
Take three
Elections in Tajikistan
Ballot-ticking exercise
Polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan
Deliverance delayed
A big K-pop IPO
Woke blokes
Banyan
Modi the multi-tasker
China


Law in Hong Kong
Slow strangulation
The Dongba script
Rune revival
United States


Covid-19 in the White House
A sick body politic
The vice-presidential debate
Rumble of the understudies
Voter suppression
A battleground in Texas
Neck-and-neck in Ohio
Swinging again
Jobs (i): Entrepreneurship
Startup nation
Jobs (ii): Lay-offs
A second wave
Lexington
The battle in miniature
The Americas


Cuba
Welcome to Queueba
Argentina
Alberto of the Antarctic
Bello
Sliding down the pandemic snake
Middle East & Africa


Iran and China
Friends without benefits
Israel
Sickly leadership
Egypt
A rage for roads
Ivory Coast’s election
Old men spell danger
Nigeria’s economy
Fuel me once
Money talk
Where calling is a calling
Europe


War in the Caucasus
Heavy metal
Greece
Selling Salamis
France’s Greens
The cancelled Christmas tree
The media in Poland
The Hungarian model
Coronavirus in Sweden
The odd one out
Charlemagne
The princess, the pea and foreign policy
Britain


Rishi Sunak
Easy riser
Dirty money
Please explain
Vaccine programme
Ready, steady, jab
Brexit talks
Deadline diplomacy
Mortgage market
Fixing it
Green energy
Straws in the wind
International


Funeral culture
Deathly silence
Special report


The world economy
The peril and the promise
International trade
Changing places
Labour markets
Zoom and gloom
Competition
Survival of the fittest
Interest rates
The eternal zero
Emerging markets
Prognosis uncertain
The role of government
The right kind of recovery
Business


The global shipping industry
It’s an ill wind that blows no one any good
Canada’s oil industry
Crude crutch
Cinemas
Curtains
Regulating big tech
Ex-antics
Bartleby
Free the workers
Japanese telecoms
Dialling down
Schumpeter
Battle for the iron throne
Finance & economics


The future of finance
The digital surge
Labour markets in Europe
Pain relief
America’s presidential election
Braced for impact
International trade
Working to rule
Buttonwood
Feel the burn
Free exchange
Beggars banquet
Science & technology


The 2020 Nobel science prizes
They walked in looking like dynamite
Living with El Niño
One man’s bane is another’s bounty
New materials
Joint approach
Conservation
How to prepare poached eggs
Books & arts


Money and morals
The way of the world
The history of science
Sleeping giants
Classical music
Phoning it in
Pets and poetry
Dead cat bounce
Theaster Gates
Feats of clay
Economic & financial indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail


Politics and the internet
Web of distrust
Obituary


Swami Agnivesh
Of human bondage