The world this week

Politics
Business
KAL’s cartoon
Leaders

The world economy
How high will interest rates go?
Higher than you think in the short term, but lower than you might fear in the long run

France’s presidency
Statistically significant
Our election model gives Emmanuel Macron a 79% chance of keeping his job

The Winter Olympics
An icy chasm
The Beijing Olympics symbolise a world divided, with China on the wrong side

The Joe Rogan affair
Free speech’s new frontier
The content-moderation wars have come to audio. Spotify must learn from social media

Poverty in Britain
Wrong man, wrong plan
Proposals to boost the poorer half of the country fall short

Letters

Letters to the editor
On vaccine protests, the BBC, curling, quadratic voting, tipping
Briefing

Savings
Too much of a good thing
The pandemic is unlikely to end the world’s saving glut

Asia


South-East Asian tourism
Out of office
The environment in India
Seeing green
Anti-vaxxers in Papua New Guinea
A nation of holdouts
North Korea
New year fireworks
Japanese demographics
Mujin tonic
Banyan
Irony-free zones
China


Technology
Virtual state of control
New Year
Lame tiger
Chaguan
Nixon in China, 50 years on
United States


Florida
A peninsular podium
Preschool education
Wondering what’s best for the kids
Abortion by mail
Easier does it
Drought victim
The loneliness of the desert tortoise
Crypto and the far right
White power and dark money
The 2020 census
America is stagnating
Lexington
America is uniting against Vladimir Putin
The Americas


Haiti
Aiding and abetting
Canada
A populist turn
Bello
Adrift in treacherous currents
Middle East & Africa


Egypt’s economy (1)
Rise and shine
Egypt’s economy (2)
Grains of wrath
Guinea-Bissau
Pushers and putschists
Uganda
Pipe dreams
The sexual abuse of children
A continuing horror
Europe


The French presidential election
Macron, odds on
Russia and eastern Europe
Who’s next?
Ukrainian politics
The man in the middle
Turkey and Armenia
Caucasian thaw
Charlemagne
Pigs can fly
Britain


Regional development
Spreading the jam
Law after Brexit
Digging deep
HP v Autonomy
Lynchpin
NHS waiting lists
To infinity and beyond
Archives
Scrolling through
Children and teenagers
The covid cohort
Bagehot
Gray day, Gray day
International


Welfare in poor countries
Just keep us alive
Business


Business and labour (1)
Talent wars
Business and labour (2)
Depopulation pressure
The snow business
Avalanche risk
Spotify v singers
Blockin’ in the free world
Bartleby
Body of research
Schumpeter
Epic battle
Finance & economics


Capital spending
The urge to splurge
Economic warfare
Taking aim
Oil
A slippery patch
Interest rates
The bill balloons
Stocks in India
Roaring tiger
Buttonwood
Sting in the tail
Free exchange
The high kingdom
Science & technology


Heavenly power
Faster, higher, stronger
Scientific publishing
Handsome prints
Drug delivery
Trypanophobics rejoice!
Climate change
Methane mission
Culture


Fundamental rights
The megaphone and the muzzle
The undiscovered country
A thousand natural shocks
GameStop revisited
The house always wins
World in a dish
More fish in the sea
Playground lore
Jabbed you
Back Story
The parable of Taras Bulba
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail


Making a model
Elysian stakes
Obituary


Jean-Jacques Savin
To sea in a barrel