The world this week

Politics
Business
KAL’s cartoon
This week’s covers
Leaders


Hollywood v Silicon Valley
Disney’s troubles show how technology has changed the business of culture
At 100, the mouse can still roar. But it faces a new kind of rival

Recep for trouble
Turkey could be on the brink of dictatorship
President Erdogan could tip his country over the edge

Flashing red
Excess deaths are soaring as health-care systems wobble
What lessons can be learned from a miserable winter across the rich world?

Arresting development
South Africa’s collapsing railway company is a cautionary tale
A “developmental state” is less useful than keeping the lights on and trains running

Don’t try to dig what we all say
How to sell to the young
A myth-busting memo for your boss

Letters

On free speech, Starlink terminals, America’s towns, future populations, weight, Pope Benedict’s shoes, food, presents
Letters to the editor
By Invitation


Russia and Ukraine
Mona Juul says Russia-Ukraine talks would be premature—but preparing for them would not
Russia and Ukraine
Jeffrey Sachs on why neutral countries should mediate between Russia and Ukraine
Briefing


Thrills and spills
As Disney turns 100, its business is on a rollercoaster ride
The decline of TV and cinema and rise of streaming will reshape entertainment
Asia


Military muscle
Japan’s armed forces are getting stronger, faster
Cracks in the façade
India’s sinking towns spark debates about development
Renuclearising
Why South Korea is talking about getting its own nukes
Making faces
Japanese youngsters want to look like Chinese starlets
Farewells
Jacinda Ardern resigns as New Zealand’s prime minister
Killing women
A murder in Afghanistan highlights the misery of women
Banyan
Who gets to define what Asia means?
China


Falling China
For the first time since the 1960s, China’s population is shrinking
Preparing for launch
A planned spaceport in Djibouti may give China a boost
Has the wave peaked?
Covid-19 has already torn through large swathes of China
Chaguan
Riding the slow train in China
United States


The unstuck middle
Incomes are rising in America, especially for the poorest
Sloppy Joe
The presidential mislaying of classified documents is infectious
Proud, distracted boys
How America’s far right flits from issue to issue
Cash for everyone
What the spread of universal basic-income schemes says about America’s safety net
Batty
It is still legal to hit children in school in 19 American states
Lexington
George Santos is the congressman America deserves

Middle East & Africa


In from the cold but still miserable
Turkey eyes reconciliation with a Syrian regime it tried to topple
Judges’ dread
Binyamin Netanyahu rushes to take on Israel’s Supreme Court
A Gulf apart
Iran and its Arab neighbours are divided over a name
Vive la résistance
How young Sudanese are still fighting for democracy
Off the rails
South Africa’s disintegrating freight railway is crippling firms
Economics lessons
Why Zimbabwe’s schools have taken to selling chickens
The Americas


Boom or bust?
What does China’s reopening mean for Latin America?
Ever more polarised
Peru’s political chaos looks likely to persist
Fewer bellies full
Brazil’s new president wants to reduce the number of hungry people
Europe


Reaching over the Rhine
France and Germany stifle their spats to celebrate a 60-year friendship
Danger zone
A helicopter crash has dealt a heavy blow to Ukraine’s government
Invisible dead
A Russian town counts the cost of Vladimir Putin’s war
Uncertain allegiance
Some liberated Ukrainian regions have mixed loyalties
There will be mud
The next Czech president will be a Trumpish oligarch or a general
Between three seas
The Ukraine war is forcing eastern Europe to build more links
Charlemagne
Europe’s “neutral” countries are having to adapt to the new world
Britain


Predators in the police
The toxic culture of the Metropolitan Police Service
Populism, Scottish-style
The SNP response to the blocking of its transgender act is illiberal
The going rate
Britain’s trade unions lose faith in the pay review bodies
Safe as houses
Britain is well-placed to cope with a downturn in the housing market
Equine decline
Horse-racing in Britain is in deep trouble
The silent treatment
Why super-strict classrooms are in vogue in Britain
Bagehot
British politics needs more money
International


An open book
Open-source intelligence is piercing the fog of war in Ukraine
Special report


Turkey
Turkey faces a crucial election this summer
The economy
The Turkish economy is in pressing need of reform and repair
Friends and relations
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s relatives are becoming increasingly powerful
Syria
The effects on Turkey of Syria’s civil war
Political Islam
Turkey has given up promoting political Islam abroad
Foreign policy
Turkey has a newly confrontational foreign policy
Politics
The Turkish opposition faces big obstacles to winning the election
The future
Turkey is still just a democracy, but it is not certain to remain that way
Business


Buying time
How the young spend their money
Going electric
Mexico’s electric-car ambitions
Foot off the throat
China’s tech crackdown starts to ease
Bartleby
Why pointing fingers is unhelpful
Growing pains
The painful development of India’s startups
Schumpeter
TSMC is making the best of a bad geopolitical situation
Finance & economics


Ouch
Why health-care services are in chaos everywhere
Return to sender
China’s re-globalisation paradox
Buttonwood
Venture capital’s $300bn question
Speculators swatted
Japan’s extraordinarily expensive defence of its monetary policy
Marginal profits
Investment banks are struggling in a high-interest-rate world
Property
The rise of the uber-luxurious office
Free exchange
Could Europe end up with a worse inflation problem than America?
Science & technology


Private moonshots
Which firm will win the new Moon race?
SETI
Ideas for finding ET are getting more inventive
Dopamine. Dogma. Doubt
A decades-old model of animal (and human) learning is under fire
Culture


Untold stories
New films in France tackle race, gender, exile and belonging
The spy in your pocket
“Pegasus” lifts the lid on a sophisticated piece of spyware
Swing and a miss
A philosopher offers four case studies in failure
Home Entertainment
“O Caledonia” teaches girls how to grow up
Self-portraits
In “Still Pictures” Janet Malcolm turns her pen on herself
Johnson
Translating the Bible is a vexed task, as a new book shows
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
The Economist explains


The Economist explains
How gas stoves became part of America’s culture wars
The Economist explains
How humans healed the ozone layer
Obituary


The good forger
Adolfo Kaminsky saved thousands of Jews by changing their identities
Graphic detail


Mother of invention
A flurry of new studies identifies causes of the Industrial Revolution