The world this week

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


Eat, inject, repeat
New drugs could spell an end to the world’s obesity epidemic
The long-term effects must be carefully studied. But the excitement is justified

Take the deal
The new Brexit deal is the best Britain can expect. Support it
Both the Tories and the Democratic Unionist Party should get behind the new agreement with the EU

Delta force
Is Bangladesh’s admired growth model coming unstuck?
A development superstar faces malign politics and rising corruption

Back to its roots
The tech slump is encouraging venture capital to rediscover old ways
Small, profitable firms in strategic industries are now all the rage

Cash for climate services
Saving the rainforests would be a bargain
Far more money is needed to make conservation more profitable than slash and burn

Letters

On Chile, heat pumps, academic freedom, Yue Fei, Scotland, enthusiastic workers
Letters to the editor
By Invitation


Law and order
Brian Lande and Jeff Rojek believe that American police need better training
Briefing


Big shots
A new class of drugs for weight loss could end obesity
They promise riches for drugmakers, huge savings for health systems and better lives for millions
Asia


Fruit of the loom
Bangladesh’s economic miracle is in jeopardy
Global India
India’s G20 presidency will be a win for Narendra Modi
Indonesia and ASEAN
South-East Asia is crying out for regional leadership
Micro YOLO
Young South Koreans are embracing fractional investing
Banyan
New Zealand is right to atone for its colonial crimes in the Pacific
China


Bowing out
China’s prime minister, Li Keqiang, is about to retire
Shell shock?
Chinese arms could revive Russia’s failing war
Who’s the boss?
How to prevent sycophancy in China’s civil service
Chaguan
Why aren’t China and America more afraid of a war?
United States


International man of mystery
In search of Ron DeSantis’s foreign-policy doctrine
Relief pitch
The Supreme Court looks askance at Biden’s student-debt relief
Misleading polls
Scott Adams’s racist comments were spurred by a badly worded poll
Cops v teachers
Chicago’s mayoral run-off will test the Democrats’ left and right
The way from Amarillo
The big American post-Roe battle over abortion pills
Damned Yankees
Why Connecticut is exonerating witches
Lexington
Biden’s big bet on big government

Middle East & Africa


Situation critical
How America plans to break China’s grip on African minerals
A change of the old guard
Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s political kingmaker, wins a flawed election
A tinderbox
A new type of Palestinian militia is emerging
A migratory conspiracy
Tunisia’s autocratic ruler adopts the “Great Replacement” theory
Going nowhere
Why Baghdad may have the worst traffic in the Middle East
The Americas


Power breaker
Brazil’s new president may soon face another threat: his predecessor
Shaky democracy
Mexico’s government has attacked the country’s electoral watchdog
Europe


Europe’s new power balance
The war in Ukraine has made eastern Europe stronger
Noughts and crosses
Ukraine finds stepping up mobilisation is not so easy
No way out
Syrian earthquake survivors in Turkey have nowhere to go
Changing times
Italy’s largest opposition party gets a young and radical new leader
Charlemagne
After seven years of Brexit talks, Europe has emerged as the clear winner
Britain


Capital flight
Britain’s stockmarket has languished. Its gilt market may be next
Brexit and Northern Ireland
Explaining what is in the Windsor framework
Salad shortages
Britain’s tomatoes are a victim of the energy crisis
A state of drift
Nicola Sturgeon’s modest record of reform
Rishi in Paris
Can Britain and France put their differences behind them?
Our Mother who art in heaven
God’s pronouns are causing conniptions in Britain
Bagehot
How Britain’s Conservative Party channels Milhouse from The Simpsons
International


The rule of saw
The biggest obstacle to saving rainforests is lawlessness
Business


VCetacean evolution
How the titans of tech investing are staying warm over the VC winter
Intelligence services
Investors are going nuts for ChatGPT-ish artificial intelligence
The angels’ share
Foreign investors are being snagged by India’s tax net
Big tech v the news
Artificial intelligence is reaching behind newspaper paywalls
Bartleby
The uses and abuses of hype
Schumpeter
Lessons from Novo Nordisk on the stampede for obesity drugs
Finance & economics


Bringing down the house
America’s property market suggests recession is on the way
Refined tactics
Russia’s sanctions-dodging is getting ever more sophisticated
Buttonwood
The anti-ESG industry is taking investors for a ride
Vertiginous views
China’s cities are on the verge of a debt crisis
Two-speed transmission
Is India’s boom helping the poor?
Out of focus
David Solomon lacks answers for Goldman Sachs’s angry investors
Banking on it
Ajay Banga may be just what the fractious World Bank requires
Free exchange
The case against Google hinges on an antitrust “mistake”
Science & technology


Their dark materials
Firms search for greener supplies of graphite for EV batteries
Grapes
The origin of grapevines is a tangled vine itself
Archaeology
Antarctic rocks can help sort stone tools from natural lookalikes
Culture


The ethics of empire
Nigel Biggar tries—and fails—to rehabilitate the British Empire
Campus fiction
“I Have Some Questions for You” raises lots of them
Double lives
Three stories of collusion during the second world war
African-American ceramics
The defiant artistry of 19th-century African-American potters
Home Entertainment
Marcel Marceau was a giant of an underappreciated art form
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail


Power of the pew
Places with high religious participation have fewer deaths of despair
The Economist explains


The Economist explains
How quickly can Russia rebuild its tank fleet?
The Economist explains
Why statelessness is bad for countries and people
Obituary


No-nonsense times two
Bernard Ingham and Betty Boothroyd ensured democracy worked as it should