The world this week

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


The financial system
What’s wrong with the banks
Rising interest rates have left banks exposed. Time to fix the system—again

Binyamin Netanyahu and a constitutional crisis
Will Bibi break Israel?
When Israel’s best and brightest are up in arms it is time to worry

Ron DeReckless
Ron DeSantis emboldens Vladimir Putin
Florida’s governor has blundered by saying Ukraine is not a vital American interest

Nuclear submarines
The AUKUS pact is a model for Western allies
Pooling talent and resources is the only way to match China’s heft

Lean, mean and surprisingly green
Why America is going to look more like Texas
Lessons from the surge of the Lone Star State

Britain’s economy
Jeremy Hunt’s budget is better at diagnosis than treatment
Stability but no cigar

Letters

On obesity, colonialism, YouTube and Alphabet, air pollution, the Chagos Islands, Zoomers
Letters to the editor
By Invitation


Russia and Ukraine
Alexei Navalny’s chief of staff says personal sanctions need rethinking
Bank runs
Tony Yates considers policy after Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse
Briefing


The lodestar state
Texas’s latest boom is its biggest yet
The state is sucking in people, companies and federal spending
Asia


Great AUKUS
The Anglophone military alliance in Asia is seriously ambitious
Transport infrastructure
India is getting an eye-wateringly big transport upgrade
Banyan
Micronesia takes on China
China


More than a yes-man?
China’s new head of government, Li Qiang, has Xi Jinping’s ear
New frontier
How life has changed along China’s border with South-East Asia
Chaguan
Why Chairman Mao’s victims are denied justice
United States


Some like it hot
In America climate hawks and Big Oil alike cheer geothermal energy
SNAP, crackle, pop
Theft from America’s anti-poverty programmes seems troublingly easy
Class half empty
Chicago’s public schools are emptying. Politics makes it hard to fix
Eggstortion
The price of eggs in America cannot be explained by inflation alone
Ahab in Brooklyn
Why are so many whales washing up dead on east-coast beaches?
Lexington
Why did America’s leaders stop caring about schools?

Middle East & Africa


A house divided against itself
Binyamin Netanyahu is exploiting Israel’s divisions
Deal or no big deal?
China brokers an Iran-Saudi rapprochement
No flies on Kenya
How an east African country became an odd sort of global powerhouse
The Americas


Borrowing from Bukele
El Salvador’s authoritarian president is becoming a regional role model
Europe


Crunch time
Germany is at last tackling its long-standing economic weaknesses
Austrian populists
The alarming comeback of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party
Uneasy minority
Ethnic Hungarians have been having a tricky time in Ukraine
Winning the electricity war
How Ukraine tamed Russian missile barrages and kept the lights on
Charlemagne
Europe has led the global charge against big tech. But does it need a new approach?
Britain


Steady as she goes
Will Jeremy Hunt’s “budget for growth” achieve its goal?
Not child’s play
The chancellor hopes more child care will get more parents working
A bridge too far
In the name of the planet, Wales curtails roadbuilding
What place in the world?
Britain takes a fresh look at its foreign policy
Hot trend
Britons warm up to saunas
Making the grade
State-school admissions are rising at Oxford and Cambridge
Bagehot
It is far too easy to run lawbreaking businesses in Britain
International


Potemkin diplomacy
Russia’s friends are a motley—and shrinking—crew
Business


The new-look global corporation
Are Western companies becoming less global?
An American in Leverkusen
Shareholders have high hopes for Bayer’s new boss
Aramco’s princely sums
Saudi Aramco makes an eye-popping $160bn in profit
Uncapsized
Can Gautam Adani ride out the storm?
Bartleby
From high-speed rail to the Olympics, why do big projects go wrong?
Schumpeter
A battle royal is brewing over copyright and AI
Finance & economics


The prop-up job
How deep is the rot in America’s banking industry?
Buttonwood
For markets Silicon Valley Bank’s demise signals a painful new phase
Duration dangers
The search for Silicon Valley Bank-style portfolios
The stages of grief
What the loss of Silicon Valley Bank means for Silicon Valley
Panic on Paradeplatz
Credit Suisse faces share-price turbulence, as fear sweeps the market
Fun while it lasted
Is the global investment boom turning to bust?
Free exchange
The Fed smothers capitalism in an attempt to save it
Science & technology


Brainslammed
Evidence is growing that playing contact sports can lead to long-term brain injuries
Give it a rest
To ensure vaccines work properly, men should get a good night’s sleep
Mind maps
A big advance in mapping the structure of the brain
Lunar living
Pressurised natural caves could offer a home from home on the Moon
Culture


American society
“Poverty, By America” is a fierce polemic on an enduring problem
Her cruel device
The story of the poisoners known as the “Angel Makers of Nagyrev”
Intellectual history
Are science and religion fated to be adversaries?
Johnson
“Omit needless words!” But not all of them
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail


Punching above their weight
Upper legislative houses tend to be biased and malapportioned
The Economist explains


The Economist explains
What to make of a clash between a Russian jet and an American drone
The Economist explains
Why Russian women are flying to Argentina to give birth
Obituary


Father and son
Oe Kenzaburo was made a writer by a family crisis