The world this week

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


Keir thinking
Is Keir Starmer ready for office?
Britain’s Labour leader has made his party electable again. But there is more to do

Survivor nation
As Israel turns 75, its biggest threats now come from within
The country needs a new political settlement that diminishes the power of extremists

The war in Ukraine
The West should supply Ukraine with F-16s
Or Russian fighter jets may win control of Ukrainian skies

Heavy lies the crown
The power and the limits of the American dollar
The greenback is still king. But those who want to evade it are finding ways to do so

Private’s progress
Private markets remain attractive, even in a higher-rate world
Private credit, not buy-outs, is stealing the limelight

Letters

On the IMF, liberal-arts degrees, housing in London, woke history, politicians, the OECD
Letters to the editor
By Invitation


Israel at 75
Avi Shlaim calls for critical reflection
Israel at 75
There is much to celebrate—and worry about—says Yair Lapid
Briefing


Military-industrial complexity
Russia’s economy can withstand a long war, but not a more intense one
Its defences against Western sanctions can only stretch so far
Asia


Asian geopolitics
South Korea has America in its face and China breathing down its neck
Sikh splittism
Amritpal Singh, self-declared leader of Sikh separatism, is arrested in India
My ball, my rules
Cambodia is about to host arguably the world’s biggest sporting event
Protection by projection
Fearing China, Australia rethinks its defence strategy
Banyan
On China, Japan’s PM wants diplomacy, not war
China


Xivilisation
China’s latest attempt to rally the world against Western values
Love elderly
The novel ways old people try to find love in China
First contact
At last, Xi Jinping calls Volodymyr Zelensky
Chaguan
China’s rulers play the law-and-order card, and lose
United States


Take four
Joe Biden fires the starting gun on the presidential race
Later, Tucker
Fox News shows that not even Tucker Carlson is bigger than the network
Lookback in anger
A New York jury will be asked if Donald Trump is a rapist
Classroom politics
Why Republicans are giving huge pay rises to teachers
Lexington
Why Israel is becoming a partisan cause in the United States

Middle East & Africa


A contentious birthday
Israel’s angsty 75th anniversary
How Zionism has changed
How Zionism has evolved from a project to an ideology
Burkina on the brink
Rampant jihadists are spreading chaos and misery in the Sahel
Ghost town
The battle for Khartoum is just the beginning of Sudan’s nightmare
The Americas


A sticky dictatorship
Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s autocrat, is winning
Europe


War in the skies
Ukraine’s top guns need new jets to win the war
After-hours war
Ukrainians have grown used to living with curfews
Late sun
Spanish renewable-energy development is waking from its siesta
No sharp tacks
A post-Erdogan Turkey would only partly change its foreign policy
Pulling them in
Romania’s hot economy is attracting foreign workers
Charlemagne
A spat over farming bodes ill for Ukraine’s future European prospects
Britain


Opposition research
Sir Keir Starmer on “Starmerism”
Green loots
Labour’s green industrial policy will not cure Britain’s economic ills
A Laborious read
To understand Labour’s shadow cabinet, read its books
Inhabited by spirits
How Campbeltown has responded to the boom in Scottish whisky
An organisation in crisis
The scandal at the Confederation of British Industry may be terminal
Girl power
How one of Britain’s oldest youth clubs is trying to stay relevant
Bagehot
Would Labour turn to the left in office?
International


Criminal underworlds
How the war split the mafia
Business


A new breed of unicorn
How to make it big in Xi Jinping’s China
Fragged
Britain shoots down Microsoft’s $69bn Activision deal
A continuing conundrum
Business links between Germany and China are under review
Drama series
The battle to control Mexican telecoms
Bartleby
If enough people think you’re a bad boss, then you are
Schumpeter
Is mining set for a new wave of mega-mergers?
Finance & economics


The buy-out business
Welcome to a new, humbler private-equity industry
Banking chaos
First Republic Bank is on the edge of a precipice
Crossed wires
Why commodity-trading scandals are multiplying
Money to burn
Patriotic Ukrainians are rushing to pay their taxes
Priceless recovery
If China’s growth is so strong, why is inflation so weak?
Asian commerce
Indian firms are flocking to the United Arab Emirates
Buttonwood
Investors have reason to fear a strong economy
Free exchange
Economists and investors should pay less attention to consumers
Science & technology


Overprescribing drugs
Too many people take too many pills
Harsh lessons from a harsh mistress
After half a century, there is a commercial market for Moon missions
Tackling global warming
How to make low-carbon concrete from old cement
Culture


Film on the front line
Ukrainian film-makers are capturing the realities of war
Home Entertainment
Psychedelic music by an Australian nun is an uncanny pleasure
Fiction from Japan
Readers in the West are embracing Japan’s bold women authors
European history
“Revolutionary Spring” brings to life the drama and daring of 1848
Finance and society
Asset managers control a growing share of society’s essentials
Johnson
ChatGPT raises questions about how humans acquire language
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail


Film with Chinese characteristics
Hollywood is losing the battle for China
The Economist explains


The Economist explains
How a 19th-century law could upend abortion access in America
The Economist explains
Why India’s population is about to overtake China’s
Obituary


Two lives entwined
Barry Humphries, creator and manager of Dame Edna Everage, died on April 22nd, aged 89