The world this week

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


Loch mess
Scotland has been on a ten-year holiday from reality
Populism can unravel quickly. But its effects are long-lasting

The baby-bust economy
Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences
What might change the world’s dire demographic trajectory?

Erdogain
How to make the re-election of Recep Tayyip Erdogan less bad news
There is a chance for a partial reset

Soldiers, go home
Pakistan’s perma-crisis
Imran Khan, Pakistan’s most popular politician, must be free to contest timely elections

Nvincible?
The AI boom has turbocharged Nvidia’s fortunes. Can it hold its position?
Competition and regulation may pose a threat—but only eventually

Letters

On Congress and China, the WHO and covid, Martin Luther King, English nationalism, building homes, artificial intelligence, Vegemite, Dutch
Letters to the editor
By Invitation


Russia’s army
Dara Massicot believes that Russia faces twin personnel crises in its armed forces
Briefing


The old and the zestless
It’s not just a fiscal fiasco: greying economies also innovate less
That compounds the problems of shrinking workforces and rising bills for health care and pensions
Asia


Taiwan’s elections
Who will be Taiwan’s next president?
India’s new parliament building
Narendra Modi is rebuilding New Delhi
A military defeat
Imran Khan loses his battle with Pakistan’s army
In hot water
Japan’s hot-spring resorts are blocking geothermal energy plants
Banyan
The strange tale of a prominent North Korean defector
China


The job search goes on
China’s young want to work. For the government
Stuck in the trap
New research helps explain why China’s low birth rates are stuck
Surfing the second wave
China goes from zero-covid to zero restrictions
Bunny power
A famous brand of Chinese sweets reinvents itself again
United States


Debt ceiling
America avoids financial Armageddon but stays in fiscal hell
Forgive and forget
The moratorium on repaying student loans in America was a bad idea
Where the neon signs are pretty
Can downtown densification rescue Cleveland?
The prodigal son
House Republicans are no closer to tying Hunter Biden’s activities to Joe
Now showing in local theatres
America’s states are pursuing their own foreign policies
The red and the black
Conservative Americans are building a parallel economy
Lexington
Nikki Haley, like other long shots, sees a path to victory

Middle East & Africa


Nearly nuclear
Iran puts its nuclear programme beyond the reach of American bombs
Gimme my whack!
Business families in the Gulf need modern laws of inheritance
The worse of two bad men
What next for Sudan’s most notorious rebel leader, known as Hemedti?
Africa’s persecuted gays
Uganda’s harsh anti-gay bill is now law
The Americas


Grand plans, poor execution
Lula cosies up to Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s autocrat
Latin America’s stream of soft power
Bad Bunny, a superstar rapper, is good business
Europe


Five more years
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is re-elected as Turkey’s president
Going for broke
Spain’s prime minister gambles on a snap general election
Better late than never
Ukraine gets its F-16s
Polarising Poland
Poland’s government may seek to bar opponents from politics
Grain water
Ukraine’s Danube ports have become a lifeline
Charlemagne
Bakhmut and the spirit of Verdun
Britain


Up in the air
After a decade of SNP dominance, Scotland’s politics is suddenly in flux
Decline and pall
Sad little boys: the backlash against Britain’s boarding schools
Old standard
Britain is falling behind in clinical trials of medicines
Trial and error
How should Britain reform rape-trial laws?
With a little kelp from my friends
Can British seaweed farms bloom?
Bagehot
Britain’s new political sorcerer: the Reform Fairy
International


#Freespeech
The speech police are coming for social media
Business


There’s AI in them thar hills
Nvidia is not the only firm cashing in on the AI gold rush
ChatBoss
Chief executives cannot shut up about AI
A tale of three tie-ups
Dealmaking has slowed—except among dealmakers
Bankruptcy in India
Go First’s insolvency tests India’s bankruptcy regime
Champagne lifestyle
Is the luxury sector recession-proof?
Bartleby
How to beat desk rage
Schumpeter
Australia and Canada are one economy—with one set of flaws
Finance & economics


Exodus
A new wave of mass migration has begun
Crude problems
The world’s oil-price benchmark is being radically reformed
A pricey shot
America will struggle to pay for ultra-expensive gene therapies
Monetary madness
Turkey’s bizarre economic experiment enters a new phase
Tiny toolbox
Why China’s government might struggle to revive its economy
Buttonwood
Investors go back into battle with rising interest rates
Free exchange
What does the perfect carbon price look like?
Science & technology


Fish out of water
The future of fish farming is on land
This will only hurt a little
Mosquitoes, wasps and parasitic worms could help make injections less painful
The climate in 2100
Temperatures of 50°C will become much more common around the Mediterranean
The language of the law
Why legal writing is so awful
David vs Goliath
There is more than one way to make green steel
Culture


South Africa after apartheid
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has been subject to historical revisionism
An affair to remember
Jenny Erpenbeck’s new novel follows lovers in crumbling East Germany
World in a dish
Immigrants are changing Central Texas barbecue for the better
Look on my works
Ramesses the Great was a superb self-promoter
Culture and the Holocaust
Aleksander Kulisiewicz preserved the music of the Nazi camps
Back Story
The comic opera of England
The Economist reads


The anti-imperialists strike back
What to read to understand imperialism and colonialism
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail


Low-hanging fruit
Cheap vaccines could prevent millions of deaths from cervical cancer
The Economist explains


The Economist explains
How Hong Kong is snuffing out memories of Tiananmen Square
The Economist explains
What does “de-risking” trade with China mean?
Obituary


Shine, no matter what
Tina Turner turned a tough life into splendour