China’s disillusioned youth

The world this week

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


Economic malaise
Is Germany once again the sick man of Europe?
Its ills are different from 1999. But another stiff dose of reform is still needed

The danger of letting it rot
China’s economic malaise is causing disillusion among the young
Xi Jinping wants them to focus on the party’s goals. Many cannot see why they should

Beware the Licence Raj
India must abandon protectionism
High tariffs and licensing do not help development—they hurt it

England’s green belt
Britain should scrap its green belt
It has a stranglehold over the economy and protects the wrong bits of land

Substitution required
Why sex differences matter in football
Women are not simply men with long hair, even on the pitch

Letters

On college costs, climate change, our double issue, ice cream, dragons on flags, harsh critics
Letters to the editor
By Invitation


China’s infrastructure bank
The AIIB’s former communications chief on why he blew the whistle
American politics
Hold Donald Trump and his allies accountable at every level, say Norm Eisen and Joanna Lydgate
Briefing


Generation Stagnation
China’s defeated youth
Young Chinese have little hope for the future. Xi Jinping wants them to toughen up
Asia


Power to the people
How to fix India’s decrepit cities
Almost twins
South Korean literature is inspiring Japanese women
South-East Asian syncretism
Indonesia wants to export moderate Islam
Malaysian politics
In Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim survives his first electoral test
Banyan
What India’s foreign-news coverage says about its worldview
China


Squid games
Keeping tabs on China’s murky maritime manoeuvres
Loaded lyrics
China tries to figure out whom a hit song is mocking
Chaguan
China’s slowing economy, seen from ground level
United States


California leavin’
The Hollywood strikes reveal Los Angeles’s deepest anxieties
Puerto RICO
Donald Trump’s racketeering indictment is the most sweeping yet
Lock, stock and pork barrel
Iowa has become a petri-dish of Republican radicalism
Paradise lost
Lessons from the blaze that levelled Lahaina
Diabolical follicles
The mullet has had a resurgence in right-wing America
Post haste
Louis DeJoy’s ambitious plans for America’s postal service

Middle East & Africa


Divided they fall
The Kurds’ dreams of independence look farther off than ever
Zeal estate
Dubai and Riyadh are both riding property booms
The Horn of Africa
Ethiopia risks sliding into another civil war
Scrambled skies
Herders and farmers seek reasons for east Africa’s drought
The Americas


The lion’s roar
Argentina could get its first libertarian president
Democracy in doubt
Guatemala’s elite may try to scupper the presidential election
Sub-national and sub-optimal
Latin America’s local governments too often fail their people
Europe


Germany own goals
Germany is becoming expert at defeating itself
Metre by metre
Ukraine’s counter-offensive is making progress, slowly
Not small beer
Poland’s far right could be the next government’s kingmaker
According to the conventions
How Russian prisoners of war see Putin’s invasion
The booming baguette
French bakeries are thriving in unlikely places
Charlemagne
Having shaken off nationalism, Europe risks civilisationalism
Britain


The green belt
Britain’s green belt is choking the economy
Not so black and white
Reckoning with slavery remains an elite project in Britain
Sporting girls
England’s Lionesses reach the World Cup final
Devolution
Since Brexit, Britain’s union has grown increasingly European
Treasure from the Thames
Britons are ever keener on mudlarking in the River Thames
Bagehot
What happens to comedy when British politics becomes a joke?
International


Is a bigger party a better one?
The BRICS bloc is riven with tensions
Business


Digging for digits
AI is setting off a great scramble for data
Dusting off the guns
War in Ukraine has triggered a boom in Europe’s defence industry
Two-step stop
America’s courts weigh in on how firms resolve liability claims
Bartleby
A retiring consultant’s advice on consultants
The great untangling
Can India Inc extricate itself from China?
Ready for lift-off
Flying taxis could soon be a booming business
The fast and the dubious
Is Vietnam’s EV darling heading for a crash?
Schumpeter
The battle between American workers and technology heats up
Finance & economics


How the wheels came off
The German economy: from European leader to laggard
Seeing cents
Russia will struggle to cope with a sinking rouble
Unemployed and uncounted
China’s consumers, officials and statisticians all lack confidence
Homesick
How bad could China’s property crisis get?
Buttonwood
Why investors are gambling on placid stockmarkets
Free exchange
Democracy and the price of a vote
Science & technology


Mean and green
Can computing clean up its act?
Regenerative dentistry
Scientists want to fix tooth decay with stem cells
The second shall be first
A pair of Indian and Russian probes approach the Moon
Sports science
Should women’s football have different rules from men’s?
Culture


The right stuff?
Conservatives are attacking capitalism
Travel
A new book pays affectionate tribute to the Paris Metro
Johnson
AI could make it less necessary to learn foreign languages
A mirror on our times and theirs
Mint, wax, poisonous plants: beauty tips from Renaissance Italy
Uyghur memoirs
Two accounts of surviving and escaping Chinese repression
Meet me at the bubble pit
The rise of “kidulting”
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail


Red giveaway
What drives people to vote the way they do?
The Economist explains


The Economist explains
Why are Moscow’s air defences performing so badly?
The Economist explains
Why was RICO, a mafia-targeting act, used to charge Donald Trump?
Obituary


Safety first
Richard Simpson strove to balance buyers against manufacturers