AI voted: How artificial intelligence will affect the elections of 2024

The world this week

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


AI voted
How worried should you be about AI disrupting elections?
Disinformation will become easier to produce, but it matters less than you might think

Global politics
How paranoid nationalism corrupts
Cynical leaders are scaremongering to win and abuse power

Destroyer of worlds
How to stop a three-way nuclear arms-race
America, China and Russia must agree on mutual restraints before it’s too late

Great Danes
To fix broken mortgage markets, look to Denmark
Rising interest rates have exposed the problems with many home loans

Beware side-effects
America’s new drug-pricing rules have perverse consequences
Medicare’s price mandate will deter innovation

Letters

On corporate lobbying, ultra-processed foods, life sciences, the British Virgin Islands, Chinese youth, the Luddites, public toilets, holey socks
Letters to the editor
By Invitation


The future of WFH
Nicholas Bloom predicts a working-from-home Nike swoosh
Briefing


Looters with flags
How cynical leaders are whipping up nationalism to win and abuse power
Hatemongers often erode checks on misrule and corruption
Asia


The Next Big One
Japan is preparing for a massive earthquake
Budding growth
What now for Thailand’s weed industry?
In the chicken coop
A mercurial billionaire, Terry Gou, shakes up Taiwan’s presidential race
Cemetery gates
North Korea’s borders are creaking open
Banyan
South-East Asian democracy is declining
China


No love for livestock
China has embraced pets, but animal welfare is still a problem
Instruments of power
China’s Communist Party has co-opted ancient music
Water fight
China is stoking anger over Japan’s release of nuclear wastewater
Coverage that counted
An old health insurance scheme in China may have saved millions
Chaguan
When China thought America might invade
United States


Mr Bot goes to Washington
AI will change American elections, but not in the obvious way
The Kia issue
Cities are suing car manufacturers over auto theft. They have a case
So sue me
An explosion of lawsuits is not making websites more accessible
Bodice ripping
Romance (as a category) is far from dead
Lexington
Joe Biden’s re-election bid is in trouble

Middle East & Africa


Russia in Africa
Wagner’s customers will have to adjust to new leadership
Out for the count
Zimbabwe’s flawed election ensures that its pariah status endures
Here’s looking at coup, kid
The coup in Gabon is part of an alarming trend
Abraham discords
Why Libya’s cackhanded Israel diplomacy is bad for America, too
The Americas


Half a century later
Chile is still haunted by the coup in September 1973
Europe


Buzzing with ideas
Inside Ukraine’s drone war against Putin
Escaping the war
Thousands of Ukrainian men are avoiding military service
Business and Germany’s far right
Business leaders worry about the rise of the AfD
Getting out
Why Europe is a magnet for more Americans
Charlemagne
A sexism scandal in Spanish football hides the country’s progress
Britain


Scottish politics
Can Scotland help Labour form Britain’s next government?
Northern Ireland
Political dysfunction in Northern Ireland is the new normal
Local government
A blunder costs a British town billions
Slow coaches
Britain’s smaller cities desperately need better transport
Big trouble with the big C
Why Britain is so bad at diagnosing cancer
Clearing the air
Who is to blame in Britain for delayed and cancelled flights?
Bagehot
Britons should watch GB News, carefully
International


Oppenheimer’s nightmares
A new nuclear arms race looms
Business


The shopping channel
Amazon has Hollywood’s worst shows but its best business model
Flight risk
From social-media stars to the Mexican army, everyone wants to run an airline
A bitter pill
America’s plan to cut drug prices comes with unpleasant side-effects
Indian business
India’s scandal-hit Adani Group forges on
Shareholder shake-up
The rise of the Asian activist investor
Bartleby
The best bosses know how to subtract work
Schumpeter
Cherish your Uber drivers. Soon they will be robots
Finance & economics


The property paradox
How can American house prices still be rising?
How to make money
Which country’s genius deserves the €500 note?
Brace for impact
Europe’s economy looks to be heading for trouble
Cause and consequence
Germany’s economic model is sputtering. So are its banks
Buttonwood
High bond yields imperil America’s financial stability
Ubiquitous, opaque, tangled
China’s shadow-banking industry threatens its financial system
Free exchange
How will politicians escape enormous public debts?
Science & technology


A new world of hurt
Some forms of chronic pain are particularly mysterious
Culture


Pulp fiction
How to write a bestseller
The fierce urgency of NOW
Betty Friedan and America’s forgotten feminists
Some like it hot
Long feared, volcanoes help the planet
Coolly calculating
How the pocket calculator paved the way for the digital age
Hands up, don’t shoot
Some developers are pushing back against violent video games
World in a dish
Chinese food is more diverse than Western eaters might think
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail


A bloody legacy
Wagner routinely targets civilians in Africa
The Economist explains


The Economist explains
What is “friendshoring”?
Obituary


How to win a war
Andriy Pilshchykov pleaded for F-16s to be sent to Ukraine