The world this week

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


China and the world economy
Xi Jinping’s misguided plan to escape economic stagnation
It will disappoint China’s people and anger the rest of the world

Fool me once
Central banks have spent down their credibility
That will make inflation trickier to handle in future

Nuclear deterrence
Beware a world without American power
Donald Trump’s threat to dump allies would risk a nuclear free-for-all

Beware malware
A chilling near-miss shows how today’s digital infrastructure is vulnerable
This is how to protect the internet from malicious attacks

Culp able
What Boeing, Disney and others can learn from General Electric
Lessons from the tenure of Larry Culp

Letters

On carbon pricing, handbags, museum collections, Starship, AI and music, British immigrants, how to describe X
Letters to the editor
By Invitation


Chinese aspirations
Yu Hua on why young Chinese no longer want to work for private firms
Nuclear weapons
As the world changes, so should America’s nuclear strategy, says Frank Miller
Briefing


Nuclear weapons
America and its allies are entering a period of nuclear uncertainty
And it means the balancing act is getting harder
Asia


The Modi paradox
Why India’s elite loves Narendra Modi
Building back stronger
Japan is still reeling 100 days after the Noto earthquake
In a different league
The end of cricket’s Indian monopoly
Damaging dynasties
Asian “nepo babies” are dominating its politics
Banyan
For a glimpse at Japan’s future, look at its convenience stores
China


The power of princelings
How China’s political clans might determine its future
Chaguan
China’s tin-eared approach to the world
United States


Like a dream to me now
The Biden campaign in Michigan has a tremendous ground-game advantage
Florida woman
An abortion ruling has Democrats hoping Florida is in play
Marriage
The rise of the remote husband
Drug-dependent
Joe Biden’s assault on the $900 child-eczema cream
The struggling state
California is gripped by economic problems, with no easy fix
Lexington
Are American progressives making themselves sad?

Middle East & Africa


Israel’s shadow war with Iran
Israel is ratcheting up its shadow war with Iran
World Central Kitchen
What Israel’s killing of aid workers means for Gaza
Jihadist blues
Protests have erupted against another Syrian dictator
A cruel law
Ugandan judges uphold a draconian anti-gay law
Cool it
Recent heatwaves are a harbinger of Africa’s future
The Americas


The Anti-communist International
Latin America’s new hard right: Bukele, Milei, Kast and Bolsonaro
Feeling the heat
South American vineyards brace for tricky summers ahead
A house divided
Justin Trudeau is beset by a divided party and an angry electorate
Europe


The Olympics and urban planning
The new geography of Paris
The trouncing of a strongman
An electoral bruising for Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey
A well-timed feud
Poles and Ukrainians are at loggerheads. That’s good news for Putin
Organised crime in Italy
The mafiosi of Naples turn white-collar
Happy Finns
The secret behind the world’s happiest country
Charlemagne
Germany’s Free Democrats have become desperate spoilers
Britain


Stormy weather
How has the Bank of England dealt with four years of shocks?
Private renting
Two cities show the problems faced by Britain’s renters
Unionism stunned
What Jeffrey Donaldson’s arrest means for Northern Ireland
Young people’s movements
Why some parts of England have so few graduates
Waxing and waning
Madame Tussauds reflects the fragmentation of fame in Britain
Bagehot
Sadiq Khan’s London offers a taste of Starmer’s Britain
International


Mass killings
Thirty years after Rwanda, genocide is still a problem from hell
Business


A new opening?
The mind-bending new rules for doing business in China
King of the castle
Bob Iger has defeated Nelson Peltz at Disney. Now what?
The world’s largest startup
India’s biggest conglomerate takes on chipmaking
Less general, more electric
Will GE do better as three companies than as one?
System engineering
Meet the French oil major that balances growth and greenery
Bartleby
The six rules of fire drills
Schumpeter
Why Japan Inc is no longer in thrall to America
Finance & economics


Hype and hyperopia
How Xi Jinping plans to overtake America
A lovely wall
The Federal Reserve cleans up its money-printing mess
The $10.6bn question
Will FTX’s customers be repaid?
Buttonwood
How to build a global currency
Free exchange
Daniel Kahneman was a master of teasing questions
Science & technology


Pharmacology
Could weight-loss drugs eat the world?
Robotics
Why robots should take more inspiration from plants
Hacking the internet
A stealth attack came close to compromising the world’s computers
Culture


Under the mushroom cloud
What would nuclear war look like in the 21st century?
Atomic beast
On his 70th birthday, Godzilla has roared back to relevance
Selling scripture
How to make money from the Bible
A numbers game
In the Premier League, data help minor clubs take on the mighty
Rwanda
How Paul Kagame uses culture to keep Rwandans on message
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary


Fighting for breath
Paul Alexander lived longer than anyone in an iron lung