The world this week

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


Brain gain
How worrying is the rapid rise of Chinese science?
If America wants to maintain its lead, it should focus less on keeping China down

Economic exceptionalism
America seems immune to the world economy’s problems
Elsewhere, political dysfunction and fiscal frailties are taking a toll

The Economist’s US election model
A second Trump term: from unthinkable to probable
Introducing our 2024 American election forecast model

Double or quits
Emmanuel Macron wants a snap election to get him out of a deep hole
But he’s taking a big risk

Setting sales
If a bestseller list shuns authors it dislikes, it should say so
Bestseller lists are supposed to reflect sales, not political ideology

Letters

Low birth rates, OpenAI, cricket in America, American students, Danish food, the British election
Letters to the editor
By Invitation


A moderate proposal
Why political centrists must rediscover their passion
Crypto-criminality
Digital finance is a money-launderer’s dream, argues an author
Briefing


A botched hit
America’s assassination attempt on Huawei is backfiring
The company is growing stronger—and less vulnerable
Asia


Taiwan, war and technology
The semiconductor choke-point
A new diaspora
Russian exiles are making a mark in the Caucasus and Central Asia
Modi’s new normal
How will India’s new coalition government work?
Banyan
Why caste still matters in Indian politics
China


From wolf warrior to panda-pusher
Li Qiang and China look to make up with Australia
Passing judgment
Foreign judges are fed up with Hong Kong’s political environment
A whiff of diplomacy
China is going crazy for durians
Chaguan
Why China takes young Tibetans from their families
United States


Numbers for November
Five months out, Donald Trump has a clear lead
Battleground boost
Might Wisconsin’s redrawn state-legislative districts help Biden win?
Guilty as charged
Hunter Biden’s criminal conviction is good for nobody politically
Surgical solution
Louisiana could soon start castrating child-rapists
Back to school
Thousands of American pensioners are retiring on college campuses
No promised land
Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s leftist mayor, is struggling
Lexington
Joe Biden’s best chance to shake up the race

Middle East & Africa


A bridge too far?
Hamas and Israel are still far apart over a ceasefire deal
Slender hope
Who are the main contenders to be Iran’s next president?
Deal or no deal
The president of Somaliland is bargaining for recognition
Out of Africa
The deadly journey to the Gulf
High kicks
Kung fu gives Africans their kicks
The Americas


Embrace the neighbours
Latin America is the world’s trade pipsqueak
Leaving behind compromise
Colombia’s leftist president is flailing
Europe


Macron’s mega-gamble
Why France’s president called a snap election
European elections
Beyond France, the European elections will deliver more of the same
Peace for Ukraine?
A peace conference over Ukraine is unlikely to silence the guns
Too thin to survive?
The tiny statelet of Transnistria is squeezed on all sides
Build back better
Politics overshadows a conference to raise money for Ukraine
Charlemagne
No wonder Macron’s gambling: Europe is home to the high-roller
Britain


Conservative collapse
What would a rout do to the Tories?
Blue rinse
Our constituency poll has awful news for Britain’s Tories
Canvey Island
The most Tory place in Britain
Testing times
Britain’s NHS reels from a ransomware attack
Lining up
What unites a Spice Girl, an opera star and champagne?
Ethnicity and politics
In search of the white British voter
Bagehot
What separates Tony Blair’s Labour from the party today?
International


Ghosts in the machines
The new front in China’s cyber campaign against America
Business


Retention is all you need
The war for AI talent is heating up
The LLM summer sale
A price war breaks out among China’s AI-model builders
The call of duties
The EU hits China’s carmakers with hefty new tariffs
Wrongs of the right
The rise of the far right alarms German business leaders
Mumbai mood swings
What Indian business expects from Modi 3.0
Bartleby
How Gen Zs rebel against Asia’s rigid corporate culture
Schumpeter
Hey Siri! Help me get Apple out of an AI-shaped hole
Finance & economics


The caged bird sings
Donald Trump’s trade hawk is plotting behind bars
The art of the deal
Rumours of the trade deal’s death are greatly exaggerated
In the stocks
China is distorting its stockmarket by trying to prop it up
The missing million
The cracks in America’s ultra-strong labour market
Dropping anchor
China’s currency is not as influential as once imagined
Buttonwood
Has private credit’s golden age already ended?
Free exchange
Does motherhood hurt women’s pay?
Science & technology


Red moon risen
China has become a scientific superpower
Culture


Tipping the sales
Is the New York Times bestseller list politically biased?
Internet culture
Famous Birthdays wants to be the Wikipedia for Gen Z
Monster, Inc?
Is now the right time to publish a novel by Louis-Ferdinand Céline?
Keyboard warriors
How Chinese computing nerds cracked a linguistic conundrum
A peace offering
How left-wingers abandoned free trade
The Economist reads


The Economist reads
Seven memoirs help explain Europe past and present
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
The Economist explains


The Economist explains
Ukraine has a navy that needs no sailors
Obituary


Out of the window, Earth
William Anders took the photo that kicked off the environmental movement