The world this week

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


The British election
Keir Starmer should be Britain’s next prime minister
Why Labour must form the next government

Governing America
What to make of Joe Biden’s plans for a second term
His domestic agenda is underwhelming, unrealistic and better than the alternative

Global warming
Simple steps to stop people dying from heatwaves
As much of the world roasts, don’t despair

Pointers for the plenum
A pivotal moment for China’s Communist Party
Will Xi Jinping keep ignoring good advice at the party’s third plenum?

Can you make this clearer?
LLMs now write lots of science. Good
Easier and more lucid writing will make science faster and better

The centre cannot hold
Macron has done well by France. But he risks throwing it all away
After the election, populists of the right and left could hobble a centrist president

Letters

On software attacks, lab-grown meat, the pop industry, Iraq, the Moon, breasts
Letters to the editor
By Invitation


The French election
A hard-right government might disrupt France’s relations with Europe
Business and the American election
A business leader on why he’s backing Donald Trump
Briefing


The trouble with sequels
What would Joe Biden actually do with a second term?
He has a domestic agenda, but no easy way to bring it about
Asia


Rebels without much cause
Meet the incels and anti-feminists in Asia
Beginner’s luck?
Casinos are booming in South-East Asia
Left wanting
Narendra Modi needs to win over low-income Indians
Gen Z mayor
Takashima Ryosuke is Japan’s youngest ever mayor
Banyan
Ancient artistic loot will finally make its way back to Cambodia
China


Reform in China
The surprisingly frank economic advice that Xi Jinping gets
Last call
Roxie, one of China’s few lesbian bars, closes its doors
Going private
Health-care reform is upending the lives of China’s doctors
Over the moon
China’s probe returns from the far side of the moon
United States


The enthusiasm gap
Young voters strongly favour Joe Biden, but will they turn out?
Forensic fandom
True-crime fans are banding together online to try to solve cases
Push and Pulaskix
Przekrój, an iconic Polish magazine, relaunches in America
AI and parenting
Non-white American parents are embracing AI faster than white ones
A SCOTUS snafu
What to make of the US Supreme Court’s latest abortion ruling
Marking their own homework
Research into trans medicine has been manipulated
Lexington
In New York, the Democratic establishment strikes back

Middle East & Africa


Extreme weather
The “Venice of Africa” is sinking into the sea
Surrounded by trouble
Mauritania is a beacon of stability in the coup-prone Sahel
Breaking the budget
A new breed of protest has left Kenya’s president tottering
Pier pressure
Is the American-built pier in Gaza useful or a fiasco?
No thanks
The job of Iran’s president is a study in humiliation
The Americas


Chaos in the Andes
An apparent coup in Bolivia founders, but the country remains in trouble
Canada’s overdose capital
Vancouver pioneered liberal drug policies. Fentanyl destroyed them
Mission impossible
A Kenyan-led security mission finally starts to arrive in Haiti
Europe


France’s parliamentary election
Emmanuel Macron’s centrists are facing a disastrous first-round vote
Home-made highs
European gangs are getting better at making their own illegal drugs
Belgorod
Death and destruction in a Russian city
Getting them while they’re young
Finland’s shrinking high schools are importing pupils from abroad
Charlemagne
Can António Costa make a success of the world’s hardest political gig?
Britain


The Starmer method
What the remaking of Labour reveals about Sir Keir Starmer
Our best guess
The Economist’s final prediction points to a Tory wipeout in Britain
Lettuce pray
On shame, Liz Truss and the turnip Taliban
Bicester and Woodstock
The British election is not close. But the race in Bicester is
The Public Duty Cost Allowance
The cost of Britain’s cast of ex-prime ministers is mounting
Britain’s unwanted house guest
Julian Assange’s plea deal: a suitable end to a grubby saga
Bagehot
Why the next Westminster scandal is already here
International


Extreme temperatures
The rise of the truly cruel summer
Business


Keeping the lights on
Is the revival of Paris in peril?
Bolt-holes
European millionaires seek a safe harbour from populism
Thinking fast and slow
A new lab and a new paper reignite an old AI debate
Bartleby
Why everyone should think like a lawyer
Move over, big dirt
Why big oil is wading into lithium
Full steam ahead
Boom times are back for container shipping
The baijiu mystery
Who shaved $250bn from Kweichow Moutai’s market value?
Schumpeter
Is artificial intelligence making big tech too big?
Finance & economics


Industries of the future
Will services make the world rich?
Buttonwood
American stocks are consuming global markets
The Tijuana two-step
How Chinese goods dodge American tariffs
Biggie deal
McDonald’s v Burger King: what a price war means for inflation
Rock steady
Is coal the new gold?
Free exchange
The economics of the tennis v pickleball contest
Science & technology


High alert on high
The race to prevent satellite Armageddon
Viruses
A deadly new strain of mpox is raising alarm
Large language models
At least 10% of research may already be co-authored by AI
Culture


Stage fright
Donald Trump’s return is making Hollywood nervous
Regional inequality
What ails Britain’s left-behind places?
Putin’s delusions, Ukrainians’ pain
A clear-eyed account of Ukraine under siege
World in a dish
The döner kebab has a meaty role in German society
Stringing along
How Kronos became the world’s most innovative string quartet
Frequent travellers
Why travel guidebooks are not going anywhere
The Economist reads


The Economist reads
Books (and films) about the joy and pain of music festivals
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary


Just keep having fun
Willie Mays’s philosophy was simple: They throw the ball, I hit the ball