The world this week

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


American politics
Can Kamala Harris win?
Joe Biden’s vice-president has an extraordinary opportunity. But she also has a mountain to climb

Game changer
A global gold rush is changing sport
Fans may be cooling on the Olympics, but elsewhere technology is transforming how sport is watched

Don’t stop the buck
MAGA Republicans are wrong to seek a cheaper dollar
It is hard to cast America as a victim of the global financial system

The lost leader
Germany’s failure to lead the EU is becoming a problem
A weak chancellor and coalition rows are to blame

Africa 2.0
How to ensure Africa is not left behind by the AI revolution
Weak digital infrastructure is holding the continent back

Letters

On India, Starbucks, African farmers, electoral systems, behavioural economics, conferences
Letters to the editor
By Invitation


The American election
A prominent donor on why the Democrats shouldn’t anoint Kamala Harris
The state of Britain
Neil Kinnock on the post-war-like challenges facing Keir Starmer
Briefing


The state of play
A shift in the media business is changing what it is to be a sports fan
Team loyalty is being replaced by “fluid fandom”
Asia


Japanese defence
Is this a new age of warrior Japan?
Pomp and preparation
Taiwan is beefing up its military exercises to counter China
What Modi 3.0 may mean
A weakened Narendra Modi subsidises jobs and doles out pork
Banyan
Sheikh Hasina faces her biggest crisis in years
China


An ample supply of promises
China unveils its new economic vision
The state of the union
The noose around the press in Hong Kong tightens
Chaguan
The nationalism of ideas
United States


The switch in time
Which Kamala Harris is now at the top of the Democratic ticket?
The mobiliser
The clues in Kamala Harris’s championing of reproductive rights
The “brat” vote
Is Kamala Harris “brat”?
Kammander-in-chief?
How to decode Kamala Harris’s foreign policy
Patience, please
Reliable numbers on Trump v Harris are scarce for now
Native spirit
A Texas judge gives a nod to America’s at-home distillers
Moving on up
Class, race and the chances of outgrowing poverty in America
Lexington
What identity politics will Kamala Harris practise?

Middle East & Africa


Africa unplugged
Why the AI revolution is leaving Africa behind
Congo’s intensifying war
Rwandan soldiers may outnumber M23 rebels in Congo
Jaw-jaw and war-war
Bibi Netanyahu offered spectacle over substance in America
Mutual attrition
Israel and the Houthis trade bombs and bluster
The Americas


On its knees
Cuba is out of supplies and out of ideas
Greenback blues
The strong dollar is hurting exports from Latin America
Europe


Europe’s bantamweight
The Germany-shaped void at Europe’s heart
Robocommander
Vadym Sukharevsky, the man in charge of Ukraine’s drones
Bumpy landing
Italian right-wingers have renamed Milan’s airport after Silvio Berlusconi
Fixing the roof
European countries are banding together on missile defence
The bricklayer
Peter Magyar is reinvigorating Hungary’s struggling opposition
Charlemagne
To understand the perils of AI, look to a Czech novel—from 1936
Britain


Labour’s honeymoon
Is Britain’s economy finally moving?
Swan-upmanship
How King Charles III counts his swans
Turnout trouble
Are Britons losing the habit of voting?
Fighting talk
Britain’s army chief fears war may come sooner than anyone thinks
A Belfast symbol
The builder of the Titanic is struggling to stay afloat
Bagehot
Why Britain’s Labour government enjoys hippy-punching
International


A golden opportunity
Paris could change how cities host the Olympics for good
1843 magazine


Election 2024
How the Proud Boys are prepping for a second Trump term
Entertainment
How to get rich (Taylor’s version)
Israel/Palestine
Marwan Barghouti, the world’s most important prisoner
Cyber-security
Secrets of a ransomware negotiator
Desert island risks
The cruise that will get you chased by the Chinese coastguard
Business


A fossil-fuel fantasy
Donald Trump’s promise of a golden age for oil is fanciful
Bump start
China’s robotaxis are racing ahead of Tesla’s
Prestige and the podium
LVMH is splurging on the Olympics
Dogfight
Can China smash the Airbus-Boeing duopoly?
Bartleby
Machines might not take your job. But they could make it worse
Schumpeter
Why is Mark Zuckerberg giving away Meta’s crown jewels?
Finance & economics


Broken record
The rich world revolts against sky-high immigration
Breaking the greenback
Donald Trump wants a weaker dollar. What are his options?
Heterodox thought
Revisiting the work of Donald Harris, father of Kamala
War economy
How Vladimir Putin created a housing bubble
China’s reserves
Why is Xi Jinping building secret commodity stockpiles?
Buttonwood
Why investors are unwise to bet on elections
Schools brief


Artificial intelligence
AI firms will soon exhaust most of the internet’s data
Science & technology


Drums of war
How Ukraine’s new tech foils Russian aerial attacks
Deep breaths
The deep sea is home to “dark oxygen”
The war on AIDS
Clues to a possible cure for AIDS
Road safety
Augmented reality offers a safer driving experience
Culture


Read trip
Packing for your summer holiday? Take these books published in 2024
Page-turners
The real theme of J.D. Vance’s and Donald Trump’s memoirs
The river runs through it
The Seine may determine athletes’ success at the Paris Olympics
Going down to the woods
How “The Blair Witch Project” changed horror films
The Economist reads


The Economist reads
The romance and reality of Paris, the Olympics’ host
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary


Weapons into light
Thomas Neff’s idea rid the world of a third of its nuclear warheads