Jan 6th 2024

Made in ’42. Roadworthy in ’24?

The world this week

Leaders

Roadworthy in ’24?

The man supposed to stop Donald Trump is an unpopular 81-year-old

In failing to look past Joe Biden, Democrats have shown cowardice and complacency

Mayhem in the Middle East

Binyamin Netanyahu is botching the war. Time to sack him

To be safe, Israel needs new leadership

Stockmarkets

Is America’s raging bull market exhausted, or taking a breath?

Investors have a slight hangover

Towering ambition

Can India, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia be the next great economies?

Several countries are making bold—and risky—bets on growth

Is Putin winning?

How backing Ukraine is key to the West’s security

And why its leaders need to start saying so

Letters

On income inequality, Russia and Denmark, mental health, Mondays

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

Pakistan

Imran Khan warns that Pakistan’s election could be a farce

Taiwan’s election

Taiwan’s foreign minister on what’s at stake in the coming election

Briefing

Biden or bust

Joe Biden’s chances do not look good. The Democrats have no plan B

It is too late to hold a competitive primary to allow a better candidate to emerge

United States

SCOTUS and voters

A clash over Trump’s disqualification tests the Supreme Court

Handle with care

American pollsters aren’t sure they have fixed the flaws of 2020

The Gay divorce

The decline and fall of Harvard’s president

Do not despair

The deaths-of-despair narrative is out of date

Lexington

How to win the culture war

The Americas

Until forever, failing

Cuba’s private-sector experiment is faltering

Hacker heaven

Why is Brazil a hotspot for financial crime?

Asia

Turning unPacific?

America braces for Taiwan’s election—and vice versa

Going for the jugular

Lee Jae-myung, South Korea’s opposition leader, survives a stabbing

Off to a dire start

A major earthquake in Japan highlights the country’s resilience

Powering down

The energy transition could make India even more unequal

Banyan

Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s prime minister, is wasting his opportunity

China

Here be dragons

Xi Jinping and China face another tough year

China is going downhill

Millions of Chinese have embraced skiing

Chaguan

For China, Taiwan’s elections are a looming crisis

Middle East & Africa

Israel’s northern front

Another war could break out on the Israel-Lebanon border

No relief

War, hunger and disease stalk Gaza’s 2.2m people

The constitutional crisis can wait

Israel’s Supreme Court strikes back

A storm over a port

Ethiopia’s gambit for a port is unsettling a volatile region

They voted, sort of

A thumping win for Tshisekedi in Congo’s election raises eyebrows

Europe

Cancelkulturkampf

Some German Jews say their country goes too far defending Israel

Get them while they’re young

The simmering row over Spanish-language teaching in Catalan schools

Charlemagne

On Gaza, Europe is struggling to make its diplomacy matter

Battle of wills

A New Year’s interview with Volodymyr Zelensky

Britain

The Great Rewiring

Britain needs an unprecedented expansion of the electricity grid

Bowling over?

Lawn bowls is in decline. Can it make a comeback?

Poll exploration

Older British voters still favour the Tories. Others, not so much

Bagehot

What Britain’s Labour Party thinks of Europe

Business

Machine of the state

Welcome to the era of AI nationalism

Bartleby

A new year’s message from the CEO

Life ACWAtic

Saudi Arabia has an unlikely solar star

The Gulf between them

Can Sino-Arabian business ties replace Sino-American ones?

Hard-tech tonic

The Chinese Communist Party wants (a bit) less consumer internet

Schumpeter

Meet the shrewdest operators in today’s oil markets

Finance & economics

Paths to prosperity

How to get rich in the 21st century

Guns and hoses

Three surprises that could inflame commodity markets in 2024

Still energised

Has America really escaped inflation?

Falling short

American stocks loiter near an all-time high

Free exchange

Robert Solow was an intellectual giant

Science & technology

Big Bangalore theory

Moon landing apart, Indian science punches far below its weight

Ghost ships

Vast amounts of the world’s shipping sails unseen

Culture

Beyond the screen

Hollywood studios are finding new ways to bring stories to life

The art of over-sharing

Social media’s online diarists have a long lineage

Back Story

A cultural guide to new year’s resolutions

The Economist reads

The Economist reads

What to read and watch about Bangladesh

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

The Economist explains

The Economist explains

How art is used against artists, like Young Thug, in court

The Economist explains

How sanctions on Russia will change the diamond trade

Obituary

Bad blood