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Dateline quiz

Test your knowledge of Iwo Jima, Bitcoin and “Grease”

A to Z of international relations

Geopolitics terms, from “Abraham accords” to “zero-sum game”

United States

Kamala Harris makes Donald Trump look out of his depth

The presidential debate was a success for the vice-president

Business

AI will not fix Apple’s sluggish iPhone sales any time soon

The technology is not yet ready for prime time on phones or other devices


Leaders

Mario Draghi’s best ideas are those Europe finds least comfortable

The danger is that it picks the easy ones




The world in brief

In a fiery presidential debate, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump exchanged personal attacks and sparred over their visions for America...

Antony Blinken, America’s secretary of state, and David Lammy, Britain’s foreign secretary, arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital...

UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest bank, bought a 9% stake in Commerzbank, a German rival...

GDP growth in Britain was flat in July for a second consecutive month...


The scary new map of the South China Sea

Fresh fights over reefs and shoals test America’s credibility

Welcome to India, where the streets have four names

Constantly renaming cities, roads and stations is pointless and counterproductive

The harmony between Labour and Britain’s trade unions

They agree on the labour market above all

Two charts assess Donald Trump’s distinctive debate style

Johnson, our language columnist, compares Trump-speak with Harris-ese

Café Europa newsletter

Sign up for analysis of European politics, business and finance

Dateline quiz

Test your knowledge of Iwo Jima, Bitcoin and “Grease”

A to Z of international relations

Geopolitics terms, from “Abraham accords” to “zero-sum game”

Video

Monster vehicles

What to do about America’s killer cars

The country’s roads are nearly twice as dangerous as the rich-world average. It doesn’t have to be that way

Americans’ love affair with big cars is killing them

New analysis shows that the heaviest vehicles kill more people than they save in crashes


Why American cars are so big

A regulatory loophole that incentivised sales of big vehicles is about to be tightened


A farewell to small cars, the industrial icons that put Europe on wheels

Why a continent with ever-smaller families is driving ever-bigger automobiles


China goes dark

The real problem with China’s economy

The country risks making some of the mistakes the Soviet Union did

The Chinese authorities are concealing the state of the economy

But the Communist Party’s internal information systems may also be flawed


China is suffering from a crisis of confidence

Can anything perk up its economy?


Liberalism is far from dead in China

Despite an intense clampdown, it may even be drawing more adherents


Europe and the hard right

How to deal with the hard-right threat in Germany

As extremists win more votes across Europe, forming moderate and effective governments is getting harder

Germany’s party system is coming under unprecedented strain

Forming governments after the eastern state elections looks nightmarish


Charlemagne: Europe must beware the temptations of technocracy

Experts are increasingly crowding out flailing politicians


Europe’s lefties bash migrants (nearly) as well as the hard right

Xenophobia is crossing the political spectrum


City liveability

What makes Europe so liveable?

Insights from the city liveability index

What is the least liveable city in the world?

It has ranked at the bottom of the EIU index for 11 years


The world’s most liveable cities in 2024

Our sister company has rated the best, and worst, cities in which to live


Which countries have the best, and worst, living standards?

Data show progress worldwide may have suffered a permanent setback


Stories most read by subscribers

Featured read

Back Story: “The Perfect Couple” and the new map of Moneyland

Depictions of the super-rich on screen reflect the times

World news

Antony Blinken swoops into a violent hotspot close to home

In Haiti a new security force is aiming to suppress gang violence


A make-or-break moment for Mexico

In America’s biggest trading partner the rule of law and democracy are under attack


Turmoil awaits Michel Barnier, France’s new prime minister

The left rages that the recent parliamentary election has been stolen


Business, finance and economics

Can anything spark Europe’s economy back to life?

Mario Draghi, the continent’s unofficial chief technocrat, has a plan

Is the era of the mega-deal over?

Nippon’s acquisition of US Steel is not the only mega-merger falling apart


American office delinquencies are shooting up

How worried should investors be?


Bartleby: The mystery of the cover letter

Why do recruiters still ask for them?


The war in Ukraine

Danger in Donbas as Ukraine’s front line falters

Russian fighters are trying to encircle the defenders

As his popularity fades Volodymyr Zelensky culls his cabinet

He has reshuffled his team and concentrated power


American restrictions on hitting Russia are hurting Ukraine

The Biden administration’s justifications keep changing


1843 magazine | “I use anti-tank mines for weightlifting”: meet Ukraine’s Paralympians

The war-wounded join forces with soldiers on leave in the pursuit of sporting success


America’s economy

Israel’s wars

A narrow corridor in Gaza has become an obstacle to a ceasefire

Binyamin Netanyahu says the presence of Israeli troops is crucial. His generals disagree

The one thing Israelis agree on: rescuing the hostages

Bibi’s failure to do so has prompted huge protests


Israel and Hizbullah play with fire

They both attempt escalating attacks that fall short of all-out war


Have Israel’s far-right religious nationalists peaked?

They wield great power but schisms within the movement are deepening


Digital twins

Digital twins are speeding up manufacturing...

Makers of Formula 1 cars and jet engines are leading the way


...enabling scientific innovation...

They are being used to simulate everything from bodily organs to planet Earth


...and making companies more efficient

They will also help them reap the benefits of advances in AI


AI schools briefs

A short history of AI

In the first of six weekly briefs, we ask how AI overcame decades of underdelivering


How AI models are getting smarter

Deep neural networks are learning diffusion and other tricks


LLMs will transform medicine, media and more

But not without a helping (human) hand


America’s killer cars

Edition: September 7th 2024

America’s killer cars