Aug 26th 2017

Blanket repression is the wrong way to deal with political Islamists

The world this week

Leaders

The Muslim Brotherhood in retreat

Blanket repression is the wrong way to deal with political Islamists

Their record in power is often worrying. But they can be pragmatic and cannot be ignored

Truth, justice and the Chinese way

China is threatening the rule of law in Hong Kong

Britain’s silence is deafening

Fear of finance

Financial stability is a growing concern of central banks

China’s central bank has more cause to worry than the Fed or the ECB

Health care

Why developing countries must improve primary care

The changing burden of disease requires a better approach to keeping people healthy

Toppling the tycoons

Undue reverence for company founders harms Indian firms

The wider economy suffers, too

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Briefing

The future of Islamism

Can political Islam make it in the modern world?

The auguries are mixed

United States

Populism in America

The future of Bannonism

Trouble at sea

Another collision, and more questions for the navy

Coastal erosion

Louisiana fights the sea, and loses

Lexington

A Democrat in a deep red state

The Americas

Crime and politics in Central America

Traducing El Salvador’s truce

News they can use

Peru’s indigenous-language push

Asia

Tongue Thai-ed

In Thailand, civic life is suffering under the junta’s tight grip

Sixteen years and counting

In Afghanistan, Donald Trump has bowed to the advice of his generals

Fisticuffs at dawn

China and India are showing muscle on their border

Hold your hearses

Pakistan inaugurates a luxury graveyard

Severing ties

India bans a Muslim practice of instant divorce

The heat is on

Australia says it may curb gas exports

China

A crisis of faith

The jailing of three activists in Hong Kong causes outrage

For Xi shall reign forever and ever

In China, singing Handel’s “Messiah” is forbidden in public

Publish and be damned

Cambridge University Press battles censorship in China

Banyan

In China’s war on graft, television is a double-edged sword

Middle East & Africa

Of mandarins and men

The high cost of red tape in Nigeria

Africa’s orphanages

Closing African orphanages may be less heartless than it seems

Amazing disgrace

Zimbabwe’s first lady is accused of assault, again

Women’s rights

It has been a summer of progress for women in the Arab world

Israel and anti-Semitism

Binyamin Netanyahu is soft on anti-Semitism when it suits him

A glimmer in Gaza

Egypt’s surprising friendship with Hamas

Europe

Presidential stumbles

Emmanuel Macron finds change is often unpopular

50 shades of blue

Germany’s far-right party will make the Bundestag much noisier

Wave of re-migration

Eastern Europe’s wave of emigration may have crested

Anti-anti-corruption measures

Ukraine’s reform activists are under attack

Catalan questions

The post-attack truce between Catalonia and Spain will not last

Britain

The no-longer-managings

For the first time since the crisis, more Britons are going bust

Brexit and the courts

Britain cannot escape the long arm of European law

The movement for free movement

An alliance of Blairites and Bolsheviks criticises Labour policy

Message from Minfordland

Most economists say Brexit will hurt the economy—but one disagrees

Taking account

Should crimes involving racism carry stiffer penalties?

Town v gown

Loud parties, ugly flats: the downside of hosting 2.2m students

Closing time

Why London’s pubs are disappearing

Bagehot

In Britain, Atlas is about to shrug

International

Diagnosing doctors

In poor countries it is easier than ever to see a medic

Business

Call to action

Investor activism is surging in continental Europe

Founder’s folly

Management turmoil at Infosys is particularly ill-timed

Game of phones

Facebook, Twitter and Apple get into the television business

Private interests

American bosses continue to lobby, more quietly

The human cumulus

Artificial intelligence will create new kinds of work

Making money in the subcontinent

Big firms in India face new competition

Finance & economics

Big fingers

Financial-market index-makers are growing in power

Replicating success

Private-equity returns can be replicated with public shares

Against the odds

Islamic banking grows in Bangladesh, no thanks to the authorities

Changing maps

How the shape of global banking has turned upside down

Half the sky

Are men more irrationally exuberant than women?

Retirement accounts

Does ageing explain America’s disappointing wage growth?

Free exchange

The “free” economy comes at a cost

Schools brief

Economics brief

The natural rate of unemployment

Science & technology

More skin in the game

Leather grown using biotechnology is about to hit the catwalk

Garment-making

Sewing clothes still needs human hands. But for how much longer?

Planetary science

Diamonds are rare on Earth. Elsewhere, they fall from the sky

Status anxiety

Poor extroverts spend proportionately more on buying status

Books & arts

Reconstruction and the gilded age

How technology and capitalism shaped America after the civil war

Grasping the danger

The politics of cyberspace

Beauty and the beasts

A survey of power and politics in South-East Asia

Johnson

The many pitfalls of journalese

World’s end

Peter Hoeg’s new novel is a high-concept thriller

In search of the motherland

Britain’s generous post-war immigration policy

Economic & financial indicators

Output, prices and jobs

Trade, exchange rates, budget balances and interest rates

The Economist commodity-price index

Corporate profits

Markets

Obituary

Ladies and gentlemen...