Apr 14th 2018

Cool Germany

The world this week

Leaders

Cool Germany

Germany is becoming more open and diverse

With the right leadership, it could be a model for the West

The duty to deter

If Syria’s despot is not punished, others will use chemical weapons

Strikes on Bashar al-Assad’s air bases are justified

Unmarked

What to make of Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony

Both the Facebook boss and his questioners in Congress fail to reassure

Brittle Britain

British productivity is rising at last. But Brexit looms over the economy

On its current path, the country will remain a growth laggard

Overcharging undertakers

Great news for the dead: the funeral industry is being disrupted

Changing social norms, competition and technology are shaking up a stodgy and exploitative business

Letters

Letters to the editor

Briefing

After the hurricane

America has let down its Puerto Rican citizens

Islanders must look to themselves to salvage their fortunes

United States

Mr Zuckerberg goes to Washington

If Facebook will not fix itself, will Congress?

Saving private Ryan

Paul Ryan’s retirement suggests his brand of conservatism has lost

Organic farming

Corn beef

Giver’s remorse

One of University of Chicago’s largest donors tries to retrieve $100m

Capital and punishment

How convict labour increased inequality

Discipline and punish

Tough love falls out of fashion in America’s schools

Lexington

The Mueller probe is as much about the rule of law as Russian meddling

The Americas

Farewell at last

Cuba bids goodbye to the revolutionary generation

Building blocked

The property battle in Vancouver’s Chinatown

Send me your skilled

Chile gives immigrants a wary welcome

Bello

Brazil’s election is now up for grabs

Asia

Voting for God

How religion shapes elections in Indonesia

Phone home

Why Samsung of South Korea is the biggest firm in Vietnam

China whirl

East Asia has the world’s fastest growing tourist industry

Malay mêlée

Malaysia’s government calls an election

Stoutly sexist

Why women are not allowed in sumo rings—even to save a life

Banyan

Why South Asia’s majorities act like persecuted minorities

China

A silk road through ice

China wants to be a polar power

China does Davos

On a tropical island, China seeks to evoke an Alpine schmoozefest

Middle East & Africa

A devilish dilemma

Donald Trump and his advisers cannot agree on a Syria policy

The other Syrian conflict

Israel is determined to stop Iran from establishing bases in Syria

A storm over a port

Emiratis plough millions into a country that no one recognises: Somaliland

No one to gripe about

With Zuma gone, South Africa's opposition needs a new scapegoat

A little hope in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone’s new president has made big promises

Escaping the maize

African governments are having doubts about their staple crop

Europe

La République en grève

Emmanuel Macron faces a wave of strikes and protests in France

Viktor victorious

Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, wins another landslide

Rough seas

Turkey and Greece ratchet up tension in the Mediterranean

Stayin’ Aliyev

Azerbaijan’s president wins yet another term

Flights of imagination

Conspiracy theories from, and about, Russia

Foul play

Protests outside Moscow about rubbish turn serious

Charlemagne: the perky Portuguese

Social democracy is floundering everywhere in Europe, except Portugal

Britain

Fix up, look sharp

Britain’s era of abysmal productivity growth could be at an end

An island entire of itself

Guernsey considers whether to legalise assisted dying

Spiking

A shift in the drug market may help to explain a surge in stabbings

Red tape

To converge or diverge? After Brexit, that is the question

Safe space

Britain’s first “buffer zone” against protests outside abortion clinics

An amiable delusion

Is the Commonwealth a plausible substitute for the EU?

Bagehot

Britain doesn’t need a new centrist party. It needs new ideas

International

Making the reaper cheaper

Why undertakers are worried

Special report

The new Germans

How Germany and the Germans have changed

Between open and closed

German politics has become much more complicated

Whose Heimat?

A land of multiple identities

Ceçi n’est pas un hype!

Germany may be rich, but inequalities are widening

AI meets autoland

Germany’s conservative economic model is being put to the test

The somewhat reluctant hegemon

Germany has been slow to reassess its place in the world

Squarely in the frame

German history takes to the small screen

Children of Merkel

Where does Germany go from here?

Business

Cracking on

America’s chemicals industry is booming. But politics may get in its way

Change at the top of Volkswagen

The departure of the VW boss heralds a big shake-up

Downwardly mobile

Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten struggles to retake the lead from Amazon

Transatlantic trysts

British law firms seek similar across the pond

Three-ringed circus

Kinder Morgan’s attempt to build a pipeline reflects badly on Canada

Sliced and diced

Upstart meal-kit companies may need a new recipe for growth

Smoke on the water

The shipping industry attempts to cap carbon emissions

Finance & economics

Voting with your pocket

The proxy-voting season kicks off on Wall Street

Shake it off

The outlook for US government debt

Buttonwood

Catching the bitcoin bug

Investing on the edge

American sanctions, and fears over Syria, roil Russian markets

Sewing up the wounds?

Deutsche Bank gets a new chief executive

Casting wider

How developing countries weave social safety nets

Who counts?

Indian states squabble over how to share out federal cash

Drawing the battle lines

America’s gripes with China make a deal hard to imagine

Free exchange: Root and branch

Economists understand little about the causes of growth

Science & technology

Spreading life to other planets

Colonising the galaxy is hard. Why not send bacteria instead?

Human evolution

Homo sapiens spread to Asia earlier than once believed

Neuroscience

Do adult human brains renew their neurons?

Innovation prizes

$15m is available to solve a burning problem

Books & arts

March of the times

Madeleine Albright’s guide to fascism, past and present

Sober cooks, tight shoes

How the son of a Swiss peasant became a synonym for luxury

Through a glass, humbly

Whisky, ink and the road to ruin

I knew I didn’t do it

A haunting chronicle of life after death row in Mississippi

Johnson

Too often juries comprise 12 confused men (and women)

Economic & financial indicators

Output, prices and jobs

The Economist poll of forecasters, April averages

Trade, exchange rates, budget balances and interest rates

Markets

The Economist commodity-price index

Obituary

To Franklin’s grave