Nov 23rd 2019

Hong Kong in revolt

The world this week

Leaders

Hong Kong in revolt

China’s unruly periphery resents the Communist Party’s heavy hand

The party cannot win lasting assent to its rule by force alone

Oh brother

Sri Lanka’s new president has a worrying past

If he tries to govern as a strongman, he will take his country backwards

President Trump tries to cut health-care costs

Tackling America’s giant hospital bill

Transparency is not enough

Unsettling

America’s decision to recognise Israeli settlements makes peace less likely

It emboldens annexationists in Israel and threatens the two-state solution

One size fits men

Silicon Valley is bad at making products that suit women. That is a missed opportunity

Alienating half your customers is hardly good for business

Letters

On the MBA, religion, wind power, British prime ministers, Romania, “Seinfeld”

Letters to the editor

Briefing

Catching fire

Hong Kong stares into the abyss amid growing violence

A generation shapes its identity on the anvil of Xi Jinping’s intolerance

United States

They were all in on it

Gordon Sondland weakens Republican defences against impeachment

Everything in moderation

Why a left-wing nominee would hurt Democrats

Something rodent in the state

A bill would make it harder to control California’s thriving rats

A familiar gumbo

The Democratic victory in Louisiana is not a repudiation of Donald Trump

The art of the shadow deal

Presidents have sometimes favoured back channels in foreign policy

Lexington

America’s extreme obsession with dogs and what it means

The Americas

Paper strongman

The strange passivity of Jair Bolsonaro

Fantasy economics

Venezuela’s paper currency is worthless, so its people seek virtual gold

Bello

Chile staggers towards a new constitution

Asia

Gota hand it to him

A polarising figure becomes president of Sri Lanka

Home is where the art is

Modern sculpture helps revive a dying corner of Japan

Cracks in the cladding

America wants South Korea to pay much more to host American troops

Future backwards

A Thai opposition leader loses his seat in parliament but battles on

Banyan

Japan’s prime minister breaks a record

China

Warheads up

China’s nuclear arsenal was strikingly modest, but that is changing

Thar be dragons

Many Chinese students are frightened of studying abroad

Chaguan

Few Chinese officials are blushing at a damning leak about Xinjiang

Middle East & Africa

A fuel and their money

Rises in the price of petrol are fuelling unrest in Iran

Unsettled status

America says Israeli settlements in the West Bank are legal

Helicopter money

Unconditional handouts benefit recipients—and their neighbours too

Pet peeves

A former president’s crocodiles are terrorising Ivory Coast’s capital

Trouble brewing

A row over who owns Kenya’s land is making life hard for foreign firms

Europe

The dirty mop

America’s losing battle against corruption in eastern Europe

A nation of have-beans

Defending Switzerland’s coffee stockpile

Udder waste

Some farmers are especially good at milking European taxpayers

Critical condition

Romania’s health-care system, the EU’s worst, struggles to reform

Their daily bread

A septuagenarian mayor is tackling decline in his corner of rural France

Charlemagne

Europe needs to defend itself better, but cannot do without America

Britain

Swing seats

Labour is losing the battle for Grimsby

The panned old Duke of York

Prince Andrew’s disastrous interview will not damage the queen

Trick or tweet?

The Tories’ dodgy “factcheckUK” tweets are a taste of what’s to come

Speakers’ Corner

The best quotes from the fourth week of Britain’s election campaign

Holier than thou

A woke business gathering seems oddly in tune with Labour

Left field

Ashfield, the strangest seat in Britain’s election

Stuck in the middle

Britain’s Lib Dems unveil a manifesto to counter their polling squeeze

Bagehot

Labour still beats the Tories at old-fashioned canvassing

International

Changing gear

The global drugs trade shifts to west Africa

Business

Diagnosis: opaque

Donald Trump wants hospitals to be more upfront about prices

German energy

RWE wants to clean up its act

Bartleby

Refugees make great entrepreneurs and workers

Political bandwidth

Nationalising BT may not improve Britain’s broadband

Mortal Kombat

Google launches its game-streaming platform

Group buy

China’s tech darlings have been on a tear

Schumpeter

Rethinking McKinsey

Finance & economics

Plug and pay

Big Tech takes aim at the low-profit retail-banking industry

Good intentions

Pope Francis promised to clean up the Vatican’s murky finances

Glut maximus

Excess Asian savings are weighing on global interest rates

Buttonwood

How machine learning is revolutionising market intelligence

Sunny days

Firms that analyse climate risks are the latest hot property

Creative tensions

What next for Europe’s banking union?

Safe haven

Why currency traders are serene even as Western politics gets messy

Free exchange

This year’s Nobel prizes prompt soul-searching among economists

Science & technology

Cyber-sickness

Virtual reality continues to make people sick

Animal husbandry

Nematode parasites kill a lot of sheep

Diagnostic nuclear-imaging

New ways to make molybdenum-99

Climate goals

Fossil-fuel-producing countries say one thing and do another

Sun on the rails

Solar-powered trains could make rail transport greener

Books & arts

Spies like them

The shape-shifting threat of Chinese espionage

Boots on the ground

When the meaning is in the method

Magic mountains

A saga of chocolate and upheaval in the Caucasus

Fairy-tale ending

Carmen Machado’s alternative memoir of abuse

His dark materials

Making sculpture out of bullets in Kinshasa

Economic & financial indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

God and Mammon

Medieval Catholicism nudged Europe towards democracy and development

Obituary

Catching the moment