Aug 19th 2021

Biden’s debacle: What it means for Afghanistan and America

The world this week

Leaders

Biden’s debacle

The fiasco in Afghanistan is a grave blow to America’s standing

And much of the blame lies squarely with Joe Biden

No more leaks

Regardless of how covid-19 spread, the world needs to prevent lab leaks

Even a small reduction in the risk of another pandemic is worth the price

Jackson Hole

Central banks should make clear what QE is for, and then reverse it

Monetary policy has become a muddle

Retail revival

How American retailers have adapted to the Amazon effect

The e-commerce marketplace is more dynamic than regulators realise

Megadry

Americans are moving to a region plagued by a 22-year drought

Pricing water properly would help ease shortages

Letters

On monkey experiments, Singapore, meritocracy, demonyms, science, dance floor bankers

Letters to the editor

Briefing

The Taliban are back in town

From Saigon to Kabul: what America’s Afghan fiasco means for the world

The defeat in Afghanistan is, like that in Vietnam, a turning-point. Many fear America’s foes will be emboldened; others hope it will now be more able to confront them

United States

Low and dry

The American West is drying up

Malice afterthought

Two Supreme Court justices want to revisit a landmark free-press ruling

Hog tied

California’s coming bacon crunch

The omni-Americans

Why more Americans are self-identifying as multiracial

No easy escape

The interminable trials at Guantánamo Bay are about to resume

Lexington

Uncle Joe did not know best

The Americas

Crisis in the Caribbean

An earthquake adds to Haiti’s woes

Sonny ways

Justin Trudeau calls a snap election in Canada

Asia

Jokowho?

Indonesia’s president promised reform. Yet it is he who has changed

Sheraton removed

Malaysia’s tottering government falls at last

The darling buds of Nestlé

In Japan, novelty sweets mark the seasons

They just disappeared

Critics of Bangladesh’s government are liable to vanish

Banyan

What the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan means for India and Pakistan

China

Teaching them a lesson

Hong Kong’s government is crushing the city’s pro-democracy unions

Hook, line and sinker?

In Sierra Leone, a Chinese port-building plan raises ire

Chaguan

China is happy to see America humbled in Afghanistan

Middle East & Africa

Heading towards a dilemma

Rich countries want to strike trade deals in Africa

Sixth time lucky

The task facing Zambia’s new president, Hakainde Hichilema

A wave of criticism

Israel’s prime minister gets a hard lesson in pandemic politics

Caliph hanger

Shia zealots try to cancel a statue of Baghdad’s founder

Europe

Enter the cleaner

The EU gets a prosecutor’s office of its own

From “flawless” to lawless

Angela Merkel bids Vladimir Putin a disillusioned farewell

Sicilian defence

Europe’s tenth-largest cities: Catania, in Etna’s shadow

Sink or swim

Should relics of the Habsburg navy be restored?

Charlemagne

How an 18th-century French abbot still sways the EU

Britain

Ready for the next one

Policymakers weigh up the future of Britain’s pandemic state

Nauseous nurseries

Out of lockdown, Britons are discovering other viruses still exist

Demography

The number of young adults in Britain is about to rise sharply

Slippery

Scottish nationalism’s oil dilemma

Left behind

Boris Johnson promises to take in more Afghan refugees

Bagehot

For some MPs Afghanistan is personal as well as political

International

Origins and obfuscation

The world needs a proper investigation into how covid-19 started

Business

Climate tech’s Netscape moment

Billions are pouring into the business of decarbonisation

Long-haul sally

JetBlue launches a low-cost transatlantic flight

Bartleby

Should you work (a little) on your holiday?

SEA change

Chinese cloud giants eye South-East Asia

Updating vows

How the pandemic is changing India’s wedding business

Schumpeter

How Primark makes money selling $3.50 T-shirts

Finance & economics

Delta neutral

China’s Delta dilemma

Feeling the heat

Emerging-market policymakers grapple with rising inflation

The dog days of summer

American consumers become warier

New tricks

Can neobanks’ popularity outlast the pandemic?

Buttonwood

Just how mighty are active retail traders?

Free exchange

The case for mutual educational disarmament

Schools brief

Biology brief

Making your way in the world

Science & technology

Construction techniques

The rise of 3D-printed houses

Range anxiety

New, 800V, electric cars, will recharge in half the time

Prosthetics

A new prosthetic hand

Books & arts

A way through the wood

The “Divine Comedy” is a salutary guide to hope amid adversity

Resistance to Hitler

A new book gives an American heroine her due

Fire in California

A new book chronicles the blaze that destroyed Paradise, California

Plague novel

Ludmila Ulitskaya’s new book is a tale of Stalin-era quarantine

Johnson

What do children know about language, and when?

Economic & financial indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

The Delta delta

Jabs mostly fend off the Delta strain but breakthroughs are infectious

Obituary

America’s favourite problem child