Feb 17th 2022

Putin’s botched job

The world this week

Leaders

Russia and Ukraine

Whether he invades Ukraine or backs down, Putin has harmed Russia

He will try to claim victory though

The chicken and the peg

Workers have the most to lose from a wage-price spiral

As prices rise, real wages are falling

No, Canada

Justin Trudeau’s crackdown on protests could make things worse

By seeking to curb free speech, he will aggravate Canada’s divisions

Factional dissipation

The Tories’ problems go deeper than just one man

Boris Johnson is a symptom of Conservative political malaise, not its cause

Drug manufacturing

To build a vaccine industry, Africa must embrace the private sector

Without a shift in focus, the continent risks always being at the back of the queue

Letters

On peer review, Myanmar, pay, DNA, the Acropolis, vellum, Ottawa

Letters to the editor

Briefing

A grim blunder

Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine also damages Russia

The nature of his regime has now changed irreversibly

OSINT

A new era of transparent warfare beckons

Russia’s manoeuvres are a coming-out party for open-source intelligence

United States

Between a rock and a hard place

The energy transition is sparking America’s next mining boom

School-board politics

Once mundane, school-board meetings have become battlegrounds

A recall election

A successful school-board recall punishes left-wing excess

Post offices

Long queues are the least of the US Postal Service’s problems

Industrial policy

Midwestern states want to become “hard-tech” hubs

Lexington

The fight for Catholic America

The Americas

No truck with Trudeau

Trudeau invokes emergency powers to shut down Canada’s protests

Bello

Why allegations about his son could hurt Mexico’s president

Asia

Aid limits

A cash crunch is crippling Afghanistan

Awamori? Go on then

Distillers in Okinawa are trying to reinvent the local firewater

A million ways to die in the east

India’s Omicron wave recedes, but not the risk of premature death

Cut-rate khanate

Turkmenistan’s despot finds a worthy successor: his son

Banyan

Asia’s premier trade pact needs stronger foundations

China

Conservation conversation

China is trying to become a champion of biodiversity

Two passports, one problem

Olympic skier Eileen Gu sparks a debate about dual nationality

Chaguan

China’s “zero-covid” policy doubles as a loyalty test

Middle East & Africa

Chasing the dragon

How Chinese firms have dominated African infrastructure

Fabulous fruit

How the sugarloaf pineapple became the champagne of Benin

Mission incomplete

France withdraws its forces from Mali

“RoboCop” hits a rough patch

A recession threatens Tunisia’s President Kais Saied

Europe

The Pécresse file

Meet Valérie Pécresse, the French centre-right hopeful

Hungary for change

As Orban runs for re-election, Hungary’s opposition fears fraud

Robert Habeck’s odyssey

Germany’s plans for wind power are dauntingly ambitious

Charlemagne

Europe is using newfound powers to bring Poland into line

Britain

Old dudes

The Conservative Party has become factional and rebellious

Nobody’s business

British privacy law now rivals libel law in gagging the press

Not the only way

Essex is rebranding

Trans action

Activist doctors are urging GPs to prescribe cross-sex hormones

Bagehot

The shrinkflation state

Business

Digital geopolitics

Russia is trying to build its own great firewall

The middle-market corset

After expanding in 2021, fast fashion may be squeezed again

Learnings growth

Can the ed-tech boom last?

Bartleby

A guide for wannabe leadership gurus

Schumpeter

Companies have a lot to fear from Russia’s digital warmongering

Finance & economics

The battle of the markups

Labour v capital in the post-lockdown economy

Future of cities

The true cost of empty offices

The Citi that was never finished

Citigroup is disposing of its international retail network

Punting profits

Will prediction markets live up to the hype?

Buttonwood

Are financial crossbreeds monstrosities or labradoodles?

Free exchange

A new history of sanctions has unsettling lessons for today

Science & technology

It is exactly rocket science

SpaceX’s monstrous, dirt-cheap Starship may transform space travel

Drug manufacturing

BioNTech plans to make vaccines in shipping containers

Culture

Writing India’s history

A book recalls the foreign agitators for India’s independence

The story of life on Earth

Creatures of the deep past come to life in “Otherlands”

Making tech’s mafia

“The Founders” examines the rise and legend of PayPal

Debut fiction

Love and other demons in “When We Were Birds”

World in a dish

In the fickle world of restaurants, sticking to a vision takes guts

Glaze of glory

The story of Pewabic Pottery is a chronicle of resilience

Back Story

In “The Power of the Dog”, the Western rides again

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

What makes murder?

Are progressive prosecutors to blame for an American homicide wave?

Obituary

Look behind the Ranges