Mar 19th 2022

The alternative world order

The world this week

Leaders

The war in Ukraine will determine how China sees the world

And how threatening it becomes

The world economy

Confronting Russia shows the tension between free trade and freedom

Liberal governments need to find a new path that combines openness and security

Tilting at windfalls

Windfall taxes on energy companies are a bad idea

Governments should not seize the energy industry’s profits

Pacifist no more

A big defence budget shows Germany has woken up

Olaf Scholz is serious about helping Europe face down Vladimir Putin

Trans women in sport

Sports should have two categories: “open” and “female”

Biology doesn’t always matter. But sometimes it matters a great deal

Letters

On the war in Ukraine, bald eagles, leadership

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

Russia and Ukraine

Mikhail Khodorkovsky on how to deal with the “bandit” in the Kremlin

Russia and Ukraine

John Mearsheimer on why the West is principally responsible for the Ukrainian crisis

Russia and Ukraine

Daniel Yergin on Russia losing its status as an “energy superpower”

Briefing

Russia’s war

Ukraine fights on

Despite negotiations, there seems to be no end in sight

What’s the worst that can happen

The risk that the war in Ukraine escalates past the nuclear threshold

Disaster does not seem imminent but it does seem disturbingly possible

United States

Prisons

America’s prison system is becoming more inhumane

Prison conditions

Debate over air conditioning in American prisons will heat up

Trans women in sport

How swimming became the centre of the trans-sports debate

Abortion laws

The race to undermine reproductive rights in America

Schools and the weather

Some districts opt for remote learning instead of snow days

Puerto Rico’s finances

Puerto Rico’s future is looking brighter

Lexington

The embarrassing Mrs Thomas

The Americas

Can’t grow, won’t grow

Why Mexico’s economy underperforms

Planes, a train and automobile fuel

Mexico’s new megaprojects may do more harm than good

Bello

Chile’s new president won from the left. Can he govern like that?

Asia

Mr $700m is back

Malaysia’s disgraced former prime minister is popular again

Heat island

Mumbai plans for net-zero 20 years before the rest of India

Into the ground

Sri Lanka’s government is stoking inflation and indignation

Side-effects

Covid-19 jabs are making other inoculations less contentious

Banyan

A debate about nuclear weapons resurfaces in East Asia

China

Testing the “limitless”

The friendship between China and Russia has boundaries

Chaguan

Omicron is changing China’s covid strategy

Middle East & Africa

Dhow or don’t

The Gulf states are an economic lifeline for Iran

Message by missile

With America distracted, Iran hits Iraq’s Kurds

Behind by a country vial

Africa has plenty of covid doses, but it lags in jabs

Game over

Tunisia bans sex work, endangering sex workers

Hot coffee

Why global warming threatens east African coffee

Europe

Ploughshares to swords

A risk-averse Germany enters an age of confrontation

Unassailable

The invasion of Ukraine has helped entrench Emmanuel Macron

The Z factor

Russian propagandists turn on pro-Western “traitors”

The cats and dogs of war

Europe is bending immigration rules for pets from Ukraine

Britain

NATO-lite

Boris Johnson tells The Economist about his anti-Russia coalition

Homes for refugees

Britain finally comes up with a scheme to help Ukrainian refugees

Order Floww

The London Stock Exchange plans a new bourse for private companies

A high price

After years in jail, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe returns to Britain

Life in a cold climate

Chilly British homes are likely to get chillier

Bagehot

Does Rishi Sunak have the stomach for what he must swallow?

Business

Value-chain reaction

Russia’s war is creating corporate winners and losers

Good news and bad news

CNN+ enters the streaming business at a newsy moment

Read and follow

Banks and firms face a mammoth sanctions-compliance challenge

Should I stay or should I go?

Western firms’ thorny Russian dilemmas

Tonal language

Is this the beginning of the end of China’s techlash?

WeBinged

Why the WeWork fiasco makes for compelling TV

Bartleby

Why loafing can be work

Schumpeter

Has Silicon Valley lost its monopoly over global tech?

Finance & economics

Economic freedom v political freedom

Globalisation and autocracy are locked together. For how much longer?

A deep ditch

Will China’s covid lockdowns add to strains on supply chains?

Buttonwood

Can foreign-currency reserves be sanction-proofed?

Everywhere, a Russian phenomenon

The inflationary consequences of Russia’s war will spread

When China met the free market

A nickel-trading fiasco raises three big questions

Power grab

Governments are proposing windfall taxes on energy firms

Russian roulette

Sanctions-dodgers hoping to use crypto to evade detection are likely to be disappointed

Free exchange

The disturbing new relevance of theories of nuclear deterrence

Science & technology

Armoured vehicles

Russian tanks in Ukraine are sprouting cages

The Chernobyl Research Initiative Lab

War in Ukraine threatens an intriguing piece of wildlife science

Chemical warfare

How to tweak drug-design software to create chemical weapons

Additive manufacturing

A new type of 3D printing may bring it into the mainstream

Culture

In the line of fire

Vladimir Putin’s war endangers Ukraine’s cultural heritage

A Ukrainian reading list

Six books that explain the history and culture of Ukraine

Back Story

Disavow some Russian artists. Don’t cancel Russian art

World in a dish

African-Americans have shaped American cuisine in surprising ways

British fiction

A swashbuckling smuggler’s tale

Fake news

Sandy Hook was a turning-point in America’s battle over truth

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

Another vaccine victory?

Squashing malaria could save as many lives as covid-19 has taken

Obituary

The star in a bulletproof vest