Mar 24th 2022

Power play: The new age of energy and security

The world this week

Leaders

Geopolitics and energy

Why energy insecurity is here to stay

The war will speed the shift from petrostates to new electrostates

Escaping zero-covid

China must eventually learn to live with the coronavirus

It has a lot of work to do first

Ukraine’s backers

For all America’s success in helping Ukraine, hard times lie ahead

Joe Biden must hold together a fractious coalition

When duty falls

Cutting fuel taxes is a bad idea

Governments should support household incomes instead

Long walk to free trade

Africa’s ambitious trade plan needs to speed up

Non-tariff barriers hinder commerce even more than tariffs

Letters

On Vladimir Putin and the West, private equity, Richard Nixon, company cults

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

Russia and Ukraine

Sir Adam Roberts rebuffs the view that the West is principally responsible for the crisis in Ukraine

Russia and Ukraine

Jason Bordoff and Meghan O’Sullivan on maintaining energy supply while still hitting climate-change goals

Briefing

The war in Ukraine

An uncertain outlook across Ukraine

Russia’s atrocities in Mariupol have not brought it closer to victory. But they have not yet spread farther afield, either

Reactionary, obscurantist and having a day in the sun

The new Russian cult of war

It has been growing unnoticed for some time

United States

Great-power politics

In Ukraine, Biden must relearn Truman’s lessons from the cold war

Madeleine Albright

America’s first female secretary of state has died of cancer, aged 84

Symbols in sports

The debate about Native American-themed team names goes local

Drug pricing

A new drug for Alzheimer’s is struggling to justify its price

The United States of Amazon

What happens when Amazon comes to town

Lexington

American energy innovation’s big moment

The Americas

Invest or squander?

Guyana’s tiny population braces for a gusher of petrodollars

Bowling maidens over

Why cricket is gaining popularity in Brazil

Bello

Cuba’s dictatorship has a cultural opposition that it can’t tolerate

Asia

Beyond the boundary

How the IPL reflects India’s strengths—and weaknesses

Horrible histories

A new film on Kashmir has found a fan in Narendra Modi

Silent Stans

The Stans want nothing to do with Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine

Palace politics

South Korea’s president-elect starts with an unpopular personal project

Banyan

Joko Widodo is considering extending his term in office

China

Xi’s hard year

In a crucial year politically, Xi Jinping wants stability

Lockdown legions

The extraordinary manpower behind China’s zero-covid strategy

Salvation through selfie

How narcissistic youth might help struggling Chinese booksellers

Chaguan

China has honed its justifications for taking Russia’s side

Middle East & Africa

Trade flaws

Why it costs so much to move goods around Africa

Springtime for Bashar

Syria’s outcast dictator returns to the Arab world

The sands they are a-swirling

Morocco scents victory in Western Sahara

The resilience of rhinoplasty

Plastic surgeons make a bundle despite Lebanon’s economic crisis

Europe

The concert of Europe

The EU’s unity over Ukraine has given it surprising heft

Seeds of discontent

Voters seek an alternative to Macron in blighted France

From the third Rome to the second

Istanbul has become a refuge for thousands of Russians escaping Putin

Io, robot

Italy’s digitisation minister has big goals and a big budget

Charlemagne

Weaning Europe off Russian energy will mean making changes

Britain

The spring statement

Rishi Sunak wants to be known as a tax-cutting chancellor

All in a lather

Machines are once again doing the car-washing in Britain

Prayers answered

Hong Kongers are boosting Britain’s church numbers

Close quarters

Anti-infection measures kept British prisoners safe during the pandemic

Copy, paste, repeat

Britain’s next nuclear plant will be identical to one under construction

Snitches and witches

How activists and charities embed contested ideologies on campus

Bagehot

To appreciate the SNP’s dominance, look at what it has done to the Tories

International

New cold war, new compromises

How Vladimir Putin provokes—and complicates—the struggle against autocracy

Business

The future of business travel

A guide to your next business trip

Surge pricing

How companies use AI to set prices

Food fight

Packaged-food firms are running out of room to raise prices

The Zoom lift

Botox and other injectable cosmetics are booming

Shark attack

What “Shark Tank” says about Indian capitalism

Bartleby

What an honest leaving-do speech would sound like

New kids in the bloc

Will the Digital Markets Act help Europe breed digital giants?

Schumpeter

Why Saudi Aramco could be eclipsed by its Qatari nemesis

Finance & economics

Full metal jackpot

The transition to clean energy will mint new commodity superpowers

A volatile mix

Three big uncertainties cloud the oil market

Departing thoughts

Why foreign investors are feeling jittery about China

Buttonwood

The parallels between the nickel-trading fiasco and the LIBOR scandal

Coming of age

Millennial demand helps stoke the housing boom

Free exchange

Have economists led the world’s environmental policies astray?

Science & technology

Pint-sized power stations

Developers of small modular reactors hope their time has come

Ukraine’s internet connectivity

The degrading treatment of Ukraine’s internet

Loitering munitions

Baguette-sized flying bombs are about to enter service in Ukraine

Cyber-roaches

Robotised insects may search collapsed buildings for survivors

Culture

Understanding Russia’s president

Writers have grappled with Vladimir Putin for two decades

When stars collide

The lives and love of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh

Home Entertainment

Secluded in his library, Montaigne looked inwards for inspiration

Keep it in the family

The Sassoons were once Asia’s top business dynasty

Johnson

A guide to renamed cities

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

Starting to bite

Russian consumers are already feeling the cost of war

Obituary

The girl who loved reading