Jan 14th 2023

Zero-sum

The world this week

Leaders

Zero-sum

The destructive new logic that threatens globalisation

America is leading a dangerous global slide towards subsidies, export controls and protectionism

The tools for the job

The West should supply tanks to Ukraine

Allies have been too cautious about giving it the means to resist Russian aggression

The storming of Brazil’s Congress

How Brazil should deal with the bolsonarista insurrection

Punish those who broke the law, but govern inclusively

Leaders

America’s trustbusters plan to curtail the use of non-compete clauses. Good

The clue is in the name

Waiting-longer rooms

Fixing Britain’s health service means fixing its family doctors

Don’t change the partnership model. Do change the targets

Letters

On Italy, James Callaghan, mental health, education in Sierra Leone, inflation, cricket, The Economist’s cover price

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

America and China

Daleep Singh on America’s economic statecraft

Briefing

Efficiency be damned

Globalisation, already slowing, is suffering a new assault

Subsidies, export controls and curbs on foreign investment are proliferating

United States

House rules

After a spectacularly chaotic start for Congress, more discord looms

Mega-problems

What California’s deadly storms reveal about the state’s climate future

Marching on their stomachs

America’s army has launched a scheme to slim down its recruits

Disrupting the dyad

Polyamory is getting slivers of legal recognition in America

Red and blue science

America’s culture wars extend into medicine

Lexington

How rappers are strengthening Donald Trump’s movement

The Americas

The storming of Congress

A copycat insurrection in Brazil, and its troubling aftermath

Sex pots

Erotic statues in Peru are challenging taboos

Barrios and baristas

Latin American cities are becoming far nicer for poorer inhabitants

Asia

Land of the riven atom

Japan pivots back to nuclear power

The hidden powers of flowers

Myanmar’s generals are deeply superstitious

Digital dead zones

India’s rocketing internet-user growth has stalled

No fly zone

South Korea’s travel spat with China

Banyan

Abe Shinzo’s assassin achieved his political goals

Unhappy valley

The mirage of peace and prosperity in Kashmir

China

Data, diplomacy and disease

Covid is complicating China’s efforts to re-engage with the world

Shrine to a whistleblower

The cult of Li Wenliang, the doctor who spotted covid-19

A different type of lockdown

China is still punishing those who protested against zero-covid

Chaguan

Many Chinese villagers seem ready to move on from covid-19

Middle East & Africa

Baba go-slow to go-go

After eight dismal years, Nigeria prepares to replace President Buhari

Uneasy peace

Ethiopia’s war in Tigray has ended, but deep faultlines remain

Blood money

Kenya’s blood shortage and the kicking of an aid addiction

The rope tightens

Protests have subsided in Iran, but clerics cannot yet proclaim victory

Oil and water

A century-old choice created one of the Gulf’s oddest geopolitical features

Hard to believe

The Arab world’s rulers have turned journalists into courtiers

Europe

Retirement gamble

Emmanuel Macron unveils his pension reforms

Little green mayhem

The war has devastated Ukraine’s environment, too

Taking aim at the Kurds

Turkey is on the point of banning the main Kurdish opposition party

No way in

The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh have been blockaded by Azerbaijan

Gyros and gunboats

Might Turkey seize a tiny Greek island?

Britain

Dr no go

General practitioners are a big part of Britain’s health-care crisis

The NHS in crisis

How many excess deaths in England are associated with A&E delays?

Spare us

Prince Harry’s autobiography is an ill-advised romp

Weathering the storm

Lower gas prices will provide only limited relief to Britons

Newquay, we have a problem

What the failure of Virgin Orbit means for Britain’s space ambitions

Agricultural subsidies

The longed-for transformation of English farming isn’t happening

Bagehot

British museums and galleries are dealing with the past, clumsily

International

The generation game

The age of the grandparent has arrived

Business

The fuzzy corporation

How technology is redrawing the boundaries of the firm

Shipping forecast

Investments in ports foretell the future of global commerce

The costs of transparency

German companies fret about a new supply-chain law

High-performance motoring

The priciest cars are selling fast

Scandal at Air India

A humiliating incident on an Air India flight triggers outrage

Bartleby

How to unlock creativity in the workplace

Schumpeter

Go to Texas to see the anti-green future of clean energy

Finance & economics

The wrong competition

What America’s protectionist turn means for the world

Buttonwood

The dollar could bring investors a nasty surprise

Good day sunshine

The energy crisis and Europe’s astonishing luck

Professional problems

Has economics run out of big new ideas?

Absent billions

The hunt for FTX’s missing riches

Free exchange

Warnings from history for a new era of industrial policy

Science & technology

Authenticating images

Proving a photo is fake is one thing. Proving it isn’t is another

Bug bites bird

A praying mantis attacks a nestling

Horticulture

Wasp larvae that eat aphids alive may save apple crops

The elephant in the room

What causes elephant poaching?

Ancient concrete

Roman civil engineering has lessons for the modern world

Culture

Arms and the men

To their critics, Mexican drug ballads glorify violence

Swords and sandals

Cinema meets radicalism in “Picture in the Sand”

World in a dish

The quest for the perfect chip

Health is wealth

“For Blood and Money” charts a race to develop a blockbuster drug

Going underground

How Cambodian music survived the horrors of the Khmers Rouges

Back Story

The truth about Stone Mountain’s giant Confederate memorial

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

Needles in haystacks

Antidepressants are over-prescribed, but genuinely help some patients

The Economist explains

The Economist explains

What is the House Freedom Caucus?

The Economist explains

What is a tank—and does France’s gift to Ukraine fit the bill?

Obituary

Breaking, making