Jul 29th 2023

The overstretched CEO

The world this week

Leaders

How to run a business in a dangerous and disorderly world

Bosses are being pulled in all directions by tough new rules of the game. How should they respond?

Make Ukraine’s grain Russia’s loss

The world should not let Vladimir Putin abandon the grain deal

Here is how to get him to sign up again

A sad day

Israel has lurched closer to constitutional chaos

But there are still ways to step back from the brink

A spell of sunshine

The world’s poor need to know about weather disasters ahead of time

Three things need to be done to make the most of meteorology’s potential

Britain’s aid policy

Keir Starmer’s plans for aid and diplomacy could help define him

The Labour leader’s stance is a test of his priorities

Letters

On manufacturing, Donald Trump, the Anthropocene, the Palestinian Lions’ Den, Greek gods, London’s Elizabeth line, superforecasts

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

Ukraine, Russia and reparations

Lawrence Summers, Philip Zelikow and Robert Zoellick on why Russian reserves should be used to help Ukraine

Asia

Unsplendid isolation

Kim Jong Un has no desire to let his country rejoin the world

A little less conversation

South Korea has given up on talking to the North

Banyan

A slew of scandals puts Singapore’s government on the back foot

China

Clues to a conflict

Could economic indicators give an early warning of a war over Taiwan?

Qin Gang is gone

China’s missing foreign minister loses his job

Chaguan

In Xi Jinping’s China, central planners rule

United States

Sticker shocker

American universities have an incentive to seem extortionate

Legacy problems

The making of America’s Ivy League elite

Destroyer of worlds

Oppenheimer’s secret city is a shrine to the Manhattan Project

Child influencers

Regulation could disrupt the booming “kidfluencer” business

$ marks the spot

The Biden administration embraces place-based industrial policy

Darker still

Fentanyl is spreading the opioid crisis into America’s big cities

Middle East & Africa

The first crack

A blow against Israel’s Supreme Court plunges the country into crisis

Grain games

Why African leaders shunned Vladimir Putin’s summit

Coup and chaos

Soldiers declare they have overthrown Niger’s president

The Americas

A NATO laggard

Canada’s miserly defence spending is increasingly embarrassing

Call it Q-pop

Meet the Peruvian indigenous singer inspired by K-pop

Europe

The France that works

Beneath France’s revolts, hidden success

Greek fire

Wildfires threaten Greece’s tourist economy

Cold cases

Ukraine’s missile cemetery

Law and order poolside

Germany tries to stop brawls in public swimming pools

Charlemagne

Spain shows that some voters still want centrism

Britain

Foreign policy

Britain has blown its reputation as a world leader in aid

Britain’s banks and political risk

Nigel Farage, NatWest and a political storm

The politics of ULEZ

London’s latest effort to clear bad air is contested but necessary

Bank of England

How high should Britain’s interest rates go?

Bagehot

No, really. Rishi Sunak is a right-winger

International

Hunting for a breakthrough

The Ukrainian army commits new forces in a big southward push

Grain wreck

Russia is attacking Ukraine’s agricultural exports

1843 magazine

Finance

The demonisation of BlackRock’s Larry Fink

Baghdad

The Baghdad job: who was behind history’s biggest bank heist?

Myanmar

Rum and coke and automatic rifles: Myanmar’s Gen Z guerrillas

Tibet

China wants to choose the next Dalai Lama. He has other plans

Ukraine

How Ukraine’s virtually non-existent navy sank Russia’s flagship

Business

The dragon shows its claws

China hits back against Western sanctions

Lean innovation

Next-generation Googles run a tighter ship

Bartleby

The dark and bright sides of power

Immobile

Can AT&T and Verizon escape managed decline?

Orchestral manoeuvres

Why your new EV is making funny noises

Schumpeter

Why Walmart is trouncing Amazon in the grocery wars

Finance & economics

A big plus

Can UBS make the most of finance’s deal of the century?

Of great interest

America’s battle with inflation is about to get trickier

Turning up the heat

Soaring temperatures and food prices threaten violent unrest

Buttonwood

Investors are seized by optimism. Can the bull market last?

Free exchange

Deflation is curbing China’s economic rise

Science & technology

Taming the chaos

The high-tech race to improve weather forecasting

Culture

The death of the hatchet job

Critics are getting less cruel. Alas

Rotten reporting on Russia

How Stalin’s scribbling stooges tricked Western readers

World in a dish

Confronting the dangers of ultra-processed food

America’s culture war

Christopher Rufo offers a history of the left

The Economist reads

Be a coach, not a martinet

What to read about managing people

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

Gimme shelter

Data on air bases suggest a Chinese invasion of Taiwan may not be imminent

The Economist explains

What will be the impact of India’s rice-export ban?

The Economist explains

Can superstars like Beyoncé or Taylor Swift spur inflation?

Obituary

The last Romantic