Aug 12th 2023

Costly and dangerous: Why Biden’s China strategy isn’t working

The world this week

Leaders

The business of sport

Kicking up a $10bn sporting storm

Inside Saudi Arabia’s plan to dominate football’s Premier League, PGA Tour golf and more

Costly and dangerous

Joe Biden’s China strategy is not working

Supply chains are becoming more tangled and opaque

Strait-forward

Can China escape deflation?

Three false dogmas are inhibiting the authorities’ response

Natural resources

How Latin America could be a commodities superpower

It must not squander the opportunity of the next commodity boom

Value judgments

Authoritarians are on the march

They argue that universal values are the new imperialism, imposed on people who want security and stability instead. Here is why they are wrong

British science

The urgent need to rejoin Horizon

Britain and the European Union would gain

Letters

On Singapore, working from home, Henry Stimson, the Republicans, in vitro fertilisation, gold prices

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

Hong Kong’s democratic deficit

Sebastien Lai on the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong

Banking

David Apgar on how to make banks more stable

Briefing

Scoring political goals

Saudi Arabia is spending a fortune on sport

It says this will help diversify its economy. Critics call it “sportswashing”

Asia

Indo-Pacific strategy

Why Joe Biden will host Japan and South Korea’s leaders at Camp David

Dangerous shoals

A rotting warship becomes a flashpoint for Sino-American rivalry

Comeback kid

Rahul Gandhi is back in parliament

Enter the generals

Pakistan’s army is back in charge of politics

Banyan

The meaning of relief for Aung San Suu Kyi

China

Widening the net

Hong Kongers are bracing for an even wider clampdown on dissent

When it rains

Northern China has been hit by devastating floods

Party wall

Chinese art students scrawled Communist graffiti in London’s Brick Lane

Chaguan

Why Chinese women are denied legal land rights

United States

Chipping in

America is building chip factories. Now to find the workers

Shot down

Murder rates are falling in a majority of American cities

Hip-hop hooray!

Hip-hop’s 50th anniversary shines a light on its New York City birth

Ka-ching

“Sound of Freedom”: how to make a fortune with a mediocre movie

Trial balloons

How strong is Trump’s defence in the election-stealing case?

Middle East & Africa

Crisis in the Sahel

After Niger’s coup, the drums of war are growing louder

Call for the doctor, call Nigeria

Why Nigeria’s hospitals are losing their staff

One state, or two states, or no state

Can Yemen hold together?

A record bank heist

The plot thickens over Iraq’s bank heist

The Americas

Raw potential

Latin America could become this century’s commodity superpower

Political violence

An Ecuadorian presidential candidate is assassinated

Europe

Slow turn

President Erdogan wants to make nice with the West, on his terms

Life after occupation

In north-east Ukraine the war is close, upending daily life

When friends just can’t be found

Pedro Sanchez struggles to form a new government in Spain

Charlemagne

The Baltic is delighted to be a NATO lake

Britain

Life sciences

Britain doubles down on the life-sciences industry

How to tackle loneliness

Five years on, is Britain’s strategy to combat loneliness working?

Northern Ireland’s police

A big data breach endangers police in Northern Ireland

Ferry bad indeed

What broken ferries reveal about Scotland’s government

Loosing it

In defence of Britain’s public toilets

Bagehot

From wild swimming to grouse shooting, Britain is in hock to hobbyists

International

Thinking for themselves

Western values are steadily diverging from the rest of the world’s

Business

The view beyond the Valley

Beyond the tech hype, how healthy is American business?

Logistic nightmares

America’s logistics boom has turned to bust

Let the chips rise where they may

How real is America’s chipmaking renaissance?

Not-so-super pumped

Can Uber and Lyft ever make real money?

Bartleby

A refresher on business air-travel etiquette

Schumpeter

How green is your electric vehicle, really?

Finance & economics

Rising tigers, hidden dragon

How America is failing to break up with China

A pointed threat

Deflation and default haunt China’s economy

The risk-on rate

American stocks are at their most expensive in decades

Resurrection

Meme stocks are back from the dead

Buttonwood

In defence of credit-rating agencies

Free exchange

Elon Musk’s plans could hinder Twitternomics

Science & technology

Advanced manufacturing

If it can be designed on a computer, it can be built by robots

Parasites at work

Tiny hitchhikers on viruses could promote resistance to antibiotics

Aviation

Airborne taxi ranks are coming to a sky near you

Culture

Orwell mania

Interest in George Orwell and his dystopian fiction is high

War wounds

In Japan “Oppenheimer” is causing consternation

World in a dish

How Provençal rosé became the summer tipple par excellence

A chronicle of stories not told

John McPhee revisits story ideas he had but never pursued

Middle age and beyond

Hip-hop’s future will be less American and more global

Back Story

An infamous murderer and the truth about true crime

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

Charging ahead

How China became a car-exporting juggernaut

The Economist explains

What is nuclear fusion?

The Economist explains

What makes ultra-processed foods so bad for your health?

Obituary

The place where she was