Sep 23rd 2023

Investing in the neighbourhood: Asia’s new model of regional integration

The world this week

Leaders

Ukraine

Ukraine faces a long war. A change of course is needed

Its backers should pray for a speedy victory—but plan for a long struggle

From Asia to Asia

What Asia’s economic revolution means for the world

Links between the region’s countries are getting stronger. But America’s loss is not entirely China’s gain

Death in Vancouver

If India ordered a murder in Canada, there must be consequences

Western countries have for too long acquiesced to the Indian government’s abuses

Beyond the hype

ChatGPT mania may be cooling, but a serious new industry is taking shape

Three forces will shape the business of generative AI

How to beat HIV

To end AIDS, high-risk countries will need to jab schoolgirls

Injections that could keep a generation virus-free are on the horizon

Uninsurable America

Climate change is coming for America’s property market

Insurance is supposed to signal risk. Policymakers should let it

Letters

On nuclear weapons, business agglomerations, heat pumps, the EU’s Council of Ministers, inoculations, headline wordplay

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

Ukraine

How Russia and Ukraine interpret and signal information will determine the course of the war

Ukraine’s long war

A web of security guarantees could give Ukraine all the help it needs, says Fabrice Pothier

Briefing

The battle within

To endure a long war, Ukraine is remaking its army, economy and society

The improvisation and decentralisation of the early part of the war will no longer suffice

A lean patch

Western help for Ukraine is likely to diminish next year

There is a shortage of weapons and munitions—and, in some quarters, goodwill

Asia

Asia’s new aid diplomacy

China isn’t the only country giving out goodies in Asia

Rebuilding Tokyo

Demolishing one of Babe Ruth’s last stadiums

Murder in the suburbs

A devastating accusation by Justin Trudeau against India

Banyan

China’s claim to the South China Sea gets even odder

China

Xi’s troubled coterie

The disappearance of China’s defence minister raises big questions

Claims on the past

How China uses UNESCO to rewrite history

Spooked

China tells its citizens to be on the lookout for spies

Chaguan

China wants to be the leader of the global south

United States

Uninsurable America

Parts of America are becoming uninsurable

Pax Texana

What Ken Paxton’s acquittal means for Texas Republicans

Busting out

Illinois is the first state in America to abandon cash bail

Diplomacy in the new cold war

Biden, alone at the top table as the UN withers

Blocking manoeuvres

America’s states are trying to set rules for the internet

Wasted organs

In America, lots of usable organs go unrecovered or get binned

Lexington

America’s dumbest, wildest budget fight yet

Middle East & Africa

Making sex safer again

Is the end of AIDS in sight?

Hostages and a fortune

Iran’s $6bn hostage deal is part of a broader diplomatic strategy

Prison blues

Lebanon’s prison inmates are running short of food

Never let a crisis go to waste

Khalifa Haftar will use Libya’s floods to deepen his control

The Americas

Sertanejo swagger

Brazil’s hinterland now resembles Texas

Europe

A one-day war

Azerbaijan is close to taking control of Nagorno-Karabakh

Energie-wander

Angst mounts over Germany’s green transition

Geopolitical monster v Brussels effect

Why the EU will not remain the world’s digital über-regulator

Charlemagne

Europe’s conservative populists pit migrants against babies

Britain

Panicky policymaking

Rishi Sunak’s anti-green turn on Britain’s climate targets

A shot in the arm

Britain explores softening its war on drugs

Inflation and wages

What supermarkets reveal about Britain’s economy

Brits in Paris

France rolls out the red carpet for Britain

Scary mutts

A fight over dangerous dogs in Britain

A year after the disastrous mini-budget

The legacy of Liz Truss

Pollution in Northern Ireland

The largest freshwater lake in the British Isles has been poisoned

Bagehot

Russell Brand was the norm in the nasty noughties

International

Young guns

Meet the world’s new arms dealers

Business

Smart money

Could OpenAI be the next tech giant?

Can Falcon soar?

Abu Dhabi throws a surprise challenger into the AI race

Emissionary zeal

California cracks down on carbon

Strike while the engine is hot

America’s big car firms face lengthy strikes

Missile stockpiles

Big pharma can’t get enough of one class of cancer drugs

Bartleby

Why it is a bad idea for managers to attempt to engineer office friendships

Schumpeter

What Arm and Instacart say about the coming IPO wave

Finance & economics

A new era

How Asia is reinventing its economic model

The price battle

Why aren’t more people being sacked?

All at once

Does China’s fear of floating exceed its fear of deflation?

Financial innovation

Macau offers a new way to get rich

Buttonwood

How to avoid a common investment mistake

Rod stewards

Why uranium prices are soaring

Free exchange

Renewable energy has hidden costs

Science & technology

PANDA-monium

How common infections can spark psychiatric illnesses in children

Creation and destruction

A chunk of asteroid is coming to Earth

Godforsaken rocks

Finding aliens means studying new sorts of planet

Culture

Tok of the town

TikTok is changing the way books are recommended and sold

Books and bobs

Publishing used to be packed with parties and punch

Where the wild things are

From myth to art, bears have long captivated people

Powering up

An opera about Steve Jobs is opening in San Francisco

Back Story

Donald Trump and the dramatic power of not turning up

Here, there and almost everywhere

The British Empire peaked 100 years ago this month

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

China’s demography

China’s “demographic dividend” appears to be a myth

The Economist explains

Why Poland is halting its supply of weapons to Ukraine

The Economist explains

What is Khalistan, the independent homeland some Sikhs yearn for?

Obituary

On a spear’s edge