Jun 29th 2024

France’s centre cannot hold

The world this week

Leaders

The British election

Keir Starmer should be Britain’s next prime minister

Why Labour must form the next government

Governing America

What to make of Joe Biden’s plans for a second term

His domestic agenda is underwhelming, unrealistic and better than the alternative

Global warming

Simple steps to stop people dying from heatwaves

As much of the world roasts, don’t despair

Pointers for the plenum

A pivotal moment for China’s Communist Party

Will Xi Jinping keep ignoring good advice at the party’s third plenum?

Can you make this clearer?

LLMs now write lots of science. Good

Easier and more lucid writing will make science faster and better

The centre cannot hold

Macron has done well by France. But he risks throwing it all away

After the election, populists of the right and left could hobble a centrist president

Letters

On software attacks, lab-grown meat, the pop industry, Iraq, the Moon, breasts

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

The French election

A hard-right government might disrupt France’s relations with Europe

Business and the American election

A business leader on why he’s backing Donald Trump

Briefing

The trouble with sequels

What would Joe Biden actually do with a second term?

He has a domestic agenda, but no easy way to bring it about

United States

The enthusiasm gap

Young voters strongly favour Joe Biden, but will they turn out?

Forensic fandom

True-crime fans are banding together online to try to solve cases

Push and Pulaskix

Przekrój, an iconic Polish magazine, relaunches in America

AI and parenting

Non-white American parents are embracing AI faster than white ones

A SCOTUS snafu

What to make of the US Supreme Court’s latest abortion ruling

Marking their own homework

Research into trans medicine has been manipulated

Lexington

In New York, the Democratic establishment strikes back

The Americas

Chaos in the Andes

An apparent coup in Bolivia founders, but the country remains in trouble

Canada’s overdose capital

Vancouver pioneered liberal drug policies. Fentanyl destroyed them

Mission impossible

A Kenyan-led security mission finally starts to arrive in Haiti

Asia

Rebels without much cause

Meet the incels and anti-feminists of Asia

Beginner’s luck?

Casinos are booming in South-East Asia

Left wanting

Narendra Modi needs to win over low-income Indians

Gen Z mayor

Takashima Ryosuke is Japan’s youngest ever mayor

Banyan

Ancient artistic loot will finally make its way back to Cambodia

China

Reform in China

The surprisingly frank economic advice that Xi Jinping gets

Last call

Roxie, one of China’s few lesbian bars, closes its doors

Going private

Health-care reform is upending the lives of China’s doctors

Over the moon

China’s probe returns from the far side of the moon

Middle East & Africa

Extreme weather

The “Venice of Africa” is sinking into the sea

Surrounded by trouble

Mauritania is a beacon of stability in the coup-prone Sahel

Breaking the budget

A new breed of protest has left Kenya’s president tottering

Pier pressure

Is the American-built pier in Gaza useful or a fiasco?

No thanks

The job of Iran’s president is a study in humiliation

Europe

France’s parliamentary election

Emmanuel Macron’s centrists are facing a disastrous first-round vote

Home-made highs

European gangs are getting better at making their own illegal drugs

Belgorod

Death and destruction in a Russian city

Getting them while they’re young

Finland’s shrinking high schools are importing pupils from abroad

Charlemagne

Can António Costa make a success of the world’s hardest political gig?

Britain

The Starmer method

What the remaking of Labour reveals about Sir Keir Starmer

Our best guess

The Economist’s final prediction points to a Tory wipeout in Britain

Lettuce pray

On shame, Liz Truss and the turnip Taliban

Bicester and Woodstock

The British election is not close. But the race in Bicester is

The Public Duty Cost Allowance

The cost of Britain’s cast of ex-prime ministers is mounting

Britain’s unwanted house guest

Julian Assange’s plea deal: a suitable end to a grubby saga

Bagehot

Why the next Westminster scandal is already here

International

Extreme temperatures

The rise of the truly cruel summer

Business

Keeping the lights on

Is the revival of Paris in peril?

Bolt-holes

European millionaires seek a safe harbour from populism

Thinking fast and slow

A new lab and a new paper reignite an old AI debate

Bartleby

Why everyone should think like a lawyer

Move over, big dirt

Why big oil is wading into lithium

Full steam ahead

Boom times are back for container shipping

The baijiu mystery

Who shaved $250bn from Kweichow Moutai’s market value?

Schumpeter

Is artificial intelligence making big tech too big?

Finance & economics

Industries of the future

Will services make the world rich?

Buttonwood

American stocks are consuming global markets

The Tijuana two-step

How Chinese goods dodge American tariffs

Biggie deal

McDonald’s v Burger King: what a price war means for inflation

Rock steady

Is coal the new gold?

Free exchange

The economics of the tennis v pickleball contest

Science & technology

High alert on high

The race to prevent satellite Armageddon

Viruses

A deadly new strain of mpox is raising alarm

Large language models

At least 10% of research may already be co-authored by AI

Culture

Stage fright

Donald Trump’s return is making Hollywood nervous

Regional inequality

What ails Britain’s left-behind places?

Putin’s delusions, Ukrainians’ pain

A clear-eyed account of Ukraine under siege

World in a dish

The döner kebab has a meaty role in German society

Stringing along

How Kronos became the world’s most innovative string quartet

Frequent travellers

Why travel guidebooks are not going anywhere

The Economist reads

The Economist reads

Books (and films) about the joy and pain of music festivals

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Obituary

Just keep having fun