The world this week

Business

Shoppers browse shirts at a clothing store in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. The US Census Bureau is scheduled to release retail sales figures on February 15. Photographer: Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Politics

KAL’s cartoon

The Economist

This week’s cover

Still aloft

Inflation will be harder to bring down than markets think

Leaders

Peak populism

Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation is part of Britain’s great moderation

A constitutional crisis in Israel

Israel’s proposed legal reforms are a dreadful answer to a real problem

Plug and pay 

The world won’t decarbonise fast enough unless renewables make real money

A chance for change 

Nigeria desperately needs a new kind of leadership

On China and space, Turkey, Paul Pennyfeather, Pakistan, The Gambia, banking, old age 

Letters to the editor

Letters

A hard road

Lots of investors think inflation is under control. Not so fast

Briefing

Sturgeon goes

Nicola Sturgeon leaves with Scotland split in two

Britain

Hostel environment

Britons take against asylum hotels

All hail the laptop classes 

The shape of the post-pandemic economy in Britain

A marine puzzle

The mystery of the twitching crabs

Ocean retreat 

Britain could soon give up its last African colony

Bagehot

The Brexit Re-enactment Society 

Baby gap

Why there are so few babies in southern Europe

Europe

Building bad 

Turkey’s earthquakes show the deadly extent of construction scams

On the edge

Moldova fears it may fall victim to a Russian coup plot

Judgment call

Poland’s rule-of-law conflict with the EU is coming to a head

Knives out

Trouble at Italy’s San Remo song festival 

Charlemagne 

What’s behind France’s fatal fascination with Russia

Taking on Trump

Nikki Haley’s bid illustrates the problems of the Republican Party

United States

The rent is too damn high

Pandemic eviction bans have spawned a renters’-rights movement

Homeward bound

In the wake of violence American cities resort to youth curfews

The power of suggestion

Should tech platforms be liable for the content they carry?

Arguing behind bars

Volunteers teach debating skills to America’s incarcerated

Shoot first, ask questions later

What America has been shooting down in the sky

Politics in drag

Why proposed laws targeting drag shows are proliferating in America

Rate rage

Latin America’s left-wing presidents risk stoking inflation

The Americas

A dictator’s purge

Daniel Ortega expels 222 political prisoners from Nicaragua

In bad nick

Latin America’s prisons are overcrowded and violent

The world’s toughest in-tray

Can a political underdog save Nigeria?

Middle East & Africa

The day of judgment

Proposed legal reforms could be dire for Israel

Never let a crisis go to waste

Bashar al-Assad does not want to let a calamity go to waste

South Asia’s filthy air

India and Pakistan are choking on each other’s pollution

Asia

Afghanistan 

The Taliban are digging an enormous canal 

Dry season 

Australia re-bans alcohol in some Aboriginal communities

Banyan

After silencing critics at home, Narendra Modi goes after foreign media

The other China surveillance threat

How China’s police are ensnaring thousands of suspects abroad

China

Your driving licence, madam?

How much of a concern are China’s overseas police stations?

America bad, China good

Chinese propaganda is surprisingly effective abroad

Chaguan

China is losing Taiwanese hearts and minds

Driven away 

Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

International

Up. Down. And sideways?

What Tencent’s rebound says about prospects for China’s big tech

Shock therapy

What European business makes of the green-subsidy race

Adani in charts

Adani companies’ decent earnings offer only moderate relief

K-popoly

Corporate intrigue at the heart of K-pop

The Iger sanction

Bob Iger makes big changes at Disney

Bartleby

Why it’s time to get shot of coffee meetings at work

Schumpeter

AI-wielding tech firms are giving a new shape to modern warfare 

Going great guns 

War and subsidies have turbocharged the green transition

Finance & economics

Cornucobalt

Cobalt, a crucial battery material, is suddenly superabundant

The afterFTX

Scrutiny of major crypto institutions is intensifying

Mixing business with pleasure

Why more Chinese tourism means more capital flight

Buttonwood 

Investors expect the economy to avoid recession

Multilateral mess

The World Bank’s embattled chief steps down

Brain gain

Lael Brainard will take control of America’s economic nerve centre

Free exchange

The case for globalisation optimism

Greening steel

A new way to clean up the steel industry

Science & technology

Male contraceptives

A step towards a contraceptive pill for men? 

Stabilising mRNA vaccines

Vaccines based on mRNA need to get out of the freezer

Plants, aphids, wasps and L-DOPA

Plants call for help with a chemical employed by people as a drug

Cosmology

Two of the most enigmatic phenomena in the cosmos may be linked

Russian culture in wartime

A portrait of the Russian artist in the age of Z

Culture

Home Entertainment

William Byrd was a favourite composer of Elizabeth I

Psychological fiction

“My Nemesis” is a tale of middle age, femininity and desire

Business and capitalism

American business and propaganda for free markets

Femicide in Mexico

An author reconstructs the life of her murdered sister

Johnson

If stigma is the problem, using different words may not help

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Economic & financial indicators

The rich are different

Poor areas suffered 3.5 times more damage in Turkey’s earthquake

Graphic detail

Through a child’s eyes

Maya Widmaier-Picasso helped to revive her father’s creativity

Obituary

Nigerian politics

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on why he is running to be Nigeria’s president

By Invitation

Peter Obi on why he is running to be Nigeria’s president

Israeli politics

The overhaul of Israel’s judiciary will maim its democracy, says Polly Bronstein

The Economist explains

Will avian flu be the next human pandemic?

Why inflation will be hard to bring down

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Business

The world this week February 18th 2023

From the February 18th 2023 edition