Leaders
From Big Bang to a whimper
How to revive Britain’s stockmarket
London’s once high-flying bourse has spent the past decade tumbling back to earth
Xi Jinping’s campaign
China’s new reality is rife with danger
The president will be defined by his campaign against his country’s capitalist excesses
Uninspired
Japan deserves better than an inoffensive prime minister
Kishida Fumio won by looking as if he won’t rock the boat. But it needs rocking
Sex and language
Why the word “woman” is tying people in knots
It is almost always women who are ordered to dispense with a useful word
Ways and means
America will never have a European-style welfare state without a VAT
Democrats want European-style spending but without the efficient tax that makes it possible
The future of food
New ways to make food are coming—but will consumers bite?
Consumers and governments should embrace new ways to make food
Letters
On the World Bank, housing, supply chains, expats, Islamic sites, the book index
Letters to the editor
Briefing
Who’s up, who’s down?
The decline of Britain’s stockmarket should be seen in a broader historical context
The historical context of the City of London’s slump
Europe
Advantage Scholz
The Social Democrats are likely to take charge in Germany
Paris Philhellenic
France and Greece hedge their bets with a new defence pact
Charlemagne
Germany’s election is revealingly European
Britain
Manchester’s mayor
Andy Burnham wants to help rescue the Tories’ signature policy
Middle East & Africa
Fiddling while Carthage burns
Kais Saied plans to transform Tunisia. It may go bust first
Zigzag in Zintan
Could Libya be ruled again by a Qaddafi?
Building bridges
African pension funds have grown impressively
When the ANC withers
South Africa’s main opposition sees coalitions ahead
United States
The Democrats’ tax plans
New taxes will hit America’s rich. Old loopholes will protect them
Still stopping the steal
The Republican response to an absurd recount in Arizona underscores a threat to democracy
The rest is history
Americans have forgotten how their government shaped Haiti
Aggravated robbery
The jail on Rikers Island is both appalling and generously funded
The Americas
Asia
A delicate balance
In power, the Taliban’s divisions are coming to the fore
Mission control
Afghan embassies don’t recognise the Taliban
The party decides
In Kishida Fumio, Japan’s old guard opts for the status quo
China
The people’s dictator
Xi Jinping’s clampdowns herald a tense political year in China
International
Technology Quarterly
The new Anthropocene diet
Technology can help deliver cleaner, greener delicious food
Cell-side markets
Meat no longer requires animal slaughter
Green castles in the sky
Vertical farms are growing more and more vegetables in urban areas
Features and bugs
Feeding 9bn people will mean reimagining the edible world
Business
Electric Motor City
Ford and General Motors fight it out to electrify
Out of the groove
The music industry is an unexpected victim of a plastics shortage
Stockmarket listings in America
Going public? Here is a how-to guide
Schumpeter
How bosses should write books
Finance & economics
The property complex
How a housing downturn could wreck China’s growth model
The China discount
China’s new political risk premium
Xi’s electric
The latest shock to China’s economy: power shortages
Setting rates and trading them, too
Two Fed presidents resign after criticism of their investment activities
Free exchange
Just how Dickensian is China?
Science & technology
Nanopore gene sequencing
An ambitious unicorn hopes to up-end DNA analysis
Dinosaur love bites
Tyrannosaurs may have nibbled each other when mating
Culture
Graveyard of empires
The second world war was fuelled by imperial fantasies
A farewell to cash
Finance is changing dramatically. A new book explains how
Economic & financial indicators
Graphic detail
Obituary
The man on the balcony