Leaders
The shortage economy
The world economy’s shortage problem
Scarcity has replaced gluts as the biggest impediment to global growth
Climate change and innovation
Hydrogen’s moment is here at last
After decades of doubts the gas is coming of age
All-weather frenemy
The war in Afghanistan is over, but the West still needs Pakistan
It is too important—and dangerous—to ignore
No favours for killers
Ethiopia is deliberately starving its own citizens
The world should apply whatever pressure it can to force it to stop
Letters
On Angela Merkel, modern Arabic, decentralised finance, Canada, vaccines
Letters to the editor
Briefing
A very big balancing act
Creating the new hydrogen economy is a massive undertaking
It is also a delicate one
Europe
Bosporus blues
A $15bn new canal for Istanbul
Rattling the right
The Northern League and the Brothers of Italy both wobble
The weight of silence
The French Catholic church acknowledges a staggering pattern of sexual abuse
Embarrassing riches
The “Pandora papers” ensnare a Czech leader and a Dutch minister
Britain
In the spotlight
What Sarah Everard’s murder means for the Metropolitan Police
Street lighting
The lamps are going out all over Britain
Middle East & Africa
Abiy against the world
Ethiopia is losing friends and influence
Bodies in the fields
Both sides in Ethiopia’s conflict stand accused of war crimes
Liaisons douloureuses
Emmanuel Macron hosts a different sort of Africa summit
When nine-to-five is a stretch
Gulf states are trying to increase private employment
Boycott the boycott
Iraq’s election could be worthless if few turn out to vote
United States
Groundhog days
Why can’t America quit flirting with financial ruin?
Whistle while you work
Why the latest series of Facebook leaks is more politically potent
Polarisation explorers
America’s political scientists are worried about “lethal partisanship”
The Americas
The Latinobarómetro poll
Latin American democracy is in poor but surprisingly stable health
Shrinking balls, shrinking interest
A venerable Canadian sport is wasting away
Asia
Make me over
Pakistan got its way in Afghanistan. Now what?
Tentacular spectacular
South Koreans are bemused by the global success of “Squid Game”
Shadowed by violence
A Rohingya leader’s murder highlights rising insecurity in refugee camps
China
Too close for comfort
China is ratcheting up military pressure on Taiwan
Bells and whistles
Artists and craftsmen try to preserve the sounds of old Beijing
International
Special report
World trade
The new order of trade
Trade law
A fraying system
Precautionism
In search of resilience
Labour rights
The urge to protect
The environment
Making trade greener
The new rules
A changed world
Business
A new Chinese supermodel
Shein exemplifies a new style of Chinese multinational
Electric blue and yellow
Volvo’s IPO will keep it ahead in the electric-car race
A golden-ish age
The IPO of GlobalFoundries is perfectly timed
Mexican wave
Mexico is finally seeing a startup bonanza
Berlin walls and windows
Germany’s biggest developer will be under pressure in Berlin
Finance & economics
Stagflation sensation
Is the world economy going back to the 1970s?
Can’t live with them, can’t live without them
The age of fossil-fuel abundance is dead
Capital ideas
Companies cast off their reluctance to invest
Free exchange
Does anyone actually understand inflation?
Science & technology
The 2021 Nobel science prizes
This year’s Nobel prizes brought both delight and disbelief
Thermoelectric heat transfer
A novel way to heat and cool things
Sea slugs and chloroplasts
One of nature’s strangest symbioses gives up its secrets
New from the solar system
The Moon and Mars give up more secrets
Culture
The world after the pandemic
Two new books assess the geopolitical lessons of covid-19
The Russia option
How an English miner’s daughter rose to work in the White House
The history of science
A new biography explains the genius of John von Neumann
Virtue’s reward
An advocate of sustainable capitalism explains how it’s done
Literary lives
