Leaders
Danger ahead
What the Omicron variant means for the world economy
Look to China for the likeliest source of a growth slowdown
SALT in the wounds
The Democrats’ fiscal policy makes a mockery of their progressive pledges
It is regressive and self-defeating
Local heroes
For vibrant, competitive internet businesses, look to emerging markets
There is still a place for variety in the global tech industry
Conversion therapy
Britain’s proposal to ban “conversion therapy” is not what it seems
The government conflates sexual orientation and “gender identity”. It should think again
Red notice alert
Who will police Interpol?
The election of a worrying new president is just the latest thing to go wrong
Letters
On Kyle Rittenhouse, Centerra Gold, housing, social mobility, London’s bridges, business speak
Letters to the editor
Briefing
The wonky-spiked variant
Omicron looks ominous. How bad is it likely to be?
Much has been learnt about how to treat covid-19 and how to live with it
Europe
Testing tolerance
Spain needs immigrants. But does it still want them?
Accenting the negative
Linguistic trivia highlight Spain’s enduring cultural divisions
Waiting for the freeze
The Ukrainian army has got better at fighting Russian-backed separatists
High-pressure umbrage
Nord Stream 2 could still sabotage German-American relations
Charlemagne
Why bullshit rules in Brussels
Britain
Portrait of a Brexiteer
To understand Lord Frost is to understand Britain’s approach to Brexit
Catching up on the capital
Britain’s rental market is hottest outside London
A new survey of Hong Kongers
Many more Hong Kongers are thinking about moving to Britain
United, across the border
The quest for respectability—and votes—has transformed Sinn Fein
Middle East & Africa
Omicro-aggressions
The Omicron variant and travel bans are hurting southern Africa
Seeding the cloud
Data centres are taking root in Africa
Pomp and circumspection
Africa’s ties to China and the West are starting to look more alike
Déjà vu in Vienna
As nuclear talks resume, Iran is rattled by protests over water
Drinking and driving
Will an F1 race mark the end of Saudi Arabia’s ban on alcohol?
United States
The Americas
Asia
The patter of fewer tiny feet
India’s population will start to shrink sooner than expected
Carry on, Kyrgyz
An election in Kyrgyzstan is cleaner than usual
A stop in the ocean
Busan, a South Korean city, plans a floating neighbourhood
Size matters
Japan’s small businesses are in trouble
China
International
Business
Goodbye @jack, hello @paraga
Jack Dorsey goes Square—leaving Twitter at a time of his choosing
Bartleby
The office of the future
All I want for Christmas is...someone else
How streaming killed the Christmas charts
Internet censorship in China
Communist Party cancel culture targets internet celebrities
Billion-dollar blueprints
A new way of understanding the high but elusive worth of intellectual property
Finance & economics
Hazards ahead
Three threats to growth in emerging markets
Squeezing the balloon
How piecemeal carbon pricing affects cross-border lending
Buttonwood
Have SPACs been cleaned up?
Point of low returns?
Managing the world’s biggest sovereign-wealth fund is about to get complicated
Science & technology
How water arrived on Earth
To find the origin of the oceans, look in outer space
Through a glass, brightly
Unbreakable phone screens could be made with a new material
Electric flight
Hybrid power will make helicopters safer and more productive
Trypanosomes and honeybees
Sleeping sickness and its kin may have arrived via beehives
Culture
The politics of history
An ancient rice bowl complicates the story of civilisation in India
Christians in the Middle East
A war correspondent’s intimate portrait of an embattled minority
A long and winding ode
Sir Paul McCartney’s memoir aims to affirm his status as a writer
Eighteenth-century history
The forgotten importance of the War of Jenkins’ Ear
Cinema royalty
A biographer explores Greta Garbo’s glamour and vacuity
Economic & financial indicators
Graphic detail
Levelling up at gunpoint
