Leaders
Russia and Ukraine
Whether he invades Ukraine or backs down, Putin has harmed Russia
He will try to claim victory though
The chicken and the peg
Workers have the most to lose from a wage-price spiral
As prices rise, real wages are falling
No, Canada
Justin Trudeau’s crackdown on protests could make things worse
By seeking to curb free speech, he will aggravate Canada’s divisions
Factional dissipation
The Tories’ problems go deeper than just one man
Boris Johnson is a symptom of Conservative political malaise, not its cause
Drug manufacturing
To build a vaccine industry, Africa must embrace the private sector
Without a shift in focus, the continent risks always being at the back of the queue
Letters
On peer review, Myanmar, pay, DNA, the Acropolis, vellum, Ottawa
Letters to the editor
Briefing
A grim blunder
Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine also damages Russia
The nature of his regime has now changed irreversibly
OSINT
A new era of transparent warfare beckons
Russia’s manoeuvres are a coming-out party for open-source intelligence
Europe
The Pécresse file
Meet Valérie Pécresse, the French centre-right hopeful
Hungary for change
As Orban runs for re-election, Hungary’s opposition fears fraud
Robert Habeck’s odyssey
Germany’s plans for wind power are dauntingly ambitious
Britain
Nobody’s business
British privacy law now rivals libel law in gagging the press
Not the only way
Essex is rebranding
Bagehot
The shrinkflation state
Middle East & Africa
Chasing the dragon
How Chinese firms have dominated African infrastructure
Mission incomplete
France withdraws its forces from Mali
“RoboCop” hits a rough patch
A recession threatens Tunisia’s President Kais Saied
United States
Between a rock and a hard place
The energy transition is sparking America’s next mining boom
School-board politics
Once mundane, school-board meetings have become battlegrounds
A recall election
A successful school-board recall punishes left-wing excess
Industrial policy
Midwestern states want to become “hard-tech” hubs
Lexington
The fight for Catholic America
The Americas
Asia
Aid limits
A cash crunch is crippling Afghanistan
Awamori? Go on then
Distillers in Okinawa are trying to reinvent the local firewater
A million ways to die in the east
India’s Omicron wave recedes, but not the risk of premature death
Cut-rate khanate
Turkmenistan’s despot finds a worthy successor: his son
China
Conservation conversation
China is trying to become a champion of biodiversity
Two passports, one problem
Olympic skier Eileen Gu sparks a debate about dual nationality
Business
Digital geopolitics
Russia is trying to build its own great firewall
The middle-market corset
After expanding in 2021, fast fashion may be squeezed again
Learnings growth
Can the ed-tech boom last?
Finance & economics
The battle of the markups
Labour v capital in the post-lockdown economy
Future of cities
The true cost of empty offices
The Citi that was never finished
Citigroup is disposing of its international retail network
Punting profits
Will prediction markets live up to the hype?
Science & technology
It is exactly rocket science
SpaceX’s monstrous, dirt-cheap Starship may transform space travel
Drug manufacturing
BioNTech plans to make vaccines in shipping containers
Culture
Writing India’s history
A book recalls the foreign agitators for India’s independence
The story of life on Earth
Creatures of the deep past come to life in “Otherlands”
Making tech’s mafia
“The Founders” examines the rise and legend of PayPal
Debut fiction
Love and other demons in “When We Were Birds”
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail
What makes murder?
Are progressive prosecutors to blame for an American homicide wave?
Obituary
Look behind the Ranges