Jul 9th 2022

Clownfall: Britain after Boris

The world this week

Leaders

Britain after Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson should go immediately

Britain is in a dangerous state

Social media and security

Who’s afraid of TikTok?

The world’s most exciting app is also its most mistrusted

After Roe

America’s new exceptionalism

America has a set of laws on important subjects that do not reflect the views of Americans

BAMBAN, PHILIPPINES - OCTOBER 11: Children bring their learning materials to a neighbor's house which has better reception to the school radio on October 11, 2021 in the remote village of Burog, in Bamban, Tarlac province, Philippines. As students all over the world are returning to schools, millions of children in the Philippines are staying at home for the second year in a row because of the pandemic, sparking fears of a deepening education crisis in a country where many lack access to computers or the internet. By the end of October, the Philippines will remain the only country in the world that has yet to resume face-to-face classes, after Venezuela announced that it will move to reopen schools on October 25. Education experts in the country have expressed concerns that the pandemic is putting a strain on the well-being and mental health of students struggling to learn under distance learning and isolation, as well as parents who are forced to serve as surrogate teachers for subjects they themselves may not have studied when they were in school. A recent survey conducted by multisectoral group Movement for Safe, Equitable, Quality and Relevant Education (SEQuRE) found that most students said they "learned less" under remote learning compared with the traditional face-to-face setup. The country's education ministry has yet to set a date for the resumption of physical classes after President Duterte recently approved the partial reopening of schools where the risk of COVID-19 is low. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

Crisis in the classroom

Governments are ignoring the pandemic’s disastrous effect on education

Neglected pupils will suffer for the rest of their lives

Private equity

Why leveraged buy-outs are in trouble

This downturn won’t be like the last one

Magna mistake

Voters should reject Chile’s new draft constitution

It is a fiscally irresponsible left-wing wish list

Letters

On justice services, abortion, Africa, car dealers, Turkey, BTS, technology at work

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

Russia and Ukraine

Boris Bondarev on Vladimir Putin’s craven diplomats

Finance

The global economy needs to be better prepared for the coming storm, says Kathryn Judge

Finance and economics

Brad DeLong asks what America can learn from its past bouts of inflation

Briefing

The all-conquering quaver

As TikTok grows, so does suspicion

The Chinese app is bringing competition—and security fears—to social media

Essay

An anatomy of erasure

How a free and open Hong Kong became a police state

Europe

FILE - Russian troops guard an entrance of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station, a run-of-river power plant on the Dnieper River in Kherson region, south Ukraine, Friday, May 20, 2022. The Kherson region has been under control of the Russian forces since the early days of the Russian military action in Ukraine. This photo was taken during a trip organized by the Russian Ministry of Defense. (AP Photo, File)

Heading south

Ukraine prepares a counter-offensive to retake Kherson province

Fate unknown

Russia is disappearing vast numbers of Ukrainians

Explosive growth

Weapons shipments turn a Polish city into a boom town

From bad to worse

Polish-German relations have gone sour

Minority report

France’s President Emmanuel Macron decides to go it alone

The defiant one

Alexei Navalny’s jailers are tightening the screws

Charlemagne

Travel chaos in Europe is a glimpse of a future with few spare workers

Britain

Image Licensed to i-Images Picture Agency. 06/07/2022. London, United Kingdom. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, leaves 10 Downing Street. He will face a grilling from Keir Starmer about recent Cabinet resignations.Boris Johnson leaves for PMQs. Downing Street. Picture by Mark Thomas / i-Images

The wreckage he will leave behind

A monstrous in-tray awaits Boris Johnson’s eventual successor

The rift with Rishi

Many British Conservatives now prefer tax cuts to balanced budgets

Pestminster, a history

The House of Commons has a long history of sexual misconduct

A nation of backlogs

Britain’s labour market is straining to recover from the pandemic

Britain’s growth crisis

Britain wants to shake up adult education

Chinese espionage

Britain and America sound a joint alarm over China

Bagehot

The toxicity of Boris Johnson

United States

A Washington army in waiting

In preparation for power, America’s new right builds new institutions

Zygote rights

A push to recognise the rights of the unborn is growing in America

Command and control

The Pentagon sharpens its cultural sword to win future wars

Ceci n’est pas une carpe

To hook American diners, an invasive species of carp gets a new name

No, no se puede

Democrats have a Hispanic problem

Lexington

High noon for Liz Cheney

Middle East & Africa

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY MARC JOURDIERThis photo taken on May 31, 2015 between Lubumbashi and Kolwezi, shows a man digging through some mine waste searching for left over cobalt, one of 130,000 small-scale diggers trying to scratch a living from the region's rich earth. AFP PHOTO / FEDERICO SCOPPA (Photo credit should read FEDERICO SCOPPA/AFP via Getty Images)

Either ore

How the world depends on small cobalt miners

Where was the goalie?

Two stupendous football scores raise questions in Sierra Leone

Lapid response

Israel’s new leader, Yair Lapid, has four months to prove himself

Paving paradise

Historic houseboats fall victim to Egypt’s addiction to cement

The latest railway bazaar

A new web of Arab railways could transform the Middle East

The Americas

Demonstrators hold heart shaped signs in the colours of the Chilean flag during a rally, as the constitutional assembly leads the delivery ceremony of the final draft of the new constitution in Santiago, Chile July 4, 2022. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

Hearts, not minds

Chile’s new draft constitution would shift the country far to the left

Find works; insert spanner; repeat

Argentina’s economy minister resigns because of political infighting

Rafting with rebels

Some ex-FARC guerrillas have become tourist guides in Colombia

Asia

A statue of a "comfort woman" is displayed in an installation of empty chairs set up in central Seoul, to commemorate the death of eight former sex slaves this year, on December 27, 2017. South Korea said on December 27 a 2015 deal intended to end a festering dispute with Japan over Tokyo's wartime sex slavery was faulty, reopening a historical wound as the two countries try to rein in North Korea. / AFP PHOTO / JUNG Yeon-Je (Photo credit should read JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images)

Cold comfort

South Korea and Japan have a rare chance to make friends

Bureaucratic nightmare

“I’m from the Taliban and I’m here to help”

Shinde shindig

India’s ruling party wins control of its richest state

Bridges to liberty

New transport infrastructure helps South Asian women into work

Banyan

What pandemic border closures say about Japan’s view of outsiders

China

Building blocs

The G7 at last presents an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Above the water line

Fewer people are dying in floods in China

Hacked

A huge data leak in China was not unexpected

Having a larp

China’s Communist Party cracks down on larping

International

MALOLOS, PHILIPPINES - OCTOBER 13: Rem Dela Pena answers learning materials at a sundries store while her mother looks on, as schools remain closed on October 13, 2021 in the coastal village of Pamarawan in Malolos, Bulacan province, Philippines. As students all over the world are returning to schools, millions of children in the Philippines are staying at home for the second year in a row because of the pandemic, sparking fears of a deepening education crisis in a country where many lack access to computers or the internet. By the end of October, the Philippines will remain the only country in the world that has yet to resume face-to-face classes, after Venezuela announced that it will move to reopen schools on October 25. Education experts in the country have expressed concerns that the pandemic is putting a strain on the well-being and mental health of students struggling to learn under distance learning and isolation, as well as parents who are forced to serve as surrogate teachers for subjects they themselves may not have studied when they were in school. A recent survey conducted by multisectoral group Movement for Safe, Equitable, Quality and Relevant Education (SEQuRE) found that most students said they "learned less" under remote learning compared with the traditional face-to-face setup. The country's education ministry has yet to set a date for the resumption of physical classes after President Duterte recently approved the partial reopening of schools where the risk of COVID-19 is low. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

Wasted minds

Covid learning loss has been a global disaster

Business

PE lesson

Private equity may be heading for a fall

Business in Poland

Business in Poland faces strong headwinds

Venture capitalism in Europe

How sturdy are Europe’s tech unicorns?

Bartleby

Reading corporate culture from the outside

Schumpeter

What does the future hold for Reliance, India’s biggest firm?

Finance & economics

TOPSHOT - US President Joe Biden meets with China's President Xi Jinping during a virtual summit from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, November 15, 2021. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Tougher than tariffs

America rethinks its strategy for taking on China’s economy

Helter skelter

Do cheaper commodities herald a recession?

Case closed

What a tycoon’s trial says about the rot in China’s financial system

Buttonwood

Crypto’s last man standing

Bills, bills, bills

As interest rates climb and the economy cools, can companies pay their debts?

Free exchange

Are central banks in emerging markets now less of a slave to the Fed?

Science & technology

Beyond the Standard Model

Ten years on from the Higgs boson, what is next for physics?

Culture

The Torlonia Marbles

A legendary collection of classical statuary is at last on view

To be a pilgrim

Gaming the haj, from the comfort of home

World in a dish

A Chinese-flavoured challah tells a timeless human story

Perfidious Albion

The diaries of the last British governor of Hong Kong

Hide and seek

Peter Higgs and his boson have both been “Elusive”

Back Story

The many lives of Volodymyr Zelensky

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

It could have been worse

Covid-19 vaccines saved an estimated 20m lives during their first year

The Economist explains

A demonstrator holds a Georgian national and an EU flags during a pro-EU and anti-Government Rally rally against in front of the Georgian Parliament in Tbilisi, Georgia, Sunday, July 3, 2022. Tens of thousands Georgians rallied on the streets of Tbilisi, angered by what the opposition sees as the government's failure to make progress on reforms that can boost the Caucasus country's hopes of joining the European Union. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)

The Economist explains

Why is Georgia struggling to join the EU?

The Economist explains

Why are cluster munitions so dangerous?

Obituary

Avignon , France, 16/07/1991 Peter BROOK: Metteur en scene, ecrivain, realisateur. photograph 20

The mystic of the stage