China’s covid failure
The world this week
Leaders
China and the pandemic
Xi Jinping’s zero-covid policy has turned a health crisis into a political one
Caught between raging disease and unpopular and costly lockdowns, he has no good fix
Will the cap fit?
The West’s proposed price cap on Russian oil is no magic weapon
The global energy system is far more flexible than you think
CoD and chips
Trustbusters should let Microsoft buy Activision Blizzard
Blocking the deal is as likely to harm consumers as it is to protect them
Lessons from the cyber-front
Why Russia’s cyber-attacks have fallen flat
Ukraine benefited from good preparation and lots of help
The wounds of silence
Sexual problems can wreck lives. Yet remedies are often simple
Doctors and schools should be franker about pleasure
Letters
On Qatar and the World Cup, Ukraine, Elon Musk, Janet Yellen, “Peanuts”
Letters to the editor
By Invitation
Briefing
China v covid-19
China’s failing covid strategy leaves Xi Jinping with no good options
Loosen up and deaths soar. Clamp down and the economy swoons
Europe
Big Viktor is watching
How Hungary used citizens’ covid data to help the ruling party
Unreasonably blue
The Spanish are too grumpy about their politics
So goes the blow
Europol pulls off a massive cocaine bust
Britain
Tory jarheads
The Conservative Party’s addiction to brawling
The new new things
Does Britain have a problem with R&D spending?
Royal erosion
The Elizabethan era is not yet at an end
United States
And then there were three
How will America deal with three-way nuclear deterrence?
Academic sparring
America’s syringe exchanges might be killing drug users
To the winners, the spoilers
The Democrats muster an orderly leadership succession
Middle East & Africa
Numbers is just a book
As religious schools in Israel grow, maths is neglected
Ranch of government
A sofa stuffed with cash imperils South Africa’s president
Brotherhood of bikers
Kenya’s boda-boda taxis are unruly in life—and death
Asia
When the chips are down
America’s Asian allies dislike its tech war on China
Taiwan’s election
Across the Taiwan Strait, another lockdown protest
Hail the new chief
Pakistanis turn against the army
Mongrel mobsters
Why New Zealand has such a high rate of gang membership
China
Echoes of the past
What 1989 can teach us about the recent protests in China
Solidarity, of a sort
Harsh lockdowns have united the Chinese
Testing the party
Students are often at the heart of protests in China
International
Talking about it
The taboos around sexual health are weakening
Business
Who won the pandemic?
The new winners and losers in business
Game on or game over?
Microsoft, Activision Blizzard and the future of gaming
The hand on the tap
Meet the man who may decide the fate of German industry
Finance & economics
Laundry softener
The EU’s top court has made it harder to uncover dirty money
Vault face
Why central banks are stockpiling gold
Free exchange
A playbook from the 1980s for dealing with inflation
Science & technology
Cyberwarfare
Lessons from Russia’s cyber-war in Ukraine
Cyberwar and cybercrime
How cybercriminals have been affected by the war in Ukraine
Pollution and suicide
Air pollution can drive people to kill themselves
Treating dementia
A drug for Alzheimer’s disease that seems to work
A diving dinosaur
An amphibious dinosaur from the Cretaceous
Culture
The algorithm’s mercy
Two new books explore the upside of big data and AI
In the doge house
“La Serenissima” is an entertaining ode to Venice
Art against war
Ukraine’s Modernist art has defied censorship and missiles
Icelandic fiction
“Animal Life” is the latest book from a thought-provoking novelist
Social housing
The dream and nightmares of council estates
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail
The Economist explains
The Economist explains
Why has America’s army recruitment plummeted?
The Economist explains
Why are boys doing badly at school?
Obituary
An unlikely strongman