Xi’s failing model: Why he won’t fix China’s economy

The world this week

Leaders

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, rides a dragon that transforms into a snail

Xi’s broken model

Why China’s economy won’t be fixed

An increasingly autocratic government is making bad decisions

Yevgeny Prigozhin gives an address in camouflage and with a weapon in his hands in a desert area

Götterdämmerung

Prigozhin’s death shows that Russia is a mafia state

A healthy country uses justice to restore order. Mr Putin uses violence instead 

A toppled tree from Tropical Storm Hilary covers a car in Los Angeles

Fair warning

El Niño has started. Preparations must too

It will bring chaotic weather to much of the world

The USS McCampbell, the HMAS Canberra and the USS Ronald Reagan sail in the Coral Sea

Geopolitics

How Joe Biden is transforming America’s Asian alliances

America is working to deter China even as it defends Europe from Russia

Thaksin Shinawatra arrives at Don Mueang International Airport, Bangkok on August 22nd 2023

Thailand’s new government

Thaksin Shinawatra shows his true colours

A grubby political compromise with the army has enraged Thai voters

A newton's cradle desk toy swings but the giant monopoly man style head on one end remains unmoved

Undisrupted

AI could fortify big business, not upend it

Upstarts face an uphill battle

Letters

On trafficking children, electric cars, liberal values, narrow banking, Warren Buffett, Saudi customs

Letters to the editor

Briefing

A man walks on a flooded street in Palm Springs, California

A problem child

El Niño and global warming are mixing in alarming ways

Havoc in poor countries and commodities markets is inevitable

Britain

Seasonal workers at E Oldroyd and Sons Farm, which supplies Rhubarb and Strawberries.

International

The destroyed Main Street in Zamalka, a suburb of Damascus that leads to the city's center, which was bombed for weeks.

America and the Middle East

Reassessing Obama’s biggest mistake

Economic & financial indicators

The Economist explains

The Economist reads

Students in Reading Room, Harrison Rhodes Memorial Library, Bethune-Cookman College, Daytona Beach, Florida, USA, Gordon Parks, U.S. Office of War Information, February 1943.
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The Economist reads

The Great American Novel