The everything drugs
The world this week
Leaders
The everything drugs
It’s not just obesity. Drugs like Ozempic will change the world
As they become cheaper, they promise to improve billions of lives
Leaders
Elon’s $1m voter
Mr Musk’s scheme to boost Donald Trump is legally questionable and bad for democracy
Status anxiety
The blistering rally in gold augurs ill for the power of the dollar
Central banks are shifting away from the greenback
Criminal justice
Decarceration is the key to better prisons
Britain is not the only rich country that needs a radical change in approach
Making business roar
Time to shake up Asia’s sleepy monopolies
The cosy links between politics and business impose large costs on a dynamic region
Letters
On economics, America, the Chagos Islands, innovation in AI, the Turkic states, Abraham Lincoln, flies
Letters to the editor
Briefing
The Swiss Army knife of jabs
GLP-1s like Ozempic are among the most important drug breakthroughs ever
Their far-reaching potential could transform how chronic diseases are managed
Europe
The disrupter-in-chief
Germany’s populist superstar demands peace with Russia
The tightrope walker
Giorgia Meloni would make Machiavelli proud
Country cuisine
The world’s most improbable smash-hit cooking show
Britain
It’s worse than you think
Britain’s prison service is caught in a doom loop
The Chris Kaba case
How to hold armed police to account in Britain
The most sensible show on earth
Why “The Rest Is Politics”, a British podcast, is a hit
A construction slowdown
Scotland’s failure to build homes is mainly due to its government
Match postponed
The shortfall in British adoptions
Middle East & Africa
Killing an idea
Do Israel’s assassinations work?
Yahya Sinwar’s death
Yahya Sinwar made Hamas his own fief
Israel’s waiting game
Israel’s leaders are watching America’s election closely
The wages of truth
Mozambique’s ruling party wins a dodgy election
Religion re-rooted
How African churches are keeping the faith alive abroad
United States
Early returns
How to read America’s early-voting numbers
Flooding the polls
Will Hurricane Helene tip the vote in North Carolina?
Fear and voting
Donald Trump’s terrifying closing message
Campaign calculus: Kamala’s camp
Gay voters are smitten with Kamala Harris
Lexington
Kamala Harris’s closing argument
The Americas
Dwindling prospects
Blackouts in Cuba highlight the island’s extreme energy fragility
Climate change and parasites
The flesh-eating worms devouring cows
Asia
Getting to know Prabowo
Indonesia’s macho new leader is no “cuddly grandpa”
Prabowo’s plans for nickel
Making nickel is a nightmare. Unless you are Indonesian
South-East Asia’s criminal scams
Suck up to your fake CEO
Himalayan handshake
Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping meet and resolve a border row
China
Decoding America’s election
Ambiguity or madness? Where Harris and Trump stand on China
A long way to go
How China is trying to win back foreign tourists
The last laugh
A female comedian has Chinese men up in arms
International
Launching a currency war in Moscow
Putin’s plan to dethrone the dollar
Business
Earned out?
America’s growing profits are under threat
Dig out your trousers
Are bosses right to insist that workers return to the office?
Tropical depression
South-East Asia’s stodgy conglomerates are holding it back
Down memory lane
Memory chips could be the next bottleneck for AI
Finance & economics
Wide Atlantic
The West faces new inflation fears
Hunger games
The economics of thinness (Ozempic edition)
Free exchange
How bad are video games for your grades?
Science & technology
Buzzing without being buzzed
Why Oriental hornets can’t get drunk
Culture
Opposing Putin’s tyranny
In a posthumous memoir, Alexei Navalny chronicles his martyrdom
Why do you Tok like that?
TikTok is changing how Gen Z speaks
You look so familiar
Can there ever be another great le Carré novel?
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary
The Grand Infiltrator