May 4th 2024

Truth and lies: The new science of disinformation

The world this week

Leaders

A region in mortal danger

Emmanuel Macron’s urgent message for Europe

The French president issues a dark and prophetic warning

Truth or lies?

How disinformation works—and how to counter it

More co-ordination is needed, and better access to data

All talk

Should American universities call the cops on protesting students?

The principles involved in resolving campus protests are not that hard

Uncle Sam’s fiscal folly

America’s reckless borrowing is a danger to its economy—and the world’s

Without good luck or a painful adjustment, the only way out will be to let inflation rip

The dream that darkened

Why South Africans are fed up after 30 years of democracy

After a bright start the ANC has proved incapable of governing for the whole country

The haven falls

Japan is wrong to try to prop up the yen

Supporting the currency is expensive and futile

A Holyrood ending

The wider lessons of Scotland’s political turmoil

Humza Yousaf’s resignation is the latest in a string of setbacks

Letters

On assisted dying, poor fishermen, military conscription, children and smartphones, RFK junior

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

The war in Gaza

Indonesia’s president-elect accuses the West of double standards

Monetary policy: quantitative tightening

Central banks may have misread the impact of QT, says an economist

Briefing

Budgetary blindness

America’s fiscal outlook is disastrous, but forgotten

On the campaign trail, both main candidates largely ignore the problem

Asia

Young and conservative

Even disillusioned young Indian voters favour Narendra Modi

No to GMO

The Philippines bans some genetically modified foods

Pensions and penury

Japan and South Korea are struggling with old-age poverty

Banyan

Meet the maharajas of the world’s biggest democracy

China

Raising revenue

China mulls a bold test of taxation without representation

Stability starts in the workplace

Why China’s companies are recruiting their own militias

Covid-19 in China

The Chinese scientist who sequenced covid is barred from his lab

Chaguan

China and America trade blame for a world on fire

United States

It’s raining rules

Why the Biden administration is rushing to produce regulations

Shaka backer

Hawaii may soon have America’s first official state gesture

Blooming encampments

Escalating protests expose three fault lines on American campuses

The Big Grapple

Seaport Tower shows New York’s fight between housing and heritage

Going back to Cali

California’s population is growing again

Joined by a thread

A surprising Japanese presence in a traditional American craft

Lexington

Joe Biden is practising some Clintonian politics

Middle East & Africa

Democracy’s dividends

How South Africa has changed 30 years after apartheid

How Gulf states rule

Gulf governments are changing, but not how they talk to citizens

In a pickle

Israel’s prime minister does not know where to go

Campus protests

University protests about Gaza spread to the Middle East

The Americas

Mexico’s presidential election

Andrés Manuel López Obrador will haunt his successor

Cuckoo for cocoa’s price

Latin America’s farmers are cashing in on hot hot-cocoa prices

The mine and the canal

Years of growth forged prosaic politics. Now Panamanians are fed up

Europe

Chinese whisperers

Espionage scandals are hurting Germany’s far right

Don’t sign me up

Ukraine’s draft dodgers are living in fear

Holier than thou

Turkey’s President Erdogan faces a new challenge from Islamists

Grand schemes

Donald Tusk mulls which of the previous government’s plans to axe

Charlemagne

Europeans lack visceral attachment to the EU. Does it matter?

At the Elysée Palace

Emmanuel Macron on how to rescue Europe

Britain

Uphill task

Labour is the big beneficiary of Scottish political turmoil

‘SUP!

Why so many Britons have taken to stand-up paddleboarding

Steel yourselves

The fight over one of Britain’s last steel plants

Food or the environment?

A rare Brexit dividend for British farmers

The costs of benefits

A growing number of Britons are on disability benefits

Bagehot

Jeremy Clarkson, patron saint of the Great British bore

London not calling

Questions grow over the future of the London stockmarket

International

Killing at all costs

Beware, global jihadists are back on the march

Business

Polls and profits

How to handle populists: a CEO’s survival guide

A copper-bottomed deal

Why does BHP want Anglo American?

Jam-packed

Chinese EV-makers are leaving Western rivals in the dust

Bartleby

How not to work on a plane

The fountain of youth

Can biotech startups upstage Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk?

Schumpeter

Does Perplexity’s “answer engine” threaten Google?

Finance & economics

Thousands are flying

Immigration is surging, with big economic consequences

Down the pipe

Russia’s gas business will never recover from the war in Ukraine

A slip of the yen

Japan will struggle to rescue its plummeting currency

Buttonwood

What campus protesters get wrong about divestment

Get rich quick

Hedge funds make billions as India’s options market goes ballistic

Free exchange

Working from home and the US-Europe divide

Science & technology

Bad news

Disinformation is on the rise. How does it work?

Generation confusion

Producing fake information is getting easier

Bling ring

The truth behind Olena Zelenska’s $1.1m Cartier haul

A steep hill

Fighting disinformation gets harder, just when it matters most

Culture

Feeling horny

Romantasy brings dragons and eroticism together. At last

Frisky business

Is there more or less sex on screen?

Back Story

Fed up with Biden v Trump II? Some succour from fictional rematches

Iran, drawn

A new graphic novel takes aim at Iran’s oppressive government

Can’t get you out of my head

“Boléro” is among the most lucrative works of classical music

Class acts

A little-remembered rivalry that shaped the modern world

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

The Economist explains

The Economist explains

The vocabulary of disinformation

The Economist explains

Who is jamming airliners’ GPS in the Baltic?

Obituary

Inside “Apocalypse Now”