Jun 8th 2024

A triumph for Indian democracy

The world this week

Leaders

Getting growing

How the Labour Party could end Britain’s stagnation

Even if the economy peps up, taxes will have to rise

The Modi Raj

A triumph for Indian democracy

The shock election result will change the country—ultimately for the better

Don’t do it

America’s billionaires should resist the urge to support Donald Trump

A Trump victory would reward them. But not enough to justify the risks

Single-party politics

Morena’s landslide win threatens to take Mexico down a dangerous path

The country’s newly elected president will need to show political courage

From chatbots to robots

Three reasons why it’s good news that robots are getting smarter

They are becoming more capable, easier to program and better at explaining themselves

The humiliation of the ANC

South Africa stands on the brink of salvation—or catastrophe

To prevent a coalition of chaos, Cyril Ramaphosa and the Democratic Alliance must do a deal

Letters

On Somalia, democracy in America, Shirley Conran, large language models, Beethoven’s ninth, TV comedy

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

Putin, the West and the rest

Yuval Noah Harari on how to prevent a new age of imperialism

Business and Trump

American business should not empower a criminal, says Reid Hoffman

Briefing

Electoral rebuke

Narendra Modi could respond to disappointment in two different ways

He could become more moderate and focus on the economy, or double down on Hindu nationalism

Anatomy of a dressing-down

The people and places that turned away from the BJP

The heartland, and especially lower-caste voters, have soured on Narendra Modi

Asia

Two wars on want

Will India’s new government turbocharge the fight against poverty?

Old ghosts, new nightmare

Rohingya are being forced to fight in Myanmar’s civil war

Banyan

How the Philippines is turning the water-cannon on China

China

The bright side of China

Watch out Beijing, China’s second-tier cities are on the up

Scoring political points

Changes to China’s gaokao exam are about politics, not fairness

Low altitude, high ambitions

It’s a bird, it’s a plane…it’s a Chinese flying car

Chaguan

China unites America and Europe in alarm

United States

Motive and intent

What Donald Trump’s 34 convictions mean for the presidential election

Jam today

Why New York scrapped congestion charging

A border order

Biden’s border order: impractical policy, pragmatic politics

Fields of dreams

A new wave of stadium-building is busting budgets in America

Home, at last

Black baseball players of yore get their due, at last

Hung up

American parents want their children to have phones in schools

Lexington

Grown up in the USA

Middle East & Africa

Long talk to freedom

South Africa’s future is in the hands of a divided ANC

Shooting for the hoops

The National Basketball Association is making a big bet on Africa

Avocado paradise

Why avocados are driving another sort of green economy in Kenya

An Israeli ceasefire proposal

Joe Biden leaked Israel’s first plan to end the war in Gaza

One step closer

Talk of war between Israel and Lebanon is growing

The lure of the Great Satan

The children of Iran’s revolution still want to go West

The Americas

Mexico’s new president

Claudia Sheinbaum’s landslide victory is a danger for Mexico

Going for gold

A battle royal over deep-sea archaeology in the Caribbean

Climate migration

As seas rise, the relocation of Caribbean islanders has begun

Europe

The war in the south

In Crimea, Ukraine is beating Russia

Après le déluge

Russia’s explosion of a huge Ukrainian dam had surprising effects

Bulking up the Bundeswehr

Germany is thinking about bringing back conscription

Normalising the radicals

The Dutch are getting a half-populist, half-pragmatist government

D-Day 80 years on

Remembering the Normandy landings

Charlemagne

Peak Europe turns 25: why June 1999 marked the continent’s zenith

Britain

Slow growing

Can Britain’s economy grow as fast as it needs to?

Building blocks

Labour’s growth ambitions demand more radicalism on planning

Tables turned

The SNP feels the heat in Scotland’s election campaign

Give me votes but not too many

What is the point of the Lib Dems?

A seaside tradition

The return of the Farage ratchet

Bagehot

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer fight for a poundshop presidency

Business

Beyond petroleum

How Saudi Aramco plans to win the oil endgame

More than a token effort

G42, an Emirati AI hopeful, has big plans

The taste of things to come

Chinese fast-food insurgents are beating McDonald’s and KFC

Premium carmaker

Elon Musk could earn more at Tesla than other company bosses

Castles made of silicon

Should the world fear China’s chipmaking binge?

Bartleby

Is it better to be an early bird or a night owl?

Schumpeter

Lessons in capitalism from Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s

Finance & economics

Red dawn

China’s economic model retains a dangerous allure

No returns

Is America’s economy heading for a consumer crunch?

Equities in Dallas

Want to avoid woke stockmarket rules? List in Texas

Rouble-rousers

European banks are making heady profits in Russia

Buttonwood

Should you buy expensive stocks?

Free exchange

Why global GDP might be $7trn bigger than everyone thought

Science & technology

Robotics

Robots are suddenly getting cleverer. What’s changed?

Two legs good

The quest to build robots that look and behave like humans

On thin ice

Zany ideas to slow polar melting are gathering momentum

Culture

Less Bond, more boffin

How to hire a spy

Forgoing the single life

Pop stars are all about albums

Your land is my land

What the left and right get wrong about imperialism

Not so Jolly Rogers

Forget Jack Sparrow and Captain Hook. Piracy is far more fearsome

Battle lines

Chigozie Obioma’s visceral novel explores Nigeria’s civil war

Back Story

Romeo and Richard III are enlisted in the casting wars

The Economist reads

The Economist reads

Six non-fiction books you can read in a day

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

The Economist explains

The Economist explains

How lab-grown meat became part of America’s culture wars

The Economist explains

How powerful is the European Parliament?

Obituary

Unearthing ancient mysteries