Jul 13th 2024

How to raise the world’s IQ

The world this week

Leaders

Nutrition and cognition

How to raise the world’s IQ

Simple ways to make the next generation more intelligent

School scandal

Faddish thinking is hobbling education in the rich world

Test scores have been stagnant or worse for more than a decade

France’s shotgun election

The French far right may not have peaked

After winning 32% of the vote in parliamentary elections it will eye the presidency

Credit-crushed

How to prevent strongmen from hijacking the fight against dodgy money

Egypt, India and Turkey are regular abusers

Lord, make us proportional—but not yet

Britain’s skewed election reinforces the case for voting reform. After 2029

The new government has more important things to deal with first

Letters

On Joe Biden, a Palestinian state, rising seas, Willie Mays, working late

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

The American election

A big donor says Joe Biden’s team has gone all Trumpian

SCOTUS and presidential immunity

Justice Sotomayor was right for the wrong reasons

Briefing

Food for thought

Small investments in nutrition could make the world brainier

Many pregnant women and babies are malnourished—and not just in poor countries

Asia

No business like sow business

The world’s next food superpower

Bear-hugging bros

Narendra Modi cuddles up to Vladimir Putin in Moscow

Politics in Japan

Social-media populists have arrived in Japan

Banyan

Singapore’s foreign admirers see only the stuff they like

China

Under Xi’s gaze

China views America’s presidential nightmare with mirth—and disquiet

United Front summer camp

Songs, pandas and praise for Xi: how China courts young Taiwanese

Artefacts that serve a purpose

China is using archaeology as a weapon

Chaguan

What China means when it says “peace”

United States

The comeback kidder

Joe Biden is failing to silence calls that he step aside

Marginal revolution

Anguish about Joe Biden’s candidacy is rational, polls suggest

The party line

The Republicans’ policy platform previews the coming campaign

North Dakota rising

Meet a leading Trump vice-presidential contender

From mafia town to metropolis

Las Vegas’s power couple says goodbye to power

Lexington

How do you solve a problem like Joe Biden?

Middle East & Africa

Elections in Iran

Iran’s new hope: a cardiologist president

The flow of aid

Why food is piling up on the edge of Gaza

Tightrope over Gaza

Jordan’s Islamists have been boosted by the war in Gaza

Half a bowl of stew

Soaring food-price inflation is hurting Nigeria’s poor

Zacchaeus climbs down

Kenya’s deadly Gen-Z protests could change the country

The Americas

Voting against Maduro

A new danger for Venezuela’s autocrat

Of Milei and Moses

In Catholic Argentina, Javier Milei embraces Judaism

Unhappy union

The irrelevance of Mercosur

Europe

The French parliamentary election

France is desperately searching for a government

A bridge too far?

When will Ukraine join NATO?

The latest outrage

A Russian missile hits a children’s hospital in central Kyiv

Houdininomics

Germany’s debt brake and the art of fantasy budgeting

Ignorance is strength

The Kremlin is rewriting Wikipedia

Charlemagne

Viktor Orban solidifies his credentials as the EU’s pantomime villain

Britain

Labour and the world

What does Labour’s win mean for British foreign policy?

The enemy within

Britain’s Labour government has declared war on NIMBYs

Disproportional representation

Britain’s general election was its least representative ever

Poll post-mortem

How did pollsters do in predicting the British election?

Shore things

Why are British beach huts so expensive?

Independents’ day

How the Gaza war affected the British election

Bagehot

The new front line of British politics is just lovely

International

Cable ties

How China and Russia could hobble the internet

Special report

Schooling’s stagnation

Schools in rich countries are making poor progress

Teachers

The rich world’s teachers are increasingly morose

Technology

Will artificial intelligence transform school?

Soft skills

Efforts to teach character bring promise and perils

Back to basics

England’s school reforms are earning fans abroad

Schooling’s stagnation

Sources and acknowledgments

Business

Past their prime

America’s giant armsmakers are being outgunned

Power drain

Why most battery-makers struggle to make money

Peering across the Rhine

What German business makes of France’s leftward turn

Where’s my money?

Europe’s biggest debt-collector has a debt problem

Tit for tat, not Tesla

The EV trade war between China and the West heats up

Bartleby

The CEO’s alternative summer reading list

Schumpeter

Once high-flying Boeing is now a corporate criminal

Finance & economics

Halting his charge

Trumponomics would not be as bad as most expect

On the money

Betting markets are useful when politics is chaotic

Retaliate, negotiate, repeat

Europe prepares for a mighty trade war

Buttonwood

The dangerous rise of pension nationalism

Good cop, bad cop

How strongmen abuse tools for fighting financial crime

Free exchange

Xi Jinping really is unshakeably committed to the private sector

Science & technology

Artificial intelligence

Researchers are figuring out how large language models work

Periods

A scientific discovery could lead to leak-free period products

Windows on the past

Freeze-dried chromosomes can survive for thousands of years

Aquaculture

Vaccines could keep salmon safe from sea lice

Culture

Backstabbing blockbusters

Power-grabbing tips from “House of the Dragon” and “Shogun”

Back Story

The drama of election night: a critical guide

A date with destiny and your data

What happens to your data when you die?

What a racket

Whoever wins at Wimbledon, many of tennis’s professionals are losers

Dance of death

A history of Hamas dispenses with some pervasive myths

Heads will roll

Henry VIII’s wives get their revenge

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Obituary

Haunted by a painting