Oct 14th 2023

Israel’s agony and its retribution

The world this week

Leaders

The Middle East

Will Israel’s agony and retribution end in chaos or stability?

Much depends on its offensive in Gaza—and its politicians and neighbours

A bad example

Europe should not copy Bidenomics

It needs a deeper, greener single market—not more state handouts

Putting the lean into clean

How to deal with the global anti-climate backlash

Minimise the cost and hassle that green policies impose on households

Demography

Large parts of Asia are getting old before they get rich

Even poor countries must start planning for an ageing population

The case to STAy

America and China should keep doing research together

Republicans are wrong to want to scrap the Science and Technology Agreement

Letters

On making movies, Frank Sinatra, HIV and PrEP, companies, diamonds, Mexican slang

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

Israel and the Palestinians

Nimrod Novik on the false premises and failure of vision that led to the Hamas attacks

Israel and the Palestinians

The Palestinian cause has been damaged by factionalism, argues a former prime minister

Briefing

From shock to fury

Hamas’s atrocities and Israel’s retaliation will change both sides for ever

The miscalculations of Israel’s and Gaza’s leaders are being laid bare

The darkest day

Hamas’s attack was the bloodiest in Israel’s history

More Jews were killed on October 7th than on any day since the Holocaust

Resisting the call, for now

Hamas has failed to rally the Middle East to its cause

But it has managed to demolish America’s plans for the region

Asia

Old before their time

Poor Asian countries face an ageing crisis

Waterworlds

Tuvalu plans for its own disappearance

An explosive exercise

A caste census reopens old grudges in India

Rubble of a country

Afghanistan’s terrible earthquakes

Banyan

Pakistan expels undocumented Afghans. But at what price?

China

A pox on your houses

Amid turmoil in China’s property market, the public seethes

Xi’s Midas touch

Xi Jinping bumps up the share prices of firms he visits

Stressed-out grannies

Babysitting duties are stressing China’s grandparents

Chaguan

China’s ties with America are warming, a bit

United States

The home and foreign fronts

Paralysis in Congress makes America a dysfunctional superpower

Pelican swoop

The worst job in Washington is within Steve Scalise’s grasp

Trash talk

New York City discovers a revolutionary technology: the bin

In fine feather

Could feather bowling be the next pickleball?

Southern gerrymandering

It’s OK to gerrymander, as long you discriminate by politics

Lexington

Joe Biden should admit Republicans are (partly) right about border security

Middle East & Africa

Protection racket

Rwanda wants to be Africa’s new cop on the beat

Custom redesigned

Land reform in Africa is challenging the power of chiefs

The reluctant litigant

The fallout from Mozambique’s debt scandal reaches a London court

The Americas

Back to the future

Pemex is the world’s most indebted oil company

Pronoun politics

The culture wars have come to Canada

Europe

Winners and losers

Which EU country is winning our economic pentathlon?

Out of sight, out of mind

The EU’s endless search for a migration fix

German state elections

A boost for Germany’s right

The persistence of memory

A corner of Italy that is forever China

Charlemagne

How rugby became a darling of Europe’s chauvinist right

Britain

There is an alternative

Britain’s Labour Party embraces supply-side social democracy

Base-jumping

Britain’s Tory rulers set the weather for Labour’s fiscal policy

Labouring a point

Even when he glitters, Sir Keir Starmer still struggles to shine

Off the boiler

How will Britain turn off its gas grid?

Metrospective

Why a British challenger bank got into trouble

Gender and politics

Why British politicians are defending women-only spaces

Bagehot

The rise of Britain’s new nanny state

International

It’s not easy being green

The global backlash against climate policies has begun

Business

Really big health

Who profits most from America’s baffling health-care system?

A shale whale

Why ExxonMobil is paying $60bn for Pioneer

Bought for parts

A $3.8bn deal points to the future of car-parts suppliers

A royal mess

The fall of China’s “manganese king” may hit global EV supply chains

Bartleby

Trialling the two-day workweek

Selling your sole

Why young consumers love Birkenstocks

Shielding the shield

Taiwan will not surrender its semiconductor supremacy

Schumpeter

Weight-loss drugs are no match for the might of big food

Finance & economics

Floating and sinking

Corporate America faces a trillion-dollar debt reckoning

Bills, bills, bills

Retail investors have a surprising new favourite: Treasury bills

STIK shift

How economists have underestimated Chinese consumption

Buttonwood

Investors should treat analysis of bond yields with caution

Golden Goldin

Claudia Goldin wins the Nobel prize in economics

Free exchange

To beat populists, sensible policymakers must up their game

Science & technology

It’s all academic

American and Chinese scientists are decoupling, too

Meet George Jetson

A flying car that anyone can use will soon go on sale

Neuro-philately

Scientists have published an atlas of the brain

Camp followers

Like human armies, army ants trail crowds of hangers-on

Culture

The man with the golden pen

Spy, womaniser, cad: the writer who created James Bond

A state of affairs

A new book describes John le Carré’s philandering

Johnson

Young Americans are losing the southern accent

Sleepy heads

Why do people sleep? And other unanswered questions

Digital worlds

Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog lead a 2D turn in entertainment

Anyone speak Nynorsk?

The Nobel prize in literature is prestigious, lucrative and bonkers

The Economist reads

What to read (and watch) about indigenous Australians

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

The Economist explains

How powerful is Hamas?

The Economist explains

A short history of Gaza

Obituary

A foe who never was