Leaders

A Nobel cause

In an ugly world, vaccines are a beautiful gift worth honouring

According to the WHO, they have saved more lives than any other medical invention

Sub-Saharan suffrage

Why Africans are losing faith in democracy

The alternatives will undoubtedly be worse

The size of the state

Are free markets history?

Governments are jettisoning the principles that made the world rich

The conservative Jacobins

The ousting of Kevin McCarthy: bad for America, worse for Ukraine

His successor should seek cross-party support to keep funding the war

Reality beckons

Rising bond yields are exposing fiscal fantasy in Europe

Italy’s budget plans look irresponsible

HSscrewed

Rishi Sunak is wrong to amputate Britain’s high-speed rail line

The HS2 decision will make it harder to build infrastructure

Reboot successful

The lessons from Microsoft’s startling comeback

A bold bet on AI could help it overtake Apple as the world’s most valuable firm

A short war with a long shadow

A humanitarian disaster is under way in Nagorno-Karabakh

And Russia may also be destabilising its old ally, Armenia

The budget bust-up

Forget the shutdown. America’s real fiscal worry is rising bond yields

Watch Wall Street, not Washington

A bigger, better EU

The war in Ukraine is a powerful reason to enlarge—and improve—the EU

Nine new countries, including Ukraine, are vying to join

Elixir of life

Living to 120 is becoming an imaginable prospect

Efforts to slow ageing are taking wing

Striking contradictions

Joe Biden may come to regret his claim to be pro-union

The UAW strike highlights the deep strains in Bidenomics