Oct 29th 2022

It’s not just inflation

The world this week

Leaders

The shortest term

Rishi Sunak’s promise of stability is a low bar for Britain

Reasons to be cheerful are scant

Economic policy

The risks of Bidenomics go beyond inflation

Joe Biden’s protectionism is costly for America and the world

Meritocracy with Chinese characteristics

For Xi Jinping, loyalty trumps ability

China’s president has assembled a top team of yes-men

An untried skipper

Storm clouds loom for Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s new prime minister

She has reassured markets for now, but trouble lies ahead

A virtuous circle

Battery-makers are powering a circular economy

“Gigafactories” are being designed to recycle raw materials

Ire at the ayatollahs

Will Iran’s women win?

Their uprising could be the beginning of the end of Iran’s theocracy

Letters

World hunger, China and America, epilepsy, Russian literature, our Britaly cover

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

From Italy with love

The bill for campaign populism is paid in office, warns Matteo Renzi

Russia and Ukraine

Mick Ryan on why Ukraine can expect to make further gains against Russia

Briefing

Adieu, laissez-faire

Joe Biden attempts the biggest overhaul of America’s economy in decades

He is using industrial policy to create jobs, cut emissions and boost manufacturing

Asia

Latitude is everything

India’s regional inequality could be politically explosive

Circles of life

What Japan makes of ikigai

Joining the dots

Kidney failure kills scores of children in the Gambia and Indonesia

Banyan

A prominent Indian independent news site destroys its own credibility

China

The people’s leader’s people

Xi Jinping has surrounded himself with loyalists

And then there were none

China’s problem with female representation is getting worse

Chaguan

China and America are barely speaking, though crises loom

United States

Anti-democratic front

Why the Republicans’ anti-democracy turn has become normalised

Down to the wire

New York’s Democratic governor faces a stronger challenge than expected

Midterm maths

Democrats are polling best in states where surveys tend to misfire

Dirty secrets

The claim of a Ukrainian “dirty bomb” has got America’s attention

Skeletons out of the closet

Tech titans rival one another in Halloween decor

Mountains to climb

America risks fumbling its chance to help schoolchildren catch up

Lexington

In North Carolina, racial politics remain inescapable

Middle East & Africa

The ayatollahs are trembling

Could Iran’s regime fall?

Proxy fight

A change in Iran could reshape the Middle East

Not yet bye-bye for Bibi

Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu bids for an election comeback

Slow-talking

Ethiopia’s peace talks may be overtaken by battlefield advances

See no evil

Will William Ruto serve the people or himself and his pals?

The Americas

A tense final week

Brazil’s election is tight ahead of a run-off on October 30th

Bello

A film about Argentina’s history sheds light on its politics today

Europe

Life after Vladimir

Russia’s elite begins to ponder a Putinless future

Fighting dirty

Russia braces for a battle over Kherson

Enter Giorgia

Giorgia Meloni takes office as prime minister of Italy

European energy links

Europe’s gas and electrical grids need expanding

Charlemagne

Europe has a problem: France and Germany have forgotten how to argue

Britain

The man atop the rubble

Rishi Sunak, Britain’s new prime minister, starts on the defensive

All in this together

The Bank of England has seen off several threats

Conservative leadership contests

Boris Johnson’s return to British politics crash-lands

Different diagnoses

Where did all Britain’s 50-somethings go?

How long have you had that goitre?

Phrasebooks are dying out

Bagehot

Rishi Sunak’s first job? Clearing up the mess he helped make

International

A baleful legacy

How one pandemic made another one worse

Business

No longer so fruitful

The end of Apple’s affair with China

Ren-aissance

Can Huawei thrive despite American sanctions?

Bartleby

The archaeology of the office

Schumpeter

The reluctant rise of the diplomat CEO

Finance & economics

What next?

Even super-tight policy is not bringing down inflation

The fleeing committee

Xi Jinping provokes a spectacular sell-off in China’s markets

Currency colossi

Asia’s vast financial institutions are being enlisted to defend currencies

Super-regulator

Can Gary Gensler solve every problem in American finance?

Buttonwood

The surprising maturity of the crypto-rave crowd

Free exchange

How to escape scientific stagnation

Science & technology

Inside the gigafactory

Gigafactories are recycling old EV batteries into new ones

Climate change

Few governments have done much about the climate this year

Animal behaviour

Bumblebees like ball games

The origins of covid-19

Scientists dispute a suggestion that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered

Culture

Israeli politics

Binyamin Netanyahu’s memoir is a fascinating study of power

World in a dish

The joys of pan de muerto, a sweet tribute to departed loved ones

No heroes, only victims

The war in Yemen, as seen by ordinary Yemenis

Biology

Siddhartha Mukherjee’s new book is a tour d’horizon of cell theory

Back Story

Pinocchio is the hero of our time

Paper trail

“Papyrus” is a lively history of books in the ancient world

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

Fertility trends

American-born women had more babies during the pandemic

The Economist explains

The Economist explains

Why Ukraine’s Orthodox churches are at loggerheads

The Economist explains

How might Jair Bolsonaro win Brazil’s election?

Obituary

To steal a Stone