Dec 2nd 2023

Blue-collar bonanza: Why conventional wisdom on inequality is wrong

The world this week

The World Ahead

The World Ahead 2024

Leaders

War in Ukraine

Putin seems to be winning the war in Ukraine—for now

His biggest asset is Europe’s lack of strategic vision

Blue-collar bonanza

A new age of the worker will overturn conventional thinking

Around the rich world, wage gaps are shrinking

Israel and Hamas

How America should manage the next stage of the Gaza war

For the sake of Israel and a two-state solution, America has to get tougher with its ally

A planet-cooking gas

What the world must do to tame methane

The world needs a deal during COP28 to limit a nasty source of emissions

Superpower politics

What does Henry Kissinger’s diplomacy have to teach the world?

A grasp of the subtle interplay between interests, values and the use of force is still useful

Debt break

Germany is in a bizarre fiscal mess of its own making

Three steps to resolve the fiscal panic

Letters

On cars in America, Spain, Indian whisky, “King Lear”, Belgium, dinner etiquette

Letters to the editor

By Invitation

Geopolitics

Why the West needs to stop the global rise of revisionism

COP28: host of questions

Rhys Davies and Ben Keith argue that the UAE is a tainted COP host

Briefing

For the fatherland

How Putin is reshaping Russia to keep his war-machine running

He is creating a class of wealthy bureaucrats, who are the war’s biggest supporters

Asia

Asian defence

Narendra Modi is remaking India’s 1.4m strong military

What’s yours is mine

The insidious campaign to demolish mosques in India

Plain stupa

Sri Lankans are squabbling over monuments

Ground zero

Taiwan’s presidential election will be a three-way race after all

Baby-making

Japan needs more sperm donors

China

The big climate question

Will China save the planet or destroy it?

Going fission (and fusion)

China is building nuclear reactors faster than any other country

Not again

China is struggling with a surge of respiratory ailments

Chaguan

China’s economy is suffering from long covid

United States

Trumpier than thou

A MAGA court in New Orleans is shaping the Supreme Court’s agenda

An affordable dare act

A key part of Obamacare is in jeopardy

Chasing the American dream

Is it cheaper to rent or buy property?

The prisoner dilemma

What to do about an uptick in Americans unjustly held abroad

A full-fat fiasco

A national milk-carton shortage sours America’s dairy industry

The opioid-maker controversy

The Supreme Court may toss out Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy settlement

Super K

Henry Kissinger never quite belonged where he wanted to be

Middle East & Africa

The war in Gaza

Does Hamas want to keep fighting Israel or start talking peace?

All quiet on the Gaza front

Israel’s truce with Hamas is drawing to a close

Climate finance (1)

Could carbon credits be Africa’s next big export?

Climate finance (2)

African leaders want debt relief for climate action

The Americas

Dirty deeds

To save the Amazon, Lula must work out who owns it

Europe

Bulldogs of war

Russia is poised to take advantage of political splits in Ukraine

More blood, less treasure

Ukraine’s new enemy: war fatigue in the West

Where there’s a Wil Ders a way

Geert Wilders struggles towards power in the Netherlands

Brake failure

Germany’s ruling coalition grapples with a wrecked budget

Stop killing women

Outrage against femicide is spreading in Italy

Charlemagne

How a sombre mood gripped Europe

Britain

Policing by consent

How to restore Britons’ confidence in the police

Ode to an avenue

The Dark Hedges are dying

The Brutish museum?

Why is the British Museum always in trouble?

Spend drift

Post-Brexit Britain is splurging more on state aid

Heat pumps

Why Britain’s homes will need different types of heat pump

The agony and the Cleggstasy

The curious case of Nick Clegg

Bagehot

How to change the policy of the British government

International

Islamism on the edge

A religious revolution is under way in the Middle East

Business

Blurred vision

Xi Jinping’s grip on Chinese enterprise gets uncomfortably tight

An outside chance

How to succeed—and fail—as a foreign business in India

Bartleby

Generative AI generates tricky choices for managers

Electric curmudgeons

Is America’s EV revolution stalling?

Swedish strikes

Elon Musk v labour unions: Sweden edition

Baby Berkshire

How a Canadian company became the world’s best acquirer of tech firms

Schumpeter

Charlie Munger was a lot more than Warren Buffett’s sidekick

Finance & economics

Labour markets

Welcome to a golden age for workers

The pay picture

Real wages have risen in America and are rebounding in Europe

Property pain

China edges towards a big bail-out

Fissures

An unruly OPEC is causing problems for Russia and Saudi Arabia

Pipe dreams

How to get African oil out of the ground without Western lenders

Buttonwood

Short-sellers are endangered. That is bad news for markets

Free exchange

Why economists are at war over inequality

Science & technology

The other greenhouse gas

Politics and technology are pushing oil firms to cut methane

Termination shock?

Do rising methane levels herald a climate feedback loop?

Crystal balls

A Google AI has discovered 2.2m materials unknown to science

Forty thousand winks near the sea

Why chinstrap penguins sleep thousands of times a day

Culture

Film-making in China

Two film awards reveal the battle for the future of Chinese cinema

Pressing up

Small publishers are sweeping the Booker and Nobel prizes

Plains writing

Willa Cather and Larry McMurtry shared subjects and sensibilities

World in a dish

In Russia’s arsenal the knife and fork have been powerful weapons

Digital art

Museums are learning to love NFTs

A sound grasp

These are The Economist’s favourite podcasts of 2023

The Economist reads

What to read about dementia

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

The Economist explains

What does it take to expel an American congressman?

The Economist explains

Who are the Palestinians in Israel’s prisons?

Obituary

Adapt or die