Electric shock and awe

A Tesla bull debates a Tesla bear

Carmaking

Business

Generous benefits

Germans are world champions of calling in sick

An eagle sweating in his bed with a sign showing a red downward arrow attached to the end of the bedframe 

Bartleby

Knowing what your colleagues earn 

The illustration shows a man and a woman standing on separate stacks of coins.

A bad day for doomers

A $500bn investment plan says a lot about Trump’s AI priorities

Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, Masayoshi Son, SoftBank Group CEO, and Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle Corporation and chief technology officer, listen as President Donald trump speaks during a press conference at the White House.

Schumpeter

Donald Trump’s America will not become a tech oligarchy

A surreal scene with a striped bowl holding the Statue of Liberty's torch, surrounded by floating, distorted faces and small planets.

Marginal revolution

OpenAI’s latest model will change the economics of software

A simple robot face with rolls of cash as eyes. The robot has a smiling mouth and a small antenna on top. The design is minimal, with black outlines on a light background.

Art of the deal, Chinese edition

Donald Trump once tried to ban TikTok. Now can he save it?

Protesters in favour of TikTok stand outside the United States Capitol.

The UFC, Dana White and the rise of bloodsport entertainment

A tattooed man punches a large head, with motion lines and stars showing impact. He wears orange shorts.

Politics this week

The world this week

Business this week

KAL’s cartoon

Morning after in America

The outlook for America looks grim, but that could quickly change

Leaders

Technology and geopolitics

The struggle over chips enters a new phase

Infections v injections

The marathon of covid-19 vaccination

Palace intrigue

The world must not accept the jailing of Alexei Navalny

Famine crimes

Ethiopia’s government appears to be wielding hunger as a weapon

On vaccination, primaries, bannock, malaria, Malawi, conversation, potatoes

Letters to the editor

Letters

Making America again

After the chaos of the Trump era, what can Joe Biden hope to achieve?

Briefing

Into the lion’s den

Alexei Navalny returns to Moscow to face Vladimir Putin

Europe

Steady, as she goes

Armin Laschet, the man who might succeed Angela Merkel

Grounded

Russia quits the Open Skies treaty

The fraud that wasn’t

A benefits scandal sinks the Dutch government

Invaluable bivalves

How clams help keep Polish water clean

Charlemagne

The EU should stop ignoring the vaccine race to try and win it

Covid-19

A successful vaccination drive is crucial to Boris Johnson’s government

Britain

Working from home

How the spread of sheds threatens cities

Papers, please

Britain belatedly beefs up its borders

Online teaching

Second time round, schools are better at lockdown learning

Telecoms

Brexit ends “free” mobile roaming in Europe—and that’s a good thing

Brexit and trade

Delays to fish and meat exports are not just teething problems

Retail

An online sales boom is killing supermarket profits

Bagehot

Orwell, Priestley and the politics of the ordinary

Smugglers’ paradise

Why it’s hard for Congo’s coltan miners to abide by the law

Middle East & Africa

Fear and famine

After two months of war, Tigray faces starvation

A special relationship

How Qatar and Turkey came together

Who will blink first?

Equatorial Guinea is still waiting for its IMF bail-out

The not-so-Shia state

Disenchanted Iranians are turning to other faiths

Free but fed up

Despite democracy, Tunisians riot

Hot cakes

Egypt’s patisserie police crack down on depraved desserts

Slight return

Why America has done such a poor job of keeping schools open

United States

Obstacle coursework

Why reopening schools in minority neighbourhoods is hard

Here’s how

America’s vaccination roll-out will improve with practice

In the line of fire

What next for the bankrupt NRA?

The four-point touchdown

Republican state lawmakers aim to change Pennsylvania’s constitution

Final throes

Use of the death penalty in America may be ending

Lexington

Back to the future

Careless behaviour

The pandemic has exposed a crisis in Canada’s care homes

The Americas

Misery in Manaus

A Brazilian city thought it had herd immunity. It was wrong

A call for arms

Asian governments are needlessly hampering vaccination drives

Asia

Negotiating with terrorists

Assassinations rise in Afghanistan amid negotiations

Hammered and sickled

Vietnam’s Communist Party is in a weaker position than it seems

Record slayer

“Demon Slayer” is the most successful Japanese film of all time

Banyan

Mongolians are chafing at the government’s anti-covid curbs

Xinjiang’s shadow

Before leaving office, Mike Pompeo accused China of genocide

China

Wolf taming

Twitter may have reduced the influence of China’s propaganda

Chaguan

China’s Communist Party turns 100 this year. Expect mixed signals

Where everybody knows your name

Messaging services are providing a more private internet

International

Chinese youth

Young Chinese are both patriotic and socially progressive

Special report

The rural-urban divide

The gap between China’s rural and urban youth is closing

Patriotism and the party

How nationalism is shaping China’s young

Subcultures

How to rebel in China

Views of the world

As attitudes to the West sour, China’s students turn home

Values, identity and activism

Individualism reigns in China—and with it, more social responsibility

Children of the revolution

Might freedom-seeking youths rise up again?

Sources and acknowledgments

A new architecture

Chipmaking is being redesigned. Effects will be far-reaching

The secrets of successful listening

Business schools

The MBA class of covid-19

Sberbank’s second pirouette

Fire without fury

Will Joe Biden’s fiscal stimulus overheat the American economy?

Finance & economics

Snarl-up

Supply bottlenecks are pushing up costs for manufacturers

Topsy turvy

Have banks now got too much cash?

Southern tiger

China’s regional gap is worsening

Tilting the scales

A Swiss money-laundering probe raises disturbing questions

University challenge

Property investment: some hard truths

Free exchange

What is the link between economic crises and political ruptures?

Covid-19 vaccines

How fast can vaccination against covid-19 make a difference?

Science & technology

Chinese covid vaccines

China’s jabs may have an important role

Aquaculture

Irradiating small animals used as fish food makes them bigger

Making oxygen

How to separate oxygen from air using magnets

Mice

Where a rodent lives may determine how clever it is

China’s hidden crisis

The biggest obstacle to China’s rise is struggling rural children

Culture

Satan’s slips

The history of America’s relationship with Iran

Walls have eyes

Itvan Kebadian’s art of protest

Ripley’s creator at 100

A poisonous person, Patricia Highsmith was an enduring writer

Economic data, commodities and markets

Economic & financial indicators

Gift of the jab

The smallpox vaccine took decades to bear fruit

Graphic detail

Counsels of imperfection

Katharine Whitehorn and Mahinder Watsa died on January 8th and December 28th

Obituary

Editorials, columns, guest opinions and your letters, all in one place

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Opinion

A behind-the-scenes look at how we chose and designed this week’s cover

How we chose this week’s cover image

Cover Story

A Tesla bull debates a Tesla bear

It is easy to make a positive and a negative case for the electric-car maker's $700bn market capitalisation

Electric awe

Business January 23rd 2021

From the January 23rd 2021 edition

More from Business

Germans are world champions of calling in sick

Knowing what your colleagues earn

A $500bn investment plan says a lot about Trump’s AI priorities

Donald Trump’s America will not become a tech oligarchy

OpenAI’s latest model will change the economics of software

Donald Trump once tried to ban TikTok. Now can he save it?

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