Do social media threaten democracy?
The world this week
Leaders
Scandal, outrage and politics
Do social media threaten democracy?
Facebook, Google and Twitter were supposed to save politics as good information drove out prejudice and falsehood. Something has gone very wrong
Investigating Russia
Why you should remember Mueller’s job description
He’s not there to pursue Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, but to safeguard elections. Surely Americans can unite around that?
Modi blues
India’s prime minister focuses too much on appearances
The consequences are beginning to catch up with him
Prescription debate
Should regulators block CVS from buying Aetna?
A proposed health-care merger raises difficult antitrust questions
Secessionism in Spain
Time for Mariano Rajoy to think about a new deal for Catalonia
After a month of madness, direct rule from Madrid seems to have been accepted by Catalans. That opens a window for progress
Letters
Letters
Letters to the editor
Briefing
Less Euromaidan, more Gamergate
Once considered a boon to democracy, social media have started to look like its nemesis
An economy based on attention is easily gamed
Essay
Luther’s reformation
The stand
Europe
Catalonia
The man who wasn’t there
The ride of the mercenaries
How “Wagner” came to Syria
Charlemagne: The ghost at the banquet
Britain’s planned departure is already changing Brussels
Britain
Policy transplant
Is this the end of the NHS’s internal market?
Following the money
Arron Banks, bankroller of Brexit, faces investigation over his donations
British business and politics
Time for some hostile-environment training
Letting out some air
London’s bubbly housing market goes flat
Tu casa es mi casa
The Catalan crisis adds to Gibraltar’s Brexit concerns
Everyone v gown
Britain’s universities are under fire from all sides
Middle East & Africa
The new Arab cosmopolitans
Despots are pushing the Arab world to become more secular
A moment of religious harmony
Morocco’s little idyll of Jewish-Muslim coexistence
Polarised politics in Kenya
Uhuru Kenyatta’s hollow victory
Bulldozing over the revolution
Syria’s regime is stealing land from its opponents
Surviving under Mugabe
Zimbabwe’s deepening crisis
United States
Deducting deductions
Republicans are struggling to find money to pay for tax cuts
Manafort overboard
Donald Trump’s former campaign chief is indicted
High-stakes health care
Chipped away
A Palm Tree in the woods
Hasidic Jews in upstate New York
Thus spake Joe
Texas politics after Joe Straus
The Americas
Staying afloat, somehow
How long can Venezuela avoid default?
The founding of Maple Valley
How Canada’s unique research culture has aided artificial intelligence
Asia
Meet and retreat
Donald Trump has friends, but few ambitions, in South-East Asia
Ignorance is no excuse
An antiquated rule claims another scalp in Australia’s parliament
Apostrophes on the march
Kazakhstan wants Kazakh written in Latin, not Cyrillic script
International
New Green advocates
Climate-change lawsuits
Business
Fatal attractions
Dark tourism spooks its way into the mainstream
Frictionless furnishing
IKEA undertakes some home improvements
On the other hand
Japanese cars enjoy an afterlife in Myanmar, but not for much longer
The wa forward
Japan Inc gingerly embraces more foreigners
Finance & economics
Washing whiter
Increasingly, hunting money-launderers is automated
Powell empowered?
Jerome Powell is poised to be named chairman of the Fed
Mutable values
Asian households binge on debt
A yen for plastic
In Japan, the move from cash to plastic goes slowly
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
October 30th marked the 70th birthday of the WTO’s precursor
Free exchange
Catalonia and the perils of fiscal redistribution
Science & technology
Culture
Restless soul
Joseph Conrad, the first novelist of globalisation
Vladimir Putin’s Russia
Masha Gessen is wrong to call Russia a totalitarian state
Transcendental meditation
Neil MacGregor on living with gods
Obituary
On Rampart and Canal