The Silly Isles: Brexit after May
The world this week
Leaders
The Silly Isles
The trouble with Theresa May’s promise to resign
It does nothing to solve Britain’s Brexit mess
King Bibi
Binyamin Netanyahu: a parable of modern populism
In Israel, as elsewhere, politics is a perplexing mix of sound policy and the cynical erosion of institutions
Inversions and aversions
Europe’s economy is more worrying than America’s yield-curve inversion
Bond markets are sounding warnings on both sides of the Atlantic. But the message is much worse in Europe
Culture vultures
The moral maze of museum management
The case for giving back stolen art is strong. For refusing tainted donations, less so
Letters
On Chernobyl, the Irish, councils, Tom Watson, energy, China, Brexit, first class
Letters to the editor
Briefing
Statesman and schemer
The success of Binyamin Netanyahu’s divisive politics in Israel
When solutions are daunting and unpalatable, why seek them?
Europe
Left behind
Germany’s struggling Social Democrats
Candyman v comic
Ukraine heads for the polls, with a comedian leading
An owl of rage
A surge for the FVD, a new right-wing Dutch party
Of vegetables and nuts
Turkey’s President Erdogan accuses the West of terrorism
Among the gilets jaunes
France’s yellow-jacket protests are smaller, but still fierce
Britain
The elusive will
Theresa May has united Britain: everyone hates her Brexit deal
Brexit and a by-election
At a forthcoming by-election, potential MPs try to ignore Brexit
Magical thinking
Brexit was scheduled for March 29th. Wasn’t it meant to be easy?
Towards a tipping point
How high can Britain’s minimum wage go?
Bagehot
The end of Theresa May
Middle East & Africa
First the floods, then the pestilence
The rush to avert a second disaster after floods in Mozambique
Half a million ghosts
How well has Rwanda healed 25 years after the genocide?
What’s in a name?
Rwanda has banned talking about ethnicity
Twilight of the bureaucrats
Millions of retiring Arab civil servants need not be replaced
United States
He told you so
Donald Trump claims vindication over the Mueller report
Election doping
The Supreme Court does not like gerrymandering
Sharp exchanges
Hanging with the anti-vaxxers
That’s the sound of the Polis
Jared Polis, Colorado’s governor, is an unusual breed: a libertarian Democrat
The Americas
Enemies in high places
Can Thelma Aldana, Guatemala’s corruption fighter, win the presidency?
The Mendoza model
Argentina’s wine-growing province offers lessons in how to reform
Asia
To the spoiler, victory
After an ineptly rigged election, Thailand’s junta will cling to power
Sex, drugs and spy-cams
Exposing K-pop’s dirty secrets
Who jabs in Punjab?
Why Pakistan has so many quacks
The sky’s no limit
India’s prime minister takes his re-election campaign into outer space
An anti-anti-immigrant backlash
Australian voters keep rejecting nativist campaigns
Dildo for president
Indonesian voters get a genuine choice, but an increasingly narrow one
China
Industrial disaster
A devastating explosion at a factory in China
International
Business
In need of a tune-up
Hyundai is falling behind its Japanese and Western rivals
Bartleby
The skills leaders need
A unicorn stampede
Lyft will be the first ride-hailing company to float its shares
The red-train blues
A giant Chinese trainmaker hits the buffers abroad
Wall Street comes to Milan
Elliott and Vivendi fight over Telecom Italia
Renewable-power struggle
REBA is a new lobby for corporate buyers of clean energy
Finance & economics
Can cryptocurrencies recover?
Flaws in Bitcoin make a lasting revival unlikely
A rock and a hard place
How to solve southern Italy’s unemployment problem
Keep it up
Why is inflation in America so low?
Chengdu then don’t
The Inter-American Development Bank cancels its big bash in China
Exceptions and rules
How Argentina and Japan continue to confound macroeconomists
Free exchange
Slower growth in ageing economies is not inevitable
Science & technology
Coffee shops
Will your next barista be a robot?
A bug in the system
Whiteflies are such a pest because they hack the way plants communicate
Gathering the rays
A highly efficient rooftop solar panel based on space technology
Culture
The chairman will see you now
The enduring influence of Mao Zedong
The limping lady
Virginia Hall, the greatest spy you’ve never heard of
The blues had a baby
Celebrating African-American music at the Shed
Graphic detail
Brexit and the markets
A no-deal Brexit would send sterling to its lowest level since 1985
Obituary
Seeing things clear