Leaders
Getting the maths right
How the next president should fix America’s student-loan problem
The Bloomberg and Biden plans are the best on offer
The Bundesbank
Healing the rift in Europe’s single currency
The central bank is one of Germany’s most trusted institutions
British legal system
Boris Johnson takes on the judges
The government wants to restrict the power of the judiciary. It shouldn’t
Moonshots, from literal to metaphorical
Jeff Bezos wants to help save the climate. Here is how he should do it
Make no small plans
Letters
On Clayton Christensen, Bernie Sanders, puberty blockers, private equity, police, China, sad songs
Letters to the editor
Briefing
Shoot-to-kill in the Philippines
Rodrigo Duterte’s lawless war on drugs is wildly popular
And he is unlikely ever to be held to account for it
Europe
The president’s paradox
Emmanuel Macron’s reforms are working, but not for him
Liaisons dangereuses
A sexting scandal makes France fret it is turning Puritan
Shotgun diplomacy
How Sweden copes with Chinese bullying
Much ado about “such”
The $50bn Yukos judgment against Russia turns on a single word
Thundering canons
An Orthodox Christian schism in Ukraine echoes around the world
Guilty of caring
Turkey acquits the Gezi Park protesters, then rearrests one
Britain
Judging the judges
Why pruning the British judiciary’s powers will prove tricky
Exploiting Brexit talks
Will Britain lose the Elgin marbles?
Points mean prizes
Britain’s post-Brexit immigration rules worry business
Brexit negotiations
Why Britain isn’t Canada
Uncomradely behaviour
With money tight, competition between Britain’s unions is getting dirty
Reshuffle revisited
British ministers come and go almost as often as football managers
Clubbing together
The rise of Britain’s woke members’ clubs
Middle East & Africa
A strategy on autopilot
How America deals with Africa, despite Donald Trump
The countryside counts
Why young, urban or rich Africans are less likely to vote
The postman never rings at all
Why delivering the mail in Congo is so hard
A fraught path to peace
South Sudan inches towards a unity government
Welcome back, sort of
The Egyptian government is sending Jews mixed signals
A bit too austere
Lessons for Lebanon from its struggling neighbours
United States
Twilight of the moderates
Joe Biden’s rivals scramble to capitalise on his woes in South Carolina
Peter Hotez, vaccine campaigner
Anger in a time of autism
Scout’s (dis)honour
The Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy amid child-abuse lawsuits
The Americas
Changing the guard
An interview with Uruguay’s president-elect, Luis Lacalle Pou
Asia
Fiscal, natural, viral
Japan’s GDP shrinks dramatically after a tax rise and a typhoon
To the victor the toils
Afghanistan’s disputed presidential election comes at a tricky time
Clawless clauses
How Pakistani brides inadvertently sign away their rights
China
International
Watchful waiting
Experts predict that covid-19 will spread more widely
Special report
The data economy
A deluge of data is giving rise to a new economy
Economics
Are data more like oil or sunlight?
Infrastructure
Should data be crunched at the centre or at the edge?
Geopolitics
Governments are erecting borders for data
Business
Downturn, disrupted
Business and the next recession
The Brussels effect, cont
The EU wants to set the rules for the world of technology
Red plateau
Apple’s Chinese troubles
A force to be reckoned with
Chinese firms use obscure legal tactics to stem virus losses
Cutting the pie
Executives are rewarded handsomely
The CEO who loved me
Spies often use businesses as cover
Finance & economics
Spheres of influence
The Bundesbank is caught between a doveish ECB and a suspicious public
Labour hoarding
Are there too many central bankers?
The incredible shrinking bank
HSBC undergoes yet another overhaul. It still may not be enough
Friends in high places
Michael Milken receives a presidential pardon
Following the money
Cash sloshes around the world in unexpected ways
Young, gifted and in the red
Student debt in America amounts to over $1.5trn
Science & technology
Is there anybody out there?
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence moves up a gear
Soil microbiology
Knowing how plants and microbes work together can boost crop yields
Emotional states
Do not rely on facial expressions for how people are feeling
Culture
Paradise lost
Whose internet is it anyway?
Rhapsody in blue
The legend of Levi Strauss
Summit diplomacy
A race to the top of the world
Remember, remember
A Kurdish artist memorialises the experiences of his people
The grey zone
Compromise and survival in Vladimir Putin’s Russia
Economic & financial indicators
Graphic detail
Call me maybe
China’s minorities have a tough time finding jobs
Obituary
Living dangerously