Your country needs me: A pandemic of power grabs
The world this week
Leaders
Government finances
After the disease, the debt
To cope with the expensive legacy of the pandemic, governments will have to find the right path between stimulus and restraint
A pandemic of power grabs
Autocrats see opportunity in disaster
The world is distracted and the public need saving. It is a strongman’s dream
Pimp the ride
The car industry faces a short-term crisis and long-term decline
It can still be viable, with the right fixes
Essential workers
The Gulf states should take better care of their migrant workers
It is not only humane, it is practical
An Earth Day in the life of a plague
Covid-19 and the climate
The pandemic should neither distract people from action on climate change nor confuse them about it
Letters
On wet markets, Thailand, abortion, covid-19, house names, management
Letters to the editor
By Invitation
The world after covid-19
Bill Gates on how to fight future pandemics
Briefing
What would Keynes do?
The pandemic will leave the rich world deep in debt, and force some hard choices
Who takes the pain, and can there be gain
From 60 to zero
The world’s car giants need to move fast and break things
They have dawdled for too long
Charging up for a long ride
Lithium remains the car-battery material of choice
But future designs may have double the storage
Europe
Top of the covid class?
Germany excels among its European peers
Rush-hour runners
The curious etiquette of jogging in Paris
From persecution to pandemic
As Turkey locks down, refugees are the first to suffer
Yankees go home
America’s dry run to defend Europe is derailed by covid-19
Charlemagne
Privacy in a pandemic
Britain
The next episode
The BBC is having a good pandemic
Jolly difficult
Covid-19 exposes flaws in Britain’s good-times government
The price isn’t right
The impossibility of measuring inflation in a pandemic
The new neighbourhood watch
Official data suggest Britons are learning to help each other
Out of the shadows
The freemasons want to be known for hand wash, not handshakes
Middle East & Africa
Covid in the camps
Migrant workers in cramped Gulf dorms fear infection
Bibi wins again
Israel has a new government at last
A bumpy road from plot to plate
The race to feed Africa during a pandemic
The parable of the bag of cash
Abba Kyari, who tried to clean up Nigeria, dies of covid-19
United States
Stir-craziness
America begins easing restrictions
Some body to hold
The fight with Huawei means America can’t shape tech rules
Lexington
The limits of energy independence
The Americas
The Peronist and the pandemic
Argentina’s make-or-break moment
High varietals
Bolivia’s other intoxicating export—fine wine
Bello
Cuba on the edge
Asia
A process of elimination
What next for countries that are nearly covid-free?
What pandemic?
Life carries on as usual in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan
Impossible sums
India’s lockdown has brought unexpected benefits
China
The long arm of Beijing
China moves to squeeze Hong Kong’s freedoms
Revolution at the dinner party
China asks: what’s the safest way to use chopsticks?
International
Business
Creative disruption
The pandemic is liberating firms to experiment with radical new ideas
Medium and message
How technology shapes TV shows’ narrative arcs
Tear down this wall
Microsoft embraces big data
Bartleby
Play’s the thing
Finance & economics
Back in the game
Hedge funds hope the slump will make them relevant again
Under the weather
How risk-parity investment strategies unravelled
Tick tock
Oil markets have a timing problem
Free exchange
How to think about moral hazard during a pandemic
Schools brief
The problematic politics of climate change
Why tackling global warming is a challenge without precedent
Science & technology
Pandemics past and present
A peculiarity of Spanish flu may shed light on covid-19
Culture
Unhappy in the same way
Readers across the world are finding solace in “War and Peace”
Cold comfort farm
A prizewinning poet’s haunting debut novel
Home Entertainment
“The Shining” is perfect quarantine viewing
Home Entertainment
Try painting in watercolours
Economic & financial indicators
Graphic detail
Dixie in the crosshairs
The South is likely to have America’s highest death rate from covid-19
Obituary
The game of maths