Winners and losers: How covid-19 is reordering the global economy
The world this week
Leaders
Winners and losers
The pandemic has caused the world’s economies to diverge
But its long-term impact will be even more far-reaching
Lessons of Nagorno-Karabakh
Why “America First” makes wars in other places more likely
A vacuum of global leadership lets local conflicts expand
Land of the mask-free
The real lessons from Sweden’s approach to covid-19
Sweden is held up as a champion of liberty. In fact it is the home of pragmatism
Digital money
Ant Group and fintech come of age
A blockbuster listing shows how fintech is revolutionising finance
Letters
On Mexico, “Cuties”, democracy, Milton Friedman, the Supreme Court, Harold Evans, tanks
Letters to the editor
Briefing
Queen of the colony
What Ant Group’s IPO says about the future of finance
The giant Chinese fintech upstart is expected to raise more than $30bn, eclipsing Saudi Aramco’s debut last year
Europe
Sun, sea and naval history
Why tourists shun Salamis, site of a great sea-battle
Green like the Grinch
The French mayor who cancelled the Christmas tree
The Hungarian model
Poland’s ruling party may clobber independent media
Europe’s odd man out
How Sweden hopes to prevent a second wave of covid-19
Britain
The Treasury
The rise of Rishi Sunak
Ready, steady, jab
Britain prepares to roll out a covid-19 vaccine
Mortgage reform
Boris Johnson wants 25-year fixed-rate mortgages
Middle East & Africa
Friends with few benefits
Iran wants a “strategic partnership” with China
Pandemic politics
Binyamin Netanyahu is losing support
A rage for roads
Egypt is busily building expressways
The vengeance of old men
A dangerous election looms in Ivory Coast
When calling is a calling
For some Ugandans, phoning the radio is a way of life
United States
Covid-19 in the White House
The virus has hit President Donald Trump and his re-election hopes
The Veep debate
Mike Pence v Kamala Harris ends in a normal sort of a draw
Ohio, bellwether again
A close race in Ohio is bad news for Donald Trump
Entrepreneurship
The number of new businesses in America is booming
Lexington
The battle in miniature
The Americas
Welcome to Queueba
With shop shelves bare, Cuba mulls economic reforms
Alberto of the Antarctic
Argentina doubles in size, or so it claims
Asia
Strait shooting
Defending Taiwan is growing costlier and deadlier
Ballot-ticking exercise
Why Tajikistan’s president will win a fifth term
Deliverance delayed
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last countries fighting polio
China
Slow strangulation
Hong Kong’s new security law is being applied sparingly, so far
Rune revival
Pictographs survive in a Chinese tourist town
International
Terminal verbosity
Covid-19 is helping wealthy countries talk about death
Special report
The world economy
The peril and the promise
International trade
Changing places
Labour markets
Zoom and gloom
Competition
Survival of the fittest
Interest rates
The eternal zero
Emerging markets
Prognosis uncertain
The role of government
The right kind of recovery
Business
Not so choppy
How covid-19 put wind in shipping companies’ sails
Crude crutch
Canadian oilmen drill the government for aid
Finance & economics
The digital surge
How the digital surge will reshape finance
Pain relief
Are Europe’s furlough schemes winding down?
Braced for impact
How investors are hedging against possible election chaos in America
Working to rule
How trade is being used to enforce labour standards
Science & technology
Scientific awards
Who won this year’s Nobel science prizes?
South American agriculture
Farmers of old relied on El Niño
Culture
The way of the world
Two books examine the global role of corruption
Sleeping giants
The intellectual flare of the so-called dark ages
Phoning it in
How to produce an opera in lockdown
Dead cat bounce
For he will consider Jeoffry, the poet’s cat
A visionary American artist
Theaster Gates turns discarded objects into art
Economic & financial indicators
Graphic detail
Web of distrust
Faith in government declines when mobile internet arrives
Obituary
Of human bondage