Broadbandits: The surging cyberthreat from spies and crooks
The world this week
Leaders
Computer security
To stop the ransomware pandemic, start with the basics
That will help stop other sorts of cyber-mischief, too
Worth the air miles
Joe Biden’s summit with Vladimir Putin yielded only modest gains
But it beats the turbulence of the recent past
Corporate governance
Investors in technology need to pay attention to corporate governance
Investors in technology firms too often put up with ropy corporate governance. They may come to regret it
After the caliphate
Relative peace gives Iraq a chance to build a functioning state
If it fails, mayhem beckons
Northern Ireland
The quest for a more pragmatic Northern Ireland protocol
Britain and the European Union should seek compromise over Northern Irish trade
Letters
On gold and bitcoin, buses, air conditioning, greenwashing, China
Letters to the editor
Briefing
Crims and spooks unite and fight
Ransomware highlights the challenges and subtleties of cybersecurity
Governments want to defend themselves—and attack others
Europe
A whiff of détente
America and Russia return to traditional great-power diplomacy
Grant me greenery, but not yet
Climate change will feature heavily in Germany’s election
Charlemagne
The EU: Made in America
Britain
Border trouble
Brexit faces problems at the Northern Irish border
The murder of Daniel Morgan
A panel finds that London’s police are “institutionally corrupt”
Stonewall stonewalls
A campaigning LGBT charity turns a deaf ear to its critics
Neigh laughing matter
Thoroughbred horses are increasingly inbred
Jabs v virus
The British covid-19 warning
Clicks and mortar
Retail parks are well-placed to weather lockdowns
Not your dad’s army
Britain wants to make better use of civilian reserves
Middle East & Africa
Thirsting for change
Few things are harder than building a state in Iraq
New man in charge
Naftali Bennett’s new Israeli government has its work cut out
United States
Look at Joe not go
After a quick start, Joe Biden’s legislative agenda has hit a wall
Keystone chimera
The death of a totemic pipeline has been greatly exaggerated
California teeming
The Golden State is awash in cash
Checking and balancing
America debates how much power state governors should have
The Americas
The other border surge
Many Central American migrants are staying in Mexico
The Latin American dream
Why some people are moving from the United States to Mexico
Gunboat diplomacy
Iranian warships seem bound for Venezuela
Asia
The Modi blues
India’s prime minister is down but not out
Sausage party
Young men in South Korea feel victimised by feminism
One-horse race
Mongolia’s ruling party secures a thumping victory
China
No news is bad news
Hong Kong’s liberal media are under pressure
Try this for size
China and America are borrowing each other’s weapons
International
Rich slum, poor slum
Economically, covid-19 has hit hard-up urbanites hardest
Technology Quarterly
The other environmental emergency
Loss of biodiversity poses as great a risk to humanity as climate change
Sensors and sensibility
All kinds of new technology are being used to monitor the natural world
Cracking the code
The sequencing of genetic material is a powerful conservation tool
Crowdsourced science
How volunteer observers can help protect biodiversity
Simulating everything
Compared with climate, modelling of ecosystems is at an early stage
Back from the dead
Reviving extinct species may soon be possible
Bridging the gap
Technology can help conserve biodiversity
Business
The empire of Son
Hard truths about SoftBank
Down and up in lipstick valley
Hit by covid-19, Italian makeup-makers are looking pretty again
Finance & economics
The jabs and the jab-nots
Uneven vaccination rates are creating a new economic divide
A prettier picture
Will America’s housing boom lead to another financial crisis?
Cyber-heists
The methods and menace of the new bank robbers
Science & technology
Let the drones fly high
Business is booming as regulators relax drone laws
Astronomy
Betelgeuse’s great dimming
Living fossils
Coelacanths live for as long as people
Antibody of evidence
A new weapon in the war against SARS-CoV-2 has been found
Microecology
A midsummer bug hunt
Friar’s balsam
Strenuous exercise is linked to motor-neuron disease
Culture
Covid in America
A veteran journalist explains America’s devastating pandemic
Victim, complex
In “Animal”, Lisa Taddeo’s narrator exacts revenge on men
Car trouble
The rise and fall of Carlos Ghosn
The fire this time
A precious African-studies collection burns in Cape Town
Economic & financial indicators
Graphic detail
Obituary
Seeing problems sideways on