Dashed hopes: Emerging markets’ growth problem
The world this week
Leaders
Get poor quickly
China’s crackdown on the online-education business marks a turning-point
Less capitalism, more state
Growth in emerging markets
Unrest and economic underperformance haunt the emerging world
The key to better times remains openness
Relighting a beacon of democracy
The way out of Tunisia’s crisis
A new national dialogue is needed to repair a broken system
Proteinotopia
Remarkable progress has been made in understanding the folding of proteins
It will help open up almost limitless vistas
Bully for the Philippines
Philippine President Duterte has shown how not to handle China
Appeasement has brought few benefits and undercut a regional approach
Letters
On China, Eswatini, climate change, Afghanistan, the Olympics
Letters to the editor
Europe
French politics
Why France’s Provence and the Riviera are so right-wing
Unimpeded flows the Vjosa
Albanian environmentalists are blocking a torrent of dams
Filling in the craics
An alcohol-free Irish pub refreshes parts that others cannot reach
Point of no return
Afghan refugees are reaching Turkey in greater numbers
Briefing
A mixed-up slowdown
The prospects for developing countries are not what they once were
Twenty years on, growth in the BRICs has slowed
Britain
Loose and lacy
Northern Irish Catholics are becoming less devout
Doing a disservice
The pandemic has disrupted services trade
Taking liberties
Boris Johnson’s gamble looks like it will pay off
Live by the river
London’s flooding is sure to worsen
Middle East & Africa
Being boring has its advantages
Why Jordan leads the way in Arabic-language training
Let Pegasus fly
Israel is loth to regulate its spyware exports
Arab democracy’s fading star
Tunisia’s democracy totters as the president suspends parliament
Down from the mountains
In Ethiopia’s civil war, Tigrayan forces take the offensive
United States
Pandemic blame game
America’s vaccination woes cannot be blamed only on politics
Attitudes to covid-19 inoculation
Who’s against the jab
The infrastructure bill
Joe Biden’s bipartisan dream lives on, for now
Eyeing the exits
Why Joe Biden is ending America’s combat mission in Iraq
Cocktails-to-go
Looser rules for takeaway tipples
The Americas
A gallop into the unknown
Peru’s left-wing new president pushes for a new constitution
Eyes in the ice
North America’s Arctic radar shield is due for an upgrade
Asia
Imperfect harmony
Racial prejudice rears its head in Singapore
Across the universe
Webtoons are South Korea’s latest export hit
Going, but not yet gone
Rodrigo Duterte hopes to outlast his term as Philippine president
Slow ride to FAST rule
Samoa’s rightful government takes office at last
Seven-headed scandal
The Pegasus revelations cast doubt on the health of Indian democracy
China
International
Business
Marxism v markets
China’s techlash gains steam. Again
Finance & economics
Robinhood and the merry mob
Robinhood takes its IPO to the masses
Buy the numbers
Prices in Turkey are surging. But by how much?
Down in the dumps
Real Treasury yields plumb the depths
A little more moral hazard
Could sympathy for debtors help boost consumption in China?
Out of the slump
Fintech is booming, despite a weak economy. Can that last?
Schools brief
Life is born in chains
How DNA and proteins work
Science & technology
Methods and madness
Data don’t lie, but they can lead scientists to opposite conclusions
The nose knows
Flies, worms and bees could help detect illness
Culture
A sculptor’s world
Isamu Noguchi explored what it means to be a global citizen
Land and freedom
Leïla Slimani tells the story of her own family in her new novel
Seeking world domination
China aims to eclipse America by 2049, a Biden official writes
Blood on the tracks
A grim account of the construction of the Congo-Océan Railway
Economic & financial indicators
Graphic detail
Old town road
An Inca highway still benefits people living nearby
Obituary
In search of nature’s laws