Leaders
Business and government
Welcome to the era of the bossy state
Countries around the world want to bend companies to their will
Party animal
Boris Johnson has always been unfit to be prime minister
With him in office, Britain can expect a rough ride
Poor students
America has failed to learn from the safe opening of classrooms abroad
Its children have lost more school days than peers in most rich countries
Standemonium
Central Asia will remain unstable, however many troops Russia sends
Events in Kazakhstan are not what they seem
Indiacitement
Hindu bigots are openly urging Indians to murder Muslims
And the ruling party does nothing to stop them
Financial risk
The worry about cross-border capital flows
They are growing fast and they pose a threat to stability
Letters
On the Republicans, Ukraine, gaming, running with bulls, corrugated iron, doors
Letters to the editor
Briefing
Steppe in the dark
Kazakhstan’s bloody turbulence will affect all of Central Asia
Russian troops are no guarantee of stability
Europe
Teetering at the summit
Russia and the West meet for a crucial week of diplomacy
Unfashionably gauche
The French left faces disaster in April’s presidential election
The geopolitics of December 25th
Ukraine’s Orthodox Church may change the date of its Christmas
Removing the clogs
A new Dutch government with a taste for Europe
Britain
Britain’s energy crisis
Expensive energy is baked into Britain’s future
Choosing to look away
Omicron and the logic of testing
Match and dispatch
Non-religious celebrants are leading more of England’s funerals
Trees and history
Britain still has a few patches of rainforest, which need help
Automatic for the people
Vanguard’s big push into financial advice
Middle East & Africa
An EU-funded horror story
Europe is bankrolling a force that routinely abuses African migrants
Happy Christmas, war is over?
Ethiopia promises peace but keeps bombing rebels and civilians
Wagner, worse than it sounds
Small bands of mercenaries extend Russia’s reach in Africa
United States
Refunding the police
As violent crime leaps, liberal cities rethink cutting police budgets
America’s missing diplomats
Can Joe Biden’s relentless diplomacy work without diplomats?
An American boom town
As Austin thrives as a tech hub, will it avoid San Francisco’s problems?
Lexington
Joe Biden was set up to fail
The Americas
Silicon linings
The pandemic has accelerated Latin America’s startup boom
A puck in the teeth
Canada’s best ice-hockey players cannot go to the Olympics
Asia
Some like it otter
Demand for pet otters is driving a harmful trade
Thanks, but no thanks
Sri Lanka is flirting with default
China
International
The point of tipping
Do tips make for better service?
Special report
Business and the state
Governments’ widespread new fondness for interventionism
The new industrial policy
Many countries are seeing a revival of industrial policy
Competition policy
The growing demand for more vigorous antitrust action
Corporate taxes
The long trend of falling corporate taxes is being reversed
Business
Move fast and heal things
How health care is turning into a consumer product
Medium-sized expectations
What the Mittelstand wants
The new great game
Can big oil’s bounce-back last?
Schumpeter
TikTok isn’t silly. It’s serious
Finance & economics
Super savers
The $28trn global reach of Asian finance
Life after stimmy
Will Americans’ pandemic savings stash keep the economy rolling?
Free exchange
Will remote work stick after the pandemic?
Science & technology
Marine biology
The world’s biggest fish hatchery
Xenotransplantation
The science behind the first successful pig-to-human heart transplant
Omicron and immunity
The case for updating covid-19 vaccines for the Omicron variant
Culture
The purpose of art
In Japan, festivals are boldly taking art into the countryside
Hollywood legends
It was hard for any viewer to look away from Sidney Poitier
Out of the abyss
“Aftermath” is a piercing study of Germany after 1945
Dystopian fiction
Jessamine Chan’s gripping debut novel sends up modern parenting
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail
Wages and places
