Are free markets history? The rise of homeland economics

The world this week

Leaders

The size of the state

Are free markets history?

Governments are jettisoning the principles that made the world rich

Sub-Saharan suffrage

Why Africans are losing faith in democracy

The alternatives will undoubtedly be worse

Kevin McCarthy talks to Matt Gaetz in the House Chamber

The conservative Jacobins

The ousting of Kevin McCarthy: bad for America, worse for Ukraine

His successor should seek cross-party support to keep funding the war

Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy

Reality beckons

Rising bond yields are exposing fiscal fantasy in Europe

Italy’s budget plans look irresponsible

A Nobel cause

In an ugly world, vaccines are a beautiful gift worth honouring

According to the WHO, they have saved more lives than any other medical invention

The entrance to tunnels at Colne Valley viaduct in London, part of the HS2 development

HSscrewed

Rishi Sunak is wrong to amputate Britain’s high-speed rail line

The HS2 decision will make it harder to build infrastructure

Letters

On Ukraine, India and separatists, British politics, AI and science, Europe’s hard right, Elon Musk

Letters to the editor

Briefing

A cargo ship on the Danube river, near Izmail, Ukraine, with anti-tank defences on the river banks

Ripple effect

The war in Ukraine is threatening to wash across the Black Sea

And to roil grain and oil markets again

Britain

Rishi Sunak, the prime minister of Britain

International

Economic & financial indicators

The Economist reads