The Economist

The Economist is a global weekly magazine written for those who share an uncommon interest in being well and broadly informed. Each issue explores domestic and international issues, business, finance, current affairs, science, technology and the arts.

Coronavirus data • To 6am GMT February 3rd 2022

The world this week

How high will interest rates go? • Higher than you think in the short term, but lower than you might fear in the long run

Statistically significant • Our election model gives Emmanuel Macron a 79% chance of keeping his job

An icy chasm • The Beijing Olympics symbolise a world divided, with China on the wrong side

Free speech’s new frontier • The content-moderation wars have come to audio. Spotify must learn from social media

Wrong man, wrong plan • Proposals to boost the poorer half of the country fall short

Letters

Too much of a good thing • The pandemic is unlikely to end the world’s saving glut

A peninsular podium • TALLAHASSEE

Wondering what’s best for the kids • A new study finds that preschool can be detrimental to children. Really?

Easier does it • WASHINGTON, DC

The loneliness of the desert tortoise • JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK

White power and dark money • Why white supremacists have taken to cryptocurrencies

America is stagnating • As far as the country’s demography is concerned, that is

America is uniting against Vladimir Putin • Republicans are playing a more constructive role in the Ukraine crisis than Donald Trump must like

Aiding and abetting • Foreign aid has done little to help the impoverished Caribbean country

A populist turn • The Conservative Party is becoming less moderate

Adrift in treacherous currents • Argentina’s Peronists squabble over a desperately needed agreement with the IMF

Out of office • SINGAPORE

Seeing green • Is the government overcounting the overstory?

A nation of holdouts • BOSSET, WESTERN PROVINCE

New year fireworks • SEOUL

Mujin tonic • KOFU

Irony-free zones • Myanmar’s generals have a dubious role model in Thailand

Virtual state of control • The Communist Party may try to build a metaverse with Chinese characteristics

Lame tiger • BEIJING

Nixon in China, 50 years on • Eye-witnesses from 1972 offer their views of a relationship in bad shape

Rise and shine • CAIRO

Grains of wrath • CAIRO

Pushers and putschists • Was a failed coup in Guinea-Bissau linked to the powerful drug trade?

Pipe dreams • KYOTERA

A continuing horror • MONROVIA AND BUKAVU

Macron, odds on • PARIS

Who’s next? • NARVA AND BUDAPEST

The man in the middle • KYIV

Caucasian thaw • IGDIR

Pigs can fly • Southern Europe is reforming itself—and maybe the EU, too

Spreading the jam • The government’s long-awaited levelling-up plans have a New Labour tinge

Digging deep • A quixotic plan to roll back EU law

Gray day, Gray day • Every part of the British establishment has debased itself

Just keep us alive • KAMPALA, NEW DELHI AND SÃO PAULO

Talent wars • BUFFALO

Depopulation pressure • BERLIN

Avalanche risk • Will the money ploughed into China’s ski industry melt away?

Blockin’ in the free world • A controversial podcaster kicks off a new battle on content moderation

Body of research • Online working has changed the nature of non-verbal communication

Epic battle • How Sony can outmanoeuvre Microsoft in the console wars

The urge to splurge • Why the...