May 16th 2020

Goodbye globalisation: The dangerous lure of self-sufficiency

The world this week

Leaders

Globalisation unwound

Has covid-19 killed globalisation?

The flow of people, trade and capital will be slowed

On the blink

The European Union is having a bad crisis

By failing to face up to its difficulties, the EU only makes them worse

Escaping the lockdown

Don’t rely on contact-tracing apps

Governments are pinning their hopes on a technology that could prove ineffective—and dangerous

Re-open and shut

When lockdowns end, governments will have to free labour markets

Managing the transition will bring many risks

Water torture

If China won’t build fewer dams, it could at least share information

Its secrecy means that farmers and fisherman in downstream countries cannot plan

Letters

On reopening schools, golf, religion, St Helena, underpants

Letters to the editor

Briefing

Searching for meaning

The covid-19 pandemic puts pressure on the EU

An old question has resurfaced: what is the point of the bloc?

No safety net

Covid-19’s blow to world trade is a heavy one

And pre-existing conditions seem to worsen the prognosis

Supple supplies

Businesses are proving quite resilient to the pandemic

But that does not make up for a lack of demand

Asia

The shrinking Mekong

South-East Asia’s biggest river is drying up

High dudgeon

The Chinese and Indian armies settle a clash by fisticuffs

A catchy beat

Infections at nightclubs mar South Korea’s relaxation of restrictions

Liberty for libertines

Taiwan’s courts may decriminalise adultery

Banyan

Sri Lanka’s new president is putting soldiers in charge of everything

China

Picking up the pieces

In China, covid-19 has focused attention on mental health

The lost boy

Why there are two Panchen Lamas, and one is missing

Chaguan

A small town in China makes half of Japan’s coffins

United States

Unemployment insurance

Inefficiencies bedevil America’s response to soaring joblessness

Reasons for social immobility

Two leading economists disagree about the flagging American Dream

Donald Trump’s finances

The Supreme Court will not agree on the president's taxes

Changing drinking habits

Last call for Irish pubs

William Barr’s Justice Department

The misrule of law

Lexington

Mike Pompeo’s politicisation of foreign policy is unworthy of him

Middle East & Africa

The smouldering pandemic

Why covid-19 seems to spread more slowly in Africa

We don’t need no observation

Covid-19 helps ballot-dodgers in Africa

Vote again another day

Ethiopia is entering constitutional limbo

A regime divided

Trouble in Bashar al-Assad’s own ranks

Series of changes

Friendly Jews, female bosses: Saudi TV promotes a new vision

The Americas

In limbo

Bolivia needs an election, but covid-19 makes that hard

Bay of piglets

Nicolás Maduro celebrates a farcical attempt to remove him from power

Bello

Looking back on Peru’s Shining Path

Europe

Free at last

France is leaving lockdown. Now the trouble begins

Herd on the street

Is Sweden’s approach to covid-19 wise or reckless?

Sketchy in Skopje

No one knows how many people live in North Macedonia

Northern fights

NATO is facing up to Russia in the Arctic Circle

Charlemagne

The enduring influence of Kraftwerk

Britain

Reputation

How coronavirus Britain looks from abroad

Say cheese!

The alarming popularity of prehistoric dentistry

Labour market

How post-Brexit immigration rules will exclude key workers

Acute to chronic

The cost of the pandemic to Britain’s economy is becoming clear

Carry on Covid

The pandemic has exposed flaws in Public Health England

Schools

Why teachers are doing so little teaching

Politics and labour

Trade unions are back

International

Covid nostra

The pandemic is creating fresh opportunities for organised crime

Business

Eye of the hurricane

America Inc faces a wave of bankruptcies

American corporate profits

An earnings season to forget

Buying time

A wave of bankruptcies is coming in Europe

Upping the Anta

Anta, an ambitious Chinese sportswear firm, does some fancy footwork

Bartleby

The pandemic increases the challenges facing business schools

The next garage

Silicon Valley in the pandemic

Schumpeter

Creative destruction in times of covid

Finance & economics

A good kind of bubble

Could travel bubbles offer a route to economic recovery?

A host of difficulties

Turkey’s defence of the lira has been unwise and ineffective

Feuding over funds

America files a new financial salvo at Beijing

Lane speaking

How to fight an economic crisis in a monetary union

Free exchange

Why the pandemic could eventually lower inequality

Award

Schools brief

Bad times

Damage from climate change will be widespread and sometimes surprising

Science & technology

Health data

The pandemic has spawned a new way to study medical records

The pandemic and wild animals

Protecting great apes from covid-19

Cutting the cord

Wireless charging of electric cars looks increasingly promising

Industrial standards

Which way a wind turbine turns might not seem to matter

Books & arts

Disinformation and democracy

The weapons of political warfare

British fiction

A spirited and entertaining novel of Brixton in the mid-20th century

Johnson

Why Zoom meetings are so dissatisfying

Home Entertainment

Catch up on the finest French television dramas during lockdown

Home Entertainment

For hours of escape, invent a board game

Perspectives

Even before lockdowns, confinement was part of human life

Economic & financial indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

The covid network

Phone data identify travel hubs at risk of a second wave of infections

Obituary

Visions in the ordinary