Jul 29th 2021

Dashed hopes: Emerging markets’ growth problem

The world this week

Leaders

Growth in emerging markets

Unrest and economic underperformance haunt the emerging world

The key to better times remains openness

Get poor quickly

China’s crackdown on the online-education business marks a turning-point

Less capitalism, more state

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

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

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

Lexington

Republican delusion about the Capitol riot hits a dangerous new low

The Americas

A gallop into the unknown

Peru’s left-wing new president pushes for a new constitution

Gender-setters

Argentina passes an affirmative-action law for trans people

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

Select your shell

China is rapidly building new nuclear-missile silos

Tough justice

Hong Kong’s draconian new security law claims its first scalp

Chaguan

Amid extreme weather, China avoids mention of climate change

Middle East & Africa

Arab democracy’s fading star

Tunisia’s democracy totters as the president suspends parliament

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

Superbeano!

A tangy Nigerian cooking ingredient is cheering the diaspora

Down from the mountains

In Ethiopia’s civil war, Tigrayan forces take the offensive

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

Charlemagne

How Europe’s proverbial voters explain a continent

Britain

Pick and mix

Northern Ireland’s schools are slowly becoming less segregated

Loose and lacy

Northern Irish Catholics are becoming less devout

Cricket

A conservative sport gets a glitzy makeover

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

Bagehot

Is Westminster going back to normal?

International

It’s catching

The pandemic has exacerbated existing political discontent

Business

Bartleby

Why businesses use so much jargon

Faceworld

Facebook eyes a future beyond social media

Milking it

As food prices soar, big agriculture is having a field day

Marxism v markets

China’s techlash gains steam. Again

Finance & economics

Robinhood and the merry mob

Robinhood takes its IPO to the masses

Fired up

Despite climate concerns, demand for dirty fuels is surging

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?

Buttonwood

The case for a further narrowing of euro-zone bond spreads

Free exchange

Why have some places suffered more covid-19 deaths than others?

Schools brief

Life is born in chains

How DNA and proteins work

Science & technology

Prop swinging

Propellers make a comeback on a new type of aircraft engine

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

Books & arts

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

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

Old town road

An Inca highway still benefits people living nearby

Obituary

In search of nature’s laws