2024-02-01-Economist Graphs
1. The world this week
1.1 Politics
1.2 Business
1.3 KAL’s cartoon
1.4 The world this week | The Economist: This week’s covers
How we saw the world
2. Leaders
2.1 Leaders | The war between Israel and Hamas: How to end the Middle East’s agony
War is spreading across the region. There is an alternative
2.2 Leaders | Online media: The end of the social network
As Facebook turns 20, social apps are being transformed
2.3 Leaders | Financial crisis in Cairo: Egypt doesn’t deserve a bail-out, but should get one
The Middle East cannot afford the collapse of its most populous country
2.4 Leaders | A charter for change: The evidence in favour of charter schools in America has strengthened
Meanwhile, both parties have run away from them
2.5 Leaders | Beating retreat: How to fix British defence
It needs more money and more people, but also reform
3. Letters
3.1 Letters | On Europe’s single market, Israel and genocide, the death penalty, shipping sanctions, lawn bowls: Letters to the editor
A selection of correspondence
4. Briefing
4.1 Briefing | Not posting, but watching: As Facebook turns 20, politics is out; impersonal video feeds are in
Social media are more popular than ever, but social networks are dying
5. Britain
5.1 Britain | Losing muscle: Britain’s armed forces are stretched perilously thin
Too few people, too much botched procurement
5.2 Britain | Ever closer?: Labour wants to make Brexit work better. What does the EU think?
It would welcome a Starmer-led government. That does not mean it would be generous
5.3 Britain | The power comes back on: Northern Ireland gets its government back
But the deal reveals fissures within the DUP and in Westminster
5.4 Britain | As prescribed: The pharmacist will see you now
A sensible reform to ease pressure on family doctors in England
5.5 Britain | The charge is sputtering: EV sales in Britain are disappointing expectations
Pothole or roadblock?
5.6 Britain | Bagehot: The search for Conservative Party unity
The most powerful urge in British politics
6. Europe
6.1 Europe | Trouble at the top: The feud between Ukraine’s president and army chief boils over
Is Valery Zaluzhny about to be fired?
6.2 Europe | A tame candidate turns a little wild: Meet Boris Nadezhdin, Vladimir Putin’s brave challenger
Backing him is a form of protest
6.3 Europe | Still sovereign: Meet the Knights of Malta
An ancient global order gathers in the Eternal City
6.4 Europe | F-16s, by any means : Sweden clears a Turkish hurdle to NATO accession
Hungary is still blocking it, though
6.5 Europe | The war on the waves: Russia is losing the battle for the Black Sea
Ukraine wants to keep trade flowing and destroy Russia’s fleet
6.6 Europe | Charlemagne: Europe’s grumpy farmers are a symptom of wider malaise
Farmers are not the only ones resisting modernity
7. United States
7.1 United States | Political orphans: Charter schools do things that all Democrats say they support
And yet the party has turned against them
7.2 United States | Fear and voting in Las Vegas: How Nevada’s Republicans made their primary irrelevant
The state is holding both a caucus and a primary. Voters are confused
7.3 United States | The Lake tape: A leaked recording shakes up the Republican Party in Arizona
Kari Lake stages a coup and faces a backlash
7.4 United States | Lactose laws: Dunkin’ faces a moo-ving class-action suit from the lactose intolerant
Is the interpretation of the Americans With Disabilities Act by the plaintiffs udderly silly?
7.5 United States | Grab him by the purse: Donald Trump is ordered to pay for his bullying
A jury awarded E. Jean Carroll $83m in a second defamation trial
7.6 United States | The insecure security secretary: Why not impeach everyone?
House Republicans are trying to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, for no good reason
7.7 United States | Lexington: How to overcome the biggest obstacle to electric vehicles
A Republican politico wants to save electrification from politics
8. Middle East & Africa
8.1 Middle East and Africa | Gaza and its reverberations: America’s shuttle diplomacy to wind down the war in Gaza
And maybe to bring a lasting peace, too
8.2 Middle East & Africa | Egypt’s economic woes: The war in Gaza is exacerbating Egypt’s economic collapse
But the government hopes the conflict could be its salvation
8.3 Middle East and Africa | The United Nations and Gaza: Did UN workers participate in the October 7th attacks?
The allegations against UNRWA threaten aid flows to Palestinians
8.4 Middle East and Africa | Hunger returns: Northern Ethiopia is again sliding into starvation
A region ravaged by war is now hit by drought
8.5 Middle East and Africa | Disunity in west Africa: Three countries hit by coups are leaving west Africa’s main bloc
Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger inflict more misery on their people
9. The Americas
9.1 The Americas | Autocratic tactics: Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator, thumbs his nose at Joe Biden
But will America reinstate all of its sanctions on the South American country?
9.2 The Americas | All eyes on Five Eyes: Did spies from China, India and Russia meddle in Canada’s elections?
A new inquiry seeks to find out the extent of foreign interference
9.3 The Americas | 5,000 tax rates and counting: Can Lula fix Brazil’s fiscal mess?
Reform of the world’s most complicated tax system will cut businesses’ costs—if lobbies permit it
10. Asia
10.1 Asia | On the rocks: Japan’s ruling party is in crisis
Kishida Fumio’s chance of a second term looks ever slimmer
10.2 Asia | Dancing to victory: TikTok is a key battleground in Indonesia’s election
Liberalism is under threat in the world’s third-largest democracy
10.3 Asia | Counting cattle: The Hindu right’s pro-cow policies are terrible for India’s cows
A Hindu nationalist cow census is an effort to solve a problem after making it worse
10.4 Asia | Bihar blues: India’s opposition bloc disintegrates
The defection of Bihar’s chief minister is excellent for Narendra Modi
10.5 Asia | Banyan: Asia’s commercial heft helps keep Russia’s war economy going
That holds future lessons for America
10.6 Asia | Clean bowled: Imran Khan is convicted. Pakistan’s generals are content
The message is clear: don’t bother voting for his party
11. China
11.1 China | Operation Sit Tight: Is China a winner from the Red Sea attacks?
China seeks to reap political benefits from the new Suez crisis
11.2 China | One is not enough: Hong Kong gets a second draconian security law
John Lee thinks foreign powers are still trying to overthrow his government
11.3 China | Salvation lies within: Watching “The Shawshank Redemption” on stage in China
Why wasn’t this banned?
11.4 China | Chaguan: Hard times for China’s micro-industrialists
A rural hub for children’s bicycle-making adjusts to a world with fewer kids
12. International
12.1 International | Combat in orbit: War in space is no longer science fiction
Inside America’s celestial struggle against China and Russia
13. Technology Quarterly
13.1 Technology Quarterly | The foundations of the cloud: Users of the internet need not think about its physical underpinnings
But for technologies like artificial intelligence and the metaverse to work, others will have to, argues Abby Bertics
13.2 Technology Quarterly | Towers of glass and steel: Advances in physical storage and retrieval made the cloud possible
But more progress is needed to sustain it
13.3 Technology Quarterly | The edge of tomorrow: The internet got better and faster by moving data closer to users
Now the same must happen with computing power
13.4 Technology Quarterly | The internet and climate change: Data centres improved greatly in energy efficiency as they grew massively larger
But can this continue into the age of AI?
13.5 Technology Quarterly | Politics: The physical borders of the digital world
To remain geopolitically robust as it gets more potent, the internet will need more diverse interconnections
13.6 Technology Quarterly | Starlink: Satellites offer an important alternative to the wired internet
But most of them will be owned by billionaires with their own interests
13.7 Technology Quarterly | Securing the cloud’s future: The internet is integrated into virtually every aspect of life
It needs to be kept secure, and kept growing
13.8 Sources and acknowledgments
14. Business
14.1 Business | After the iPhone: Apple’s Vision Pro headset ushers in a new era of personal technology
Tech firms are racing to build the gadget that supplants the smartphone
14.2 Business | The AI-chip race: Could AMD break Nvidia’s chokehold on chips?
Taking on the top AI chipmaker will be hard—but maybe not impossible
14.3 Business | Pseudo-heir apparent: Many family firms lack heirs. Unrelated help is at hand
How to succeed when you have no successor
14.4 Business | High rollers : Rolls-Royce goes electric—in style
Battery power suits the priciest vehicles
14.5 Business | Gas gaffe: Joe Biden’s limits on LNG exports won’t help the climate
Will they help his re-election chances?
14.6 Business | Bartleby: Jürgen Klopp and the importance of energy
The resignation of a football manager is a reminder of a CEO superpower
14.7 Business | Schumpeter: How much should TikTok fear a resurgent Donald Trump?
The MAGA masses are now TikTokers, too
15. Finance & economics
15.1 Finance and economics | The octogenarian radical: What four more years of Joe Biden would mean for America’s economy
Bigger government, for a start
15.2 Finance and economics | Buttonwood: Bitcoin ETFs are off to a bad start. Will things improve?
Lessons from similar exchange-traded funds
15.3 Finance and economics | Game changing: China’s leaders are flailing as markets drop
The government is not used to being bullied
15.4 Finance and economics | Never grand: Evergrande’s liquidation is a new low in China’s property crisis
A judge in Hong Kong surprises the mainland
15.5 Finance and economics | Prices and wages: Your pay is still going up too fast
Why the last part of the inflation fight may be the hardest
15.6 Finance and economics | Free exchange: Biden’s chances of re-election are better than they appear
The economy is providing a headwind at present. That could soon change
16. Science & technology
16.1 Science and technology | Embodying the future: Why prosthetic limbs need not look like real ones
Designers are experimenting with tentacles, spikes and third thumbs
16.2 Science and technology | Medicine and dementia: Alzheimer’s disease may, rarely, be transmitted by medical treatment
Childhood treatment with contaminated human growth hormone may cause the disease years later
16.3 Science and technology | Hazy figuring: AI could accelerate scientific fraud as well as progress
Hallucinations, deepfakes and simple nonsense: there are plenty of risks
16.4 Science and technology | Bloodhounds of the sea: Why some whales can smell in stereo
One nostril is good. But two can be better
17. Culture
17.1 Culture | Write on: Authors are collaborating with AI—and each other
A new novel by Margaret Atwood and others points to an exciting trend
17.2 Culture | So long, Hong Kong: A row over the Hong Kong Heritage Museum is a window on China
Museums are yet another front for Communist Party control
17.3 Culture | Bad sport: The violence of “Power Slap” is part of its allure
A fringe combat sport is pushing into the mainstream
17.4 Culture | Secrecy and sketchiness in art: The Sotheby’s trial revealed the art market’s unsavoury practices
But the outcome suggests not much will change
17.5 Culture | Dance like nobody’s watching: Martha Graham’s life tracked the jumps and dips of modern dance
A new biography looks at the woman who helped popularise modern dance in America
17.6 Culture | Back Story: A new “Mr & Mrs Smith” is about more than action, money and sex
In the TV version, the assassins’ mission is to make you think about marriage
18. The Economist reads
18.1 The Economist reads | The Economist reads : What are (some of) the best comic novels?
Our pick of eight rib-tickling tales
19. Economic & financial indicators
19.1 Economic data, commodities and markets
20. The Economist explains
20.1 The Economist explains: Did an Israeli hospital raid breach the laws of war?
Disguising a soldier as a doctor can be an act of “perfidy”
20.2 The Economist explains: What on earth is happening in Poland?
The new government is aggressively undoing years of illiberal rule. The upshot is a constitutional mess
21. Obituary
21.1 Obituary | The short-tempered klavier: Peter Schickele and P.D.Q. Bach were sides of the same coin
The American musical satirist and his bibulous creation died on January 16th, aged 88
