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Middle East Dispatch
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Harris v Trump
Our presidential prediction model
Leaders
How the world’s poor stopped catching up
Progress stalled around 2015. To restart it, liberalise
Culture
What “supertall” skyscrapers reveal about countries that build them
They are miracles of engineering and “boasts in glass and steel”
Science & technology
Most electric-car batteries could soon be made by recycling old ones
Mining for raw materials may peak by the mid-2030s
The world in brief
Israel launched more air strikes on Lebanon, reportedly killing a Hizbullah commander in southern Beirut...
Ursula von der Leyen travelled to Kyiv to promise a €35bn ($39bn) loan for Ukraine...
The Federal Trade Commission sued three of America’s biggest pharmacy-benefit managers, which negotiate drug prices on behalf of health-insurance firms...
Georgia’s election board approved a rule requiring the state to hand-count ballots in America’s presidential election...
What is the effect of the Supreme Court’s affirmative-action ban?
Making sense of the drip-drip of admissions data from American universities
Free exchange: What the history of money tells you about crypto’s future
The thread from shipwrecks and sheep flocks to digital currencies
Much keener on Trump, less sure about Charles III
The differences between Reform UK voters and Tory supporters
The sport in which nine-year-old prodigies are world-beaters
Stars of many sports are getting older. Not so chess
Middle East Dispatch
Sign up for in-depth reporting from one of the most volatile and significant areas of the world
Pint-sized news quiz
How well have you been following the headlines?
Harris v Trump
Our presidential prediction model
Video
Weekend highlights
America is becoming less “woke”
Our statistical analysis finds that woke opinions and practices are on the decline
1843 magazine | American Satanists are leading the fight to keep abortion legal
What began as a troll has become a religion
How the martini became the world’s most iconic cocktail
It has a glamorous history and can be endlessly personalised
What to read about modern feminism
An introduction to a large, evolving and controversial subject
On the cover: Power and chips
The breakthrough AI needs
A race is on to push artificial intelligence beyond today’s limits
Generative AI is transforming Silicon Valley
The technology is forcing America’s disrupters-in-chief to think differently
AI has returned chipmaking to the heart of computer technology
And the technological challenges are bigger than the political ones, argues Shailesh Chitnis
China’s AI firms are cleverly innovating around chip bans
Tweaks to software blunt the shortage of powerful hardware
Israel’s wars
Israel has bloodied Hizbullah but is stuck in a war of attrition
Two attacks on the Shia militia may not change Israel’s strategic dilemma in Lebanon
Israel’s government is again trying to hobble its Supreme Court
While at war, Israel is facing a constitutional crisis
A theatre in Jenin offers a different kind of Palestinian resistance
It is a target for both Israel and Palestinian militants
Why Israel has not yet lost Europe
Europeans are angry about Gaza, but they aren’t voting like it
America’s election
Pennsylvania, the crucial battleground in America’s election
Buckets of money, vicious advertising and consultants galore have left the race for the state a virtual tie
Kamala Harris’s post-debate bounce is now visible in the polls
But it comes with two big caveats
What will happen if America’s election result is contested?
The system is now stronger, but so is public mistrust of it
Donald Trump v Kamala Harris: who’s ahead in the polls?
The Economist is tracking the race to be America’s next president
World news
A UN vote on Palestine underlines America’s weakening clout
Russia and China are riding a surge of support for the Palestinians since the Gaza war started
Can a new crew of European commissioners revive the continent?
Ursula von der Leyen picks her team
How Brazilian lawmakers won extra powers to waste money
Congress’s capture of the budget is making Brazil less governable
Eric Adams’s friends keep having their phones taken away
It can be hard to keep track of all the people around New York’s mayor who are under investigation
Business, finance and economics
The world’s poorest countries have experienced a brutal decade
Why has development ground to a halt?
How much trouble is Boeing in?
A protracted strike could cause lasting damage
Why the hype for hybrid cars will not last
Fully electric vehicles will win the race
European regulators are about to become more political
That will worry many in Silicon Valley
Stories most read by subscribers
Featured read
Lexington: How the right is taking culture war to culture itself
A new “mockumentary” satirises anti-racist activism
China’s economy
The Chinese authorities are concealing the state of the economy
But the Communist Party’s internal information systems may also be flawed
How China’s communists fell in love with privatisation
Even though they are not very good at it
Chinese overcapacity is crushing the global steel industry
Governments are stepping in to protect local producers
China’s government is surprisingly redistributive
That is despite a stingy tax-and-transfer system
The war in Ukraine
America keeps Ukraine fighting with its hands tied
Russian missiles blast its cities, but it still cannot strike back
Danger in Donbas as Ukraine’s front line falters
Russian fighters are trying to encircle the defenders
Clearing Ukraine’s mines is crucial for global food security, say Howard Buffett and Tony Blair
With the right sort of technology and financing, it needn’t take a century
American restrictions on hitting Russia are hurting Ukraine
The Biden administration’s justifications keep changing
Europe and the hard right
How to deal with the hard-right threat in Germany
As extremists win more votes across Europe, forming moderate and effective governments is getting harder
Germany’s party system is coming under unprecedented strain
Forming governments after the eastern state elections looks nightmarish
Charlemagne: Europe must beware the temptations of technocracy
Experts are increasingly crowding out flailing politicians
Europe’s lefties bash migrants (nearly) as well as the hard right
Xenophobia is crossing the political spectrum
Edition: September 21st 2024
The breakthrough AI needs
Saving Britain’s universities
Domestic students have been paying less in real terms every year
How the world’s poor stopped catching up
Progress stalled around 2015. To restart it, liberalise
Who’s winning in Pennsylvania?
A flood of money, advertising and consultants have left the race for the state a virtual tie
Peak woke: the numbers
Our statistical analysis finds that woke opinions and practices are on the decline
Technology Quarterly: September 21st 2024
Silicon returns to Silicon Valley
AI has returned chipmaking to the heart of computer technology, says Shailesh Chitnis
AI has returned chipmaking to the heart of computer technology
The semiconductor industry faces its biggest technical challenge yet
Node names do not reflect actual transistor sizes
How to build more powerful chips without frying the data centre
AI has propelled chip architecture towards a tighter bond with software
Researchers are looking beyond digital computing
The end of Moore’s law will not slow the pace of change
Sources and acknowledgments
