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Middle East & Africa
Hizbullah seems to have miscalculated in its fight with Israel
But neither side would gain from a ruinous and pointless war
United States
Eric Adams, New York’s mayor, is indicted
New Yorkers are sadly familiar with scandal at City Hall
Asia
Banyan: Who will become Japan’s next prime minister?
The three leading candidates offer very different visions
The world in brief
Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, appeared to reject an American-backed proposal for a ceasefire with Hizbullah, saying that rumours of a truce were “not true”...
Three top employees quit OpenAI, including Mira Murati, the chief technology officer...
Federal prosecutors reportedly indicted Eric Adams, New York’s Democratic mayor...
The Sudanese Armed Forces began a big offensive to recapture territory in and around Khartoum, the country’s capital...
Can anybody save Intel?
America’s failing chip champion needs a financial-engineering miracle
Bagehot: Inside the chaos machine of British politics
The Labour Party promises calm. But the world it inhabits is built for chaos
Recent special elections bode well for Democrats
They can help in predicting general elections
The world’s oldest cheese sheds light on ancient Chinese culture
What genetic analysis of a 3,500-year-old sour goat’s cheese from Xinjiang reveals
Opinion newsletter
Leaders, columns, guest essays and letters, all in one place
Pint-sized news quiz
How well have you been following the headlines?
The Economist today
Our free daily newsletter showcases the best of our journalism
Business, finance and economics
What does the OpenAI exodus say about Sam Altman?
Another departure focuses attention on his leadership
China’s central bank tries to save the economy
Now it is the government’s turn
Governments are bigger than ever. They are also more useless
Why voters across the rich world are miserable
Bartleby: Should you be nice at work?
Kindness is in vogue
Israel’s wars
Israel and Hizbullah creep closer to all-out war
But Israel does not yet have the forces in place to invade
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
What is Hizbullah?
The Iran-backed militia has long resented Israel
A theatre in Jenin offers a different kind of Palestinian resistance
It is a target for both Israel and Palestinian militants
Video
America’s election
Mark Robinson has hijacked his own campaign in North Carolina
Who will go down with the would-be Republican governor?
Understanding the Republican Party’s rightward march
Remember the two R’s of Republican history: Rockefeller and Reagan
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are neck and neck
Our presidential-election model predicts the November results
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
American long-range missiles are coming back to Europe
The German deployment is part of a resurgence of deep-strike weapons
A new class struggle is brewing in China
As the economy falters, resentment between social groups is growing
An upset in Sri Lanka propels an outsider into power
The new president leads a party with Marxist roots
A new “quartet of chaos” threatens America
The rulers of China, Iran, North Korea and Russia are growing worryingly close
Power, chips and constraints
The breakthrough AI needs
A race is on to push artificial intelligence beyond today’s limits
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
Other highlights
The self-help book began in the land of the stiff upper lip
An odd British genre has helped publishers, if not readers
America is becoming less “woke”
Our statistical analysis finds that woke opinions and practices are on the decline
What “supertall” skyscrapers reveal about the countries that build them
They are miracles of engineering and “boasts in glass and steel”
One of history’s biggest drivers is not what you might think
The horse has moulded empires, wars and human affairs profoundly
Stories most read by subscribers
Featured read
The curse of the Michelin star
Restaurants awarded the honour are more likely to close, research finds
On the cover: Held back
How the world’s poor stopped catching up
Progress stalled around 2015. To restart it, liberalise
The world’s poorest countries have experienced a brutal decade
Why has development ground to a halt?
Bill Gates on how feeding children properly can transform global health
The stomach influences every aspect of human health, says the philanthropist
Money Talks
Why the world’s poorest are being left behind
Our podcast on markets, the economy and business. This week: why development has stalled
45:31
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
Germany’s Social Democrats narrowly escape disaster in Brandenburg
The SPD just edges the far-right AfD in a regional election
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
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
