The Economist is a global weekly magazine written for those who share an uncommon interest in being well and broadly informed. Each issue explores domestic and international issues, business, finance, current affairs, science, technology and the arts.
Coronavirus briefs • To 6am GMT January 21st 2021
The world this week
Morning after in America • The 46th president takes office at a grim time. Things could soon look up
Betting all the chips • The geopolitical struggle for supremacy in chips is entering a new and dangerous phase
A marathon ahead • Even as governments sprint to get vaccination done, they need to keep an eye on what comes next
The return • The world must not accept the jailing of Alexei Navalny
Wielding hunger as a weapon • Abiy Ahmed’s government appears to be trying to starve a rebel region into submission
Letters
Good luck, Joe • WASHINGTON, DC
Slight return • Why America has done such a poor job of keeping schools open compared with other rich countries
Obstacle coursework • BOSTON
Here’s how • BOSTON
The four-point touchdown • HARRISBURG
In the line of fire • DALLAS
Final throes • LOS ANGELES
Back to the future • Joe Biden sets out to restore American leadership with an old team in a new world
Careless behaviour • OTTAWA
A second wave of misery in Manaus • SÃO PAULO
A call for arms • DELHI, SEOUL AND SINGAPORE
Negotiating with terrorists • ISLAMABAD
Hammered and sickled • SINGAPORE
Record slayer • TOKYO
Pastoral care • Mongolia has largely ridden out the pandemic so far—but at a high cost
Xinjiang’s shadow • NEW YORK
Wolf taming • A tweak by Twitter may have reduced the influence of China’s propagandists
Seizing the moment, cautiously • In its 100th year, expect China’s Communist Party to sound radical at home and reassuring abroad
War and hunger • ADDIS ABABA
Dodging the “Obama law” • KALUNGU
Who will blink first? • One of the world’s most corrupt countries waits for a bail-out
The special relationship • ISTANBUL
The not-so-Shia state • Disenchanted Iranians are turning to other faiths
Free but fed up • ETTADHAMEN
Hot cakes • CAIRO
Into the lion’s den • MOSCOW
Steady, as she goes • BERLIN
Grounded • Russia’s departure from the Open Skies treaty is another blow to arms control
The fraud that wasn’t • AMSTERDAM
How clams fight pollution • Scientists find that molluscs are remarkably good at detecting toxins
Lessons from the vaccine race • Europe needs to wake up and compete harder
Restoring the faith • LICHFIELD
Spread of the shed • Small buildings, big implications
Think small • Politics needs more parish pump and less grand design
Global grapevines • Private messaging has become the internet’s most important service. Now it is in the spotlight
A new architecture • The global chip industry is becoming at once more diverse and more concentrated. The effects will be anything but nanoscopic
Hear, hear • The secrets of successful listening
Electric awe • A Tesla bull debates…
Electric shock • …a Tesla bear
The class of covid-19 • FONTAINEBLEAU, HONG KONG AND NEW YORK
Sberbank’s second pirouette • The Silicon Valley fantasies of a former Soviet savings monopoly
Fire without fury • Will Joe Biden’s fiscal stimulus and the Fed’s loose monetary policy overheat the American economy?
Bottlenecks • Will they cause prices...