The Economist

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...