Reasons to be cheerful are scant
Their uprising could be the beginning of the end of Iran’s theocracy
The country’s clean-energy push shows a way to escape the coal addiction
Welcome to BritalyA country of political instability, low growth and subordination to the bond markets
In 2012 liz truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, two of the authors of a pamphlet called “Britannia Unchained”, used Italy as a warning. Bloated public services, low growth, poor productivity: the problems of Italy and other southern European countries were also present in Britain. Ten years later, in their botched attempt to forge a different path, Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng have helped make the comparison inescapable. Britain is still blighted by disappointing growth and regional inequality. But it is also hobbled by chronic political instability and under the thumb of the bond markets. Welcome to Britaly.
Its five-yearly congress will further tighten one man’s grip
It will be an orderly affair. From October 16th the grandees of China’s Communist Party will gather in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing for their five-yearly congress. Not a teacup will be out of place; not a whisper of protest will be audible. The Communist Party has always been obsessed with control. But under President Xi Jinping that obsession has deepened. After three decades of opening and reform under previous leaders, China has in many ways become more closed and autocratic under Mr Xi. Surveillance has broadened. Censorship has stiffened. Party cells flex their muscles in private firms. Preserving the party’s grip on power trumps any other consideration.
A great rebalancing between governments and central banks is under way.
For months there has been turmoil in financial markets and growing evidence of stress in the world economy. You might think that these are just the normal signs of a bear market and a coming recession. But, as our special report this week lays out, they also mark the painful emergence of a new regime in the world economy—a shift that may be as consequential as the rise of Keynesianism after the second world war, and the pivot to free markets and globalisation in the 1990s.
Liz Truss’s new government may already be dead in the water
The Sunshine State has seen 40% of America’s hurricanes and a huge population boom
It will be richer, more powerful—and more volatile
It has a window of opportunity to push Russian forces back
The monarchy is an anachronism, yet it thrived under Elizabeth II. That holds lessons for her successor and for democracies elsewhere
The new prime minister must eschew pantomime radicalism if she is to succeed. The sceptics have many reasons to be dubious—yet underestimating Liz Truss is a mistake her opponents have already made to their cost.
Two states, two very different states of mind. On August 25th California banned the sale of petrol-powered cars from 2035, a move that will reshape the car industry, reduce carbon emissions and strain the state’s electricity grid. On the same day in Texas a “trigger” law banned abortion from the moment of conception, without exceptions for rape or incest. Those who perform abortions face up to 99 years in prison.
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