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The world at your fingertips. Subscribe for unlimited access to world-leading reporting and analysis. Subscriber-only benefits. Full access to all Economist digital products INFLATION, A NEW OLD PROBLEM FOR BUSINESS 2 hours ago · On our cover this week we examine bottlenecks in a specific, essential supply chain. Shortages of metals, land and finance threaten to constrain the boom in DO INCENTIVES OF CASH OR GIFTS FOR COVID-19 VACCINES WORK The value of the loot on offer varies. In parts of Beijing, Sinovac jabs come with two cartons of eggs. Elsewhere in China chicken wings, flour or free entry to parks are available. In Rajkot, an HOW GREEN BOTTLENECKS THREATEN THE CLEAN ENERGY BUSINESS 1 day ago · The figures for the coming decade are mind-concentrating. To stay on track for net zero, by 2030 annual production of electric vehicles needs to be ten times higher than it was last year and the MILK TEA’S COLONIAL ROOTS MAKE IT A SURPRISING SYMBOL FOR 3 hours ago · Pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong and Taiwan sprang to the defence of Chivaaree, who was subjected to a fusillade of abuse. Among their AMERICAN SCHOOLS TEACH READING ALL WRONG 21 hours ago · P HONICS, WHICH involves sounding-out words syllable by syllable, is the best way to teach children to read. But in many classrooms, ff-on-ics is a WILL POORER COUNTRIES BENEFIT FROM INTERNATIONAL TAX Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. Developing countries are thirsty for revenue in general, and reliant on corporate tax in particular. In 2017 African countries raised 19% of AUCKLAND HAS BECOME THE WORLD’S MOST LIVEABLE CITY NEW ZEALAND has done a remarkable job of controlling covid-19. It has reported just 26 deaths from the disease, roughly one out of every

200,000 people. On

AMERICA’S WARY APPROVAL OF AN ALZHEIMER’S DRUG OFFERS HOPE NEWS THAT America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted conditional approval to a new drug, aducanumab, to be marketed as

Aduhelm, for

THE HISTORY AND FUTURE OF MERITOCRACY The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World. By Adrian Wooldridge. Allen Lane; 496 pages; £25. To be published in

America in

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The world at your fingertips. Subscribe for unlimited access to world-leading reporting and analysis. Subscriber-only benefits. Full access to all Economist digital products DO INCENTIVES OF CASH OR GIFTS FOR COVID-19 VACCINES WORK The value of the loot on offer varies. In parts of Beijing, Sinovac jabs come with two cartons of eggs. Elsewhere in China chicken wings, flour or free entry to parks are available. In Rajkot, an TECHNOLOGY CAN HELP CONSERVE BIODIVERSITY PROTECTING THE biological, ecological and genetic diversity that sustains life on Earth is the mission of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. But progress has been slow, to put AUCKLAND HAS BECOME THE WORLD’S MOST LIVEABLE CITY NEW ZEALAND has done a remarkable job of controlling covid-19. It has reported just 26 deaths from the disease, roughly one out of every

200,000 people. On

LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY POSES AS GREAT A RISK TO HUMANITY AS The biodiversity crisis poses as great a risk to human societies as climate change. Yet it has a fraction of the public profile. In part that is because the loss of biodiversity cannot be neatly COMPARED WITH CLIMATE, MODELLING OF ECOSYSTEMS IS AT AN EVERY FEW weeks from June 1963 until July 1968, Robert Paine, a zoologist, made the journey from Seattle, where he taught at the University of Washington, across Puget Sound to the rocky shores of INFLATION, A NEW OLD PROBLEM FOR BUSINESS 2 hours ago · AMERICA’S ANNUAL inflation rate reached 5% in May, the highest since August 2008. Companies as well as consumers are having to cope with this WHY CORONAVIRUS VARIANTS ARE NAMED USING THE GREEK 7 hours ago · The simplicity is obvious. The variant now known as beta, for example, was the second to be designated a variant of concern, and previously landed with the appellations 501Y.V2 or HOW GREEN BOTTLENECKS THREATEN THE CLEAN ENERGY BUSINESS 1 day ago · The figures for the coming decade are mind-concentrating. To stay on track for net zero, by 2030 annual production of electric vehicles needs to be ten times higher than it was last year and the AMERICAN SCHOOLS TEACH READING ALL WRONG 21 hours ago · P HONICS, WHICH involves sounding-out words syllable by syllable, is the best way to teach children to read. But in many classrooms, ff-on-ics is a THE CAPTAIN AND HIS COUNTRY The captain and his country. Brazil is backsliding. Politicians, businesses and voters must act before it is too late, says Sarah Maslin. O NE DAY in April, as Brazilian hospitals ran out of “THE GOAL IS TO RE-ESTABLISH THE WEST AS A PURPOSEFUL 7 hours ago · The Intelligence “The goal is to re-establish the West as a purposeful force that’s able to act together”—the G7 meets Also on the daily podcast: Britain’s ruling at the free speech HOW AMERICA AND CHINA DOMINATE GLOBAL BUSINESS Tech firms make up a quarter of the global stockmarket and the geographic mix has become strikingly lopsided. America and, increasingly, China are ascendant, accounting for 76 of MILK TEA’S COLONIAL ROOTS MAKE IT A SURPRISING SYMBOL FOR 3 hours ago · Pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong and Taiwan sprang to the defence of Chivaaree, who was subjected to a fusillade of abuse. Among their HOW AMERICA INC IS COPING WITH RISING INFLATION Economists debate whether the rapid climb in inflation, which rose at an annual rate of 4.2% in April, the fastest since September 2008, will prove as enduring as 50 years ago. The Federal Reserve DIGITAL DREAMS AND DISAPPOINTMENTS IN “THE STARTUP WIFE 1 day ago · ASHA AND Cyrus get married after they sleep together for the first time. Asha is a talented coding expert with a background in brain modelling. Cyrus, though, is “consistently, encyclopaedically

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The world at your fingertips. Subscribe for unlimited access to world-leading reporting and analysis. Subscriber-only benefits. Full access to all Economist digital products THE BOTTLENECKS WHICH COULD CONSTRAIN EMISSION CUTS 3 hours ago · A T 107 METRES, the three carbon-fibre blades of a Haliade-X marine wind turbine are longer than the wingspan of any airliner ever made.The HOW GREEN BOTTLENECKS THREATEN THE CLEAN ENERGY BUSINESS 3 hours ago · Bunged up How green bottlenecks threaten the clean energy business A great green investment boom is under way, but supply-side problems are underappreciated CRYPTOCOINS ARE PROLIFERATING WILDLY. WHAT ARE THEY ALL 2 hours ago · MIAMI IS THE mecca of anti-establishment finance. Or so it seemed on June 4th and 5th, when 12,000 people clad in everything from flannel suits WITH DONALD TRUMP GONE, NATO IS PLOTTING ITS FUTURE 3 hours ago · Then there is the fact that the landscape of European defence has shifted irrevocably in recent years. The shock of Mr Trump’s election and the departure of Britain from the EU catalysed

a

EUROPE IS NOW A CORPORATE ALSO-RAN. CAN IT RECOVER ITS Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. Nearly four decades later the company founded by that young upstart, Steve Jobs, is worth more than the 30 firms in SOCIAL MEDIA ARE TURBOCHARGING THE EXPORT OF AMERICA’S 5 hours ago · Much of this is the work of social media. It amplifies new voices, accelerates the rate at which ideas spread, and broadens the scale at which both people and ideas can win influence. HOW THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT LIMITS GERRYMANDERS 3 hours ago · IN MOST DEMOCRACIES, nonpartisan technocrats write voting rules. In America, however, they are politically controversial. For decades, Southern states used shameful “Jim Crow” laws, such

as

REWEAVING THE SAFETY NET—CAN JOE BIDEN EUROPEANISE Reweaving the safety net—can Joe Biden Europeanise American social policy? Our podcast on markets, the economy and business. Also this

week: how

JAIR BOLSONARO IS NOT THE ONLY REASON HIS COUNTRY IS IN A HOSPITALS ARE full, favelas echo with gunfire and a record 14.7% of workers are unemployed. Incredibly, Brazil’s economy is smaller now

than it

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The world at your fingertips. Subscribe for unlimited access to world-leading reporting and analysis. Subscriber-only benefits. Full access to all Economist digital products THE BOTTLENECKS WHICH COULD CONSTRAIN EMISSION CUTS 3 hours ago · A T 107 METRES, the three carbon-fibre blades of a Haliade-X marine wind turbine are longer than the wingspan of any airliner ever made.The HOW GREEN BOTTLENECKS THREATEN THE CLEAN ENERGY BUSINESS 3 hours ago · Bunged up How green bottlenecks threaten the clean energy business A great green investment boom is under way, but supply-side problems are underappreciated CRYPTOCOINS ARE PROLIFERATING WILDLY. WHAT ARE THEY ALL 2 hours ago · MIAMI IS THE mecca of anti-establishment finance. Or so it seemed on June 4th and 5th, when 12,000 people clad in everything from flannel suits WITH DONALD TRUMP GONE, NATO IS PLOTTING ITS FUTURE 3 hours ago · Then there is the fact that the landscape of European defence has shifted irrevocably in recent years. The shock of Mr Trump’s election and the departure of Britain from the EU catalysed

a

EUROPE IS NOW A CORPORATE ALSO-RAN. CAN IT RECOVER ITS Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. Nearly four decades later the company founded by that young upstart, Steve Jobs, is worth more than the 30 firms in SOCIAL MEDIA ARE TURBOCHARGING THE EXPORT OF AMERICA’S 5 hours ago · Much of this is the work of social media. It amplifies new voices, accelerates the rate at which ideas spread, and broadens the scale at which both people and ideas can win influence. HOW THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT LIMITS GERRYMANDERS 3 hours ago · IN MOST DEMOCRACIES, nonpartisan technocrats write voting rules. In America, however, they are politically controversial. For decades, Southern states used shameful “Jim Crow” laws, such

as

REWEAVING THE SAFETY NET—CAN JOE BIDEN EUROPEANISE Reweaving the safety net—can Joe Biden Europeanise American social policy? Our podcast on markets, the economy and business. Also this

week: how

JAIR BOLSONARO IS NOT THE ONLY REASON HIS COUNTRY IS IN A HOSPITALS ARE full, favelas echo with gunfire and a record 14.7% of workers are unemployed. Incredibly, Brazil’s economy is smaller now

than it

WITH DONALD TRUMP GONE, NATO IS PLOTTING ITS FUTURE 3 hours ago · Then there is the fact that the landscape of European defence has shifted irrevocably in recent years. The shock of Mr Trump’s election and the departure of Britain from the EU catalysed

a

THE BOTTLENECKS WHICH COULD CONSTRAIN EMISSION CUTS 3 hours ago · A T 107 METRES, the three carbon-fibre blades of a Haliade-X marine wind turbine are longer than the wingspan of any airliner ever made.The HOW GREEN BOTTLENECKS THREATEN THE CLEAN ENERGY BUSINESS 3 hours ago · A S THE WORLD economy wakes back up, shortages and price spikes are affecting everything from the supply of Taiwanese chips to the cost of TIME TO GO | THE ECONOMIST THREE MONTHS after Mr Bolsonaro became president, he ordered the army to mark the 55th anniversary of the coup. His press office distributed

a video

CRYPTOCOINS ARE PROLIFERATING WILDLY. WHAT ARE THEY ALL 2 hours ago · MIAMI IS THE mecca of anti-establishment finance. Or so it seemed on June 4th and 5th, when 12,000 people clad in everything from flannel suits SOCIAL MEDIA ARE TURBOCHARGING THE EXPORT OF AMERICA’S 5 hours ago · Much of this is the work of social media. It amplifies new voices, accelerates the rate at which ideas spread, and broadens the scale at which both people and ideas can win influence. SOARING FACTORY PRICES IN CHINA ADD TO GLOBAL INFLATION 3 hours ago · ERIC ZHU, an international sales manager at a Chinese forklift-maker, has just sent his second letter of the year to customers, explaining that prices THE CAPTAIN AND HIS COUNTRY The captain and his country. Brazil is backsliding. Politicians, businesses and voters must act before it is too late, says Sarah Maslin. O NE DAY in April, as Brazilian hospitals ran out of HOW AMERICA INC IS COPING WITH RISING INFLATION 3 hours ago · PROPERTY INSURERS price policies today but face payouts a year from now. That makes their profits hostage to inflation. As swathes of America’s economy have INCENTIVES MAY HAVE LITTLE IMPACT ON AMERICAN ANTI-VAXXERS 20 hours ago · RESIDENTS OF WASHINGTON state, in the north-west corner of the United States, are now eligible for a free joint if they get vaccinated for covid-19. The state government’s Liquor and

Cannabis

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The world at your fingertips. Subscribe for unlimited access to world-leading reporting and analysis. Subscriber-only benefits. Full access to all Economist digital products BRAZIL | JUN 5TH 2021 | THE ECONOMIST On the brink Brazil. Brazil. Special reports - Jun 5th 2021. Brazil: The captain and his country. The Amazon: Money trees. Politics: In need of reform. Sources and acknowledgments. VACCINATING THE WORLD: 2BN SHOTS DONE, 13BN TO GO Approximately one-quarter of the world's adults have now received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine. This is a remarkable achievement, given that less than 18 A GROWING NUMBER OF GOVERNMENTS HOPE TO CLONE AMERICA’S Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. The new agencies must also work out how to get their innovations out of the lab. There is a

close

EDUCATED VOTERS’ LEFTWARD SHIFT IS SURPRISINGLY OLD AND Every year, the 10% of voters with the most years of schooling gravitated towards left-wing parties, while the remaining 90% slid the other way. By 2000, this had gone on for so long that, as a CHINA’S REVEALING AFGHAN STRATEGY China’s revealing Afghan strategy. O N MAY 9TH China’s foreign ministry was asked to comment on an atrocity in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Terrorists had detonated a GOVCOINS: THE DIGITAL CURRENCIES THAT WILL TRANSFORM Govcoins: The digital currencies that will transform finance – Weekly edition of The Economist for May 8th 2021. You've seen the news, now discover the story. VOTERS SHOULD CURB MEXICO’S POWER-HUNGRY PRESIDENT Voters should curb Mexico’s power-hungry president. I N A WORLD plagued by authoritarian populists, Mexico’s president has somehow escaped the limelight. Liberals furiously condemn the erosion ITALY’S POPULIST RIGHT LOOKS MENACING ON MAY 20TH Italy’s interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, was due in Tunis with the EU’s commissioner for home affairs, Ylva Johansson, to investigate and discuss a humanitarian crisis that HOW BIG FIRMS RIP OFF AFRICAN CONSUMERS How big firms rip off African consumers. K OKO MINGI VIII, king of the Nembe people, had a vigorous approach to trust-busting. In 1895 he led

a pre-dawn

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The world at your fingertips. Subscribe for unlimited access to world-leading reporting and analysis. Subscriber-only benefits. Full access to all Economist digital products BRAZIL | JUN 5TH 2021 | THE ECONOMIST On the brink Brazil. Brazil. Special reports - Jun 5th 2021. Brazil: The captain and his country. The Amazon: Money trees. Politics: In need of reform. Sources and acknowledgments. VACCINATING THE WORLD: 2BN SHOTS DONE, 13BN TO GO Approximately one-quarter of the world's adults have now received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine. This is a remarkable achievement, given that less than 18 A GROWING NUMBER OF GOVERNMENTS HOPE TO CLONE AMERICA’S Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android. The new agencies must also work out how to get their innovations out of the lab. There is a

close

EDUCATED VOTERS’ LEFTWARD SHIFT IS SURPRISINGLY OLD AND Every year, the 10% of voters with the most years of schooling gravitated towards left-wing parties, while the remaining 90% slid the other way. By 2000, this had gone on for so long that, as a CHINA’S REVEALING AFGHAN STRATEGY China’s revealing Afghan strategy. O N MAY 9TH China’s foreign ministry was asked to comment on an atrocity in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Terrorists had detonated a GOVCOINS: THE DIGITAL CURRENCIES THAT WILL TRANSFORM Govcoins: The digital currencies that will transform finance – Weekly edition of The Economist for May 8th 2021. You've seen the news, now discover the story. VOTERS SHOULD CURB MEXICO’S POWER-HUNGRY PRESIDENT Voters should curb Mexico’s power-hungry president. I N A WORLD plagued by authoritarian populists, Mexico’s president has somehow escaped the limelight. Liberals furiously condemn the erosion ITALY’S POPULIST RIGHT LOOKS MENACING ON MAY 20TH Italy’s interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, was due in Tunis with the EU’s commissioner for home affairs, Ylva Johansson, to investigate and discuss a humanitarian crisis that HOW BIG FIRMS RIP OFF AFRICAN CONSUMERS How big firms rip off African consumers. K OKO MINGI VIII, king of the Nembe people, had a vigorous approach to trust-busting. In 1895 he led

a pre-dawn

DAILY BRIEFING

Honda, Japan’s second-largest carmaker after Toyota, revealed that it had returned to profit in the quarter ending on March 31st. It reported profits of ¥213.2bn ($1.95bn) compared with a loss

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The Economist - World News, Politics, Economics, Business PANDEMIC PARENTING SLANG: ARE YOU A CURLING DAD OR A 21 hours ago · T he only thing worse than the sleepless nights is the insufferable lingo. New parents receive an onslaught of advice, most of it in perplexing jargon or acronyms (if you’ve become a WHAT COUNTS AS A JOURNEY INTO SPACE? 16 hours ago · ON JUNE 7TH Jeff Bezos, the owner of Blue Origin, a rocket maker, announced that on July 20th he would be one of the first people to ride into space in THE NEW GEOPOLITICS OF GLOBAL BUSINESS TWENTY YEARS ago this week the share price of a startup run by an obsessive called Jeff Bezos had slumped by 71% over 12 months. Amazon’s near-death experience was WILL VACCINATIONS KICK-START TRAVEL? 16 hours ago · VACCINATIONS HAVE helped ease national lockdowns, but restrictions on international travel remain severe. When and how might they be lifted? Willie Walsh of the International Air Transport “HE CAME TO POWER PROMISING GRAND THINGS; REALLY WHAT HE’S 1 day ago · The Intelligence “He came to power promising grand things; really what he’s done is polarise the country”—Mexico votes Also on the daily podcast: whether the green-tech boom is a

bubble

AMERICA’S WARY APPROVAL OF AN ALZHEIMER’S DRUG OFFERS HOPE 16 hours ago · NEWS THAT America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted conditional approval to a new drug, aducanumab, to be marketed as Aduhelm, for WHO IS REALLY IN CHARGE OF NEW YORK CITY? New York City was settled by Dutch migrants in around 1625, but the city that is familiar to most people did not exist until 1898, when five counties—best known by their borough names: the Bronx IN SOME COUNTRIES, PEOPLE THINK THEY HAVE TOO MUCH FREEDOM 17 hours ago · Daily chart In some countries, people think they have too much freedom of speech A new survey shows that in Kenya, Nigeria and Tunisia, citizens reckon there is too much liberty to give offence The Economist - Homepage Skip to content

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EL SALVADOR’S PRESIDENT SUMMONS THE ARMY TO BULLY CONGRESS Nayib Bukele may get his way, at the price of damaging democracy THE AMERICAS Feb 13th 2020 edition -------------------------

Feb 13th 2020

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NAYIB BUKELE, the president of El Salvador, draws notice outside his country for his youth, his jet-black beard and his mastery of social media. Now his authoritarianism is a trending topic. The sight of Mr Bukele entering the National Assembly on February 9th, alongside soldiers toting machine guns, shocked onlookers at home and abroad. He plonked himself in the empty chair reserved for the president of congress. “I liked seeing those empty seats,” he tweeted. “It made it easier for me to imagine them full of honest people who work

for the people.”

Congress accused the president of staging an “attempted coup”. The Constitutional Court rebuked Mr Bukele. _El Faro_, a Salvadorean news website, called his stunt “the lowest moment that Salvadorean democracy has lived in three decades”. He retorted, not very reassuringly, “If I were a dictator, I would have taken control of

everything.”

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