Dec 19th 2020

Holiday double issue

The world this week

Leaders

Covid-19 in 2020
The plague year

This will be remembered as a moment when everything changed

Targeting big tech
Credibility gap

Trustbusters say they are going after the tech giants. Markets don’t take them seriously

Children
Getting girlhood right

Girls are doing better than ever. Don’t let the pandemic stymie them

The Arab world
Ten years after the spring

Why democracy doesn’t yet spread in the Middle East and north Africa

Country of the year
Admiration nation

The Economist’s annual award for most-improved country

Letters

Letters to the editor
On farming, books, aerial combat, Latin, Machiavelli, diversity, Ireland, the turkey

United States

The final Senate races
The decider

Covid-19 in New York
The Holly and the UV

Cyber-security
Bear hunt

Schools and covid-19
Lesson learned

Lexington
Good neighbours

The Americas

Brazil
Awaiting their fate

Cuba
From distortion to disruption

Asia

Expatriates in Asia
Shipping out

Preserving Yangon
In with the old

Banyan
A lonely furrow

China

Sexual harassment
Refusing to be silent

Human rights
Proxy war

Middle East & Africa

The Arab spring at ten
No cause for celebration

Iran
Go hang

Western Sahara
Heat in the desert

Kidnapping in Nigeria
The lost boys of Kankara

Congo’s gold rush
Beer, brothels and broken dreams

Europe

The Vatican’s finances
Falling on hard times

The European Union budget
Locked and loaded

Health care
Flight of the white coats

Azerbaijan’s ghost towns
Bitterness prevails

Charlemagne
Sprechen Sie Tory?

Britain

Negotiations with the EU
An extra mile, a narrow path

Brexit-related disruption
Lorrypolitik

Heathrow expansion
Cleared for take-off

Animal welfare
The pet offensive

Bagehot
The wisdom of Scrooge

International

Waste-pickers
Down in the dumps

Christmas Specials

Newsletters
Season’s greetings!

Rural France
Fragments from a forgotten valley

Bloodsuckers
History, written by the vectors

Sidney Street
The one that got away

Digital humanities
The book of numbers

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander
The Alexander technique

Shingle art
A universe of stones

Essay
Awesome, weird and everything else

Erasmus
Citizen of the world

South Korean mountains
Race to the top

Crossword, etc
Cryptic and coniferous

Quiz
Try our Christmas quiz

Gay rights
A queer old tale

Travels in Zululand
Trust deficit

Extraterrestrial hiking
A short walk in Gale crater

Economies past
Factories and families

Shaolin monastery
The profession of renunciation

Reconstruction
Revolutionary embers

Military deception
Bodyguard of lies

Pleistocene Park
The prophet of permafrost

Business

Big oil
Brown v broad

Cinema and streaming
Big bets on the small screen

Bartleby
Straight talking

Schumpeter
The parable of Ryanair

Finance & economics

High-tech finance
Quantum for quants

Market mania
Froth or fundamentals?

Counterfactual economics
Panned

Free exchange
Location, location, location

Science & technology

The highest fidelity
An auricular spectacular

Evolution and agriculture
Good catch

Data storage
Re-record, not fade away

Books & arts

Poetry on the Tube
Tunnels of love

Winter weather
The white stuff

Economic & financial indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

The media and covid-19
The biggest story ever?

We’re hiring full-time and trainee data journalists

Obituary

John le Carré
The watchful scribbler