Jun 27th 2020

The next catastrophe (and how to survive it)

The world this week

Leaders

The next catastrophe

Politicians ignore far-out risks: they need to up their game

Preparedness is one of the things that governments are for

Consider the cost

Underestimating the risks of annexation

The Israeli prime minister’s plan to take parts of the West Bank will upset allies and enemies alike

Commercial property investment

Investors’ love affair with commercial property is being tested

The sector faces a shake-up

Short-selling

Wirecard’s scandal shows the benefits of short-sellers

The markets need more sceptics

Citius, Altius, Fortnite

Why the next Olympics should include Fortnite

If dressage and curling are Olympic sports, why not video games?

Letters

On statues, Catherine Hamlin, alcohol, metal prices, Colombia, video games, Elon Musk

Letters to the editor

Briefing

What’s the worst that could happen?

The world should think better about catastrophic and existential risks

Plans and early-warning systems are always a good idea

United States

Nukes in Nevada

Will Donald Trump resume nuclear testing?

Instant museums

America’s blue-chip collectors rush to preserve artefacts from protests

Unhappy medium

Decoding the confusing messages of the coronavirus epidemic in America

Radio Free Trump

Decapitating America’s state-funded media

Radical justice

Will Clarence Thomas stick it out for a 30th year on the court?

More bricks in the wall

Highly skilled migrants are no longer welcome in America. Maybe

Lexington

Is Donald Trump tough on China?

The Americas

Maduro’s machinations

How Venezuela’s regime plans to win this year’s legislative election

Corner kicks and cutting corners

Brazil restarts the beautiful game

Bello

The lessons of the 1930s and 1980s for Latin America

When C-pop is not enough

Why Canada failed to win a seat on the Security Council

Asia

Thirteenth time lucky

Singapore’s ruling party calls an election

Jail to the chief

A former president of Kyrgyzstan is imprisoned for corruption

Pen and stink

A malfunctioning spy camera causes a scandal in Fiji

Ready, cane, fire

Japan’s soldiers are greying. Time to draft robots?

Locking horns

Bullfighting is under attack in South Korea

Banyan

A supposed detente between Japan and China is already fading

China

Walk on by

Donald Trump is not the only leader who fails to stand up for the Uighurs

Sight unseen

China is secretive about its new national-security law for Hong Kong

Chaguan

To China’s rulers, the cupidity of officials is a political crisis

Middle East & Africa

Into darkness

Israel weighs the future of the West Bank

The Malawi model

More African judges are standing up to governments

A stitch in time

Can early intervention prevent humanitarian disasters?

Travel trouble

Wealthy Africans are shopping for foreign passports

Laughing all the way to jail

An aide to Congo’s president gets 20 years for graft

Europe

Going home

Donald Trump’s baffling proposal to withdraw troops from Germany

No longer a figurehead

Why Italy’s technocratic prime minister is so popular

Empty palaces

Why the French Riviera is full of ghost yachts

A June surprise

Kosovo’s President Hashim Thaci faces war-crimes charges

Overdosed

Tough-on-drug policies often hit women hardest

Charlemagne

Germany is doomed to lead Europe

Britain

Labour’s leader

Keir Starmer needs to change the Labour Party

Scottish farming

Agricultural shows go online

Schools

Does tutoring work?

Covid-19

England leaves lockdown

Criminal justice

Sentencing policy gets tougher

Radio killed the video star

Times Radio tries to lure listeners to the paper

Business education

Lean times at the London Business School

Bagehot

Munira Mirza, revolutionary conservative

International

Legends in lockdown

The pandemic has accelerated the growth of e-sports

Business

The new admen

The advertising business is becoming less cyclical—and more concentrated

Squeezing the pips

Why Apple’s developers are cross

The hole in the hedge

Oil companies’ diversification into petrochemicals may not go to plan

Bartleby

Mid-year motivational magic

Claret correction

Why covid-19 is good for Bordeaux wines

Crash diet

Catering groups are going through lean times

Schumpeter

Live-streaming will change rock ’n’ roll for the better

Finance & economics

Like a ton of bricks

Is investors’ love affair with commercial property ending?

The demise of a Wunderkind

How Wirecard fooled most of the people all of the time

Gains to diversification

Economists grapple with their race problem

Buttonwood

What if the dotcom boom and bust hadn’t happened?

The world’s factory

China’s prodigious exporters have some new tricks

Doom and zoom

The IMF downgrades its global growth forecasts

Free exchange

Will labour reforms in India work?

Science & technology

Global health

Pandemic-proofing the planet

Books & arts

Watching the detectives

Television has distorted Americans’ view of policing

A hill of beans to die on

Chronicling Donald Trump’s trade war with China

Johnson

The rules of coronaspeak

Home Entertainment

The BBC’s “Pride and Prejudice” is a lockdown delight

Home Entertainment

Cholent, a traditional Jewish dish, is a perfect lockdown meal

Perspectives

How HIV/AIDS changed the world

Economic & financial indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

Dawn of an era

The Human Genome Project transformed biology and medicine

Obituary

Queen in all but name