The absent student: How covid-19 will change college
The world this week
Leaders
The absent student
Covid-19 will be painful for universities, but also bring change
They need to rethink how and what they teach
No way to run a country
A big blast should lead to big change in Lebanon
It is past time to reform the broken state
Trumpian TikTok
Forced sales are the wrong way to deal with Chinese tech
America needs to sort out its own data-privacy regime
A bigger dose
The world is spending nowhere near enough on a coronavirus vaccine
Far better to spend far too much
The globalisation of gay rights
As more gay people come out, tolerance will spread
Though in some countries to be open is still to risk death
When the facts change
Economics sometimes changes its mind
The science may be dismal but it is flexible, too
Letters
On reopening schools, oil, French accents, Amazon, sports teams
Letters to the editor
Briefing
Uncanny University
Covid-19 could push some universities over the brink
Higher education was in trouble even before the pandemic
Europe
Open again
Genoa bridge reopens
Sultan of censorship
Turkey’s president cracks down on social media
Charlemagne
Germans learn to love the staycation
The signal turns to red
Spain’s high-speed trains are poor value
Britain
Covid-19 in Scotland
How coronavirus strengthened Scottish independence
Trade and farming
Why food blocks a British-American trade deal
Testing, testing
Boris Johnson’s grand planning reform has weak foundations
Made in the USA
With face-masks, Britain imported an American culture war
Middle East & Africa
Fear and loathing in the Sahel
The challenge of mediation in Mali
Prohibition in a pandemic
Why Johannesburg restaurants are full of teapots
A million and not counting
Africa closes in on 1m reported cases of covid-19
United States
Electing a president
Americans should worry less about foreigners and voter fraud
Law of the letter
The postal service has become vital to America’s elections
Without representation
Residents of Washington, DC could once vote for Congress
Strike two
Baseball’s faltering restart
From unthinkable to universal
Universal basic income gains momentum in America
The Americas
Fighting on fewer fronts
Argentina reaches a deal with its foreign creditors
Oil futures
Democracy wins in Guyana and Suriname
Asia
Borderline cases
Australia’s internal travel restrictions are tested in court
Weirs and wherefores
A dam failure raises concerns about corruption in Uzbekistan
China
The magic of Malanshan
Why TV shows made in China’s Hunan province are so popular
Thirty more days of hell
Why China’s divorce law is so controversial
International
Queer, there and everywhere
How the internet is changing the experience of coming out
Business
The trouble with TINA
America’s stockmarkets are flying high. Its companies still aren’t
Inclusive growth
Joining the S&P 500 may not be as big a boon as often assumed
Worth an arm and a leg
Nvidia tries to get its hands on Arm
Unproductivity puzzle
Microsoft wants a slice of TikTok
Sverige AB v Deutschland AG
Swedish firms have outshone German ones in the pandemic
Bartleby
Dealing with customer complaints
Finance & economics
A dynamic duopoly
Do Alipay and Tenpay misuse their market power?
Selection effects
What it takes to become an academic economist is changing
Abandoning hope
Official economic forecasts for poor countries are too rosy
Schools brief
When big isn’t beautiful
What more should antitrust be doing?
Science & technology
Artificial intelligence
A new AI language model generates poetry and prose
Parasites under pressure
An exception to the rule that there are no marine insects
Good grilling
An indoor barbecue to prevent pollution problems
Culture
Legacies of violence
Activist curators are sharpening the debate on restitution
A glacier’s pace
A haunting meditation on climate change in Iceland
The girl next door
Lee Conell’s debut novel is a gripping tale of class and privilege
Home Entertainment
The benefits of learning an instrument in lockdown
Economic & financial indicators
Graphic detail
90% economy, 120% gastronomy
Covid-19 seems to have changed lifestyles for good
Obituary
The ingénue who roared