Leaders
Cool Germany
Germany is becoming more open and diverse
With the right leadership, it could be a model for the West
The duty to deter
If Syria’s despot is not punished, others will use chemical weapons
Strikes on Bashar al-Assad’s air bases are justified
Unmarked
What to make of Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony
Both the Facebook boss and his questioners in Congress fail to reassure
Brittle Britain
British productivity is rising at last. But Brexit looms over the economy
On its current path, the country will remain a growth laggard
Overcharging undertakers
Great news for the dead: the funeral industry is being disrupted
Changing social norms, competition and technology are shaking up a stodgy and exploitative business
Letters
Letters
Letters to the editor
Briefing
After the hurricane
America has let down its Puerto Rican citizens
Islanders must look to themselves to salvage their fortunes
Asia
Voting for God
How religion shapes elections in Indonesia
Malay mêlée
Malaysia’s government calls an election
China
A silk road through ice
China wants to be a polar power
United States
Mr Zuckerberg goes to Washington
If Facebook will not fix itself, will Congress?
Saving private Ryan
Paul Ryan’s retirement suggests his brand of conservatism has lost
Organic farming
Corn beef
Capital and punishment
How convict labour increased inequality
Discipline and punish
Tough love falls out of fashion in America’s schools
Middle East & Africa
A devilish dilemma
Donald Trump and his advisers cannot agree on a Syria policy
The other Syrian conflict
Israel is determined to stop Iran from establishing bases in Syria
A storm over a port
Emiratis plough millions into a country that no one recognises: Somaliland
No one to gripe about
With Zuma gone, South Africa's opposition needs a new scapegoat
A little hope in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone’s new president has made big promises
Escaping the maize
African governments are having doubts about their staple crop
The Americas
Farewell at last
Cuba bids goodbye to the revolutionary generation
Building blocked
The property battle in Vancouver’s Chinatown
Send me your skilled
Chile gives immigrants a wary welcome
Europe
La République en grève
Emmanuel Macron faces a wave of strikes and protests in France
Viktor victorious
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, wins another landslide
Stayin’ Aliyev
Azerbaijan’s president wins yet another term
Flights of imagination
Conspiracy theories from, and about, Russia
Charlemagne: the perky Portuguese
Social democracy is floundering everywhere in Europe, except Portugal
Britain
Fix up, look sharp
Britain’s era of abysmal productivity growth could be at an end
An island entire of itself
Guernsey considers whether to legalise assisted dying
An amiable delusion
Is the Commonwealth a plausible substitute for the EU?
International
Making the reaper cheaper
Why undertakers are worried
Special report
The new Germans
How Germany and the Germans have changed
Between open and closed
German politics has become much more complicated
Whose Heimat?
A land of multiple identities
Ceçi n’est pas un hype!
Germany may be rich, but inequalities are widening
AI meets autoland
Germany’s conservative economic model is being put to the test
The somewhat reluctant hegemon
Germany has been slow to reassess its place in the world
Squarely in the frame
German history takes to the small screen
Children of Merkel
Where does Germany go from here?
Business
Change at the top of Volkswagen
The departure of the VW boss heralds a big shake-up
Transatlantic trysts
British law firms seek similar across the pond
Three-ringed circus
Kinder Morgan’s attempt to build a pipeline reflects badly on Canada
Sliced and diced
Upstart meal-kit companies may need a new recipe for growth
Smoke on the water
The shipping industry attempts to cap carbon emissions
Finance & economics
Voting with your pocket
The proxy-voting season kicks off on Wall Street
Shake it off
The outlook for US government debt
Buttonwood
Catching the bitcoin bug
Investing on the edge
American sanctions, and fears over Syria, roil Russian markets
Sewing up the wounds?
Deutsche Bank gets a new chief executive
Casting wider
How developing countries weave social safety nets
Drawing the battle lines
America’s gripes with China make a deal hard to imagine
Free exchange: Root and branch
Economists understand little about the causes of growth
Science & technology
Spreading life to other planets
Colonising the galaxy is hard. Why not send bacteria instead?
Human evolution
Homo sapiens spread to Asia earlier than once believed
Neuroscience
Do adult human brains renew their neurons?
Innovation prizes
$15m is available to solve a burning problem
Culture
March of the times
Madeleine Albright’s guide to fascism, past and present
Sober cooks, tight shoes
How the son of a Swiss peasant became a synonym for luxury
Through a glass, humbly
Whisky, ink and the road to ruin
I knew I didn’t do it
A haunting chronicle of life after death row in Mississippi
Obituary
To Franklin’s grave