A united Ireland: Could it really happen?
The world this week
Leaders
A united Ireland
Irish unification is becoming likelier
Time to start thinking about what it might mean
Bad heir day
Angela Merkel should quit soon
Germany’s chancellor should encourage a successor to emerge quickly
Viral slowdown
How China’s coronavirus epidemic could hurt the world economy
Covid-19 brings many unquantifiable risks
Shel-no
Why the Senate should reject Judy Shelton’s nomination to the Fed
It is not her views that are the problem so much as her motives
Time for disruption in the property market
The cost of buying and selling homes is too high
Ending America’s real-estate racket
Letters
On housing
Letters to the editor
Briefing
Is some revelation at hand?
Brexit and Sinn Fein’s success boost talk of Irish unification
It would not be an easy process
Asia
A treaty for a visa
The Philippines tears up a defence pact with America
China
Business in paralysis
China’s official holiday ends, but not the woes of its firms
Big changes in Hubei
Xi Jinping sends in the hard men to deal with the Wuhan virus
United States
Delayed reaction
Immigration to America is down. Wages are up
The DoJ heads south
Acquittal has emboldened Donald Trump
Seeking an edge, edge
Is Pete Buttigieg doing well or badly?
Watch your step
Donald Trump loosens America’s restrictions on landmines
The Americas
Justin Trudeau’s drug problem
Canada ponders a federal programme for pharmaceuticals
Bello
“What is Peronism?”
Middle East & Africa
Frustrated are the peacemakers
Why the United Nations cannot end wars in the Arab world
Less than tolerant than it seems
Qatar, the Gulf emirate famed for openness, is silencing critics
I shot the DJ
One law for the mighty in Kenya
A day of reckoning
Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s ex-dictator, could at last face justice
Europe
Trouble at the top
Angela Merkel’s presumed successor quits as party boss
New face, old grudges
Albin Kurti’s new start in Kosovo
Network of nothing
How Russian show trials expose imaginary plots
Not just a smiley face
The struggle to give Brittany its own emoji
Charlemagne
Make Europe Boring Again!
Britain
Northern Ireland
Atonement and forgiveness in Belfast
Competition policy
Ripping into the rip-off merchants
Restitution
Oxford University restores Maasai artefacts
Spending a penny
Why Britain’s public conveniences are anything but
Public transport
The paradox of Britain’s buses
Bagehot
The perils of Lennonism
International
Curbing the Asian contagion
China’s neighbours are rushing to contain the spread of the new coronavirus
A deadly disease disrupts
The new coronavirus could have a lasting impact on global supply chains
Business
From muskets to missiles
The battle for the Middle Eastern arms market is heating up
Chasing Ronald
Burger King’s owner tries to regain its sizzle
Hoarding cash
Admen have a clever new way to trick sports fans
Singer-Son time
Elliott Management guns for SoftBank
MBAs with Chinese characteristics
Chinese management schools are thriving
Finance & economics
Tearing down the house
Technology is poised to upend America’s property market
An adjustment programme
The IMF undergoes structural reform
The Goldberg variations
The World Bank loses another chief economist
Value judgments
African countries like their currencies strong
Science & technology
Metabolites and you
People leave molecular wakes that may give away their secrets
Solar Orbiter’s launch
A new spacecraft will examine the sun close up
Animal behaviour
Fish, like people, must pay for their accommodation
Culture
Too much of a good thing
Why an excess of democracy can lead to poor decisions
Creepy crawlies
The Oscars triumph of “Parasite”
Laughter in the dark
Tom Stoppard’s haunting new play about the Holocaust
Economic & financial indicators
Graphic detail
Price and prejudice
Analysts’ stock recommendations are coloured by their cultural biases
Obituary
The man who knew