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There are few widely agreed truths in the Brexit debate, but one of them is this: if Britain fails to reach a trade deal with the European Union after Brexit, it will have to fall back on the “WTO option”. This involves trading solely under rules set by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which govern things like tariffs and quotas.

ALEX EVANS is a development wonk with an engaging streak of vulnerability.

AMERICAN democracy has suffered a grave assault—yet political leaders from its two main parties cannot agree on how or even whether to investigate.

THE news that average wages grew by 2.9% in December, the final full month of the Obama presidency, provides more evidence that America’s labour market is heating up. For some time, America has been creating plentiful jobs—2016 was the fifth consecutive year with more than 2m job gains.

WHILE most Christians are putting away their Christmas decorations, a substantial minority of them are only now preparing to commemorate the Nativity of Jesus Christ. For some eastern Christians (those who refused to accept a calendar reform in the 1920s), the Nativity feast comes to a head today and tomorrow.

A FELLOW Gulliver, cheery chap that he is, kicked off the new year explaining why 2017 might be even worse for business travellers than the year we have just put behind us.

“LA LA Land”, Damien Chazelle’s candy-coloured tribute to the musicals of Tinseltown’s golden age, arrives at a sensitive moment in Hollywood history.

IN PHAKALANE, an affluent suburb of Botswana’s sleepy capital Gaborone, a modern assembly line spits out thousands of batteries destined for southern African cars.

IN DECEMBER America’s Congressional Research Service (CRS) published its annual study on arms sales worldwide. Deals with developing countries have accounted for about four-fifths of all “arms-transfer agreements” for many years. In 2015 such transactions made up $65bn of the $80bn arms deals done globally.

To mark the publication of “Go Figure”, a collection of The Economist’s explainers and daily charts, the editors of this blog solicited ideas on Facebook and Twitter. This week we publish five explainers suggested by our readers, who will each receive a copy of the book.

IN 1982 Dorothy Gilliam was walking down an overgrown path close to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s lovely house on the Potomac River in Virginia, when she glimpsed a flash of white stone.

IT IS hard to imagine Maricopa County, Arizona, without Joe Arpaio. The flamboyant, tough-talking sheriff reigned over the county, which includes the sprawling Phoenix metropolitan area, for 24 years.