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News analysis
Middle East & Africa

Saudi Arabia has put strict limits on this year’s haj

The kingdom wants to avoid turning the pilgrimage into a “super-spreader event”

Related

The end of the Arab world’s oil age is nigh

International

Why governments are paying people to go on holiday

Is this the best way for taxpayers to prop up tourist hotspots?

Highlights
1843

Battered but still standing: how the NHS coped with covid-19

For three months, 1843 followed doctors, nurses and paramedics in London as they fought the most devastating pandemic for a century. This is their story

Finance & economics

Unusually, copper and gold prices are rising in tandem

An uncertain and uneven recovery explains their skyward leap

From our columnists
Finance & economics

Free exchange: Real-time economic data need to be treated with caution

The measures are not a proxy for overall economic activity

Daily chart

The pandemic is widening educational inequality

For many low-income students, online courses are a poor substitute for in-person learning

Moreover
Books & arts

“Catch-22” and the caprices of bureaucracy

Joseph Heller’s comic war novel resonates anew during the pandemic

The Economist’s coverage of the coronavirus

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Weekly edition

Free money: When government spending knows no limits

July 25th 2020
The Economist cover image for the July 25th 2020 edition
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Readers’ favourites

Business

TikTok’s Chinese parent is scrambling to hang on to its hit app

Briefing

The covid-19 pandemic is forcing a rethink in macroeconomics

United States

Donald Trump’s divisive method culminates in Portland

Graphic detail

Empty stadiums have shrunk football teams’ home advantage

Officiating bias disappears without fans, but clubs still play better at home

Podcasts

Sound reasoning on current affairs, business and finance, science and technology, and global issues.

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In context: Space exploration

Science & technology

Is there life on Mars?

The West still has to find a way to do business with Chinese firms

Leaders

The red planet may be a pristine ecosystem

Earthlings should be careful not to contaminate it

Science & technology

Flying people to the Space Station is SpaceX’s biggest deal yet

Leaders

A new age of space exploration is beginning

Special report: The Midwest

A region with outsized punch

America’s Midwest matters out of proportion to its size, says Adam Roberts

The urban prairie

For the region to prosper, its bigger cities must flourish

Separate, downtrodden

The region has particular problems with segregation and policing

America’s Mittelstand

Advanced manufacturing can thrive, as Grand Rapids shows

From rustbelt to brainbelt

How higher education can drive prosperity

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Economist Films

Authoritative insight on news, politics, business, finance, science, technology and the connections between them.

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