John Parker, one of The Economist’s finest correspondents, was a polymath journalist
OLDER COLLEAGUES at this newspaper recall when Monday-morning meetings involved squeezing into the editor’s office at The Eco...
Muhsin Hendricks fought homophobia with the Koran
His mother could not end the sentence. “I heard you were divorced,” she had begun, “because you’re—” A long pause. “Gay,” he ...
Israel and Hamas have something in common
DIPLOMACY is often the art of kicking the can down the road. That was always the case with the truce between Israel and Hamas...
Paying teenagers to go to school was a bad idea
Andy burnham was unhappy. The government was “kicking away the ladder of opportunity”, he argued in January 2011. Mr Burnham,...
Prabowo Subianto is drastically cutting Indonesia’s budget
On February 24th Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia’s president, launched Danantara, a sovereign-wealth fund. At his disposal will i...
Prabowo Subianto takes a chainsaw to Indonesia’s budget
On the campaign trail last year Prabowo Subianto, a former general with a sketchy human-rights record, pledged to give every ...
Swedish businesses are being bombed
Odakra, a sleepy village in southern Sweden, offers little excitement on a typical weeknight. But at 3am on January 28th resi...
The Economist’s office agony uncle is back
Dear Max, I am hiring for an open position on my team. We are having trouble finding good candidates, and my boss just came i...
The AfD’s unusual China connection
There are many things that make Alice Weidel an unconventional leader for a German political party on the hard right. Though ...
The bravest woman in Latin America?
It is not unusual for Diana Salazar, Ecuador’s attorney-general, to be followed by unfriendly compatriots. Her security retin...