Global news and current affairs from a European perspective. Best downloaded on Friday mornings (GMT)

Articles in this issue:
Politics this week

Business this week

KAL's cartoon

China: Go on, bet the farm

Argentina’s mid-term election: Cristina’s come-uppance

Pay and economic growth: A shrinking slice

Espionage and America: Rules for spies

High-speed railways: Still off-track

Letters: On emerging economies, business, efficient markets, Venezuela, China, Brazil, American politics

Chinese land reform: A world to turn upside down

The presidency: Whoops

Obamacare: The debacle

Genetically modified food: Warning labels for safe stuff

Crime in Florida: Man bites dog, repeatedly

Seattle: On your bike

Virginia’s governor race: The Clinton effect

Civil forfeiture: The grabbing hand of the law

Drugs and the death penalty: Cruel and unusable

Lexington: Bye-bye, Bloomberg

Argentina’s mid-term election: Jostling in Kirchnerismo’s twilight

Mining in Mexico: The sovereign take

Canada’s Senate: Reform or death?

The Latinobarómetro poll: Listen to me

The Khmer Rouge tribunal: Justice and the killing fields

Uzbekistan: trouble.uz?

Religious violence in Myanmar: The silence of the muezzin

India’s mission to Mars: Red planet, red rival

Banyan: Zero-sum politics

Changing the economy: The long weekend

Civil strife in Iraq: Going all wrong

Satire in Egypt: The joker is back

Algeria: Patience persists

Somali piracy: More sophisticated than you thought

The Democratic Republic of Congo: Rebel retreat

Italian politics: Bickering and back-stabbing

Georgia’s election: The end of Saakashvili’s reign

Czech election: Central Europe’s Berlusconi?

Swedish education: Fixing Sweden’s schools

The European Union budget: The gourmands of Brussels

Race relations in the Netherlands: Is Zwarte Piet racism?

Charlemagne: Fawlty Europe

High-speed rail: Accounting trips

Immigration: A fresh headcount

Paul Reichmann: Saviour of the docklands

Police reform: Copping and changing

Politicians v newspapers: Hold the presses

Corporate ownership: Shell game

Linguistics: Argot bargy

Bagehot: More tough, less love

Spies and politics: Cloaks off

Money from rubbish: Mucking in

Government budgets and development: Transparent money

Conjugal visits: No laughing matter

Mahindra & Mahindra: SUVival of the fittest

Brazil’s oil industry: Bustista

Business in Greece: Outrageous fortune

Business regulation: Reform school

Manufacturing in Serbia: Balkan legacy

PSA Peugeot Citroën: Back from the brink

Air cargo: Cabin fever

Twitter’s IPO: Going cheep?

Schumpeter: The butterfly effect

Workers’ share of national income: Labour pains

Buttonwood: Margin for error

Banking and organised crime in Japan: Of loans and sharks

Equity crowdfunding: Cream of Devon

The economics of sexual inequality: When education dries up

Hybrid corporate bonds: The rating game

Financial firms on the defensive: A culture of fear

Free exchange: No need to dig

Dark matter: Absence of evidence, or evidence of absence?

Animal behaviour: Wag the dog

Oncology: A medical matryoshka doll

Evolution: Butterfly ball

Business, politics and war: Why a strategy is not a plan

The Gulf: Rocky royalty

Dale Carnegie: How to succeed

English fiction: Penelope Fitzgerald: Blue flower

Robert Redford in "All is Lost": Man of the moment

Robert Redford in "All is Lost": Correction: Karl Kraus

Lou Reed: A walk on the wild side

Output, prices and jobs

Trade, exchange rates, budget balances and interest rates

The Economist commodity-price index

Household debt in Asia

Markets