August 6th 2023

Tom Nuttall
Deputy digital editor

Hello from a damp London. 

It was an unusual week for us at The Economist. Regular readers of our weekly edition will have noticed that, well, there wasn’t one, thanks to the previous week’s feature-packed summer double issue. But our digital offerings have been as lively as ever, from an investigation into the World Values Survey that yielded surprising findings to a health check on those parts of the American economy unaffected by the AI hype. Did you mind? (Did you notice?) What did we do well, and what might we have done better? Let us know: the email address is below.

This week we will be paying close attention to the unrest in Niger. With the backing of France, the former colonial power, ECOWAS, a bloc of west African countries, has threatened to intervene should the junta that seized power in Niger last month refuse to restore President Mohamed Bazoum to power. Its deadline looms tonight. 

In China, meanwhile, figures published on Wednesday will offer a clue as to whether the country risks tipping into a prolonged period of deflation—a problem that Western countries battling cost-of-living crises might almost envy. And on Friday we will mark the day officially declared the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Economist readers will surely need no reminding that, as Grandmaster Flash, a mixmaster, once noted, “You don’t need no invitation, there’s a party going on throughout the nation.”

Then there are the legal travails of Donald Trump. Fresh from his indictment over what federal prosecutors consider his illegal attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, in the coming weeks Mr Trump faces the prospect of a fresh prosecution, this one devoted specifically to his efforts to reverse the result in the state of Georgia. (If you’ve lost track of the state and federal charges hanging over Mr Trump, our explainer may prove handy.)

Thanks as ever for your feedback. This week I invite readers to opine on whether Mr Trump’s legal woes will hurt or help his presidential bid, and to explain why. I am about to quit Britain’s miserable attempts at summer for the warmer climes of southern France, where I plan to resort to the consolations of rosé and—confession time—not to think about Donald Trump at all. But my colleagues will welcome your emails on the fortunes of the former president, and anything else, to [email protected].

Recommended reads

Thinking for themselves

Western values are steadily diverging from the rest of the world’s

People’s principles were expected to align as countries got richer. What happened?

Related

Authoritarians are on the march

The view beyond the Valley

Beyond the tech hype, how healthy is American business?

Most parts of the non-AI economy are doing surprisingly well

Sunshine state for some

How the Democrats lost Florida

Their negligence in the former swing state paved a path for Republican dominance

Ferry bad indeed

What broken ferries reveal about Scotland’s government

A sorry tale of mismanagement and waste

Chipping in

America is building chip factories. Now to find the workers

The country’s chipmaking goals will test its manufacturing potential

Life after occupation

In north-east Ukraine the war is close, upending daily life

Damage and danger are all around

State capitalism at its best

An unlikely tech cluster exemplifies China’s economic vision

But the “Hefei model” will not be easy to emulate

Free exchange

Deflation is curbing China’s economic rise

The world’s second-biggest economy will become a more distant second this year

Another war on terror

Why the nightmare in Niger is the world’s problem

Jihadist violence in Africa has become a threat the world cannot ignore

Ferry bad indeed

What broken ferries reveal about Scotland’s government

A sorry tale of mismanagement and waste

We’d like to hear from you  

Share your feedback via the email address below.

Email [email protected]

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