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The foolishness of crowds
North African migration
The next European crisis
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Manned spaceflight

Belarus

Terrorism comes to Minsk

A bomb in Belarus's capital. Who's to blame?(1)

After rigged elections Belarus's authoritarian president shows his true colours (Dec 2010)(133)

Cote d'Ivoire

Gbagbo bagged

Laurent Gbagbo, whose refusal to step down as president in Côte d'Ivoire has prompted months of fighting, has been arrested

France and Islam

France uncovered, it hopes

Attempts to keep religion out of public life will ensure it stays in political life(4)

Ai Weiwei's blog

A rallying cry in 140 characters

The artist-activist used his blog to rail against a regime with no respect for the truth(1)

Renault's number two resigns

Heads had to roll

The French carmaker's chief operating officer steps down as the fallout from wrongful accusations of industrial espionage continues to reverberate(1)

Japan's nuclear mess

Living with radiation

A spreading cloud of economic and human costs(38)

Banking reform

Bigger buffers, smaller banks

An independent panel suggests changes to Britain's banking industry. The proposals are more reasonable than many bankers had feared (12)

Islamic art

A connoisseur and his treasures

Stuart Cary Welch’s collection was auctioned this week for record prices(3)

Genetics and evolution

The first sparrowhawk of spring

To obtain better access to warbler nests, cuckoos mimic raptors(3)

Space

The future that never happened

On the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight, we take a look at a future that was thought to be just around the corner

From our blogs

Bagehot looks at the curious appeal of a new law singling out reckless bicycling

Free exchange learns lessons from a Virginia Ikea plant

Lexington is not surprised by an announcement from Mitt Romney

Prospero reviews the Broadway production of "War Horse"

Johnson presents a history of the misuse of the world "literally"

Eastern approaches on the first anniversary of the Smolensk plane crash

Babbage looks at the latest incentive contest

Inequality and politics

Stiglitz and the progressive Ouroboros

A famous economist's rant about inequality distracts us from progressivism's own role in attracting big money to politics

Pakistan

Post-uprisings depression

Two good books about an important but confusing country which has been driven, partly by American intervention, into strange ways

Audio

Money talks

America's dramatic budget showdown, the Federal Reserve's stance on interest rates and Portugal's rescue from crushing debt

Media's ageing audiences

Peggy Sue got old

Viewers, listeners and readers are ageing fast. Oddly, media companies don’t regard that as a catastrophe

Commemorating Smolensk

A nation divided

Hopes that the crash would spur national unity and rapprochement with Russia are fading

Video

Jasmine evolution

Tunisia’s revolution tipped the first domino in the Arab world. Its transition to democracy may yet prove a blueprint for other Arab countries

Editor's note

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Economist Debates

This house believes that the world would be better off without nuclear power »

The Economist Asks

Do the benefits of prescribing lots of antibiotics outweigh the costs? »

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Over the past five days

Most recommended

Over the past seven days

Latest blog posts - All times are GMT

Gbagbo bagged: From Baobab - 35 mins ago
From the archive: Man into Space: From Babbage - 39 mins ago
Terrorism comes to Minsk: From Eastern approaches - 1 hrs 2 mins ago
A wireless heart: From Babbage - 1 hrs 13 mins ago
A rallying cry in 140 characters: From Prospero - 1 hrs 24 mins ago
The space-age future that never happened: From Babbage - 2 hrs 43 mins ago
France uncovered, it hopes: From Newsbook - 2 hrs 53 mins ago

Buttonwood

North African migration

Daily chart