The Tech Giant Everyone Is Watching
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Inside Assad’s new Syria The Supreme Court swings right Cutting out medical mistakes How to make meetings less dreadful JUNE 30TH–JULY 6TH 2018 Thetechgiant everyone is watching “I keep pursuing new HIV/AIDS treatments which is why 29 years later, I’m still here.” Brian / HIV/AIDS Researcher James/HIV/AIDSPatient In the unrelenting push to defeat HIV/AIDS, scientists’ groundbreaking research with brave patients in trials has produced powerful combination antiretroviral treatments, reducing the death rate by 87% since they were introduced. Welcome to the future of medicine. For all of us. GoBoldly.com Contents The Economist June 30th 2018 5 7 The world this week Asia 32 Politics in the Philippines Leaders Rebel with a cause 11 Netflixonomics 33 Elections in Indonesia The tech giant everyone A 175m-man rehearsal is watching 33 South Korea’s baby bust 12 America’s Supreme Court Procreative struggle After Kennedy 34 Virginity tests in 12 The war in Syria South Asia The new Palestinians Legal assault US Supreme Court Justice 13 Railways 35 Banyan Anthony Kennedy’s retirement Free the rails Asia braces for a trade war comes at a worrying time: 14 China’s university- leader, page12. The 2017-18 On the cover entrance exam China term was a triumph for Netflix has transformed Gaokao gruel 36 Community management conservatives, page 21 television. It is beloved by Beefing up neighbourhood investors, consumers and Letters watch politicians. Can that last? 15 On trade, surveillance 37 University admissions Leader, page11. The technology, Xinjiang, The gaokao goes global entertainment industry is football, Brexit scrabbling to catch up with a disrupter, page18. The Britain internet was meant to make Briefing 38 Business and politics the world a less centralised 18 Netflixonomics Hard Brexit unravels place, but the opposite has The television will be 39 Airport expansion happened. Ludwig Siegele revolutionised Problem in the air explains why it matters, and 39 Online campaigning what can be done about it. Of barks and bites See our special report after United States Brexit and business Amid a page 40 21 The Supreme Court 40 Bagehot row between business leaders Right of way Three myths of the NHS and Conservative hardliners, a 22 Bureaucracy softer Brexit gains political The Economist online Shuffle up Special report: ground, page 38 Daily analysis and opinion to 23 School design Fixing the internet supplement the print edition, plus Brutalism The ins and outs audio and video, and a daily chart 23 Immigration policy After page 40 Economist.com How we got here E-mail: newsletters and 28 Lexington Middle East and Africa mobile edition India and America Economist.com/email 41 The future of Syria Smaller, in ruins and more Print edition: available online by sectarian 7pm London time each Thursday The Americas Economist.com/printedition 29 Canada’s climate policy 43 Protests in Iran Rial problems Audio edition: available online Trudeau and the Toronto to download each Friday troublemaker 44 Zimbabwe’s election Economist.com/audioedition 30 Funerals in Cuba Will it be fair? Syria Bashar al-Assad is Not going gently 44 Democracy in Senegal victorious. But unless refugees can return safely, 30 Brazilian agriculture Reason to worry Embrapa’s lost sparkle 45 Somalia and piracy they could destabilise the A new approach Middle East for decades: 31 Bello leader, page 12. How the Assad The high price of political Volume 427 Number 9098 regime is changing Syria’s saviours religious make-up, page 41 Published since September1843 to take part in "a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress." Editorial offices in London and also: Beijing, Berlin, Brussels, Cairo, Chicago, Madrid, Mexico City, Moscow, Mumbai, Nairobi, New Delhi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, São Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, Washington DC 1 Contents continues overleaf 6 Contents The Economist June 30th 2018 Europe 64 Italy’s asset managers Rich pickings 46 Turkey’s election Recep Tayyip the First 64 The daily grind Easier money 47 European defence Coalition of the practical 65 Free exchange User ratings 47 Immigration and crime Panic attack 48 Women in Finland Science and technology No-man’s-land 66 Psychiatric illness 49 Retirement in Russia Who is to decide, when China v America Just how Back to work doctors disagree? Patient safety As they strive badly has USA Inc been treated 50 Charlemagne 67 Human behaviour to reduce the alarming by China? Schumpeter, page 58. A Balkan opening Oh, the places you’ll go! incidence of medical errors, How the Trump administration 67 Cognitive decline hospitals are using ideas from will clamp down on Chinese Windows to the brain industry and behavioural investment, page 60. Is International science, page 51 Harley-Davidson’s decision to 68 The economics of gifts 51 Patient safety Presents of mind shift production an isolated Physician, heal thy systems response to Donald Trump’s 68 Poliomyelitis Subscription service trade war? Page 61 This time it’s real For our latest subscription offers, visit Business Economist.com/offers 69 Textiles For subscription service, please contact by 53 European rail Copper-bottomed ideas telephone, fax, web or mail at the details New kids on the track provided below: North America 54 Bartleby Books and arts The Economist Subscription Center Taking minutes, wasting P.O. 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On State Street, that great Latin America US $289 (plus tax) 58 Schumpeter Many state rail firms are ill- street USA Inc v China 73 How to teach literature prepared for coming reforms, Principal commercial offices: page 53 The art of pouncing The Adelphi Building,1-11John Adam Street, Finance and economics London WC2N 6HT Tel: +44 (0) 20 7830 7000 59 Wages 76 Economic and financial Rue de l’Athénée 32 The real story indicators 1206 Geneva, Switzerland 60 Chinese investment Statistics on 42 economies, Tel: +4122 566 2470 Safe and secure plus a closer look at drug 750 3rd Avenue, 5th Floor, New York, NY10017 61 China’s economy production Tel: +1212 5410500 Mama’s love 1301Cityplaza Four, 12 Taikoo Wan Road, Taikoo Shing, Hong Kong 61 Harley-Davidson shifts Obituary Tel: +852 2585 3888 production 78 David Goldblatt Other commercial offices: Roaring away Black and white and read Chicago, Dubai, Frankfurt, Los Angeles, 62 The resource curse all over Paris, San Francisco and Singapore Grand Theft Petro Rules for meetings How to make them less dreadful: 62 Fertility treatment Bartleby, page 54 An embryonic idea 63 Buttonwood Chinese bonds PEFC certified This copy of The Economist is printed on paper sourced from sustainably managed forests certified to PEFC PEFC/29-31-58 www.pefc.org © 2018 The Economist Newspaper Limited. 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Printed by Quad/Graphics, Hartford, WI. 53027 The world this week The Economist June 30th 2018 7 must be two people ofthe The Syrian army stepped up A federal judge issued an order Politics same sex, but the court found its assault on the rebel-held to reunite familieswho have that this breaches the Euro- part ofDeraa, a province in the been separated at the Mexican pean Convention on Human south-west. The fighting has border when trying to cross it Rights. Those who advocate displaced 45,000 people, illegally. More than 2,000 broadening civil partnerships according to the UN. children separated from their to all people urged the govern- parents in the recent crack- ment to change the law. A moderate climate down remain in custody; in Centrists did well in provincial some cases their parents have Lucky escapes elections in Indonesia. But in already been deported. The An explosion at a campaign the governor’s race in North House, meanwhile, rejected an rally in Zimbabwe attended Sumatra, in which the two immigration reform bill when by Emmerson Mnangagwa, candidates resembled the over100 Republicans ignored the president, killed two peo- likely contenders in next year’s their party’s leaders and voted ple and injured dozens.