Inside Assad’s new Syria America’s Supreme Court swings right Bog-roll Boris, the busted flush How to make meetings less dreadful JUNE 30TH–JULY 6TH 2018 Thetechgiant everyone is watching Contents The Economist June 30th 2018 5 8 The world this week United States 34 The Supreme Court Leaders Right of way 11 Netflixonomics 35 Bureaucracy The tech giant everyone Shuffle up is watching 36 School design 12 America’s Supreme Court Brutalism After Kennedy 36 Immigration policy 12 The war in Syria How we got here The new Palestinians 39 Lexington Brexit and business Amid a 13 Railways India and America row between business leaders Free the rails and Conservative hardliners, a 14 China’s university- The Americas softer Brexit gains political On the cover entrance exam 40 Canada’s climate policy ground, page 21 Netflix has transformed Gaokao gruel Trudeau and the Toronto television. It is beloved by troublemaker investors, consumers and Letters 41 Funerals in Cuba politicians. Can that last? 15 On trade, surveillance Not going gently Leader, page11. The technology, Xinjiang, 41 Brazilian agriculture entertainment industry is football, Brexit Embrapa’s lost sparkle scrabbling to catch up with a disrupter, page18. The 42 Bello internet was meant to make Briefing The high price of political saviours the world a less centralised 18 Netflixonomics place, but the opposite has The television will be happened. Ludwig Siegele revolutionised Special report: explains why it matters, and Fixing the internet what can be done about it. US Supreme Court Justice The ins and outs See our special report after Britain Anthony Kennedy’s retirement After page 42 page 42 21 Business and politics comes at a worrying time: Hard Brexit unravels leader, page12. The 2017-18 22 Airport expansion Middle East and Africa term was a triumph for The Economist online Problem in the air 43 The future of Syria conservatives, page 34 Daily analysis and opinion to 22 Online campaigning Smaller, in ruins and more supplement the print edition, plus Of barks and bites sectarian audio and video, and a daily chart 23 Labour’s future 45 Protests in Iran Economist.com It’s all Greek to them Rial problems E-mail: newsletters and 23 Rooftop gardens 46 Zimbabwe’s election mobile edition Buzzing and blooming Will it be fair? Economist.com/email 24 Government outsourcing 46 Democracy in Senegal Print edition: available online by The good, the dumb and Reason to worry 7pm London time each Thursday the desperate 48 Somalia and piracy Economist.com/printedition 26 Bagehot A new approach available online Audio edition: Three myths of the NHS to download each Friday Economist.com/audioedition Asia Syria Bashar al-Assad is Europe 49 Politics in the Philippines victorious. But unless refugees can return safely, 27 Turkey’s election Rebel with a cause Recep Tayyip the First 50 Elections in Indonesia they could destabilise the A 175m-man rehearsal Middle East for decades: 28 European defence leader, page 12. How the Assad Coalition of the practical 50 South Korea’s baby bust Volume 427 Number 9098 regime is changing Syria’s 28 Immigration and crime Procreative struggle religious make-up, page 43 Published since September1843 Panic attack 51 Virginity tests in to take part in "a severe contest between South Asia intelligence, which presses forward, and 29 Women in Finland an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing No-man’s-land Legal assault our progress." 32 Retirement in Russia 52 Banyan Editorial offices in London and also: Asia braces for a trade war Beijing, Berlin, Brussels, Cairo, Chicago, Madrid, Back to work Mexico City, Moscow, Mumbai, Nairobi, New Delhi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, São Paulo, Seoul, 33 Charlemagne Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, Washington DC A Balkan opening 1 Contents continues overleaf 6 Contents The Economist June 30th 2018 China Science and technology 53 Community management 70 Psychiatric illness Beefing up neighbourhood Who is to decide, when watch doctors disagree? 54 University admissions 71 Human behaviour The gaokao goes global Oh, the places you’ll go! 71 Cognitive decline International Windows to the brain 55 Patient safety 72 The economics of gifts Physician, heal thy systems Presents of mind China v America Just how 72 Poliomyelitis Patient safety As they strive badly has USA Inc been treated This time it’s real to reduce the alarming by China? Schumpeter, page 62. Business incidence of medical errors, 73 Textiles How the Trump administration 57 European rail Copper-bottomed ideas hospitals are using ideas from will clamp down on Chinese New kids on the track industry and behavioural investment, page 64. Is 58 Bartleby science, page 55 Harley-Davidson’s decision to Taking minutes, wasting Books and arts shift production an isolated hours 74 Revisiting the cold response to Donald Trump’s 59 Restructuring at GE war on screen Subscription service trade war? Page 65 The thaw For our full range of subscription offers, Power failure including digital only or print and digital 60 A victory for Uber 75 The fate of the Romanovs combined visit Family values Economist.com/offers London bridged You can also subscribe by mail or telephone at 60 VW in Rwanda 76 Race, crime and justice the details provided below: First gear in America Telephone: +44 (0) 845 120 0983 Black, white and grey Web: Economist.com/offers 61 Coinbase Crypto’s white-shoe firm 76 A history of skyscrapers Post: The Economist On State Street, that great Subscription Centre, 62 Schumpeter P.O. Box 471, street Haywards Heath, USA Inc v China RH16 3GY 77 How to teach literature UK The art of pouncing Subscription for 1 year (51 issues) Finance and economics Print only UK – £145 63 Wages 80 Economic and financial Railways Why Europe’s train The real story network needs more, not less, indicators Principal commercial offices: competition: leader, page13. 64 Chinese investment Statistics on 42 economies, Safe and secure The Adelphi Building, 1-11John Adam Street, Many state rail firms are ill- plus a closer look at drug London WC2N 6HT prepared for coming reforms, 65 China’s economy production Tel: +44 (0) 20 7830 7000 page 57 Mama’s love Rue de l’Athénée 32 1206 Geneva, Switzerland 65 Harley-Davidson shifts Obituary Tel: +4122 566 2470 production 82 David Goldblatt 750 3rd Avenue, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10017 Roaring away Black and white and read Tel: +1212 5410500 66 The resource curse all over 1301Cityplaza Four, Grand Theft Petro 12 Taikoo Wan Road, Taikoo Shing, Hong Kong Tel: +852 2585 3888 66 Fertility treatment An embryonic idea Other commercial offices: Chicago, Dubai, Frankfurt, Los Angeles, 67 Buttonwood Paris, San Francisco and Singapore Chinese bonds 68 Italy’s asset managers Rich pickings 68 The daily grind Rules for meetings How to Easier money make them less dreadful: Bartleby, page 58 69 Free exchange User ratings PEFC certified This copy of The Economist is printed on paper sourced from sustainably managed forests certified by PEFC PEFC/16-33-582 www.pefc.org Registered as a newspaper. © 2018 The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of The Economist Newspaper Limited. Published every week, except for a year-end double issue, by The Economist Newspaper Limited. The Economist is a registered trademark of The Economist Newspaper Limited. Printed by Wyndeham Peterborough Limited. 8 The world this week The Economist June 30th 2018 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. The presidential election, the mod- against it. Turkey’s president, Recep government claimed that Mr erate whose views are closest Tayyip Erdogan, defied the Mnangagwa was the target of to those ofthe president, Joko In this week’s primaries, Mitt pundits by winning an the attack. He was unharmed Widodo, was beaten by a Romney won his bid to be- outright re-election victory in and said a general election, general backed by religious come the Republican candi- the first round ofvoting. His scheduled forJuly 30th, would and nationalist parties. date for a Senate seat in Utah. Justice and Development (AK) go ahead. He is all but assured ofwin- party, together with its allies, Rodrigo Duterte, the president ning the seat in November; in also triumphed in simulta- A similar attackin Ethiopia ofthe Philippines, called God his victory speech Mr Romney neous elections to parliament. killed two people and injured a “son ofa whore”.