How AMLO could ruin Mexico Did covid come from a lab? Belarus: pirate and pariah The capex bonanza MAY 29TH–JUNE 4TH 2021 Two states or one? The hopeless peace process Contents The Economist May 29th 2021 5 The world this week Britain 7 A summary of political 21 The bbc’s problems and business news 22 An Australian trade deal An adviser speaks Leaders 23 The hush in the City 9 Israel and Palestine 23 Two states or one? 24 Class and nature writing 10 Corporate investment 26 Zoom justice Innovation nations 26 A surge in banknotes 10 The euro zone 28 Bagehot Mr Levelling Up Take one for the team 11 Ventilation Europe Fresh thinking about 29 Belarus hijacks a plane fresh air On the cover 30 Russia’s Czech problem 12 Mexico 31 A Turkish mobster takes The Israeli-Palestinian peace The false messiah on the government process has become an obstacle to progress: leader, Letters 31 Norwegian folk music page 9. The ideal of two states 14 On digital currencies, 32 Parisian voters has failed. It has left the Holy technology and China, 34 Charlemagne How Land looking like one unequal Wyoming, ice hockey farmers still rule Europe state, page 44 Briefing United States How amlo could ruin Mexico 17 Mexico’s populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador 35 Texas moves righter president pursues bad policies by 36 The George Floyd Act The unnoticed radical improper means: leader, page 12. 37 Central America Elections on June 6th will 37 Infrastructure year determine how deeply—and ruinously—he can transform his 38 Wildlife wars country: briefing, page 17 39 New York’s new island 40 Lexington The Kamala Did covid-19 come from a lab? dilemma How can the world prepare for a future pandemic when it does The Americas not know where this one came Patronage in Brazil from? Page 57. What to make of 41 the lab theory, page 58. 42 Chile’s new constitution Improving the ventilation of 43 The Shining Path returns buildings will help curb covid-19, 43 Canada’s Butter Rage page 75. The case for clean air: leader, page 11 The capex bonanza Firms are Middle East & Africa rediscovering their love for investment: leader, page 10. 44 One-state reality in We analyse their plans, page 67 the Holy Land Free exchange When 47 Islam and homosexuality Belarus: pirate and pariah does transitory inflation 47 Mali’s coup within a coup Having hijacked a Ryanair plane, become sustained? Some 48 A vicious jihadist is dead it has only one friend to turn to, lessons from the 1970s, page 29. Russia puts the Czech page 73 Republic on an ocial enemies list, page 30 → Activating the digital element of your subscription means that you can search our archive, read all of our daily journalism and listen to audio versions of our stories. Just visit economist.com/activate Contents continues overleaf 6 Contents The Economist May 29th 2021 Asia Finance & economics 49 Myanmar’s worried 67 An investment bonanza investors 68 Recovery in the euro zone 50 Commerce after a coup 69 Buttonwood The 51 Islamists in Bangladesh crypto-fiat divide 51 Australia’s frisky whales 70 How to end the pandemic 52 India’s crisis eases 70 America’s housing market 53 Banyan China loses the 71 Morbid finance in France Philippines 72 Chasing Chinese assets 73 Free exchange Inflation China and the 1970s 54 Inequality in education 55 Hazing at weddings Science & technology 56 Chaguan A revealing 75 How covid-19 really Afghan strategy spreads 78 Eunuch gm mosquitoes 78 Autonomous weapons 79 A better fog trap International 57 Where covid-19 came from Books & arts 58 The likelihood of a 80 History and memory in laboratory origin Russia 81 Satirical fiction 82 Cosmopolitan Prague 82 A history of censorship Business 83 Persian music 61 The future of Big Oil 63 China’s logistics race Economic & financial indicators 63 Chinese tech’s online 84 Statistics on 42 economies binge dax 64 A rare mega-merger Graphic detail 64 Refloating the cruise 85 Educated voters’ leftward shift is surprisingly old industry 65 Bartleby Decision fatigue Obituary 66 Schumpeter Strategic 86 Yuan Longping, feeder of China and the world u-turns Volume 439 Number 9247 Published since September 1843 Subscription service to take part in “a severe contest between For our full range of subscription oers, including The best way to contact our Customer Service Please intelligence, which presses forward, digital only or print and digital bundled, visit: team is via phone or live chat. 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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 Walstead Peterborough Limited The world this week Politics The Economist May 29th 2021 7 of the coronavirus. A foreign agency said he was very con- ministry spokesman accused cerned about Iran’s claim to be Coronavirus briefs America of smearing China enriching uranium to a purity To am GMT May th and of ignoring the possibility level of 60%, a level only coun- that the virus originated in the tries that are making bombs Weekly confirmed cases by area, m United States. attempt to reach. 3 India 2 Twenty-one competitors in a Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Western Europe 100km ultra-marathon in a Boko Haram, a jihadist group 1 mountainous area of western that enslaves girls, reportedly Other US China were killed by extreme died in Nigeria after blowing 0 weather, including hail. himself up to avoid capture by 2020 2021 Belarus hijacked a Ryanair rival jihadists. Mr Shekau has Vaccination doses plane flying from one eu coun- The Texas legislature passed a been declared dead five times % of adults with try (Greece) to another (Lithua- bill that allows the state’s before, only to resurface. But Total ’000 1st dose 2nd nia) with more than 100 people residents to carry a handgun this time the reports appear to Israel 10,568 98 92 UAE 12,416 95 60 on board. The plane was in without a licence. The law sets be true. Bhutan 483 95 0 Belarusian airspace. Citing a up an online course in gun Mongolia 2,730 90 44 “bomb threat”, the authorities safety for people unsure about Army officers in Mali forced Malta 491 87 50 sent a fighter jet to make it how to handle weapons. the president and prime min- Maldives 465 75 39 land in Minsk, the Belarusian ister to resign because they Britain 61,995 74 45 capital. They arrested two Israel and Hamas, the militant were upset about a reshuffling Chile 17,794 70 55 Bahrain 1,621 68 56 passengers: Roman Protasev- Islamist group that controls of the cabinet. The same offi- Canada 21,638 67 6 ich, an exiled journalist, and Gaza, stuck to a recently cers carried out a coup last United States 287,789 66 50 his girlfriend. Mr Protasevich agreed ceasefire. To bolster the September. Sources: Johns Hopkins University CSSE; had rallied opposition to Alex- truce Antony Blinken, Amer- Our World in Data; United Nations ander Lukashenko, the despot ica’s secretary of state, held After years of dodge and who stole Belarus’s presi- separate meetings with Binya- deferment, Jacob Zuma, a The number of officially dential election last year. No min Netanyahu, Israel’s prime former president of South recorded cases in India con- bomb was found. Russia minister, and Mahmoud Africa, appeared in court. He tinued to fall, on one day applauded Mr Lukashenko’s Abbas, the president of the faces 18 charges relating to an dropping below 200,000 for boldness; the eu mulled sanc- Palestinian Authority. He also arms deal signed by the gov- the first time in weeks. tions on his isolated regime. went to Egypt and Jordan. ernment in the late 1990s, including an allegation that he Germany banned most visi- Switzerland said it was walk- Republicans in the American accepted a bribe from Thales, a tors from Britain because of ing away from years of negoti- Congress introduced legisla- French defence firm. Both he the spreading Indian variant ations on a new treaty with the tion to beef up the govern- and the firm deny the charges. of covid-19 in that country. eu aimed at harmonising ment’s monitoring of anti- French officials said people dozens of messy individual Semitic attacks. The conflict In Peru16 people were massa- entering from Britain would deals on trade, investment and between Israel and Hamas has cred in a village in a region have to quarantine, but the movement of people.