The Economist

For most women deciding how or when to give birth, covid-19 has been a nightmare. Fertility treatments have paused, sexual-health clinics closed and partners been banned from delivery rooms. Yet the pandemic has brought one silver lining. It has shown a better way to carry out early-stage abortions.

Within a week of discovering she was pregnant in late April, Sylvie (not her real name) knew she wanted an abortion. The pandemic had made her the sole breadwinner, and she had a young daughter to look after. She called Marie Stopes, a charity, which arranged a phone consultation with a representative from BPAS, another charity, at her local hospital. Four days later a packet of medicine arrived through the letterbox, and she terminated her pregnancy at home with the support of her partner. Abortion is a “horrible thing,” she says. But “in terms of how it was handled, it couldn’t have gone better”.

Nearly 60 years at Cipla, an Indian drugmaker where he is chairman, prepared him for covid-19. Production at its 30 plants fell by 70% nearly overnight in March as India’s government ordered a lockdown that made it hard for its 23,000 employees.

A dressed in saris sit on benches at the branch of the Ujjivan Small Finance Bank on Koramangala 80 Feet Road, awaiting disbursements of tiny loans. The money is needed for school fees, to finance home businesses or, in a couple of cases, bigger ventures that will have employees and assets. One is hoping to produce pickles; another wants working capital for a welding shop. Ujjivan (“uplift” in Sanskrit) was founded in 2005 to bring the group-lending techniques being pioneered in rural microfina

Reliance debt-sodden firms receiving a cash infusion from a foreign buyer swirl regularly, but rarely become reality. With the country in lockdown and oil prices crashing, worries have grown that the most touted such investment—the $15bn purchase of 20% of Reliance Industries’ refining arm by Saudi Aramco, the kingdom’s oil colossus—may be delayed or cancelled. That deal had been seen as a way to ease the pressure from loans used to build Reliance’s Jio telecoms arm: concerns that it was under strain c

Exactly two months under one of the world’s most stringent covid-19 lockdowns, India faces a double dilemma. The stay-at-home rules did indeed bend the virus’s growth curve. This means that, so far, fewer Indians are known to have died of the disease than Swedes, even though India has 134 times more people. Yet India’s lockdown failed to

S India went into a strict lockdown in March, its central bank allowed borrowers to put off loan repayments for three months. That moratorium has since been extended by a further three months, and another extension is reportedly being considered. It appears to have been a boon to borrowers. But top financiers, such as Deepak Parekh, the chairman of , a big mortgage lender, and Uday Kotak, the chief executive of Kotak Mahindra Bank, are beginning to worry that it is damaging the financial system.

T landed like fists in a one-two punch. First came the news that India had counted 78,000 new cases of covid-19 on August 30th alone—more than any other country has tallied in a single day since the pandemic began. The next day came the bill for the two-month lockdown that the government imposed in late March at only four hours’ notice. The National Statistical Office said that India’s output between April and June was 23.9% lower than in the same period the year before. India had never recorde

ONLY A CRICKET match with Pakistan could have drawn as much attention. At 11am on February 1st every financier, investor and trader stopped what they were doing in order to watch Nirmala Sitharaman, the finance minister, unveil the budget. The stockmarket opened for a special Saturday trading session. Employees in banks’ trading and asset-management divisions, usually closed for the weekend, went into work. The stakes were especially high this year. The economy has floundered—the government exp

Can private equity’s numbers be trusted?

I was interviewed by The Economist's Intelligence podcast for my piece on Laos' famous ant-egg soup.

“I love China,” declared Boris Johnson, then mayor of London, in 2013, exhorting British children, his own included, to study Mandarin. Seven years on, he is a lot less keen on China, and the vogue for studying Mandarin seems to be fading.

In twenty years, stock exchanges have gone from clubby firms to huge conglomerates

The Intelligence: The Economist's daily podcast (16:10 onwards)

When Lacey discovered she was pregnant with her first baby, she excitedly went to see the . The event felt ceremonial, the first of many meaningful encounters that she expected to have on her way to giving birth. The doctor, whom Lacey had never met before, didn’t congratulate her. She explained that Lacey, a 35-year-old life coach in London, would hop onto a conveyor belt that would take her from appointment to appointment. At each one she would be told exactly what to do and she’d end up with a baby.

Even if some new forests are growing, the remaining canopies are becoming shorter

Laos is changing, and so is the way Lao people eat. Will ancient favorites like ant-egg soup have a future?

Freezing China out of the global payments system could have unthinkable consequences

Lenders deserve relief, belief and a dose of red tape

Under China's new civil code, adopted in May, couples will have to wait 30 days between registering their intent to split for good and actually doing so. Nothing wrong with that, some might argue—many other countries have similar “cooling-off” requirements. On matters related to marriage, Chinese law is still remarkably liberal. Yet weeks after the restriction was introduced (it will take effect in January), many netizens remain furious. It will, they say, imperil the lives of women.

European banks expect fewer bad loans than American rivals. Who is right?

In September 2018, Matthew Torne, a British filmmaker, released the third in his trilogy of documentaries about Hong Kong. “Last Exit To Kai Tak” is a bittersweet chronicle of five Hong Kongers who, after the disappointment of the pro-democracy “umbrella” protests of 2014, grapple with what is left for them in the city, as its liberties are chipped away by an increasingly bellicose Chinese government. The burning question, as one character puts it, is this: “revolution or emigration?”

In many ways , Gao Moumou was lucky. She had a good job as a product director in Beijing for Dangdang, an e-commerce firm, which allowed her to save enough money for her gender-reassignment surgery. Her office gave her time off to recover, but on September 6th, 2018, less than three months after her surgery, Dangdang fired Ms Gao, citing her “continuous absenteeism”. Ms Gao thinks the real reason was transphobia. In January this year a court in Beijing surprised many by agreeing with her.

In a trial in Canada later this year, one of the questions is whether Cindy Gladue liked rough sex. Specifically, if she liked it rough enough to consent to digital penetration that tore an 11cm wound in her vaginal wall. Ms Gladue bled to death, so she cannot testify. Bradley Barton, charged with her manslaughter, says her death was a tragic accident. Mr Barton’s case, a retrial, will be heard in November. The verdict in another case is expected on July 31st.

Ant Group announces plans to list in Shanghai and Hong Kong

China’s newest technology stock exchange is thriving despite the pandemic

The threat of irrelevance spurs insurers to consider new ideas

It might have been the most polite bank robbery in New York’s history. At half past five in the afternoon on January 10th a man in a Chicago Bulls baseball cap walked into a Chase Bank branch in Brooklyn and handed a note to the teller. “This is a robbery,” the message said, in handwritten red ink. “Big bills only.” He walked out with $1,000. The man accused of the heist is Gerod Woodberry. Less than four hours before the Brooklyn incident, Mr Woodberry had been released from police custody after being

As covid-19 saps Vietnam’s economy, private charity is blossoming. That is unusual for a workers’ paradise. Despite the mid-morning heat, residents of the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, swarm around the dispenser filling their brown paper bags.

Trade finance, the world's most complicated paper chase, stumbles into the digital era