FEW TOPICS appear to rile people in the West as much as political correctness and its impact upon free speech. Although some on the left would like to see more laws governing what is, and is not, acceptable to say in public, most people prefer simply to avoid what they consider hurtful language. Conservatives, meanwhile, tend to complain that this tendency has gone too far and endangers the principle of free speech.

SPAIN’S CONQUEST of the Inca empire in the 16th century was catastrophic for the Incas. Within four decades the native population fell by 75-90%. Old-world diseases were mostly to blame, but forced labour played a part. Missionaries coerced Spain’s new subjects to convert to Catholicism, while viceroys razed Inca buildings.

FEW TOPICS appear to rile people in the West as much as political correctness and its impact upon free speech. Although some on the left would like to see more laws governing what is, and is not, acceptable to say in public, most people prefer simply to avoid what they consider hurtful language. Conservatives, meanwhile, tend to complain that this tendency has gone too far and endangers the principle of free speech.

A FOURTH WAVE of covid-19 infections is washing across America. It is strongest in the heartland and southern states: cases per 100,000 people are highest in Louisiana, Florida and Arkansas; Missouri has the highest hospitalisations. But the rapidly spreading Delta variant threatens other places, too. Since vaccinations have stalled at around 155m adults, or 60% of the population aged 18 or over, few if any parts of the country have reached herd immunity. The new wave is likely to crash everywhere.

SPAIN’S CONQUEST of the Inca empire in the 16th century was catastrophic for the Incas. Within four decades the native population fell by 75-90%. Old-world diseases were mostly to blame, but forced labour played a part. Missionaries coerced Spain’s new subjects to convert to Catholicism, while viceroys razed Inca buildings.

FEW TOPICS appear to rile people in the West as much as political correctness and its impact upon free speech. Although some on the left would like to see more laws governing what is, and is not, acceptable to say in public, most people prefer simply to avoid what they consider hurtful language. Conservatives, meanwhile, tend to complain that this tendency has gone too far and endangers the principle of free speech.

SPAIN’S CONQUEST of the Inca empire in the 16th century was catastrophic for the Incas. Within four decades the native population fell by 75-90%. Old-world diseases were mostly to blame, but forced labour played a part. Missionaries coerced Spain’s new subjects to convert to Catholicism, while viceroys razed Inca buildings.

A FOURTH WAVE of covid-19 infections is washing across America. It is strongest in the heartland and southern states: cases per 100,000 people are highest in Louisiana, Florida and Arkansas; Missouri has the highest hospitalisations. But the rapidly spreading Delta variant threatens other places, too. Since vaccinations have stalled at around 155m adults, or 60% of the population aged 18 or over, few if any parts of the country have reached herd immunity. The new wave is likely to crash everywhere.

SPAIN’S CONQUEST of the Inca empire in the 16th century was catastrophic for the Incas. Within four decades the native population fell by 75-90%. Old-world diseases were mostly to blame, but forced labour played a part. Missionaries coerced Spain’s new subjects to convert to Catholicism, while viceroys razed Inca buildings.

HATTIE MCDANIEL was the first black person to win an Oscar, in 1940. She received her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of “Mammy”, a house slave in “Gone With the Wind”. Although critics allege that the film romanticised slavery in the antebellum South, McDaniel thought that her Oscar represented a watershed moment for America. “My own people were especially happy. They felt that in honouring me, Hollywood had honoured the entire race,” she wrote in the Hollywood Reporter in 1947.

IN RECENT DECADES, economic growth in poor and middle-income countries was on a tear. But any hope that a significant part of the developing world will “catch up” with the advanced economies looks increasingly forlorn. Real income per person in developing countries as a fraction of real incomes in America is no longer rising by much, if at all, in many places. In response, economies must try to remain open. That’s harder than it used to be, given the unequal impact of covid-19, for example. Political turmoil also imposes high costs. South Africa recently endured an insurrection, Colombia has suffered violent protests and Tunisia faces a constitutional crisis. Illiberal government is also back in fashion. Peru has just sworn in a Marxist as its president and independent institutions are under attack in Brazil, India and Mexico. Bad policymaking is also a factor. China’s ongoing suppression of its tech companies could cost its economy, and its people, dearly in the long term....

AT A PRESS conference at the White House on June 22nd Anthony Fauci, the director of America’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, issued a warning. The delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, first identified in India in February, was spreading in America—and quickly. “The delta variant is currently the greatest threat in the US to our attempt to eliminate covid-19,” declared Dr Fauci. Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, issued a similar warning a week earlier. To contain the rapid spread of the variant, European countries and Hong Kong have tightened controls on travellers from Britain.

AT A PRESS conference at the White House on June 22nd Anthony Fauci, the director of America’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, issued a warning. The delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, first identified in India in February, was spreading in America—and quickly. “The delta variant is currently the greatest threat in the US to our attempt to eliminate covid-19,” declared Dr Fauci. Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, issued a similar warning a week earlier. To contain the rapid spread of the variant, European countries and Hong Kong have tightened controls on travellers from Britain.

ACROSS THE world, the relationship between the press and the governments it holds to account has grown increasingly vexed. Conservative lawmakers in Britain want to bring the BBC to heel, arguing that it is not impartial and does not represent the country as a whole. On June 24th Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, was forced to shut under a new national-security law which clamps down on “treason, secession [and] sedition”. In May a Belarusian fighter jet forced down a passenger flight so that Roman Protasevich, a Belarusian opposition blogger, could be detained. He remains under house arrest.

ACROSS THE world, the relationship between the press and the governments it holds to account has grown increasingly vexed. Conservative lawmakers in Britain want to bring the BBC to heel, arguing that it is not impartial and does not represent the country as a whole. On June 24th Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, was forced to shut under a new national-security law which clamps down on “treason, secession [and] sedition”. In May a Belarusian fighter jet forced down a passenger flight so that Roman Protasevich, a Belarusian opposition blogger, could be detained. He remains under house arrest.

ACROSS THE world, the relationship between the press and the governments it holds to account has grown increasingly vexed. Conservative lawmakers in Britain want to bring the BBC to heel, arguing that it is not impartial and does not represent the country as a whole. On June 24th Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, was forced to shut under a new national-security law which clamps down on “treason, secession [and] sedition”. In May a Belarusian fighter jet forced down a passenger flight so that Roman Protasevich, a Belarusian opposition blogger, could be detained. He remains under house arrest.

ACROSS THE world, the relationship between the press and the governments it holds to account has grown increasingly vexed. Conservative lawmakers in Britain want to bring the BBC to heel, arguing that it is not impartial and does not represent the country as a whole. On June 24th Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, was forced to shut under a new national-security law which clamps down on “treason, secession [and] sedition”. In May a Belarusian fighter jet forced down a passenger flight so that Roman Protasevich, a Belarusian opposition blogger, could be detained. He remains under house arrest.

CRITICAL RACE theory (CRT) is the Republican Party’s new bogey. As with Democratic calls to “defund the police” in the wake of George Floyd’s death last year, the party believes it has found an unpopular notion that can be used for electoral gain. Last month the Republican-led state legislature in Texas passed a bill limiting how teachers can discuss race and current events. It banned teachers from designing coursework around the New York Times’s 1619 Project, which examines the country’s history from the date when enslaved people first arrived on American soil. The Florida State Board of Education also banned the teaching of CRT, which it defined reasonably accurately as “the theory that racism is not merely the product of prejudice, but that racism is embedded in American society and its legal systems in order to uphold the supremacy of white persons”.

FIGURES RELEASED last month showed that American consumer-price inflation hit 4.2% year-on-year in April, the highest rate since 2008. Markets were spooked. Investors feared that higher inflation and interest rates could destroy asset values. Then, on June 10th, came worse news, or so it seemed. In May annual inflation rose higher still, to 5%. Prices climbed by 0.6% that month alone. But this time financial markets were sanguine. One reason could be that much of the inflation comes from a surprisingly small part of the economy: the market for used cars. Economists crunching the latest inflation data have found soaring used-car prices to be the prime culprit behind the surge. About a third of May’s overall month-on-month rise came from the appreciating value of cast-off cars. According to official figures, from the Bureau of Labour Statistics, the prices of used cars and trucks have risen 30% over the past year. Many in the automotive industry think that is an underestimate....

BUSINESSES IN ENGLAND had been eagerly anticipating June 21st—the “freedom day” when all coronavirus restrictions were to be lifted. But on June 14th Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, dashed their hopes. It was “time to ease off the accelerator” he said. Cases, hospitalisations and admissions to intensive care were rising. Ireland, France and Germany are among countries that have tightened restrictions on travellers from Britain. The cause for concern is the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus which causes covid-19).

BUSINESSES IN ENGLAND had been eagerly anticipating June 21st—the “freedom day” when all coronavirus restrictions were to be lifted. But on June 14th Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, dashed their hopes. It was “time to ease off the accelerator” he said. Cases, hospitalisations and admissions to intensive care were rising. Ireland, France and Germany are among countries that have tightened restrictions on travellers from Britain. The cause for concern is the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus which causes covid-19).

BUSINESSES IN ENGLAND had been eagerly anticipating June 21st—the “freedom day” when all coronavirus restrictions were to be lifted. But on June 14th Boris Johnson dashed their hopes. It was “time to ease off the accelerator” said Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister. Cases, hospitalisations and admissions to intensive care were rising. Ireland, France and Germany are among countries that have tightened restrictions on travellers from Britain. The cause for concern is the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus which causes covid-19).

BUSINESSES IN ENGLAND had been eagerly anticipating June 21st—the “freedom day” when all coronavirus restrictions were to be lifted. But on June 14th Boris Johnson dashed their hopes. It was “time to ease off the accelerator” said Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister. Cases, hospitalisations and admissions to intensive care were rising. Ireland, France and Germany are among countries that have tightened restrictions on travellers from Britain. The cause for concern is the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus which causes covid-19).

FIGURES RELEASED last month showed that American consumer-price inflation hit 4.2% year-on-year in April, the highest rate since 2008. Markets were spooked. Investors feared that higher inflation and interest rates could destroy asset values. Then, on June 10th, came worse news, or so it seemed. In May annual inflation rose higher still, to 5%. Prices climbed by 0.6% that month alone. But this time financial markets were sanguine. One reason could be that much of the inflation comes from a surprisingly small part of the economy: the market for used cars. Economists crunching the latest inflation data have found soaring used-car prices to be the prime culprit behind the surge. About a third of May’s overall month-on-month rise came from the appreciating value of cast-off cars. According to official figures, from the Bureau of Labour Statistics, the prices of used cars and trucks have risen 30% over the past year. Many in the automotive industry think that is an underestimate....