Business this week Taiwan applied to join the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a rival to the World Bank that has been devised and will be unofficially led byChina. More than 40 countries, includingBritain,Germany andRussia, have signed up t...
The gay vote Coming out The Conservative Party is winning over some gay voters True pink WHEN the Conservative prime minister, David Cameron, decided to champion same-sex marriage in 2011, many of his backbenchers were horrified. The pledge was not i...
Young and workless Youth employment Recent figures confirmed that government labour-market policies, such as the age discrimination act of 2006 and the equality act of 2010, have enabled older workers to stay in the labour market longer. Two-thirds o...
Teacher recruitment Those who can How to turn teaching into a job that attracts high-flyers IMAGINE a job where excellence does nothing to improve your pay or chances of promotion, and failure carries little risk of being sacked. Your pay is low for...
Ethnic minorities in France An edgy inquiry A taboo on studying immigrant families' performance is fraying BY LAW, French authorities cannot collect ethnic statistics. All citizens are considered equal. Differentiating them is felt to imply stigmatis...
Russia's politics of memory NemtsovBridge A fight over the site of a politician's killing is a proxy for a broader battle Remembered with love MEMORY has long been the subject of fierce and often deadly ideological battles inRussia. Those who control...
High-tech sanitation Race to the bottom A rush to buy Japanese toilet-seats prompts soul-searching in China JAPAN is often viewed with antipathy in China, but increasingly commerce is trumping contempt. During the lunar new-year holiday in February,...
Urban land Space and the city Poor land use in the world's greatest cities carries a huge cost BUY land, advised Mark Twain; they're not making it any more. In fact, land is not really scarce: the entire population of America could fit into Texas wit...
Bratain A Tory titan retires William, it was really nothing The Conservatives bid farewell to a talented parliamentarian THE high esteem in which William Hague is held was evident on March 26th even amid the Conservative leader of the House of Common...
Oxford Dreaming cranes It is the biggest construction boom since the Middle Ages IN HIS book Notes from a Small Island, Bill Bryson, an American author, took exception to some of Oxford's 20th-century architecture. It is, he wrote, as though the city...
