Inside the Chinese game where women fall in love with virtual men

A handpicked article read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist

Also on the daily podcast: rebuilding Syria and New York street markets

And reminds readers that crime fiction is the best urban genre

Firing the reformist defence minister has plunged Volodymyr Zelensky’s government into crisis

Saying greedy shops have caused rising food prices is populist slop

It risks inflaming ethnic tensions and undermining territorial claims

The euro gets a makeover

But it is unclear what the sky-rocketing number of prosecutions is achieving

But eco-authoritarianism is not all roses

CXMT’s monster initial public offering is a moneymaker for the state. Its success may not be repeated

Work with the East Asia bureau of The Economist

The Economist investigates whether it stands up

The returns on trillions of dollars of spending are deeply uncertain

Also on the daily podcast: women’s progress in the workplace stalls and America’s “night mayors”

It’s lonely being loaded. After years of high inflation hitting living standards, people are looking for someone to blame and billionaires fit the bill nicely. You don’t top a rich list—so the popular wisdom goes—without engaging in some bootlicking, game…

A gory film tests prudish government censors

A handpicked article read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist

Our weekly podcast on China. This week, gender politics in the land of the one-child policy.

Britain’s biggest-ever by-election is creating minimal buzz, writes Hugo Gye, our political correspondent