Why China’s government is hushing up court rulings - The Economist (Full Access)   

OVER THE past three decades China’s legal system has been gradually improving, albeit from a low base. The Communist Party still dominates the system: Xi Jinping, China’s leader, denounces judicial independence as a dangerous foreign idea. Suspected criminals who end up in court are found guilty 99% of the time. But analysts reckon the quality of judges on the civil and commercial side has got better and corruption has decreased. The World Bank has a rule-of-law measure that uses indicators like property rights and judicial independence. In 2006 China was in the bottom third of countries. By 2022 it was in the top half.

Better pay for judges and harsher punishments for misconduct have helped. But one crucial change has been more transparency. A decade ago China’s courts were ordered to upload all but the most sensitive of their rulings to a database called China Judgments Online, which was open to anyone. The platform grew to contain over 140m decisions. This unprecedented window into the system was a boon for civil-society groups, which could reference cases in their campaigns to, say, protect the environment or defend women’s rights.

But the era of transparency seems to be ending. In December the supreme court admitted that the pace at which rulings were uploaded to China Judgments Online had fallen. Some judges have reportedly been told that they no longer need to upload cases at all. “Judicial transparency doesn’t mean we need to post all judicial information on the internet,” said the court. It suggested that China Judgments Online raised privacy and security concerns. An alternative database will be launched this year, but will be accessible only to court officials and police.

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How strong is India’s economy under Narendra Modi? - The Economist (Full Access)   

In the second week of 2024 business leaders descended on Gujarat, the home state of Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister. The occasion was the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, one of many gabfests at which India has courted global investors. “At a time when the world is surrounded by many uncertainties, India has emerged as a new ray of hope,” boasted Mr Modi at the event.

He is right. Although global growth is expected to slow from 2.6% last year to 2.4% in 2024, India appears to be booming. Its economy grew by 7.6% in the 12 months to the third quarter of 2023, beating nearly every forecast. Most economists expect an annual growth rate of 6% or more for the rest of this decade. Investors are seized by optimism.

The timing is good for Mr Modi. In April some 900m Indians will be eligible to vote in the largest election in world history. A big reason Mr Modi, who has been in office since 2014, is likely to win a third term is that many Indians think him a more competent manager of the world’s fifth-largest economy than they do any other candidate. Are they right?

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Does Las Vegas’s Sphere reveal the future of concerts? - The Economist (Full Access)   

Nestled between hotels and conference centres, a short walk from the Las Vegas strip, is a giant, wide-eyed emoji. Sometimes it is an enormous, hyperrealistic eyeball, a basketball or a whorl of flames. The Sphere, a remarkable new concert venue, is 366 feet (110 metres) tall and 516 wide; an LED screen spanning almost 600,000 square feet covers the exterior. Inside, enveloping the 17,500 seats, is another vast, ultra-high-resolution screen. This pleasuredome offers an experience unlike any other. It also raises questions about the future of live entertainment.

The high-tech arena was opened in September by U2, who remain in residence until March. The Irish band have a history of innovative concert design as well as corporate ventures, including a long partnership with Apple. Perhaps just as important, U2 are loved by middle-aged rock fans who form the bulk of concert attendees in America and might shell out for a ticket. (Prices start at $140 and go up to $1,500.)

A celebration of “Achtung Baby”, an album released in 1991, U2’s show is an overwhelming phantasmagoria. The band play on a stage shaped like a turntable while work by artists including Es Devlin and John Gerrard appears on the vaulting screen. During “Even Better Than the Real Thing”, there are animations of slot machines and Elvis kitsch. For “Where the Streets Have No Name”, the crowd is transported into the blinding daylight of the high desert. During “With Or Without You” the ceiling teems with images of endangered local species such as the leaf-nosed bat. “It’s a show that’s about the venue that it’s in”, says Willie Williams, U2’s longtime production designer. “It’s about us all going to experience the venue”.

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Heart attacks, strokes, dementia—can Biden and Trump beat the odds? - The Economist (Full Access)   

AGE, THEY say, brings wisdom. But it also brings decrepitude. When the latter begins to outweigh the former, perhaps it is time for even the most ambitious to consider retiring into slippered ease.

If either Joe Biden or Donald Trump has contemplated such retirement, though, they have clearly rejected the idea. Instead, both are proposing themselves as candidates for second stints doing one of the most gruelling jobs on the planet. Mr Trump is now 77 and will be 78 come the general election. Mr Biden is 81, and would be 86 at the end of his term, if he won.

The most popular scientific explanation of ageing, disposable-soma theory, holds that natural selection hones youth at the expense of age, since this best serves the task of passing genes to the next generation. In both candidates’ cases, that has happened. Mr Biden fathered four children and has seven grandchildren; Mr Trump fathered five, and has ten. But the evolutionary flip-side, in the view of many commentators, is becoming apparent in slips, verbal and physical, being made by both, but especially by Mr Biden. Perhaps, some suggest, the slippers should beckon after all.

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