Also: Inside Hamas’s sprawling financial empire Read in browser November 23rd 2023 The Economist this week Highlights from the latest issue Zanny Minton Beddoes Editor-in-chief At the forthcoming UN climate-change conference in Dubai, governments will assess how much progress they have made since the Paris agreement of 2015. This week, as well as assessing that progress ourselves in a leader, we also look at one climate solution which is not discussed as much as it should be: carbon-dioxide removal. All net-zero plans rely, at some point, on being able to take greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere when further reductions in emissions are too hard. But despite lots of interesting startups and increasing investment, the technology to do so is still at a very early stage. Our special report looks both at how it might develop and what the ability to trade off emissions cuts against removals might mean for the economy. Our cover in the Middle East and Africa this week is also related to Dubai: it looks at the United Arab Emirates’ ambitious ascent. When I travelled there last month with colleagues, I was struck by how upbeat investors, business folk and officials were, even as war had broken out in Gaza. The country is in the middle of an astonishing boom as Chinese traders, Indian tycoons, Russian billionaires and Western financiers flock to it in search of stability and success. The UAE has become the Singapore of the Middle East, but that is only part of the story. It is also seizing a bigger geopolitical role. Over the next few weeks, as the host of the UN’s climate summit, for instance, it hopes to be a broker between rich and poor countries. But it is also making terrible mistakes. Our leader asks what other countries eager to play on the global stage can learn from its example. Get to the heart of the stories that matter Enjoy 50% off The Economist in our Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale Get offer   Editor’s picks Must-reads this week Must try harder Progress on climate change has not been fast enough, but it has been real And the world needs to learn from it Related Special report: Carbon-dioxide removal Solar geoengineering is becoming a respectable idea Film: How green is the energy revolution really? Climbing high How to thrive in a fractured world Lessons from the ambitious ascent of the United Arab Emirates Related The messier the world gets, the more the UAE seems to thrive The sinews of war Inside Hamas’s sprawling financial empire Why Israel is powerless to dismantle the group’s finances Related The A to Z of the Arab-Israeli conflict OpenChaos The fallout from the weirdness at OpenAI Sam Altman is set to return, but the episode holds some disturbing lessons Related Sam Altman’s return marks a new phase for OpenAI Inside OpenAI’s weird governance structure The many contradictions of Sam Altman Walking on air Why house prices have risen once again Across the rich world, they have brushed off higher rates. Can that last? Watch the box The Economist’s pick of the best television shows of 2023 Exceptional comedies, crime dramas, and psychological thrillers have come to the small screen this year Babbage Fei-Fei Li on why we should avoid existential angst about the future of AI Our podcast on science and technology Economist Films Explainer Who is Javier Milei? Argentina’s president-elect wants to take a chainsaw to the state Also from The Economist Climate change Sign up to our climate newsletter The Climate Issue is a fortnightly newsletter featuring exclusive climate-change analysis that you won't read elsewhere in The Economist. We’d like to hear from you Share your feedback via the email address below. Email [email protected]   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. This email has been sent to: couponkirk. If you'd like to update your details please click here. Replies to this email will not reach us. If you don't want to receive these updates anymore, please unsubscribe here. Keep updated Advertising Info Terms & Conditions Help Privacy Policy Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2023. All rights reserved. Registered in England and Wales. No.236383   Registered office: The Adelphi, 1–11 John Adam Street, London, WC2N 6HT This email was sent to: 0033z000035ghg5aae This email was sent by: The Economist Newspaper Ltd., The Adelphi, 1-11 John Adam Street, London, London, WC2N 6HT, GB