Smart Reads July 17, 2013

♦ Martin Wolf argues that world trade remains vulnerable to problems such as financial crises and inequality: “As we learnt in the first half of the 20th century, liberal trade and investment cannot be an island isolated from events.”
♦ Alexei Navalny’s campaign to become Moscow mayor could be derailed by the five cases pending against him – the verdict of the first comes this week.
♦ Despite a surprisingly sharp fall in the deficit, political divisions in the US over longer-term budget policy are as wide as ever.
♦ The last of the Russian “Night Witches” has died – Nadezhda Popova flew 852 missions, chasing German invaders back to Berlin in the dark, with no parachutes, guns, radios or radar.
♦ Peter Hessler looks at the winners and losers in Egypt’s ongoing revolution.