Preparing the way: The alarming plans for Trump’s second term

The world this week

Politics
Business
KAL’s cartoon
This week’s cover
Leaders


Preparing for government
How MAGA Republicans plan to make Donald Trump’s second term count
They think they know how to banish the chaos and frustrations of his first four years

Pledges in Vilnius
NATO’s promises to Ukraine mark real progress
But the alliance has much more work to do

The big distraction
American trustbusters are losing their focus
An obsession with technology and size distracts from truly harmful market power

The manufacturing delusion
Subsidies and protection for manufacturing will harm the world economy
Reshaping the world’s supply chains comes at a great cost

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
What matters about the Anthropocene is not when it began, but how it might end
It is all too easy to imagine an era that is nasty, brutish and short

Letters

On aboriginal rights in Australia, artificial intelligence, designing flags
Letters to the editor
By Invitation


Weight-loss drugs
John Schoonbee on why new drugs, while helpful, are no panacea for obesity
Briefing


Chaos meets preparation
A second Trump administration would get its way far more than the first
The America First movement is readying the necessary personnel and policies
Asia


Asia’s digital geography
In Asia data flows are part of a new great game
In a Barbie world
Why has Vietnam banned the “Barbie” film?
Hun Sen’s handsome monument
Cambodia’s autocrat is fixing his succession
Nights at the museum
The Taliban embrace cultural heritage
Banyan
Asia is rowing about Fukushima nuclear wastewater
China


A growing problem
Can China’s farmers cope with the effects of climate change?
Peak toil
The Chinese are working more hours than ever
Setting out their stalls
Another comeback for China’s street merchants
Chaguan
Rule by law, with Chinese characteristics
United States


U-shaped economic thinking
The American left and right loathe each other and agree on a lot
Veni, vidi, veto
Tony Evers’s veto shows the growing power of Midwestern Democrats
Clairvoyant cartel
A pilgrimage to the mecca of mediumship
Justice delayed
Judge and staff shortages are leaving Americans in limbo
General disarray
An abortion battle causes mayhem in America’s military ranks
Age verification on porn sites
America’s state lawmakers are passing ineffective anti-porn laws
Lexington
Joe Biden should run against the Ivy League

Middle East & Africa


The tarnished city of gold
Why Cape Town beats Johannesburg
Ethiopia’s forgotten civil war
War crimes in Tigray may be covered up or forgotten
Both oppressor and protector
Syria’s president wants non-Muslim religions to help end his pariah status
Libya’s elections
Politicians in Libya make another ill-fated push for elections
Crypto-godly
Does Islam smile on cryptocurrency?
The Americas


The new geography of oil
Latin America is set to become a major oil producer this decade
Europe


Progress and pitfalls
NATO did not give Volodymyr Zelensky everything he wanted
Sleepless in battle
Sappers risk their lives to win Ukraine back, inch by inch
The rise of the right
Support for the hard-right AfD is surging in Germany
Heigh ho, it’s Feijoo
Why Spain’s reasonably successful prime minister might lose his job
Charlemagne
Farewell Mark Rutte, the Tiggerish Dutch prime minister
Britain


Commuters and the Tories
The Conservative Party faces a mutiny in Metroland
Same-sex weddings
Many Britons have changed their minds on gay marriage
Cracking the nest-egg
British pension funds agree to invest more in private markets
Not on call
Britain’s doctors are on strike, again
Orkxit
Why the Orkney Islands are considering joining Norway
Bagehot
The strange success of the Tories’ schools policy
International


Seeking “strategic autonomy”
What would Europe do if Trump won?
Business


Size wars
Is big business really getting too big?
A $69bn boss fight
Britain hands Microsoft’s Activision deal an extra life
The WFH showdown
The fight over working from home goes global
Wonder drugs
Big pharma is warming to the potential of AI
Bartleby
Executive coaching is useful therapy that you can expense
Schumpeter
The last, unfulfilled dream of Jamie Dimon, king of Wall Street
Finance & economics


Economic policy
The world is in the grip of a manufacturing delusion
Mission-critical
China controls the supply of crucial war minerals
Down with it
Is America’s inflationary fever breaking?
Making it through the insipid
China’s war on financial reality
Buttonwood
The mystery of gold prices
Free exchange
Why people struggle to understand climate risk
Science & technology


Superforecasting the end of the world
What are the chances of an AI apocalypse?
Not that sort of monolith
An enormous—and unexpected—lump of granite has been found on the Moon
Choosing a fingerprint
A Canadian lake could mark the start of humanity’s geological epoch
What the bones tell
Sabre tooth tigers and dire wolves were in trouble before they vanished
Culture


Shelf-made
Try these books on your summer holiday
World in a dish
When it comes to ice cream, the instinct to innovate is misguided
Tales of the city
Khaled Khalifa’s new novel tells the story of two families in Aleppo
Organised crime
“Narcas” offers a rare glimpse of the women in drug gangs
Back Story
Bruce Springsteen turns back the clock—and stops it
The Economist reads


Promethean sparks
What to read to become more creative
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail


Unfortunate sons
A new study finds that 47,000 Russian combatants have died in Ukraine
The Economist explains


The Economist explains
How AI image-generators work
Obituary


Truth, and how to find it
Victoria Amelina explored a land of atrocities and secrets