What Javier Milei can teach Donald Trump
The world this week
Politics
Business
The weekly cartoon
This week’s covers

The World Ahead

Illustration for the world ahead 2025 cover, a circle made up of squares featuring all the themes of the issue
The World Ahead
The World Ahead 2025

Leaders

Black and white photograph of Javier Milei
Lessons from a surprising experiment
Javier Milei: “My contempt for the state is infinite”
Argentina’s president is idolised by the Trumpian right. They should get to know him better

The least bad deal for Ukraine
How to make a success of peace talks with Vladimir Putin
The key is robust security guarantees for Ukrainians
A man waves the Lebanese flag from a car as displaced people return home, in Sidon, Lebanon on November 27th 2024
Ceasefire at last
Peace in Lebanon is just a start
Donald Trump must build on Joe Biden’s belated success
Trucks wait in a queue to cross to the US next to the border wall at the Otay commercial crossing port in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico on November 26th 2024
Shots fired
Tariff threats will do harm, even if Donald Trump does not impose them
The risk of a trade war is uncomfortably high
This illustration shows an open book with a yellow background. The left page has a green leaf, a bold "n," text, and a declining graph. Small figures on the right turn a blank page, one holding a large yellow pen.
Out of juice
Lessons from the failure of Northvolt
Governments blew billions on a battery champion. Time to welcome foreign investors instead
Letters

On assisted dying, the Central African Republic, airships
Letters to the editor
By Invitation

An illustration of Julius Maada, Lazarus Chakwera and Andry Rajoelina.
International aid
Three presidents on the partnerships that can at last transform Africa
The Palestinian question
A broader peace is within Israel’s grasp, say Tamir Pardo and Nimrod Novik
Briefing

View of the snow-covered Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, Kyiv, Ukraine
Inaugural call
How will Donald Trump handle the war in Ukraine?
And how will Ukraine, Russia and Europe respond?

All disquiet on the home front
The war in Ukraine is straining Russia’s economy and society
Despite advances on the battlefield, pressure is growing

Titan targeted
The Adani bribery case could upend Indian business and politics
The allegations against the corporate champion may end up being resolved diplomatically rather than in court
Asia

A collage illustration of Nitin Gadkari with his face repeated three times, the Secretariat Building in new Delhi and a road with cars on it leading up to the building. There are green and orange shapes in the background.
The roads to the top
Meet the outspoken maverick who could lead India
Hands on
Fathers are doing more child care in East Asia
Bureaucrats, not bridge-builders
Is India’s education system the root of its problems?
Undulating ungulates
Ice Age antelopes surge back from the brink of extinction
Banyan
Indonesia’s Prabowo is desperate to impress Trump and Xi
China

Police officers and a police dog are on guard around the Japanese school in Shenzhen, Chin
Getting revenge on society
China suffers eruptions from its simmering discontents
Exercises in fertility
China’s government is badgering women to have babies
GLP-1s and China
Wegovy hits the People’s Republic, at last

United States

Gavin Newsom speaks to the press.
The resistance, part two
Democratic states are preparing for Donald Trump’s return
Constraints on Tariff Man
Does Donald Trump have unlimited authority to impose tariffs?
Politics and justice
As Jack Smith exits, Donald Trump’s allies hint at retribution
Jackson drama
An FBI sting operation catches Jackson’s mayor taking big bribes
Looking for a new Illinois
America’s rural-urban divide nurtures wannabe state-splitters
The spy who purged me
Donald Trump and Tulsi Gabbard are coming for the spooks
The Americas


One year of anarcho-capitalism
Javier Milei, free-market revolutionary
The limits of stability
Is Uruguay too stable for its own good?
Trade in North America
Mexico and Canada brace for Donald Trump’s tariff thrashing
The noose tightens
Bolsonaro’s bid to regain Brazil’s presidency may end in prison
Middle East & Africa

A man inspects the damage at the site of an overnight Israeli airstrike that targeted the Shayyah neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs on November 26, 2024
A ceasefire in the Middle East
Israel and Hizbullah strike a fragile deal to end their war
Massad Boulos
The Lebanese-American businessman in Donald Trump’s inner circle
America in Africa
America under Joe Biden plays the pragmatist in Africa
Surviving in Africa
New cures for Africa’s most gruesome diseases
Not just a warehouse
Nigeria seeks to restore pride in its artefacts, ancient and modern
Europe

Donald Trump shakes hands with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte as they meet in Palm Beach, Florida, United States, November 22nd 2024
America and NATO
The maths of Europe’s military black hole
An assault on Zaporizhia looms
Ukraine’s warriors brace for a Kremlin surge in the south
Double trouble
Marine Le Pen spooks the bond markets
Charlemagne
Ursula von der Leyen has a new doctrine for handling the hard right
Britain

People climbing, falling, being chosen, or receiving help; arrows show progress or setbacks.
The score for talent
How the best British employers find and promote their staff
The British opportunity index
The best British companies to work for to get ahead
Road rage
Can potholes fuel populism?
A British national champion
Adele is taking a break from music. Can anybody replace her?
Sexual courting
Britain’s Supreme Court considers what a woman is
Rathlin Island
A Northern Irish experiment in recycling
Securo-what now?
The slow death of a Labour buzzword
Bagehot
Are British voters as clueless as Labour’s intelligentsia thinks?
International

Special Investigation Police, conducting a citywide anti-gang operation, raid a house in the Barrio Abajo district where gang members are believed to be residing
Gangsters’ paradise
The world is losing the fight against international gangs
The Telegram
“Tariffers” v “traders”: the new contest for Donald Trump’s ear
Business

The front of a car with its logo. Instead of being a car logo, it is a representation of the European flag, with the stars falling.
Breaking down
Will the trouble ever end for Volkswagen and its rivals?
Unplugged
After Northvolt’s failure, who will make Europe’s EV batteries?
Cover artists
Audiobooks are booming, thanks to streaming subscriptions
What’s in store
TikTok wants Western consumers to shop like the Chinese
Tycoons in a knife fight
Elon Musk’s xAI goes after OpenAI
Fantastic but not plastic
Could seaweed replace plastic packaging?
Bartleby
On stupid rules and quick wins
Schumpeter
Has Sequoia Capital outgrown its business model?
Finance & economics

Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Traverse City, Michigan, United States on October 25th 2024
First shot
Trump wastes no time in reigniting trade wars
The price of patriotism
American veterans now receive absurdly generous benefits
Frothy holidays
Why everyone wants to lend to weak companies
To the hilt
How Trump, Starmer and Macron can avoid a debt crunch
Looking peaky
Hong Kong’s property slump may be terminal
Buttonwood
The great-man theory of Wall Street
Free exchange
Why Black Friday sales grow more annoying every year
Science & technology

A bowl of Froot Loops cereal.
Nutrition
Scientists are learning why ultra-processed foods are bad for you
Large behaviour models
Robots can learn new actions faster thanks to AI techniques
Fellow feelings
Elon Musk is causing problems for the Royal Society
Magic money trees
Deforestation is costing Brazilian farmers millions
Culture

Blue books forming a winner rosette on a red background
Treat your shelf
The best books of 2024, as chosen by The Economist
Angela’s ashes
Germany’s former chancellor sets out to restore her reputation
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary

Celeste Caeiro at age 90 holds a bouquet of carnations during a military parade to celebrate the Carnation Revolution's 50th anniversary in Lisbon, Portugal on April 25th 2024
Our Lady of the Carnations
Celeste Caeiro’s small gesture named a revolution