The fight over America’s economy
The world this week
The world this week
The weekly cartoon
This week’s cover

Leaders


The fight over America’s economy
Tech is coming to Washington. Prepare for a clash of cultures
Out of Trumpian chaos and contradiction, something good might just emerge
Estlink 2 repair work in July 2024
Flagship effort
Finland’s seizure of a tanker shows how to fight Russian sabotage
The growing threat to undersea cables demands a robust response
Tall buildings appearing between snow mountains
Northern lights
To see what European business could become, look to the Nordics
The region produces an impressive number of corporate giants
People wade through a flooded street during heavy rain in Chennai, India
Living with heat, drought and floods
Smarter incentives would help India adapt to climate change
It is the biggest test case for how hot, hard-up countries can cope
An open book with a red price tag on its pages, connected by a black string, set against a green background.
Labour of fluff
The Starmer government looks a poor guardian of England’s improving schools
It is fiddling with what works and not yet dealing with what doesn’t

Letters

On Taiwan, data in politics, Kevins, ultra-processed foods, Iran, Scotland, stockmarkets
Letters to the editor
Briefing

A photo collage about plastic surgery boon, featuring public figures like Joe Jonas and Kim Kardashian
Nip, tuck, lift, plump
Young customers in developing countries propel a boom in plastic surgery
Falling costs and converging beauty standards spur new habits
Asia

A woman is crosses a dried up lake at Boklung near Kathiatoli in Nagaon District, Assam, India
Adapt or fry
How 1.4bn Indians are adapting to climate change
Wheels of fortune
Economic bright spots are getting harder to find in Thailand
Tourism
Why you’re not on holiday in India right now
Banyan
Another accidental aircraft shootdown is a matter of when, not if
China

Chinese President Xi Jinping attends BRICS in Kazan, Russia
The year ahead in China
Xi Jinping has much to worry about in 2025
Dam!
China approves the world’s most expensive infrastructure project
Eyes everywhere
How China turns members of its diaspora into spies
United States

The French Quarter, near Bourbon Street is blocked off late morning with a heavy police and FBI presence.
Terrorism in America
The Bourbon Street attack was part of a new pattern
Out for the count
Homelessness rises to a record level in America
The last ByteDance
Duelling arguments take shape in the TikTok-ban case
Tocqueville updated
Overall, American states are becoming more democratic
The upside of MAHA
RFK junior is half right about American health care
Above the fruited plain
Jimmy Carter reshaped his home town
The Americas

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.
The coming coronation
Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro looks set to take the throne
Turning off the tap
Why Spanish firms have cooled towards Latin America
No Master in Disaster
Failure to prepare for climate change is costing Honduras dear

Middle East & Africa


Out with a whimper
The era of multilateral peacekeeping draws to an unhappy close
The endless war
Eastern Congo is as wretched as ever
Road from ruin
Syria’s new rulers have inherited an economic disaster
All together now?
The fate of minorities in post-Assad Syria
Europe

oil tanker Eagle S (L), next to tugboat Ukko, off Porkkalanniemi, Kirkkonummi, in the Gulf of Finland,
Arresting spectacle
Finland seizes a tanker, getting tough on hybrid warfare
Closely watched trains
A Prague-Berlin train loses its old-world dining cars
Muskular intervention
Elon Musk’s praise for the far right infuriates most of Germany
Europe’s missing pieces
Serbia and its neighbours are still far from joining the EU
Charlemagne
Why Canada should join the EU
Britain

Illustration of school chairs falling off a red price tag.
Show your work
Labour lacks good ideas for improving Britain’s schools
Guess who’s back?
Inflation in Britain looks irritatingly persistent
Wet, wet, wet
Britons brace themselves for more floods
Bagehot
The four worst words in British politics
International

illustration of people dancing and celebrating under a colorful sunset, holding bottles and glasses, with scattered items like bottles and a cane on the ground.
Ageing disgracefully
Why people over the age of 55 are the new problem generation
Gen ZZZ
Young people are having less fun
Business

Illustration of a viking helmet with nordic bank notes pierced on its horns
Way of the Viking
Why are Nordic companies so successful?
Playing offence
Netflix has big ambitions for live sport
Follow the money
Meet Silicon Valley’s shrewdest talent spotters
Weed Inc
America’s marijuana industry is wilting
Party-state entanglement
China is catching up with America in quantum technology
Bartleby
Beware the dangers of data
Schumpeter
MAGA’s war on talent frightens CEOs—and angers Elon Musk
Finance & economics

Silhouettes of Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Scott Bessent, and Stephen Miller scaling down in decending order, alternating red and black.
Prepare for battle
Will Elon Musk dominate President Trump’s economic policy?
Place your bets
What investors expect from President Trump
Footloose factories
China’s firms are taking flight, worrying its rulers
Defying export fatalism
Manmohan Singh was India’s economic freedom fighter
Free exchange
Would an artificial-intelligence bubble be so bad?
Science & technology

New Glenn during successful integrated vehicle hotfire.
Lift-off at last?
Can Jeff Bezos match Elon Musk in space?
Smoke and sensors
New firefighting tech is being trialled in Sardinia’s ancient forests
The long shots
Cancer vaccines are showing promise at last
Culture

This is an illustration of a wooden director's chair with a black seat and a backrest featuring the Colombian flag (yellow, blue, and red stripes). The background is a soft pink color.
Luces, cámara, acción!
The Colombian powerhouse behind some of streaming’s biggest hits
Sympathy for the devil
Why do rebels and revolutionaries love “Paradise Lost”?
Strange and familiar places
What Haruki Murakami’s fans get wrong about him
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary

Jimmy Carter in 1976
The pilgrim from Plains
Jimmy Carter was perhaps the most virtuous of all America’s presidents