The Don’s new world order
The world this week
Politics
Business
The weekly cartoon
This week’s covers

Leaders

The end of the post-1945 order
Donald Trump has begun a mafia-like struggle for global power
But the new rules do not suit America

The return of inheritocracy
Inheriting is becoming nearly as important as working
More wealth means more money for baby-boomers to pass on. That is dangerous for capitalism and society
Friedrich Merz speaks at an election campaign event in Darmstadt, Germany, on February 20th 2025
Move fast and break things
Germany’s election victor must ditch its debt rules—immediately
Friedrich Merz has weeks to shore up his country’s defences
Prabowo Subianto reacts to supporters from a car as he leaves his residence in Jakarta, Indonesia on February 14th 2024
The man who would be Musk
Prabowo Subianto takes a chainsaw to Indonesia’s budget
The result? More money for the president’s boondoggles
The image represents gene editing, with a DNA helix and scissors symbolizing CRISPR technology used to cut and modify gene
Gene editing
CRISPR technologies hold enormous promise for farming and medicine
Don’t waste it

Letters
On America’s defence spending, the Exxon Valdez, the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, scams, Latin, TikTok
Letters to the editor
By Invitation

An alliance upended
The transatlantic relationship is crumbling, says an ex-head of NATO
Oversight, out of mind
Donald Trump should not replace us with his stooges, warns a fired inspector-general
Briefing
An illustration depicting a player holding a wild card and a pair of Aces, while Trump sits anxiously on the other side of the table.
Gangster’s paradise
The transactional world Donald Trump seeks would harm not help America
Ukraine, Gaza and China will all test his self-interested approach to diplomacy
Asia
Indonesian protesters demonstrate against President Praboao's government
DOGE days in Jakarta
Prabowo Subianto is drastically cutting Indonesia’s budget
Keeping it in the family
The election in Tajikistan is unlikely to be democratic
Demography
The trouble with ancient Indians
Banyan
How overt religiosity became cool in India
China
A market stall holder in Shenzhen, China
China employment
Who works where, doing what, in China
Watching and waiting
Could there be Chinese troops in Europe?
Weidel in China
The AfD’s unusual China connection
United States
The silhouette of a mother holding her baby.
Under the knife
To make their numbers work, Republicans must slash health spending
Oregone
Critics of Medicaid point to a rigorous study conducted 15 years ago
DOGE days
Elon Musk’s outfit is running into opposition from Donald Trump’s appointees
Believe it
America’s Gen Z has got religion
“It’s just some energy”
The spread of mariachi tells a very American story
Race and diversity in America
Edward Blum has new allies in his fight against affirmative action
Lexington
America has never had state media like it does today

The Americas
A collage of Diana Salazar Méndez.
Ecuador’s iron lady
The bravest woman in Latin America?
Border conundrums, again
Mexico deploys 10,000 troops to the US border
Bullfighting
The matadors’ last stand in Colombia
Middle East & Africa
Israeli hostages are brought to Beilinson Hospital by military helicopter as they are returned to Israel
Running out of road
Israel and Hamas have something in common
Jordan’s monarchy
Could political upheaval hit Jordan next?
Syria’s new constitution
In a dictator’s palace, Syrians debate a new constitution
Resource nationalism in the Sahel
How to make cash in Africa’s coup belt
Sink and swim
The sea is swallowing an African island
Europe
Chancellor Freiderich Merz with a pensive expression
On the edge in Germany
Merz wins a messy election then calls for independence from America
Mr Global
John Parker, one of The Economist’s finest correspondents, was a polymath journalist
The price of security
Europe will need to pull all the levers to up its defence spending
A deal, of a kind
Ukraine has fended off Donald Trump, for the moment
Pluses and minuses
Ukraine is scrambling to find fresh fighters
Pay up or blow up
Swedish businesses are being bombed
Charlemagne
Which European should face off against Trump and Putin?
Britain
HMS Victorious a Vanguard class submarine
The new nuclear question
Does Britain’s nuclear deterrent have a Trump-shaped problem?
The last cut is the deepest
Britain halves its foreign-aid budget
Conditional cash transfers
Paying teenagers to go to school was a bad idea
Paper trail
Britain’s capital markets are waging a war on paper
Caveat patient
Anybody in Britain can call themselves a therapist
Bagehot
Running the Liberal Democrats is the easiest job in British politics
International
British soldiers storm enemy poitions in a simulated attack during NATO military exercises
Five minutes to midnight
Can Europe confront Vladimir Putin’s Russia on its own?
The Telegram
America’s self-isolating president
Technology Quarterly
Collage of fish scales, DNA, and cells
CRISPR
Gene editing has arrived
Next-generation medicine
CRISPR cures face cost and safety concerns
The epigenome
Epigenetic editors are a gentler form of gene editing
Scientific research
Gene editing has put biological research on a new trajectory
Editing crops
Eat your GE-greens
CRISPR animals
Editing pigs, mice and mosquitoes may save lives
Reproductive science
Designing babies
The way forward
Gene editing can still change the world
The age of CRISPR
Acknowledgments
Business
This pixel-art illustration depicts a circuit board with three microchips having human-like faces. Trump face is in the middle, the green and red side chips appear sad. Black lines represent electrical pathways, and the design is symmetrical, blending tech
Ground control to Jensen Huang
Nvidia is fighting both Trump and China
Making America fab again
The trouble with MAGA’s chipmaking dreams
Skipping duties
A guide to dodging Donald Trump’s tariffs
Gummed up
Zyn is giving investors a buzz—for now
Cruising
Airbus has not taken full advantage of Boeing’s weakness
Re-commerce
The business of second-hand clothing is booming
Bartleby
The Economist’s office agony uncle is back
Schumpeter
The smiling new face of German big business
Finance & economics
A grave stone set as an ATM, implying that inheritance is worth a lot of money.
Wealth transfer
How to get rich in 2025
Buttonwood
How cheap can investing get?
Vigilante justice
Meet Trump’s fiercest opponent: the bond market
Hard cash, soft rules
Stablecoins: the real crypto craze
Free exchange
India has undermined a popular myth about development
Science & technology
Views of a copper mine
Dig it
The skyrocketing demand for minerals will require new technologies
Sharp eyes in the sky
Spy-satellite-grade images could soon become available to everyone
Your move
How artificial intelligence can make board games better
Well informed
Do better shoes help you run faster?
Culture
An illustration of a PVC black stiletto boot crushing the stem of a rose on top of a book.
Full steam ahead
Erotic writing is becoming more explicit
007’s new handler
In James Bond, Amazon gains a thrilling new asset
World in a dish
Caviar is the internet’s favourite indulgence
The babble and the beyond
Finding meaning in people’s first words—and their last
Been there, heard that
Why are live albums back in fashion?
Flipper the switch
Do you play a mean pinball?
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary
Imam Muhsin Hendricks at Masjadul Ghurbhh mosque in Cape Town, South Africa
A safe space for queerness
Muhsin Hendricks fought homophobia with the Koran