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

Leaders
A photo illustration of a Chinese worker's hat featuring the text "MAKE CHINA GREAT AGAIN."
MAGA and China
How America could end up making China great again
A big beautiful opportunity
An illustration of Trump carving a U.S.-shaped hole beneath his feet, symbolizing that he may be on the verge of falling in.
Ruination Day
President Trump’s mindless tariffs will cause economic havoc
But the rest of the world can limit the damage
Children celebrate Eid-al-Fitr at an amusement park set up in the Yarmouk Refugee Camp, Damascus, Syria, April 1st 2025
A shattered nation
Lift sanctions to give Syria a chance of rebuilding
Our poll shows Syrians trust their new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa. So should the West
Marine Le Pen attends a debate at the National Assembly in Paris, France, February 5th 2025
Ill-suited sentence
Why Marine Le Pen should be allowed to run for president
Punish the offender without also punishing French democracy

Chainsaw reaction
Why the IMF should bail out a serial deadbeat
Under President Javier Milei, Argentina has changed
Person falling over inside a clock, struggling to keep up
Stop changing all the clocks
Donald Trump was right. Daylight Saving Time needs to go
Evidence on the health costs is piling up

Letters
A selection of correspondence
Training young workers in Britain, and more
By Invitation

You call this liberation?
Even Americans don’t want Trump’s barmy tariffs, writes Douglas Irwin
French politics
The Le Pen ruling is good for liberal democracy, writes Tarik Abou-Chadi
Briefing
Shoppers at a street market in Shanghai, China
Arise, consumers!
As Donald Trump’s trade war heats up, China is surprisingly confident
Should it be?
Asia
A man works inside a steel warehouse in Mumbai
Tariff king v tariff man
India sees opportunity, as well as risk, in Trump’s trade war
South-East Asia’s tremor
Myanmar’s junta takes advantage of a devastating earthquake
Unwanted influence
As Chinese drills begin, Taiwan expels mainland influencers
Stans with a plan
Ending Central Asia’s endless squabbles over eccentric borders
Banyan
Australia’s election could come down to independent MPs
China
Trucks next to stockpiles of coal at the Guoyuan Port Container Terminal in Chongqing, Chin
Burn, baby, burn
China could greatly reduce its reliance on coal. It probably will not
Dox shocks
China has a thriving black market for personal data
Taking on water
The Panama ports deal is delayed, as China signals dissent
United States
JD Vance speaks to an auditorium full of people
Great exhortations
How (and why) J.D. Vance does it
Madison as hell
The Trump train slows
Turn it down
How Donald Trump is shaping other countries’ politics
The zip ties that bind
Is it ever right to pay disabled workers pennies per hour?
Losing count
DOGE comes for the data wonks
Lexington
Donald Trump is attacking what made American universities great

The Americas
This is a pixel art illustration depicting a financial or digital transaction scene in an urban setting. The central building appears to represent a financial institution, possibly a central bank. The image shows people using their phones, with digital coi
Pix a winner
Brazil’s government-run payments system has become dominant
A turnaround, eh?
The Liberal Party’s polling surge is Canada’s largest ever
An iron fist, please
Peruvians long for a Bukele-like strongman to beat crime
The rise before the fall
Latin American migrants transfer money like never before
Middle East & Africa
Widows and mothers of war victims gather for Iftar, the fast-breaking meal amid the rubble of homes of the Jobar neighborhood in Damascus
Sunny Sunnis
Syrians are still surprisingly upbeat
Many bombs, little thought
America steps up bombing the Houthis but lacks a clear strategy
Island strategy
Talks over the Chagos Islands show the rising clout of Mauritius
Capitalising on success
Khartoum changes hands, marking a new phase in Sudan’s civil war
Europe
Members of the RN party distribute leaflets in support of Marine Le Pen in Henin-Beaumont
Bar one
Marine Le Pen’s ban polarises France
‘Twere well it were done quickly
The prospect of early elections in Ukraine has everyone in a spin
FSB v Army
Russia’s army is being subordinated to its security services
Unifying factor
Irish willingness to join NATO could ease unification
Goodies for grannies
Germany’s Mütterrente is a poor way to pay parents
Charlemagne
Europe cannot fathom what Trumpian America wants from it
Britain
Migrants try to board a smuggler's inflatable dinghy
The small-boat business
How to run a smuggling business
The fortunate few
Every year, a few thousand people win Britain’s refugee lottery
Death by committee?
The assisted-dying bill isn’t dead. It is in limbo
Fiscal frictions
Britain’s budget watchdog has ruffled feathers in Westminster
You’d better release me
What happens when Britain frees thousands of prisoners at once?
Bagehot
The tyranny of TikTokkers who turn up
International
illustration of a protest, showing a crowd confronting a suited figure falling from an office desk on a ledge
Pillage people
State capture is a growing threat. Reversing it is hard
The Telegram
China debates whether Trump is a revolutionary, or just rude
Business
Illustration of a hand holding a glowing microchip handing it to someone else's hands
Use it or lose it
China and America are racing to develop the best AI. But who is ahead in using it?
Faster, higher…richer?
Athletics pays less than other sports. Michael Johnson wants to change that
Shock and ore
Donald Trump digs deep to revive American mining
Bear in a China shop
One of the world’s biggest mega-malls is worryingly empty
Roads closed
Donald Trump’s plan for American carmaking is full of potholes
Bartleby
Does it pay for bosses to embrace nationalism?
Schumpeter
Are there any business winners in Trump 2?
Finance & economics
President Donald Trump signs an executive order on tariffs in the Rose Garden of the White House
He’s done it
Trump takes America’s trade policies back to the 19th century
The battle to come
Can the world’s free-traders withstand Trump’s attack?
Buttonwood
The American government’s accidental private-credit subsidy
After the chainsaw
How Milei made Argentina deserving of an IMF bail-out
Soldering on
Tin, an overlooked critical metal, is enjoying a boom
Free exchange
What a refugee camp reveals about economics
Science & technology
An illustration of a person in a sand timer holding up a mitochondrion blocking the sand from falling through the gap.
Repairing body cells
Mitochondria transplants could cure diseases and lengthen lives
Wheels within wheels
Motors in the wheels take EVs further
Out of this world
What does space miso taste like?
AI think, therefore AI am
Researchers lift the lid on how reasoning models actually “think”
Well informed
How Daylight Saving Time affects your sleep and diet
Culture
A close up eye with a red iris. The light reflecting in the pupil resembles a skull
Reading the entrails
Hungry for more “Hunger Games”? There is plenty in store
From invisible hand to fist
An insider’s guide to economic warfare
On the back foot
Sneakernomics and the surprising future of sneakers
Hare today, still hare tomorrow
Why memoirs involving animals are so successful
The spies that bind
A forgotten CIA programme that changed minds
Song of myselves
Is there anything left to learn about The Beatles?
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary
George Foreman strikes a fighting pose in front of Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, United States, 1976
The punch of fate
George Foreman’s career was about resurrection