The world this week
Politics
Business
The weekly cartoon

Leaders

All grown up
Saudi Arabia is pulling off an astonishing transformation
Muhammad bin Salman is going from troublemaker to peacemaker

An existential struggle
What Putin wants—and how Europe should thwart him
Many Europeans are complacent about the threat Russia poses—and misunderstand how to deter its president
A Pakistani Ranger stands guard at the scene of India's missile strike in Muridke, Punjab, Pakistan, May 7th 2025
The Himalayas of peace
Luck stands between de-escalation and disaster for India and Pakistan
Sooner or later, the luck will run out
A view of the destruction following Israel's attacks on a camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on May 7th 2025
Israel’s forever conflict
The war in Gaza must end
America should press Binyamin Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire, then press Hamas to disarm
Illustration of hands grabbing at some Nvidia computer chips that are flying through the fingers
Illusion of control
Donald Trump is right to ditch Joe Biden’s chip-export rules
Time to get realistic

Letters
A selection of correspondence
Are plastics greener than they seem?
By Invitation

Dollar dolour
This time really is different for the dollar, writes Kenneth Rogoff
Briefing
An illustration depicting Putin's military expansion and his growing threat to the West.
Watching the bear
Would Vladimir Putin attack NATO?
Russia is building up its forces, causing fear in its neighbours

Russia’s military-industrial complex
A glimpse inside Putin’s secret arms empire
The Economist tracks mobile signals to plot the Kremlin’s build-up
Visitors take photographs of the Maraya in Alula, Saudi Arabia
Not your father’s kingdom
Saudi society has changed drastically. Can the economy change, too?
The government’s push to reduce dependence on oil is creating other distortions
Asia
Ambulances leave from a complex near the site of a suspected Indian missile attack, in Muridke, Pakistan
Punishment time
Can India and Pakistan control a new cycle of escalation?
The Australian Labor Party’s thumping win
Australia is no longer lucky
The devil you know
Trade tensions help Singapore’s prime minister to a big win
A call to arms
Taiwan’s other war
Banyan
How should India promote Hindi? By doing nothing
China
Food delivery workers on scooters gather for their daily morning briefing in Beijing
Deliverance
China’s gig economy could help it survive the trade war
Toil and struggle
Xi Jinping glorifies hard work, but the young are not so sure
The very long arm
China intensifies its campaign against exiled Hong Kong dissidents
Right on cue
The men’s and women’s world snooker champions are now both Chinese
United States
A man skateboards past a row of homeless tents on Skid Row in Los Angeles.
After Grants Pass
American cities are criminalising homelessness. Will that help?
Pete’s purge
Pete Hegseth is purging both weapons and generals
Replacement rate
A social history of America in a warehouse
Born in the USA
One of the most controversial executive orders will shortly land at SCOTUS
America’s sort of Cass Review
Where the Trump administration has science on its side
Mr Equal Protection
Trump knocks down a controversial pillar of civil-rights law
Lexington
Harvard has more problems than Donald Trump

The Americas
Trucks transport containers to a COSCO container vessel at Tianjin Port
The strategic south
Xi Jinping tries to press China’s advantage in South America
Farmacias Similares
A Mexican pharmacy chain revolutionised health care at home
Breaking point
Killer gangs are inches from ruling all of Haiti
Middle East & Africa
Displaced Palestinians queue for hot meals amid worsening crisis in Gaza
Who will feed the strip?
Israel’s radical new course in Gaza
Gaza’s death toll
How many people have died in Gaza?
Agree to disagree
MAGA meets MBS
The Red Sea
A Faustian pact with the Houthis
Threat from above
The fight for Sudan’s skies
A nation in the dark
Nigeria has more people without electricity than any other country
Europe
The newly elected Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz being sworn in
The ides of Merz
Trouble at home threatens Friedrich Merz’s global ambitions
Frugal times ahead
Berlin’s culture bosses must become more commercial
MAGA man
Romania’s next president may be George Simion, a Trump ally
When enough is not enough
Portugal heads to the polls for the third time in barely three years
The tethered threat
How new drones are sneaking past jammers on Ukraine’s front lines
Charlemagne
To grasp Europe’s fragmentations, look to a 31-year treasure hunt
Britain
Winter sun highlights the church steeple
Churchgoing, going…gone?
The Church of England is dying out and selling up
Time to transubstantiate
Young British men are turning to Catholicism in surprising numbers
Double-Trussed
Nigel Farage’s economic plans are a disaster
The start of the deals
The Britain-India trade deal is a sign of things to come
The very few
Britain’s second-world-war veterans are dying out
The green stuff
Aberdeen shows why the UK’s clean-energy transition will be messy
Bagehot
Kemi Badenoch is simply too interesting for Downing Street
Business

Nvidious
How China is still getting its hands on Nvidia’s gear
Silicon surprise
Huawei and other Chinese chip firms are catching up fast
Board games
OpenAI’s flip-flop will not get Elon Musk off its back
Battle of the bulge
Eli Lilly looks set to steal Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss crown
Us against the world
What is behind the staggering ascent of Palantir?
Bartleby
Why so many IT projects go so horribly wrong
Schumpeter
Bosses beware: the tariff shock is not like covid-19
Finance & economics
Illustration of a man in a suit shackled to a giant stone X by his arms and legs
Poor slackers
Why Gen X is the real loser generation
Over a barrel
How Saudi Arabia is cranking up the pressure on its OPEC allies
Taiwan straits
Trump is a threat to Asia’s giant insurers
Dollar drama
Global turmoil has at least one beneficiary: currency traders
Cheap thrills
Buy the dip: the trend that keeps stocks from crashing
The oracle plans to step down
Warren Buffett has created a $348bn question for his successor
Free exchange
What happens when a hegemon falls?
Science & technology
illustration of a crane shaped like a toy claw machine, with a yellow star-shaped magnet lifting a container ship surrounded by colorful shipping containers. The crane arm is metallic with yellow stars decorating it
State of flux
How to build strong magnets without rare-earth metals
Uneasy listening
Compressed music might be harmful to the ears
Dog and pony show
Companies have plans to build robotic horses
Friends like these
Dogs really do look and act just like their owners
Well informed
Is your hay fever getting worse?
Culture
An illustration of a film reel showing frames of the Hollywood sign with one of the letters falling down.
Lights, camera, tariffs?
Hollywood is in trouble. Politicians should not try to save it
Proto type
The language that changed the world
Forged in blood
The friendship of a Chilean dictator and a Nazi war criminal
Bringing back the Queen of Crime
How to write, according to the bestselling novelist of all time
Back Story
The morals of “Sinners”, a fantasia of vampires and the blues
Making a splash
If you haven’t heard of webtoons, you will soon
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary
Alice Tan Ridley busking at the 34th Street subway station, New York, United States, February 6th 2010
Notes from underground
Alice Tan Ridley knew how to make New York’s subways ring