The man with a plan for Vietnam
The world this week
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Business
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Leaders

Vietnam
The man with a plan for Vietnam
A Communist Party hard man has to rescue Asia’s great success story
Donald Trump riding an elephant through a science laboratory
Exit, pursued by an elephant
MAGA’s assault on science is an act of grievous self-harm
America will pay the price most of all
U.S. President Trump pictured next to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson as they attend a closed House Republican Conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, USA.
A big baleful bill
The Senate should vote down Donald Trump’s reckless tax cuts
If it does not, a collision with the bond markets awaits
Collage style illustration of Kier Starmer on a blue background with yellow stars next to him
Ever closer negotiation
The best part of the UK-EU deal is a system for doing more deals
Sir Keir Starmer’s “reset” is still a hard Brexit. It will need softening
President Trump speaks in front of a map of the proposed "Golden Dome" missile defense system in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC on May 20th 2025
Donald Trump’s Golden Dome
The plan to protect America by shooting down missiles mid-air
It’s not as outlandish as it sounds

Don’t throw it away
How Poland can keep its place at the heart of Europe
If it turns inward, the country and continent will lose out

Letters
A selection of correspondence
Poland and the threat from Russia
By Invitation

Die, DEI
An influential voice from the right laments Trump’s attack on universities
Empires of the mind
Europe can’t defend itself properly without projecting soft power, argues Jerzy Pomianowski
Briefing
People relax on the bank of Saigon River in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Dawn or dusk?
Vietnam’s economy is booming, but its new leader is worried
Export-led growth may soon run out of steam
Vietnamese President To Lam waves while standing next to Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hanoi
Wooing the world
Vietnam, squeezed between America and China, looks for new friends
It might even try to invigorate ASEAN
Asia
Lawyers prepare paperwork near a court in Mathura, India
Do it with conviction
How to fix India’s sclerotic justice system
Deterring China
America’s new ship-killer missiles come to the Philippines
Meet the Viet Kieu
Vietnam’s diaspora is shaping the country their parents fled
Banyan
On its own terms, ASEAN is surprisingly effective
China
An illustration of a person driving a car in the foreground. Through their car window a flying taxi with the China flag on the side is hovering above the road. Two people are leaning out of the window and one is waving a China flag. The Great Wall of China
Soft power
How China became cool
Medical affairs
A sex scandal in China sparks a nationwide debate
Brain drain
China’s universities are wooing Western scientists
United States
A destroyed wind turbine lies toppled in the aftermath of a tornado which ripped through the area in Iowa.
Reduction Redux
What happens if the Inflation Reduction Act goes away?
Of volts and jolts
California has got really good at building giant batteries
Rash decisions
How much worse could America’s measles outbreak get?
DeDOGEd
A court resurrects the United States Institute of Peace
More than a feeling
The MAGA revolution threatens America’s most innovative place
Lexington
Joe Biden did not decline alone

The Americas
A drone view shows Members of the Mexican National Guard patrol the border wall between Mexico and the U.S.
Mexico’s resilient gangs
Mexico battles the MAGA movement over organised crime
A losing battle
Wildfires devastated the Amazon basin in 2024
Argentina economic reform
An election win boosts Javier Milei’s reform project
Middle East & Africa
Red map of Africa suspended by strings from a Christian cross-shaped marionette control, symbolizing external influence.
Culture wars
Meet Africa’s ascendant right
A bank that divides Africa
A bitter race to elect the head of Africa’s pivotal bank
Putting the white in White House
Cyril Ramaphosa keeps his cool with Donald Trump
Gaza on the brink again
Israel says it is unleashing an “unprecedented attack”
Things fall apart, again
The world’s worst conference
Donald Trump’s sanctions gift to Syria
One happy Damascus
We’re out of there
Many of Syria’s diaspora are not yet ready to go home
Europe
Matejki Square, Krakow, Poland
Populists at the gates
Poland’s election will cement or ruin its standing in Europe
European elections
MAGA misses the mark in Romania
After the call
Donald Trump dashes any hope that he will get tough with Russia
Independence on pause
American threats push Greenland closer to Denmark
Charlemagne
Europe’s mayors are islands of liberalism in a sea of populists
Britain
European Council President Antonio Costa, Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
Keir Starmer’s EU reset
The UK-EU deal is just a start
Fishing rights
Britain has sacrificed its fishermen again
Queen’s gambit, plus a punch
The improbable rise of chessboxing
Taking back control
Does Britain need migrant workers?
Deflated hopes
An eccentric set of one-offs has knocked inflation up in Britain
Two wheels good
London has become a cycling city
Bagehot
Bring back Boris
International
Communications satellite orbiting the Earth Earth from Space.
Astropolitics
Star wars returns
Lost signals
Can China jam your GPS?
The Telegram
How to fight the next pandemic, without America
Business

An uphill struggle
Welcome to the AI trough of disillusionment
Supercharger
China’s battery giant eyes world domination
Rollercoaster rivals
Universal wants to steal Disney’s theme-park magic
Tarnished
American companies have a new image problem
Bartleby
The secrets of public speaking
Schumpeter
Big box v brands: the battle for consumers’ dollars
Finance & economics
Portrait of Jamie Dimon
American titan
Will Jamie Dimon build the first trillion-dollar bank?
How to gauge fear
Wall Street and Main Street are split on Trump’s chaos
Bonanza denied
Trump will be unpleasantly surprised by America’s tariff revenues
Sine laude
What the failure of a superstar student reveals about economics
Buttonwood
Hong Kong says goodbye to a capitalist crusader
Free exchange
America’s scientific prowess is a huge global subsidy
Science & technology
illustration on an orange background featuring a massive black-and-white elephant’s foot poised directly above a small, fragile Erlenmeyer flask
Death by a thousand cuts
Trump’s attack on science is growing fiercer and more indiscriminate
Disaster pending
How cuts to science funding will hurt ordinary Americans
Your loss
America is in danger of experiencing an academic brain drain
Culture
A collage illustration showing different photos of Sam Altman overlayed with textures and some blue colour. The OpenAI logo is visible in one of the photos.
Prometheus unbound
Sam Altman is a visionary with a trustworthiness problem
No rest from the wicked
In Germany, the Nazis invaded people’s dreams
Goodbye Gilead
“The Handmaid’s Tale” reveals the limits of dystopian television
Musing on Mammon
The story of capitalism, told by its detractors
Up in arms
How FDR shaped the doctrine of national security in America
World in a dish
The hottest gadget of the summer? A portable pizza oven
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary
Ed Smylie simulates the work he and a team of engineers in NASA’s Mission Control did for the Apollo 13 mission
Thanks, duct tape!
Ed Smylie knew this stick-fast wonder could fix anything