The world this week
Politics
Business
The weekly cartoon

Leaders

Factory fever
The world must escape the manufacturing delusion
Governments’ obsession with factories is built on myths—and will be self-defeating

American disorder
When a radical performance artist has command of an army
Donald Trump’s troop deployment in LA could yet backfire
Daniel Noboa, accompanied by a group of beneficiaries of government financial assistance, speaks during a ceremony before his inauguration in Quito, Ecuador on May 24th 2025
Latin America’s new drugs hub
How to curb organised crime without shredding civil rights
Ecuador is a test case in the fight against global gangs
People walk by the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York, United States
Perestroika in Cupertino
In the age of AI, Apple needs to open up
Tight control over its products, once an asset, has turned into a liability
Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, exits 11 Downing Street to present her Spending Review to Parliament in London, United Kingdom
Shoestring statism
Rachel Reeves’s big-government rhetoric is a worrying sign for Britain
The country needs defence spending and nuclear power, but not more social housing

Letters
A selection of correspondence
America’s tax on foreign investors
By Invitation

Welfare that doesn’t work
Britain’s ex-chancellor on how to fix a welfare crisis that’s partly of his own making
Crime in Latin America
Ecuador’s crime wave demands a more sophisticated response, says its former attorney-general
Briefing
A Bell 206 helicopter and a passenger-grade autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) from EHang in an integrated airspace in Shenzhen.
Delivery drones and flying cars!
China’s “low-altitude economy” is taking off
The authorities have found a new industry they want Chinese firms to dominate
Asia
Employees work on a mobile phone assembly line at Padget Electronics Pvt., a subsidiary of Dixon Technologies Ltd., in Noida, India.
Indian tech
Can India really innovate?
Indic intelligence
Can India be an AI winner?
Horns of a dilemma
If China invaded Taiwan, who would enter the war?
Banyan
Fading Modi-momentum
China
Employees work on the bottling line at the Kweichow Moutai Co. liquor factory in Moutai, Renhuai, China
Adapt or dry
China’s booze business looks smashed
Can’t buy me love
Bride prices are surging in China
Great rejuvenation, grim departure
Would you want to know if you were terminally ill?
United States
Police officers look at a demonstrator during a protest against federal immigration sweeps in downtown Los Angeles, California, June 8th 2025
California screamin’
The meaning of the protests in Los Angeles
National guardians
Donald Trump can call in the troops
Give us your wealthy, from stable countries
Donald Trump’s new travel ban is coming into effect
Political neologisms
Does America now have a woke right?
Reading, writing, Jesus
How a Christian group is changing education in America
Lexington
The true meaning of Trump Derangement Syndrome

The Americas
Portrait of Daniel Noboa
Crime and justice
A Harvard man turned narco-gang-buster
Chaos in Colombia
Political violence has returned to Colombia
Controlling coca
Bolivia wants the world to stop treating coca leaves like drugs
Middle East & Africa
Visual story on the ordeal Gazans endure to get food under new aid distribution programme in Khan Younis
A shadowy aid group in Gaza
Conspiracy, cock-up or solution? The Gaza aid foundation
Enemy of my enemy
The gangster Israel is arming to fight Hamas
A report from the strip
A surprising power shift inside Hamas
The kernel of an idea
Globalisation is nuts
Putting the lux in Lagos
Luxury property’s final frontier
Europe
An employee assembles a Caesar cannon at the site of the French-German KNDS armament factory in Bourges, France.
Bombshell boomtowns
The cities winning from war
Make or break
Vladimir Putin unleashes a summer offensive against Ukraine
Dodging bullets
Five opposition-backed referendums fail in Italy
Sunshine in the Valley
Picasso’s home town is thriving
How to be good
As the NATO summit approaches, more than cash is at stake
Charlemagne
How Ireland became the Saudi Arabia of siphoned-off global profits
Britain
Collage illustration showing Rachel Reeves, houses in front, a power plant and ambulances behind her with a graph like shape in the background
Picking winners
Rachel Reeves has decided where Britain’s cash will go
The geography of public spending
For once, London is short-changed by the government
Grape Britain
The English have become wine producers as well as wine consumers
Ballymeaner
A new sort of unrest rattles Northern Ireland
Inverted snobbery
Inverted commas are falling out of fashion
To B61 or not to B61?
Might the Royal Air Force go nuclear again?
Bagehot
Welcome to Bonnie Blue’s Britain
International
A teenage boy from a Christian youth mission walk the streets of downtown Philadelphia with wooden crosses prior to a Stations of the Cross procession in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Secular stagnation
Why the West has stopped losing its religion
The Telegram
Taiwan thinks the unthinkable: resisting China without America
Business
Apple CEO Tim Cook waves during Apple's 2025 World Wide Developers Conference at the company's headquarters.
Falling from the sky
Can Tim Cook stop Apple going the same way as Nokia?
A bigger bite
The world’s biggest food company plans to beef up in America
Very demure, very mindful
Muslim “modest-wear” is a hit with fashionistas of all faiths
Taxi for Mr Musk
Can robotaxis put Tesla on the right road?
Weekend profile
The 11-year-old Ukrainian YouTuber snapping at MrBeast’s heels
Bartleby
A checklist for decision-making
Schumpeter
Make America French Again
Finance & economics
Illustration of a conveyor belt with parcels on with a cut in the middle in the shape of a worker with a hard hat on
Blue-collar blues
Factory work is overrated. Here are the jobs of the future
Neither up nor down
America and China have spooked each other
Out and about
The rise of the loner consumer
Heiry questions
How to invest your enormous inheritance
Buttonwood
European stocks are buoyant. Firms still refuse to list there
Free exchange
The economic lessons from Ukraine’s spectacular drone success
Science & technology
A drone is seen from below against a bright red background, centered in a digital green target crosshair and concentric radar-like circles
Battle of the beams
How to stop swarms of drones? Blast them with microwaves
Hidden in plain sight
A routine test for fetal abnormalities could improve a mother’s health
Well informed
How much protein do you really need?
Culture
An illustration of the world being gradually encased by a football.
The small v the mighty
The Club World Cup will be the most global football tournament ever
On thin ice
The melting of the Arctic will bring peril—and opportunity
Death of a plotter
Frederick Forsyth’s bestsellers drew on his work as a spy
Back Story
As “Jaws” turns 50, who is the blockbuster’s real hero?
In your streams
The 15 best films and TV shows released so far in 2025
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary
Valmik Thapar
Burning bright
Valmik Thapar was in love with all the tigers of India