The world this week
Politics
Business
The weekly cartoon

Leaders

It is not working
Scrap the asylum system—and build something better
Rich countries need to separate asylum from labour migration

Welcome to Poundland
Britain is cheap, and should learn to love it
Workers and assets are on sale to the rest of the world for bargain-basement prices
Cranes and shipping containers at a port in Pyeongtaek, South Korea
Suddenly, then gradually
America cannot dodge the consequences of rising tariffs for ever
Their economic impact has been delayed but not averted
Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra
Land of frowns
After another leader is brought low, Thailand’s voters need a real choice
The kingdom is stagnating while its elites squabble
Illustration of a hand popping open a pill container, with hexagonal shapes representing hormones emerging from the tube
Hormones
Sex hormones could be mental-health drugs too
If they can be liberated from ignorance and hucksterism

Letters
A selection of correspondence
Cash is an ineffective way of boosting birth rates
By Invitation

A win-lose situation?
To understand America today, study the zero-sum mindset, writes Stefanie Stantcheva
The greenlash’s silver lining
Vinod Khosla on how the anti-green agenda could help climate tech
Briefing
World Food Programme trucks at the Adre refugee camp
Wretched, refused
The global asylum system is falling apart
What should replace it?
Asia
Protestors rally in front of Vicory Monument in Bangkok demanding the resignation of the Thai prime minister
Turning to sand
Is Thailand heading for another coup?
Street dreams
How to ease pollution, gridlock and honking on India’s roads
Megashows
Osaka’s World Expo is winning over grumpy Japanese
Murder she baked
Australia’s mushroom murderess is found guilty
Banyan
Mahathir Mohamad, the leader who transformed Malaysia, turns 100
China
A person pushing a shopping cart , held back by a giant ball and chain
Left in the lurch
Why so many Chinese are drowning in debt
Balancing the books
China’s local governments are approaching a fiscal black hole
Cyber-spying
America is coming after Chinese it accuses of hacking
United States
A protester holds a sign in front of federal agents at MacArthur Park during immigration raids in Los Angeles.
Cold as ICE
ICE’s big payday makes mass deportation possible
Immigration court
What goes on in America’s immigration courts
Hell country
What went wrong in the Texas floods?
Conspiracy catnip
Jeffrey Epstein is still causing trouble for Donald Trump
Know when to fold
The Big Beautiful Bill will kill one profession
Hormonal men
American men are hungry for injectable testosterone
Lexington
What Donald Trump owes William F. Buckley

The Americas
Illustration of a British lion with a face made of the Argentinian sun, facing away from China and towards a F-16 fighter jet
Game of southern cone
Inside the secret military dialogue between Britain and Argentina
A losing battle
Brazil is bashing its patron saint of the environment
Middle East & Africa
US President Donald Trump, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a dinner at the White House in Washington, DC
An elusive ceasefire
Ending the war in Gaza is still fiendishly difficult
At its lowest ebb
Hamas looks close to defeat
Trumpafrique
Donald Trump’s approach to Africa is very, well, African
Assassin’s creed
Got an enemy? Hire a killer
Unlikely partners
Congo’s football diplomacy
Europe
A woman lights a cigarette placed in a rainbow placard depicting Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban
Pride before a fall
Viktor Orban’s economic luck runs out
Unfinished business
Ukraine’s political infighting gets nasty
The accidental chancellor
Austria’s leader is striving to fend off the hard right
Send the bad guys away
More European countries want to send their prisoners to other countries
Army of me
Iceland has no armed forces, but that could change
Charlemagne
Denmark’s left defied the consensus on migration. Has it worked?
Britain
An illustration of a shop front with many signs that indicate discounts and closing down sales. The sign above the door reads: “STOCKS BONDS ASSETS FUNDS INDEXES STAKES”.
Cheap and cheerful
British stocks and bonds look like a bargain
Cheap workers
British labour is a bargain
Pension pothole
Britain’s public finances are bad. Their future looks worse
Advantage: NIMBYs
The court that could thwart Wimbledon’s ambitions to grow
Bagehot, and so much more
David Lipsey, former Bagehot columnist, died on July 1st
France and Britain
Macron beats Trump to London
Bagehot
Where are all the briefcase wankers?
International
A service member of the Russian peacekeeping troops walks by a tank near the border with Armenia
At the crossroads of empires
Putin’s war in Ukraine may cost him control of the south Caucasus
The Telegram
The 19th century is a terrible guide to modern statecraft
Business
A golden unicorn in a field of digital valleys.
Venturing big
Silicon Valley is racing to build the first $1trn unicorn
Up in the clouds
Can a $9bn deal sustain CoreWeave’s stunning growth?
Work-life-balancing act
Does working from home kill company culture?
Deconstructed
America’s broken construction industry is a big problem for Trump
Muted, then blocked
Linda Yaccarino goes from X CEO to ex-CEO
Low spirits
Pity France’s cognac-makers
Bartleby
On Lego, love and friendship
Schumpeter
A CEO’s summer guide to protecting profits
Finance & economics
Illustration of a person in a blue suit with a red tie, seated at a red table with hands clasped together. In front of the person are colored shipping containers
Tariff-hopping mad
Trump’s trade deals try a creative way to hobble China
President’s bump
How America’s economy is dodging disaster
A foot like a traction engine
Struggling with the trade war? Amateur football might help
At long last
Japan has been hit by investing fever
Buttonwood
Don’t invest through the rearview mirror
Taking heat
Jane Street is chucked out of India. Other firms should be nervous
Free exchange
Want to be a good explorer? Study economics
Science & technology
Illustration of a distressed woman with white hair covering her face, while hexagonal shapes symbolizing hormones scatter from her head
Hormones and mental health
Could hormones help treat some forms anxiety and depression?
Buried treasure
Ancient proteins could transform palaeontology
A flying visit
An interstellar object is cruising through the solar system
Well informed
RFK junior wants to ban an ingredient in vaccines. Is he right?
Culture
An illustration of a pile of gold coins with stacks that form bullets and shotgun ammunition scattered around the pile.
Invisible hand-to-hand combat
In war, incentives matter more than courage
A man of steel for all seasons
What Superman tells you about American foreign policy
A thumping success
How Bad Bunny leapt to the top of the global music charts
In her prime
Handling feelings with rubber gloves: the odd life of Muriel Spark
Back Story
Why the left gains nothing from pop stars’ support
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary
Jimmy Swaggart preaches during a rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1985
Praying and weeping
Jimmy Swaggart tripped up on his progress to Heaven