China’s global power play
The world this week
Politics
Business
The weekly cartoon

Leaders

Power play
China’s clean-energy revolution will reshape markets and politics
The world’s biggest manufacturer now has an interest in the world decarbonising

The great relationship recession
The rise of singlehood is reshaping the world
In good ways and bad
An illustration of a US flag-themed ballot box with a dollar price tag on the left and a rising graph line on the right.
The meaning of Mamdani
Democrats risk drawing the wrong lessons from one good day
Moderate governors offer a better model than a charming socialist in New York
An illustration of a dollar sign ballancing on a globe.
Too much of a good thing
America should not push other countries to adopt the dollar
More dollarisation would be a double-edged sword
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage hold press conference in London
Fiscal Farage
Nigel Farage’s newfound fiscal prudence is welcome, if unproven
Britain’s leading populist says he won’t cut taxes dramatically after all
Lockheed Martin's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) launch at sunset.
Star wars, the sequel
America’s plans for a Golden Dome are dangerously obscure
Without clarity, the missile shield risks becoming a costly, destabilising white elephant

Letters
A selection of correspondence
Can charity sustain conservation at scale?
By Invitation

Winds of change
The climate action that matters is in the global south, argues an architect of the Paris agreement
Briefing
An illustration of a crowded beach filled with pairs of deck chairs under colorful parasols — but in each pair, only one chair is occupied. The diverse single people lounging there look relaxed and content, enjoying their independence.
Generation single
All over the rich world, fewer people are hooking up and shacking up
Social media, dating apps and political polarisation all play a part
Asia
choolchildren walk passed the Kabul river.
Liquid front lines
South Asia’s water wars
Hitting them for six
India’s women win the cricket World Cup
Dangerous grounds
America and China circle each other in the South China Sea
Budget shenanigans
Indonesia raids its rainy-day pot
Banyan
Queen Sirikit’s death shows changing Thai views of the monarchy
China
Chinese construction workers walk together after work, in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Buckle up
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is booming again
Behind the scenes
What a leaked transcript reveals about China’s muscular statecraft
Against the tide
Hong Kongers support gay marriage. Their leaders, not so much
Chaguan
How a little Chinese island rose to global chemical dominance
United States
Democrat Abigail Spanberger walks out on stage after she was declared the winner of the Virginia governor's race
Off-year, on it
A night of big wins for the Democrats
Duty call
The Supreme Court seems sceptical of Donald Trump’s tariffs
Why rot the sheriff?
How the sheriff of St Louis ended up in jail
CAHOOTS is kaput
The rise and fall of America’s model mobile crisis service
Medicine haul
America’s health-care costs are shooting up
Strategic inanity
Donald Trump’s alarming muddle about nuclear-weapons testing
Lexington
Gerrymandering is now the wind beneath Gavin Newsom’s wings

The Americas
The world’s largest aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford
Regime change, again
War looms in Venezuela as Trump tests an “Americas First” doctrine
Santa Marta salsa
An EU-Mercosur trade deal looks close to ratification
Middle East & Africa
Displaced Sudanese families who fled the recent clashes in North Darfur's capital El-Fasher and nearby villages gather around vehicles after arriving in Al Dabbah, Sudan
Horror upon horror
Will anything—or anyone—stop the slaughter in Sudan?
Blood on the ballots
Tanzania has its Tiananmen moment
An errant crusade
Donald Trump says he may strike Nigeria to save Christians. Really?
The Iraqi paradox
Iraq’s election may ensure stability but leave militias in control
Israeli politics
Israel’s politicians are taking on its lawyers once again
Europe
French far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) RN party's President Jordan Bardella
France’s populist right
Jordan Bardella starts to lay out his plans
Gradually, then suddenly
Ukraine’s valiant defence of Pokrovsk is nearing its end
Location, location, location
War is blasting Ukraine’s border city of Kharkiv but boosting Lviv
Ukraine-bashing Babis
A Czech shift to the right is worrying news for Ukraine
The woke pope
Pope Leo XIV is infuriating MAGA Catholics
Charlemagne
Why moderates are reclaiming Europe’s national flags
Britain
A man in a beret looking through the spyglass on the Eiffel Tower. Through the lens you can see the Union Jack surrounded by sparkles
Unbroken Britain
Brand Britain has bounced back
The acrobat and the knife-thrower
Giorgia Meloni and Nigel Farage compared
A prudent populist?
Nigel Farage bows to the bond market
Tech firms and copyright law
A British legal ruling about AI delights nobody
Urban renewal in a remote place
Boom times in a British manufacturing town
Bagehot
If Labour cranks up income taxes, the left will boo loudest
International
A female figure facing a digital male figure that look as though they're about to touch hands
My boyfriend is a model
A new industry of AI companions is emerging
The Telegram
China places a Hong Kong-sized bet on Western decline
Special report
Cooling towers of a power plant with pink flowers growing out of them.
China, energy and climate
The world’s renewable-energy superpower
Gigawatts-a-go-go
Solar in China has become too big to fail
1,500 Great Pyramids
Cleaning up a coal-fired mess
Cleaner air, quicker heat
China’s air-quality improvements have hastened global warming
Solar eclipse
How China sparked a rooftop solar revolution in Pakistan
Code red
Why climate change now threatens China’s future
1843

Demography
Make America procreate again: among the MAGA fertility fanatics
Business
A red hot air balloon lifts a wooden bed with white bedding into the air against a plain beige background.
Room to grow
Has Airbnb reached its peak?
To the moon and back
Why Palantir’s success will outlast AI exuberance
Unboxed
First, grinning Labubu dolls. Now, a TV show and theme parks
Bartleby
Should facial analysis help determine whom companies hire?
When you only have a hammer
America’s furniture-makers exemplify the folly of tariffs
Cupid’s new helper
Will AI make dating apps better—or even worse?
Schumpeter
China’s life-sciences industry is turning American
Finance & economics

Don’t rock the cradle
Universal child care can hurt children
Whack-a-levy
How Donald Trump can dodge a Supreme Court tariff block
Before the fall
Why Wall Street won’t see the next crash coming
Let’s break it down
Don’t blame AI for your job woes
Flip the script
The mystery of China’s slumping investment
Buttonwood
Investors are telling Britain to cheer up a bit
Free exchange
What explains India’s peculiar stability?
Science & technology
President Donald Trump speaks with officials and staff in the Oval Office before his announcement of the Golden Dome missile defense system
A sequel to Star Wars
Golden Dome is one of the most ambitious military projects ever
Pyroecology
Was the Pacific Palisades blaze a “zombie fire”?
Well informed
Can a dopamine detox reset your brain?
Culture
An illustration of a delivery man on a motorised tricycle piled high with parcels against a blurred background.
Boxing days
What a hit memoir reveals about work in China
The ABCs of the ABCs
Why Anglophones use the alphabet so oddly
Dead centre
An enthusiast wanders through the world’s graveyards
Trial by fury
A new film about the Nuremberg trials is gripping but bloodless
Don’t get me to the church on time
Looking for a chic wedding venue? Try a town hall
Mightier than the knife
Salman Rushdie: stabbed 15 times but still laughing
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary
ice President Dick Cheney meets with senior staff in the President's Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 in Washington, DC.
Architect of the war on terror
Dick Cheney divided Americans