Christmas double issue
The world this week
The world this year 2025
The weekly cartoon

Leaders
Chinese President Xi Jinping waves as he prepares for a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at Gimhae Air Base on October 30, 2025 in Busan, South Korea.
Superpowers
China proved its strengths in 2025—and Donald Trump helped
It was a good year for Xi Jinping
A woman sits by a tent surrounded by floodwater in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, on November 25th 2025
Bored of peace
Two months in, the Gaza ceasefire is floundering
The consequences will ripple beyond the Middle East
A cartoon Earth running with legs, wrapped in a white ribbon, on an orange background.
A better life for some
The Economist’s country of the year for 2025
Which country improved the most this year?
This illustration is a stylized, modern take on the myth of Icarus falling from the sky after flying too close to the sun.
Beyond the one-hit wonder
What Novo Nordisk, OpenAI and Pop Mart have in common
All three have suffered the curse of overnight success
Two clinking martini glasses with red hearts, topped by festive mistletoe on a red background.
Festive feasting
Your Well Informed guide to surviving Christmas
Drink slowly, eat cake and remember that fun is good for you, too

Letters
A selection of correspondence
Europeans should be worried by America’s new national security strategy
Asia
A menorah is lit as people participate in a candlelight vigil at Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach.
Terror on the beach
Can Australia defend itself against jihadist murderers?
Asia’s audiowars
Why has the border between the Koreas fallen silent?
A flood of failures
The botched response to a devastating storm infuriates Indonesians
China

The verdict
Jimmy Lai’s judgment day
Snow globalisation
The Christmas-industrial complex centres on Yiwu
United States
Illustration of 3 TVs with the Netflix, Warner Brothers and Paramount logos on them, tied up in red tape
Lights, camera, legal action!
Will California try to block Hollywood’s next megadeal?
Turnspike
Toll roads are spreading in America
Show that 4 > 5
More schools in America are adopting a four-day week
God complex
The race for an AI Jesus is on
Lexington
A vote against gerrymandering shows why political courage is rare
The Americas
The Cabo Orange National Park located at the northern tip of the Brazilian coast and home to one of the best-preserved mangrove forests on the planet.
Drill, baby, drill!
An oil boom where the Amazon meets the Atlantic
Argentina’s economy
Javier Milei loosens his grip on the peso
Middle East & Africa
Men walk along a muddy alley at a makeshift camp sheltering displaced Palestinians after heavy rains in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City
What’s next for Gaza?
Donald Trump’s peace plan is faltering in the chaos of Gaza
On its knees
Just 74 intensive-care beds remain in Gaza
The next mega-project
Ethiopia wants to build Africa’s biggest airport

Europe
A drone view of apartment buildings damaged by Russian military strike in the frontline town of Kostiantynivka, Ukraine
Bitter struggle
Ukraine scrabbles for handholds against Russia’s massive assault
Swish as they come
Italy is using the Winter Olympics to appeal to the ultra-wealthy
Same procedure as every year
Why German cities feel like war zones on New Year’s Eve
Charlemagne
European nationalism is dead. Long live European gastronationalism
Britain
Murals honoring the loyalist paramilitary movement in a Protestant area of Belfast, Northern Ireland
The Troubles
How to heal the trauma from Northern Ireland’s killings
Family pawtrait
Britons are becoming obsessed with pet photography
Declining, not falling
A portrait of Britain’s aristocrats
Bagehot
All sides have learned a lot from Extinction Rebellion’s co-founder
Christmas Specials

Inside Africa’s great green lung
A journey into the world’s most mysterious rainforest
Dating advice
What The Economist discovered at dating bootcamp
Drunken monkey, dry future
How humankind’s 10m-year love affair with booze might end
A wonderful, awful idea
The tariffs that nearly stole Christmas
Caste and cuisine
From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s “untouchable” cooking
Geeks, mules and whales
The battle to stop clever people betting
The “Wealth of Nations” at 250
Adam Smith is misinterpreted and his influence overstated
The sultans of slang
What street talk reveals about Anglophone civilisation
Muscle beachhead
America’s fight back against China starts in Los Angeles—in flip-flops
Jainism in the world
The long, strange journey of a temple from profane to sacred
The Great Games
What if the best way to learn about history is by playing with it?
Lewis, Clark and Pompey, too
How two explorers, a mother and a baby made America
The feeding of the 7,600
The titanic task of catering on the world’s biggest cruise ship
Your flexible friend
How wolves became dogs
The Black Stream
A journey along East Asia’s hidden artery
Austenomics
How Jane Austen revealed the economic basis of society
Single men in possession of good fortunes
Was Mr Darcy the richest of all Jane Austen’s characters?
Unmoored in Madagascar
The most friendless place on earth
An uprising in St Petersburg
Two centuries ago, Russian revolutionaries tried to change the world
China’s tea industry
The rise and fall and rebirth of lapsang souchong
From Harry Houdini to Harry Potter
How magicians stay relevant in the age of AI
International
An electrician installs wiring at Ontario Airport, Canada
Toolbox versus textbook
Ditch textbooks and learn how to use a wrench to AI-proof your job?
The Telegram
How to survive abandonment by America
Business
Photomontage showing Maziar Mike Doustdar and Lars Sorensen surrounded by images of pipettes, wegovy pens, a Novo Nordisk flag and a spiral staircase from the company headquarters in Copenhagen
Slim shaky
The plan to rescue Novo Nordisk
Cruising for a bruising
Retreating from EVs could be hazardous for Western carmakers
The future of work
Job apocalypse? Not yet. AI is creating brand new occupations
Bags not it
Luxury handbags may be shoddier than you think
Bartleby
How to conduct a job interview
Schumpeter
SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic and their giga-IPO dreams
Finance & economics

The short view
Where America’s most prominent short-sellers are placing their bets
Minefield
Meet the American investors rushing into Congo
Former glory
This Christmas, raise a glass to concentrated market returns
Buttonwood
Crypto’s real threat to banks
Free exchange
Watch who you’re calling childless
Science & technology
A skull with a blue treatment on top on a beige background
Palaeontology
A debate is raging over the origins of an elusive cousin to modern humans
Chips in the desert
Saudi Arabia wants to host the world’s cheapest data centres
Paws and effect
How dogs make teens feel less anxious
Well informed
Are some types of sugar healthier than others?
Culture

Christmas food
What goes into raising the turkey on your holiday table
Back Story
And 2025’s winners are…Timothée Chalamet and Sydney Sweeney
Sound advice
The best podcasts of 2025
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary
Iain Douglas-Hamilton monitoring elephants in the 1970s
Flying with elephants
Iain Douglas-Hamilton fought to save the beasts he loved