The world this week
The world this week
The weekly cartoon

Leaders

Cost of living
The truth about affordability
Voters in rich countries are angry about prices. Politicians could make things worse
Sam Altman during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing in Washington, DC
The “Towering Inferno” of capital
OpenAI’s cash burn will be one of the big bubble questions of 2026
There is a dark side to the model-maker’s stunning growth
Collage composition featuring Lula in the centre and bits of the Brazilian flag
Time for fresh faces
Brazil’s President Lula should not run again
As Joe Biden showed, candidates over 80 carry huge risks
A global mosaic of Mars created by the High Resolution Stereo Camera team of the Mars Express
Life off Earth
The future of space exploration depends on better biology
Rockets are great, but sewage treatment is what you need for the long haul
Illustration of a map of Europe with a plaster connecting the rip between the UK and the EU
Edging together
Britain and the EU should be bolder in getting closer
How post-Brexit Britain should approach relations with its nearest and biggest market

Letters
A selection of correspondence
Letters to the editor
By Invitation

Crackle, crackle, whoosh!
It’s fire season for finance, writes Ken Miller
Briefing
An illustration showing an oversized petrol can, an egg and a garden hose, each dangling with price tags, looming in the air as frightened people in the foreground scatter and run away.
Fake blues
America’s affordability crisis is (mostly) a mirage
That doesn’t diminish its political power
Asia
Pro military signs at the Chang La Pass, Ladakh, India
Holding the line
A fragile thaw at the top of the world
Antisemitism
Australia’s prime minister gets booed in Bondi
A brutal ballot
A sham poll in Myanmar opens a new phase of military rule
Banyan
Cults of personality pervade all levels of Indian politics
China
Visitors view paintings at the exhibition entitled "From Corot to Impressionism: A Flowing Platette" at Hubei Provincial Museum in China.
More Monet, more problems
How China’s property crisis helped crash its art market
Civil servants
People of dubious character are more likely to enter public service
Chaguan
China’s museum boom, take two
United States
Diptych showing the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires
From the ashes
Los Angeles after the flames
The Michigan Man
America’s most successful mayor stands down
Concrete and politics
Donald Trump has it in for Brutalism
Troops and consequences
The Supreme Court has taken the National Guard away from Donald Trump
Megabusiness
The economics of megachurches

The Americas
Collage featuring Lula da Silva, Jair Bolsonaro, Flávio Bolsonaro and Tarcísio de Freitas
The great survivor
Brazil’s general election will be all about Lula—again
Burn, baby, burn
Peru’s not-so-happy new year
The corporation that became a country
Canada’s first Christmas without the Hudson’s Bay Company
Middle East & Africa
A fighter of the UAE-trained Security Belt Force, dominated by members of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) which seeks independence for south Yemen
Yemen’s civil war
A lightning advance by separatists has reshaped Yemen’s civil war
Trump and Netanyahu meet again
Netanyahu wins bigly from his meeting with Trump
One step closer
Israel recognises Somaliland
Bring on the boats
The nautical theory of African development
Prove it, prophet
Ghana tries to regulate online prophecies
Europe
A crew member on the lookout from the bridge deck of HMS Carlskrona, a Swedish patrol ship .
Deep trouble
The Baltic is becoming a battleground between NATO and Russia
Out with the old
Bulgarians join the euro and eject their government
War readiness
Europe’s generals are warning people to prepare for war
Black Sea blitz
Russia is blasting Odessa to throttle Ukraine’s economy
Charlemagne
Why America still needs Europe
Britain
A pro-EU mural painted on a concrete bus stop on the North York Moors
Brexit revisited
It’s time to rethink Britain’s relationship with the EU
Brexit and the border
How the “take back control” crowd boosted immigration to Britain
A slow-acting poison
Brexit has deepened the British economy’s flaws and dulled its strengths
Bagehot
Nigel Farage is Britain’s most European politician
International
A fisherman feeds whale sharks in the waters around Tan-Awan.
Conservation at sea
A half-planet-size gap in global governance is about to get plugged
The Telegram
Patriotism tests loom for big business
Business
illustration of a businessperson balancing on a tightrope while riding a unicycle shaped like the OpenAI logo
The greatest show on Earth
OpenAI faces a make-or-break year in 2026
Blown about
China’s wind giants are coming for Europe
A bumpy ascent
Despite a record year, airlines are grappling with big challenges
Bartleby
A new-year message from the CEO
The oracle departs
As Warren Buffett retires, uncertainty looms for Berkshire Hathaway
Boom clap
A Swedish startup wants to reignite Europe’s explosives industry
Schumpeter
What flying cars, quantum computing and fusion have in common
Finance & economics

Boom times
America’s economy looks set to accelerate
Cost of living
Forget affordability. Europe has an availability crisis
Slapped down
China’s property woes could last until 2030
Taking off
RedBird, a small firm doing big media deals
Buttonwood
Investors head into 2026 remarkably optimistic
Science & technology
A circular image split in half: the left side shows a hazy, red planet-like surface, while the right shows colourful microbe and plant growth in a Petri dish, forming a vivid, graphic pattern.
Choose life
How to export life to Mars
Ziggy played guitar
The spiders on the icecaps of Mars
Well informed
What is the best way to train for a marathon?
Culture
An illustration of a person taking shelter from the rain under a large book.
Publishing
What self-help books tell us about ourselves
The watery web
The internet’s vulnerable undersea tendrils
Espionage
Oleg Lyalin: the spy who loved too much
World in a dish
Restaurants are changing their menus for the age of Ozempic
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary
Brigitte Bardot in "Two Weeks in September", 1967
Huntress and hunted
Brigitte Bardot became, but refused to remain, the image of desire