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The US in brief
Trump’s lawyers pounce on Cohen
Dateline
Try The Economist's history quiz
Britain's general election
Explore The Economist's forecast for Britain's looming election
Leaders
Volodymyr Zelensky’s presidential term expires on May 20th
What does that mean for his country?
United States
Bayer wants legislative help to fight its cancer lawsuits
But the maker of Roundup weedkiller faces opposition from Republican and Democratic hardliners
The world in brief
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, warned that Russia could yet expand its assault on Kharkiv, a north-eastern region, as he called on Western allies to increase supplies of military aid...
Benny Gantz said he would pull his centrist party out of Binyamin Netanyahu’s emergency wartime coalition if the Israeli prime minister did not agree to a new plan for the future of Israel’s war by June 8th...
Vietnam’s Communist Party nominated To Lam, the public security minister, as the country’s president...
Georgia’s president, Salome Zourabichvili, vetoed a Russian-style “foreign agents” law that was passed by the country’s parliament despite mass protests...
How not to name a new car
Companies that get it wrong risk both derision and outrage
Charlemagne: The EU’s best-laid plans for expansion are clashing with reality
For now “phoney enlargement” is the order of the day
Unexpectedly, the cost of big cyber-attacks is falling
Natural disasters tend to do far more harm than man-made code
What if calling someone stupid was a crime?
Lionel Shriver imagines cancel culture going to even greater extremes
The US in brief
Trump’s lawyers pounce on Cohen
Dateline
Try The Economist's history quiz
Britain's general election
Explore The Economist's forecast for Britain's looming election
Strife in the Middle East
The Israeli army is caught in a doom loop in Gaza
And the refusal to plan for the day after the war is fuelling a crisis with America
Israel has seen arms embargoes before
But this time it will struggle without American military support
On Independence Day Israel is ripping itself apart
Anger, tears and recriminations
Why are Arab armed forces so ineffective?
Governments are splashing the cash, but that may do little to burnish their armies’ reputations
World news
Facebook turned off the news in Canada. What happened next?
A law intended to help small publishers is harming them
Marijuana is already legal for a majority of Americans
National prohibition has not stifled budding entrepreneurs
Antisemitism is on the rise in Britain
But university encampments show how hard it is to define
The Xi-Putin partnership is not a marriage of convenience
It is one of vital, long-term necessity
Business, finance and economics
It is dangerously easy to hack the world’s phones
A system at the heart of global telecommunications is woefully insecure
How Jim Simons revolutionised investing
The “quant king” pioneered an approach that has become a pillar of finance
America’s 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs: bad policy, worse leadership
The global trade system is disintegrating as you read this
The property firm that could break China’s back
If Vanke collapses, so might confidence in the state’s management of the economy
The war in Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelensky’s five-year term ends on May 20th
But he has no plans to step down or call an election during wartime
What are the Russian “turtle tanks” seen in Ukraine?
Wrapping vehicles in corrugated metal might protect them from drone attacks
Sergei Shoigu’s sacking points to yet more attrition in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin wants Russia’s armed forces to be better supplied
Tracking the Ukraine war: where is the latest fighting?
Our satellite view of the conflict, updated daily
Stories most read by subscribers
Featured read
Shirley Conran wrote a bonkbuster to teach schoolgirls about sex
The author and campaigner for maths education died on May 9th, aged 91
Video
America’s election year
A mano-a-mano contest between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump
The hush-money trial hinges on the testimony of the former president’s former fixer
In brief
Biden and Trump agree to debate; Cohen’s cross-examination resumes
Our daily political update, featuring stories that matter
US election 2024
Can you build a Trump voter?
Try our tool—and see which attributes make voters more likely to pick one candidate over the other
Trump v Biden: who’s ahead in the polls?
The Economist is tracking the race to be America’s next president
India’s election
Who could replace Narendra Modi?
A leadership struggle is brewing in India’s ruling party
Banyan: Narendra Modi ramps up the Muslim-baiting
Is the Indian prime minister confident, or worried?
1843 magazine | Rahul Gandhi is on the march. But where is he heading?
He wants to be the champion of Indian liberalism. First he needs to save his party from irrelevance
Even disillusioned young Indian voters favour Narendra Modi
They worry about their future, but do not blame the BJP
Other highlights
Alice Munro was the English language’s Chekhov
The Nobel prizewinning short-story writer died on May 13th, aged 92
#Tradwives, the real housewives of the internet, have gone viral
Why social-media users are riveted by the domestic toil of homemakers
1843 magazine | Why is Britain hopeless at punishing corruption?
The Serious Fraud Office had a slam-dunk case. This is the inside story of how it fell apart
Venice’s new admission fee cannot curb overtourism
It is too low, and there are too many exemptions
Weekly edition: May 18th 2024
Is America dictator-proof?
An American startup boom
How the country revived its go-getting spirit
China, Russia and the grey zone
Xi Jinping is subtler than Vladimir Putin—yet equally disruptive
The BJP’s power vacuum
A leadership struggle is brewing in India’s ruling party
Economists and God
An ageing product outperforms expectations
Special reports: May 11th 2024
Worlds apart
The American-led financial order is giving way to a more divided one
The global financial system is in danger of fragmenting
How crises reshaped the world financial system
The movement of capital globally is in decline
National payment systems are proliferating
The fight to dethrone the dollar
How the financial system would respond to a superpower war
Sources and acknowledgments
