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Our latest newsletter covers a complex and consequential region

The US in brief

Trump jury is chosen; Democrats advance Johnson’s aid plan

Subscriber event

Our editors analyse the situation in the Middle East

Middle East & Africa

Israel responds to Iran’s barrage with a symbolic strike

Both sides now have a chance to de-escalate their conflict, at least for now

Briefing

America is uniquely ill-suited to handle a falling population

Which is a worry, because much of it is already shrinking


Finance & economics

Citigroup, Wall Street’s biggest loser, is at last on the up

Jane Fraser’s unexpected success




The world in brief

Iranian media downplayed an attack by Israel and lifted restrictions on flights over major cities...

The foreign ministers of the G7, a group of rich democracies, concluded a series of meetings on the island of Capri in Italy...

Ukraine’s air force said that it shot down a Russian strategic bomber for the first time since the beginning of the war...

Indians began voting in the country’s general election...


1843 magazine | Inside the Kenyan cult that starved itself to death

During covid-19 a preacher lured thousands of people into a remote forest. Then he told them to stop eating

Chaguan: The dark side of growing old

A coming wave of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia will test China to its limits

Dateline: The Economist history quiz | April 19th edition

Can you guess when these extracts were published?

Sign up to Middle East Dispatch

Our latest newsletter covers a complex and consequential region

The US in brief

Trump jury is chosen; Democrats advance Johnson’s aid plan

Subscriber event

Our editors analyse the situation in the Middle East

Generation Z

Reasons to be cheerful about Generation Z

Iran launches a direct attack on Israel, the criminal trial of Donald Trump begins—and more

Generation Z is unprecedentedly rich

Millennials were poorer at this stage in their lives. So were baby-boomers


How worried should people be about Generation Z?

Two new books fit into a familiar pattern of the old fretting about the young


What is screen time doing to children?

Demands grow to restrict young people’s access to phones and social media


Strife in the Middle East

One of the Middle East’s oldest conflicts has entered a new era

Iran’s attack on Israel throws out old rules and puts allies in a delicate position

A trauma surgeon on why Gaza is the worst of war zones

It is like stepping back into the 19th century, says David Nott


Israel’s use of AI in Gaza is coming under closer scrutiny

Do the humans in Israel’s army have sufficient control over its technology?


Iran and Israel’s shadow war explodes into the open

But the Islamic Republic may have miscalculated


The war in Ukraine

Frozen Russian assets will soon pay for Ukraine’s war

And America now hopes to convince others to make better use of the stash

Ukraine is ignoring US warnings to end drone operations inside Russia

Its superdrones can reach targets as far away as Siberia


The growing role of fighting robots on the ground in Ukraine

Drones already fill the skies. Now uncrewed vehicles are heading to the front lines



America’s election year

Lexington: Truth Social is a mind-bending win for Donald Trump

And disturbing evidence of how he destabilises reality for Americans

In brief

Trump jury is chosen; Democrats advance Johnson’s aid plan

Our daily political update, featuring the stories that matter


Interactive 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



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Business, finance and economics

Generation Z is unprecedentedly rich

Millennials were poorer at this stage in their lives. So were baby-boomers

China’s better economic growth hides reasons to worry

The country’s leaders are too complacent about deflation


America hits Chinese biotech—and its own drugmakers

A sweeping bill in Congress could cost patients at home


Generative AI is a marvel. Is it also built on theft?

The wonder-technology faces accusations of copyright infringement


World news

After a year of war, Sudan is a failing state

Half a million may starve without urgent help

Why most people regret Brexit

A majority of British voters now believe the split was a mistake


Elon Musk is feuding with Brazil’s powerful Supreme Court

The court has become the de facto regulator of social media in the country


South Korean voters—and spring onions—rebuke the president

The failure of Yoon Suk-yeol’s party in parliamentary elections will make his last three years hard


Stories most read by subscribers

Featured read

Would you really die for your country?

Military conscription is on the agenda in the rich world

Other highlights

Bees, like humans, can preserve cultural traditions

Different colonies build in competing architectural styles

1843 magazine | Robert F. Kennedy junior doesn’t care if he condemns America to Trump

He’s a tree-hugging conspiracy theorist – and he’s running for president


Charlemagne: How a conservative conference morphed into a crisis of liberalism

A Brussels hard-right confab descends into a mix of farce and petty tyranny


Dateline: The Economist history quiz | April 12th edition

Can you guess when these extracts were published?


Transgender care

America should follow England’s lead on transgender care for kids

Its approach is neither as harsh as in red states nor as lax as in blue states


What America has got wrong about gender medicine

Too many doctors have suspended their professional judgment


Britain tries to correct the treatment of gender-dysphoric kids

But puberty blockers are still available from private providers


China’s economy

China’s high-stakes struggle to defy demographic disaster

The Communist Party puts its faith in robots, gene-therapy and bathing services

Xi Jinping’s misguided plan to escape economic stagnation

It will disappoint China’s people and anger the rest of the world


How Xi Jinping plans to overtake America

Digital twins, nuclear fusion and the small matter of fixing China’s economy


The spread of AI

Artificial intelligence is taking over drug development

Regulators need to up their game to keep up

How to define artificial general intelligence

Academics and tech entrepreneurs disagree. A court may soon decide


A new generation of music-making algorithms is here

Their most useful application may lie in helping human composers


Just how rich are businesses getting in the AI gold rush?

Nvidia and Microsoft are not the only winners


India’s election

India’s democracy needs a stronger opposition

The Congress party is set for a drubbing in the world’s biggest election

Radio Modi: How India’s prime minister sweet-talks the nation

We analysed hundreds of Narendra Modi’s broadcasts. They reveal a meticulously cultivated image


Gandhi v Modi: crunch time for Congress as India prepares to vote

The Economist joins the most prominent opposition politician on the campaign trail


Five charts that show why the BJP expects to win India’s election

Narendra Modi’s party is eyeing another big victory


Visual storytelling

Vladivostok is a window into wartime Russia

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is transforming the far-eastern city

Joe Biden’s weakness among Latinos threatens his re-election

In Arizona, a growing Hispanic electorate should help Democrats. Yet Donald Trump is gaining ground


Can you build a British voter?

See how Britons might vote in the next election


How cheap drones are transforming warfare in Ukraine

First-person view drones have achieved near mythical status on the front lines


Reasons to be cheerful about Generation Z

Weekly edition: April 20th 2024

Reasons to be cheerful about Generation Z