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The US in brief

Mike Johnson to split up aid; Trump’s jury selection begins

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The situation in the Middle East. April 18th, 4pm BST, 11am EDT

Finance & economics

Generation Z is unprecedentedly rich

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

Asia

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

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


Finance & economics

China’s better economic growth hides reasons to worry

The country’s leaders are too complacent about deflation




The world in brief

Israel assured its Arab neighbours that it will not threaten their security in its response to the barrage of drones and missiles that Iran launched towards its territory on Saturday, according to local media...

The American dollar extended its strongest rally in over a year as investors bet on the Federal Reserve holding off on interest rate cuts until September...

Wind farms added a record 117 gigawatts (GW) of capacity last year, according to the Global Wind Energy Council...

Storms battered south-west Pakistan, killing at least 39 people...


Explore our prediction model for Britain’s looming election

The scale of the task facing Rishi Sunak is clear

Back Story: Salman Rushdie’s gripping take on his assault

“Knife” is a memoir about the attack in 2022 but also a love story

A Middle East scholar on Israel’s escalating tit-for-tat with Iran

Both governments need to ditch dangerous policies, argues Steven Simon

Where are all the British robots?

Firms’ small size is the biggest barrier to automation

Sign up to Middle East Dispatch

Our latest newsletter covers a complex and consequential region

The US in brief

Mike Johnson to split up aid; Trump’s jury selection begins

Subscriber event

The situation in the Middle East. April 18th, 4pm BST, 11am EDT

Stories most read by subscribers

  1. Will Israel retaliate against Iran, or hold back?

Featured read

Strife in the Middle East

Iranians fear their brittle regime will drag them into war

Ultra-religious hardliners are gaining power and yearn for confrontation

Will Israel retaliate against Iran, or hold back?

America urges restraint after Iran’s large but futile bombardment of Israel


Iran attacks Israel, risking a full-blown regional war

Direct drone and missile strikes cross a rubicon


Iran and Israel’s shadow war explodes into the open

But the Islamic Republic may have miscalculated


The war in Ukraine

As Russia’s attacks step up, Ukraine fears waning Western support

An interview with the country’s new national security chief

Ukrainian drone strikes are hurting Russia’s oil industry

The world’s third-largest producer is now an importer of petrol


How Ukraine is using AI to fight Russia

From target hunting to catching sanctions-busters, its war is increasingly high-tech


Russia is sure to lose in Ukraine, reckons a Chinese expert on Russia

Feng Yujun says the war has strained Sino-Russian relations


America’s election year

In brief

Republicans threaten Johnson’s job; Trump jury selection continues

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



Sign up for our US in brief newsletter

Business, finance and economics

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


Think Tesla is in trouble? Pity even more its wannabe EV rivals

A fleet of electric-car startups is struggling to stay in business



World news

After one 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


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


The rights and wrongs of assisted dying

Britain’s next great social reform is coming. Here’s how it should work


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 mind-bending new rules for doing business in China

Xi Jinping is sending mixed messages to Western bosses and investors


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

How India could become an Asian tiger

The world’s most selective bureaucracy is struggling to make it happen

Narendra Modi’s secret weapon: India’s diaspora

Migrants help campaign for the prime minister at home and lobby for the country abroad


Yamini Aiyar laments the damage done to Indian democracy under Narendra Modi

Toxic majoritarianism is just part of the story, says the policy scholar


What to read about Hindutva

Six books explain the dangerous ideology of India’s ruling party


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


The next housing disaster

Weekly edition: April 13th 2024

The next housing disaster