The Economist | Independent journalism
The new economic order | The liberal international order is slowly coming apart
Its collapse could be sudden and irreversible
Europe
Ukraine’s defenders anxiously dig in for a looming Russian assault
The West’s delays on weapons help Vladimir Putin exploit superior numbers
China
Why young Russian women appear so eager to marry Chinese men
They speak fluent Mandarin and love China. Shame they are fake
Middle East & Africa
Under Joe Biden, America struggles to reassert itself in Africa
As Chinese and Russian influence rise, the odds are against it
The world in brief
The Israel Defence Forces gathered on the outskirts of Rafah, the only major city in Gaza that has not yet been assaulted by their ground forces...
America sent a warship through the Taiwan Strait, 12 days before the inauguration of Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te...
Stormy Daniels finished testifying in Donald Trump’s hush-money payment trial in New York...
Hangzhou, a megacity in eastern China, lifted restrictions on buying residential property...
What strategies actually work to fight dying?
A prominent biologist tackles a morbid topic
Lexington: Why the Republicans will convene in a forge of American socialism
Donald Trump has made gains with Wisconsin’s working class, but Joe Biden could still win there
The world’s most, and least, walkable cities
Those who want to ditch their car might want to avoid North America
To stay fit, future Moon-dwellers will need special workouts
Running around the inside of a barrel might help
This week
The most important political stories this week
Xi Jinping visits France, Serbia and Hungary, Israel carries out air strikes on Rafah—and more
The most important stories in the business world this week
Disney’s Disney+ and Hulu streaming services make a $47m quarterly profit, Tesla’s sales of cars made in China drop again—and more
KAL’s cartoon
A lighter look at the week's events
Letters to the editor
On Britain’s refugee policy, Reform UK, transmission markets, San Marino, Taylor Swift
World news
How to pacify the world’s most violent region
The iron-fist approach will not solve Latin America’s gang-violence problem
An interview with Lawrence Wong, Singapore’s next PM
He will be just the fourth person to hold that position
How Kristi Noem missed her shot to be vice-president
A failure to do things by the book
Business, finance and economics
Is America Inc’s war for talent over?
Competition has cooled—for now
Schumpeter: Does Perplexity’s “answer engine” threaten Google?
Taking aim at one of the best business models of all time
Big tech’s great AI power grab
Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft are on the hunt for new energy sources
The movement of capital globally is in decline
Geopolitics is altering its trajectory
Strife in the Middle East
Israel and Hamas are not that far from a ceasefire agreement
But does Israel’s prime minister actually want to reach a deal?
Why are Arab armed forces so ineffective?
Governments are splashing the cash, but that may do little to burnish their armies’ reputations
University protests about Gaza spread to the Middle East
But Arab students are looking to America for inspiration
Israel’s prime minister does not know where to go
Binyamin Netanyahu may be losing the plot
Video
Stories most read by subscribers
Featured read
How the chilli pepper has set fire to the internet in China
Thanks to Mao, the once-derided pepper quietly revolutionised Chinese palates
The war in Ukraine
How Ukrainian farmers are using the cover of war to escape taxes
“Black grain” infuriates exporters playing by the rules
A fresh Russian push will test Ukraine severely, says a senior general
An interview with Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence
Russia’s gas business will never recover from the war in Ukraine
Hopes of a Chinese rescue look increasingly vain
Who is supplying Russia’s arms industry?
New research traces the origin of crucial imports
Disinformation
The truth—and lies—behind Olena Zelenska’s $1.1m Cartier haul
The anatomy of a disinformation campaign
How to counter disinformation
More co-ordination is needed, and better access to data
Disinformation is on the rise. How does it work?
Understanding it will lead to better ways to fight it
The vocabulary of disinformation
From AI-generated news to verification
India’s election
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
How strong is India’s economy?
It isn’t the next China, but it could still transform itself and the world
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
America’s election year
Joe Biden is practising some Clintonian politics
But he needs to do more than crack down on “junk fees” to woo swing voters
In brief
Stormy Daniels testifies in Trump trial; Greene and Johnson meet
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
Other highlights
Why Beethoven’s ninth appeals to democrats and despots alike
Since its first performance 200 years ago, few pieces of music have won such varied devotees
These books reveal why the brain is the biggest mystery of all
Eight of the best books on brains and consciousness—human, octopus and other
1843 magazine | “It’s been a very long two weeks”: how the Gaza protests changed Columbia
The camp has been cleared. But the faculty of the Ivy League university remains deeply divided
Jeremy Clarkson, patron saint of the Great British bore
He who speaks for the bore speaks for Britain
Weekly edition: May 11th 2024
The new economic order
“Judge-mandering” and how to cure it
The assignment of judges to cases should be random, not political
Singapore under new management
Under Lawrence Wong, the city-state has a new chance to change
China Shock II
Despite Xi Jinping’s protestations, China does have an overcapacity problem
Gangs on Latin America
How to pacify the world’s most violent region
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
