Briefing

Crossroads at a crossroads

Could Erdogan be ousted in Turkey’s coming election?

His exit would reshape the country and reverberate around the world

Military-industrial complexity

Russia’s economy can withstand a long war, but not a more intense one

Its defences against Western sanctions can only stretch so far

From strength to strength

America’s economic outperformance is a marvel to behold

But the country could still undercut its own success

Trans substantiation

The evidence to support medicalised gender transitions in adolescents is worryingly weak

The effectiveness and side-effects of the most common treatments are not well understood

A daunting arsenal

America’s commercial sanctions on China could get much worse

And China could retaliate in kind

Intransigence mixed with emollience

Iran wants a detente with its neighbours but not with America

A swooning economy and popular unrest notwithstanding, it is sticking to its nuclear programme

The lodestar state

Texas’s latest boom is its biggest yet

The state is sucking in people, companies and federal spending

Storm warning

America and China are preparing for a war over Taiwan

It would spread far across the region, with devastating consequences for the world

Big shots

A new class of drugs for weight loss could end obesity

They promise riches for drugmakers, huge savings for health systems and better lives for millions

A hail of destruction

Data from satellites reveal the vast extent of fighting in Ukraine

The scars of the war can be found far beyond the front lines

A year of war: Ukraine’s self-belief

The war is making Ukraine a Western country

But the cost is appalling

A year of war: Militarising Russia

The invasion has stalled, but Putin’s war on dissent marches on

Russian society is almost as closed and repressive as it was in Soviet times