The fight over America’s economy
The world this week
Leaders
The fight over America’s economy
Tech is coming to Washington. Prepare for a clash of cultures
Out of Trumpian chaos and contradiction, something good might just emerge
Flagship effort
Finland’s seizure of a tanker shows how to fight Russian sabotage
The growing threat to undersea cables demands a robust response
Northern lights
To see what European business could become, look to the Nordics
The region produces an impressive number of corporate giants
Living with heat, drought and floods
Smarter incentives would help India adapt to climate change
It is the biggest test case for how hot, hard-up countries can cope
Labour of fluff
The Starmer government looks a poor guardian of England’s improving schools
It is fiddling with what works and not yet dealing with what doesn’t
Letters
On Taiwan, data in politics, Kevins, ultra-processed foods, Iran, Scotland, stockmarkets
Letters to the editor
Briefing
Nip, tuck, lift, plump
Young customers in developing countries propel a boom in plastic surgery
Falling costs and converging beauty standards spur new habits
Europe
Arresting spectacle
Finland seizes a tanker, getting tough on hybrid warfare
Closely watched trains
A Prague-Berlin train loses its old-world dining cars
Muskular intervention
Elon Musk’s praise for the far right infuriates most of Germany
Europe’s missing pieces
Serbia and its neighbours are still far from joining the EU
Charlemagne
Why Canada should join the EU
Britain
Show your work
Labour lacks good ideas for improving Britain’s schools
Guess who’s back?
Inflation in Britain looks irritatingly persistent
Wet, wet, wet
Britons brace themselves for more floods
Middle East & Africa
Out with a whimper
The era of multilateral peacekeeping draws to an unhappy close
The endless war
Eastern Congo is as wretched as ever
Road from ruin
Syria’s new rulers have inherited an economic disaster
All together now?
The fate of minorities in post-Assad Syria
United States
Terrorism in America
The Bourbon Street attack was part of a new pattern
Out for the count
Homelessness rises to a record level in America
The last ByteDance
Duelling arguments take shape in the TikTok-ban case
Tocqueville updated
Overall, American states are becoming more democratic
The upside of MAHA
RFK junior is half right about American health care
Above the fruited plain
Jimmy Carter reshaped his home town
The Americas
The coming coronation
Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro looks set to take the throne
Turning off the tap
Why Spanish firms have cooled towards Latin America
No Master in Disaster
Failure to prepare for climate change is costing Honduras dear
China
The year ahead in China
Xi Jinping has much to worry about in 2025
Eyes everywhere
How China turns members of its diaspora into spies
International
Ageing disgracefully
Why people over the age of 55 are the new problem generation
Business
Way of the Viking
Why are Nordic companies so successful?
Playing offence
Netflix has big ambitions for live sport
Follow the money
Meet Silicon Valley’s shrewdest talent spotters
Party-state entanglement
China is catching up with America in quantum technology
Bartleby
Beware the dangers of data
Finance & economics
Prepare for battle
Will Elon Musk dominate President Trump’s economic policy?
Place your bets
What investors expect from President Trump
Footloose factories
China’s firms are taking flight, worrying its rulers
Defying export fatalism
Manmohan Singh was India’s economic freedom fighter
Free exchange
Would an artificial-intelligence bubble be so bad?
Science & technology
Lift-off at last?
Can Jeff Bezos match Elon Musk in space?
The long shots
Cancer vaccines are showing promise at last
Culture
Luces, cámara, acción!
The Colombian powerhouse behind some of streaming’s biggest hits
Sympathy for the devil
Why do rebels and revolutionaries love “Paradise Lost”?
Strange and familiar places
What Haruki Murakami’s fans get wrong about him
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary
The pilgrim from Plains