Preparing the way: The alarming plans for Trump’s second term
The world this week
Leaders
Preparing for government
How MAGA Republicans plan to make Donald Trump’s second term count
They think they know how to banish the chaos and frustrations of his first four years
Pledges in Vilnius
NATO’s promises to Ukraine mark real progress
But the alliance has much more work to do
The big distraction
American trustbusters are losing their focus
An obsession with technology and size distracts from truly harmful market power
The manufacturing delusion
Subsidies and protection for manufacturing will harm the world economy
Reshaping the world’s supply chains comes at a great cost
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Worry not about when the Anthropocene began, but how it might end
It is all too easy to imagine an era that is nasty, brutish and short
Letters
On aboriginal rights in Australia, artificial intelligence, designing flags
Letters to the editor
By Invitation
Briefing
Chaos meets preparation
The meticulous, ruthless preparations for a second Trump term
The America First movement is readying policies and personnel
Britain
Commuters and the Tories
The Conservative Party faces a mutiny in Metroland
Same-sex weddings
Many Britons have changed their minds on gay marriage
Cracking the nest-egg
British pension funds agree to invest more in private markets
Not on call
Britain’s doctors are on strike, again
Europe
Progress and pitfalls
NATO did not give Volodymyr Zelensky everything he wanted
Sleepless in battle
Sappers risk their lives to win Ukraine back, inch by inch
The rise of the right
Support for the hard-right AfD is surging in Germany
Heigh ho, it’s Feijoo
Why Spain’s successful prime minister might lose his job
United States
U-shaped economic thinking
The American left and right loathe each other and agree on a lot
Clairvoyant cartel
A pilgrimage to the mecca of mediumship
Justice delayed
Judge and staff shortages are leaving Americans in limbo
General disarray
An abortion battle causes mayhem in America’s military ranks
Age verification on porn sites
America’s state lawmakers are passing ineffective anti-porn laws
Middle East & Africa
The tarnished city of gold
Why Cape Town beats Johannesburg
Ethiopia’s forgotten civil war
War crimes in Tigray may be covered up or forgotten
Both oppressor and protector
Syria’s president wants non-Muslim religions to help end his pariah status
Libya’s elections
Politicians in Libya make another ill-fated push for elections
Crypto-godly
Does Islam smile on cryptocurrency?
The Americas
The new geography of oil
Latin America is set to become a major oil producer this decade
Asia
Asia’s digital geography
In Asia data flows are part of a new great game
In a Barbie world
Why has Vietnam banned the “Barbie” film?
Hun Sen’s handsome monument
Cambodia’s autocrat is fixing his succession
Nights at the museum
The Taliban embrace cultural heritage
China
Setting out their stalls
Another comeback for China’s street merchants
International
Seeking “strategic autonomy”
What would Europe do if Trump won?
Business
A $69bn boss fight
Britain hands Microsoft’s Activision deal an extra life
The WFH showdown
The fight over working from home goes global
Wonder drugs
Big pharma is warming to the potential of AI
Finance & economics
Economic policy
The world is in the grip of a manufacturing delusion
Mission-critical
China controls the supply of crucial war minerals
Down with it
Is America’s inflationary fever breaking?
Making it through the insipid
China’s war on financial reality
Buttonwood
The mystery of gold prices
Free exchange
Why people struggle to understand climate risk
Science & technology
Superforecasting the end of the world
What are the chances of an AI apocalypse?
Not that sort of monolith
An enormous—and unexpected—lump of granite has been found on the Moon
Choosing a fingerprint
A Canadian lake could mark the start of humanity’s geological epoch
What the bones tell
Sabre-tooth tigers and dire wolves were in trouble before they vanished
Culture
Shelf-made
Try these books on your summer holiday
Tales of the city
Khaled Khalifa’s new novel tells the story of two families in Aleppo
Organised crime
“Narcas” offers a rare glimpse of the women in drug gangs
The Economist reads
Promethean sparks
What to read to become more creative
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail
The Economist explains
The Economist explains
How AI image-generators work
The Economist explains
Why a cancer scare around aspartame is mostly unfounded
Obituary
Truth, and how to find it