Jul 15th 2023

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

Weight-loss drugs

John Schoonbee on why new drugs, while helpful, are no panacea for obesity

Briefing

Chaos meets preparation

The meticulous, ruthless preparations for a second Trump term

The America First movement is readying policies and personnel

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

Banyan

Asia is rowing about Fukushima nuclear wastewater

China

A growing problem

China is obsessed with food security. Climate change will challenge it

Peak toil

The Chinese are working more hours than ever

Setting out their stalls

Another comeback for China’s street merchants

Chaguan

Rule by law, with Chinese characteristics

United States

U-shaped economic thinking

The American left and right loathe each other and agree on a lot

Veni, vidi, veto

Tony Evers’s veto shows the growing power of Midwestern Democrats

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

Lexington

Joe Biden should run against the Ivy League

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

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

Charlemagne

Farewell, Mark Rutte, the Tiggerish Dutch prime minister

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

Orkxit

Why the Orkney Islands are considering joining Norway

Bagehot

The strange success of the Tories’ schools policy

International

Seeking “strategic autonomy”

What would Europe do if Trump won?

Business

Size wars

Is big business really getting too big?

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

Bartleby

Executive coaching is useful therapy that you can expense

Schumpeter

The last, unfulfilled dream of Jamie Dimon, king of Wall Street

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

World in a dish

When it comes to ice cream, the instinct to innovate is misguided

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

Back Story

Bruce Springsteen turns back the clock—and stops it

The Economist reads

Promethean sparks

What to read to become more creative

Economic & financial indicators

Indicators

Economic data, commodities and markets

Graphic detail

Unfortunate sons

A new study finds that 47,000 Russian combatants have died in Ukraine

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