An AI brain with plants flourishing on the left half and withering on the right.

Leaders

How AI could help the climate

The technology could help decarbonise the industries that have proved the hardest to clean up

Garment workers make clothes at a factory in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Asia

Xi Jinping may try to woo the victims of Donald Trump’s tariffs

America’s chaos is a chance for China to wield influence in the region


1843 magazine | Friends with benefits? The country still in thrall to the Wagner Group

In the Central African Republic locals are learning Russian while mercenaries knock back lager





The world in brief

America continued its tariffs walkback by exempting electronic parts and devices, including phones and computers, from its new levies on Chinese goods...

Britain passed an emergency law giving the government control of a steel plant in Lincolnshire, in the East Midlands, to prevent its imminent closure...

America and Iran began talks about the Iranian nuclear program in Oman, according to an online post by Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry...

Extreme winds and heavy rains battered northern China, leading to the cancellation of more than 800 flights and disrupting trains...


A close up of a few Rosaries and pairs of hands in prayer.

Why you should believe in God. Or Allah. (But not Baal)

Ross Douthat believes everyone should believe. Readers may have doubts

Illustration of the statue of liberty sailing off on a boat with the EU flag on it, her plinth is in the foreground with a notice pinned on it that says gone to Europe

Charlemagne: The thing about Europe... it’s the actual land of the free now

Europe’s very real problems don’t look so bad by comparison

An illustration of an electric car flatening the world and creating loads of fumes.

Electric vehicles also cause air pollution

Though fume-free, their brake pads and tyres disintegrate over time

Arif Ahmed Director for Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom of the Office for Students.

The philosopher changing free speech in Britain

Arif Ahmed is forcing universities to behave better


Discover more

  • The Intelligence

    Art of the real: Trump bows to markets


Latest videos


Trump’s tariffs on China

 Xi Jinping on a screen making a speech

Why China thinks it might win a trade war with Trump

The country’s officials vow to “fight to the end”


Aerial view of three workers making shoe insoles at a factory in Buxia Village of Nanma Subdistrict in Yiyuan County, Zibo, east China's Shandong Province.

China’s shoemakers seem more sanguine than its politicians

A trade war will cause a lot of damage, but many have weathered storms before




World news

A soldier presented as Chinese detained by Ukrainian authorities at an undisclosed location in Ukraine

Culture

Viola Davis and Ramón Rodríguez in G20 as secret agents.

What to watch this weekend

Survival lessons from Viola Davis, Jon Hamm and Pedro Pascal

People stand in front of Anthony van Dyck's "Lord Derby and Family" during a press preview of The Frick Collection in New York City, USA.

Would you turn your home into a museum?

The recently renovated Frick Collection is a testament to a bygone era


A close up of a few Rosaries and pairs of hands in prayer.

Why you should believe in God. Or Allah. (But not Baal)

Ross Douthat believes everyone should believe. Readers may have doubts


Pronouns have become extremely divisive

These short words are at the centre of a big political debate


“G20”, a rollicking new film, evokes an old ideal of America

It is outlandish in more ways than intended



Other highlights

Betty Webb never spoke about her work, until she had to

The Bletchley Park “secretary” died on March 31st, aged 101

People look at the photos of smiling teeth at a dentist's exhibition.

The British are learning to love cheap overseas health care

Growing numbers are heading abroad for cosmetic and other medical procedures


An illustration depicting a satellite.

Could data centres ever be built in orbit?

A startup called Starcloud has plans to do just that


Japan faces a reckoning over rice

A crisis over its staple reveals cracks in the country’s food system



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