Leaders

Around the world, an anti-red-tape revolution is taking hold

Done right, deregulation could kick-start economic growth

An employee works inside a nuclear facility in Isfahan, Iran

Leaders

How to use “maximum pressure” to stop an Iranian bomb

The Islamic Republic is closer than ever to obtaining nukes


United States

Donald Trump revives ideas of a Star Wars-like missile shield 

He wants a swarm of missile-toting satellites to take out incoming threats




The world in brief

President Donald Trump said that America was “in mourning” after officials confirmed that there were no survivors of a mid-air collision between a military helicopter and a passenger plane in Washington, DC...

Israel belatedly released 110 Palestinian prisoners as part of the ceasefire deal...

America’s economy grew at an annualised rate of 2.3% in the fourth quarter, slightly below analysts’ expectations...

A political leader of M23, a Rwandan-backed rebel group, vowed to march “all the way to Kinshasa”, the capital of Congo, to “take power, and lead the country”...


A Chevrolet Silverado 1500 on the assembly line at the General Motors assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, US.

No one gains from American tariffs on cars from Mexico and Canada

Donald Trump’s levy will hit his country’s carmakers hardest

cartoon of Donald Trump, wearing a feathered headdress, a cowboy hat, and a police hat, holding a globe with pins and a needle

Lexington: Donald Trump’s defining decade

Will America’s president overcome the 1970s, or just refight its battles?

Interactive Burgernomics

Our Big Mac index shows how burger prices differ across borders

Using patty-power parity to think about exchange rates

Mauro Morandi seated on the beach at Budelli

Mauro Morandi needed to abandon consumer society

The hermit-guardian of Italy’s loveliest beach died on January 3rd, aged 85

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This week

Members of the M23 rebel group in Goma

The most important political stories this week

Chaos in Congo, Israel bans UNWRA—and more

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The most important stories in the business world this week

DeepSeek rattles America’s tech giants, a supersonic jet test—and more


 statue of Alexander Pushkin being symbolically pulled with thick ropes tied around the bust and stretched taut in opposite directions

Letters to the editor

A selection of correspondence


The weekly cartoon

A lighter look at this week’s events


The second Trump presidency

A rubbish skip full of office chairs

Donald Trump goes to war with his employees

The president wants to shrink and remake the civil service

Kash Patel speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington.

Kash Patel is a crackpot

Is he also a menace?


1843 magazine | How Tulsi Gabbard became a crusader against the Deep State

Her strange journey from a yoga commune to Trump’s intelligence chief


America’s foreign aid pause puts lives at risk

Donald Trump sought disruption. He hurt America first.


DeepSeek and Chinese AI

This illustration symbolises the technological competition between China and the United States. It features elements of both nations' flags, with an upward green arrow on China's side and a downward red arrow on the U.S. side. The background includes  AI s

The real meaning of the DeepSeek drama

The Chinese model-maker has panicked investors. But it is good for the users of AI

Liang Wenfeng surrounded by some Deepseek visuals like the logo and some messages from the app

DeepSeek poses a challenge to Beijing as much as to Silicon Valley

The story of Liang Wenfeng, the model-maker’s mysterious founder


Deepseek logo creating havoc amongst  digital and tech symbols on a bold red background.

DeepSeek sends a shockwave through markets

A cheap Chinese language model has investors in Silicon Valley asking questions



World news

Deportation flights have begun.

Donald Trump turns an angry gaze south

Relations with Central America are likely to worsen

Friedrich Merz, leader of Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, speaks during a session at the Bundestag, on January 29, 2025 in Berlin

A day of drama in the Bundestag

Friedrich Merz, Germany’s probable next chancellor, takes a huge bet and triggers uproar


Sunrise Over Tower Bridge.

Backing Heathrow expansion suggests Labour is serious about boosting growth

It is the surest sign yet that the government is up for the fight


Hamas talks a big game but is in chaos

Look beyond the latest bravado and brutality and it is bitterly split


Latest videos

Business, finance and economics

The federal reserve represented as a slot machine with bitcoin coins at its base.

Will America’s crypto frenzy end in disaster?

Donald Trump’s team is about to bring digital finance into the mainstream

The illustration shows a man and a woman standing on separate stacks of coins.

Bartleby: Knowing what your colleagues earn

The pros and cons of greater pay transparency



The Arctic: climate change’s great economic opportunity

An enormous prize is on offer. When might it be grasped?


Russia and Ukraine

Russia says it captured 2 settlements in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region

Amid talk of a ceasefire, Ukraine’s front line is crumbling

An ominous defeat in the eastern town of Velyka Novosilka

The Russian Army Attacked Kherson With Guided Bombs

Russian pilots appear to be hunting Ukrainian civilians

Residents of Kherson are dodging murderous drones


Snow covered wreckage of intercepted missiles in Ukraine

Ukrainian scientists are studying downed Russian missiles

And learning a lot about sanctions-busting


What North Korea gains by sending troops to fight for Russia

Resources, technology, experience and a blood-soaked IOU



Read more on the war in Ukraine

More highlights

Drainage canals (linear features that drain into a small meandering river) seen from above.

A sophisticated civilisation once flourished in the Amazon basin

How the Casarabe died out remains a mystery


Packages of tofu move along conveyor belts on the production line at the Yamami Co. Fuji-Sanroku factory in Oyama Town, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan

Tofu: never judge a food by its political reputation

Think outside the white plastic box. Here is a carnivore’s guide to tofu


1843 magazine | The warlord, the oligarch and the unravelling of Russia’s Amazon.com

Before the Ukraine war, Wildberries was a giant of e-commerce. Now it’s caught up in a medieval blood feud


The World Ahead 2025

Friedrich Merz photographed on the roof of the Konrad Adenauer House, Berlin

The World Ahead Europe in 2025

Under its new government, Germany will move to the right

Getting the economy going will be the priority

A view of Mzimbasi Street, Dar-es Salam, Tanzania

The World Ahead Africa in 2025

Africa will have some of the fastest-growing economies in the world in 2025

Several fast-growing economies show that not everyone is having a lost decade


Max airplanes sit parked at Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington

The World Ahead Business in 2025

Is this the year that Boeing turns itself around?

America’s aerospace giant will hope 2025 is better than 2024


The World Ahead Culture in 2025

China’s ultra-short dramas will enjoy long-term success

Entertaining and innovative, micro-dramas are flourishing both at home and abroad in 2025


Stories most read by subscribers

Edition: February 1st 2025

The revolt against regulation


Read full edition

The World Ahead 2025

Future-gazing analysis, predictions and speculation


Read the full edition

The US elections of 2024

  • Matt Gaetz withdraws from consideration as America’s attorney-general