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The US in brief
Mike Johnson to split up aid; Trump’s jury selection begins
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The situation in the Middle East. April 18th, 4pm BST, 11am EDT
Middle East & Africa
Iranians fear their brittle regime will drag them into war
Ultra-religious hardliners are gaining power and yearn for confrontation
Britain
Explore our prediction model for Britain’s looming election
The scale of the task facing Rishi Sunak is clear
Business
America hits Chinese biotech—and its own drugmakers
A sweeping bill in Congress could cost patients at home
The world in brief
The head of Israel’s army said Iran’s attack on Israel would be “met with a response”...
China’s GDP grew by 5.3% in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, beating expectations...
The American dollar extended its strongest rally in over a year as investors bet on the Federal Reserve holding off on interest rate cuts until September...
Storms battered south-west Pakistan, killing at least 39 people...
A trauma surgeon on why Gaza is the worst of war zones
It is like stepping back into the 19th century, says David Nott
Buttonwood: What China’s central bank and Costco shoppers have in common
Hint: it is not a fondness for cryptocurrencies
After one year of war, Sudan is a failing state
Half a million may starve without urgent help
Bees, like humans, can preserve cultural traditions
Different colonies build in competing architectural styles
Sign up to Middle East Dispatch
Our latest newsletter covers a complex and consequential region
The US in brief
Mike Johnson to split up aid; Trump’s jury selection begins
Subscriber event
The situation in the Middle East. April 18th, 4pm BST, 11am EDT
Strife in the Middle East
Will Israel retaliate against Iran, or hold back?
America urges restraint after Iran’s large but futile bombardment of Israel
Iran attacks Israel, risking a full-blown regional war
Direct drone and missile strikes cross a rubicon
Iran and Israel’s shadow war explodes into the open
But the Islamic Republic may have miscalculated
The short-sighted Israeli army
Force alone cannot bring security
The war in Ukraine
Ukrainian drone strikes are hurting Russia’s oil industry
The world’s third-largest producer is now an importer of petrol
How Ukraine is using AI to fight Russia
From target hunting to catching sanctions-busters, its war is increasingly high-tech
Russia is sure to lose in Ukraine, reckons a Chinese expert on Russia
Feng Yujun says the war has strained Sino-Russian relations
Tracking the Ukraine war: where is the latest fighting?
Our satellite view of the conflict, updated daily
America’s election year
True swing voters are extraordinarily rare in America
We have found some
In brief
Mike Johnson to split aid; Trump’s jury selection continues
Our daily political update, featuring the stories that matter
US election 2024
Can you build a Trump voter?
Try our tool—and see which attributes make voters more likely to pick one candidate over the other
Trump v Biden: who’s ahead in the polls?
The Economist is tracking the race to be America’s next president
Business, finance and economics
Generative AI is a marvel. Is it also built on theft?
The wonder-technology faces accusations of copyright infringement
Think Tesla is in trouble? Pity even more its wannabe EV rivals
A fleet of electric-car startups is struggling to stay in business
Free exchange: What will humans do if AI solves everything?
Welcome to a high-tech utopia
Bartleby: The six rules of fire drills
Please display this somewhere in your office where no one will read it. Thank you
World news
Why most people regret Brexit
A majority of British voters now believe the split was a mistake
Elon Musk is feuding with Brazil’s powerful Supreme Court
The court has become the de facto regulator of social media in the country
South Korean voters—and spring onions—rebuke the president
The failure of Yoon Suk-yeol’s party in parliamentary elections will make his last three years hard
O.J. Simpson’s defence was a harbinger of post-truth politics
Ignore the facts, believe in conspiracies
Other highlights
1843 magazine | Robert F. Kennedy junior doesn’t care if he condemns America to Trump
He’s a tree-hugging conspiracy theorist – and he’s running for president
The rights and wrongs of assisted dying
Britain’s next great social reform is coming. Here’s how it should work
A short history of India in eight maps
Understanding the breathtaking diversity of India and Indians
Dateline: The Economist history quiz | April 12th edition
Can you guess when these extracts were published?
Transgender care
America should follow England’s lead on transgender care for kids
Its approach is neither as harsh as in red states nor as lax as in blue states
The Cass Review damns England’s youth-gender services
A new report urges big changes
What America has got wrong about gender medicine
Too many doctors have suspended their professional judgment
Britain tries to correct the treatment of gender-dysphoric kids
But puberty blockers are still available from private providers
China’s economy
China’s high-stakes struggle to defy demographic disaster
The Communist Party puts its faith in robots, gene-therapy and bathing services
Xi Jinping’s misguided plan to escape economic stagnation
It will disappoint China’s people and anger the rest of the world
How Xi Jinping plans to overtake America
Digital twins, nuclear fusion and the small matter of fixing China’s economy
The mind-bending new rules for doing business in China
Xi Jinping is sending mixed messages to Western bosses and investors
The spread of AI
Artificial intelligence is taking over drug development
Regulators need to up their game to keep up
How to define artificial general intelligence
Academics and tech entrepreneurs disagree. A court may soon decide
A new generation of music-making algorithms is here
Their most useful application may lie in helping human composers
Just how rich are businesses getting in the AI gold rush?
Nvidia and Microsoft are not the only winners
Stories most read by subscribers
Featured read
1843 magazine | Houston, Texas: where asylum cases come to die
Some immigration lawyers relish a challenge
India’s election
How India could become an Asian tiger
The world’s most selective bureaucracy is struggling to make it happen
Narendra Modi’s secret weapon: India’s diaspora
Migrants help campaign for the prime minister at home and lobby for the country abroad
Yamini Aiyar laments the damage done to Indian democracy under Narendra Modi
Toxic majoritarianism is just part of the story, says the policy scholar
What to read about Hindutva
Six books explain the dangerous ideology of India’s ruling party
Visual storytelling
Vladivostok is a window into wartime Russia
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is transforming the far-eastern city
Joe Biden’s weakness among Latinos threatens his re-election
In Arizona, a growing Hispanic electorate should help Democrats. Yet Donald Trump is gaining ground
Can you build a British voter?
See how Britons might vote in the next election
How cheap drones are transforming warfare in Ukraine
First-person view drones have achieved near mythical status on the front lines
Weekly edition: April 13th 2024
The next housing disaster
The next housing disaster
Global warming is coming for your home. Who will pay for the damage?
Who are America's swing voters?
We interrogated a dataset of 49,000 people to find out
Elon envy: pity Tesla's rivals
A fleet of electric-car startups is struggling to stay in business
What if Ukraine loses?
Russian victory would be debilitating for the West, and especially for Europe
Technology Quarterly: March 30th 2024
A new prescription
AIs will make health care safer and better, reports Natasha Loder. It may even get cheaper too
