Leaders

Germany’s election victor must ditch its debt rules—fast

Friedrich Merz has weeks to shore up his country’s defences 

Elon Musk displays a chainsaw given to him by President of Argentina Javier Milei during the Conservative Political Action Conference.

United States

DOGE is encountering opposition from Donald Trump’s appointees

The people the president has chosen to run departments are not wild about Elon Musk firing their underlings


Business

A guide to dodging Trump’s tariffs

How companies can lessen the blow from the American president’s assault on trade





The world in brief

America voted against a United Nations resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine...

During a press conference at the White House, Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, said that Europe had “provided real money”—not just loans, as Mr Trump asserted—to Ukraine, and clarified that Russia was the “aggressor”...

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, said he hoped the war can finish “this year” as he hosted around a dozen foreign leaders in Kyiv to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion...

The winner of Germany’s election, Friedrich Merz, suggested he could work with mainstream parties to loosen the country’s “debt brake”, which strictly limits the federal government’s deficit, before the new parliament convenes...


Collage of a human body diagram and a number of cells

CRISPR cures face cost and safety concerns

Gene-editing medicines have had a rocky start. But there is cause for optimism

Illustration of an aircraft carrier in a shopping cart

Banyan: Can Indonesia make its Top Gun dreams a reality

An aircraft-carrier is the last thing its navy needs

The transatlantic relationship is crumbling, says an ex-head of NATO

Anders Fogh Rasmussen argues that Europe must accept it may be alone—and spend accordingly

Another win for geology’s Theory of Everything

Plate tectonics could explain continental plateaus and mini mass extinctions


Discover more

  • The Intelligence

    Germany’s next government: it could have been messier


King Trump

Donald Trump: the would-be king

America is fated to wage a titanic struggle over the power of the president

A photo collage illustrating the chaos Trump is causing, featuring Trump, Eric Adams, Elon Musk, a plastic straw, Mt. McKinley, the USAID flag, the Kennedy Center DEI, and the transgender symbol.

Donald Trump, a reckless president

But not yet a lawless one


Donald Trump is taking presidential power to alarming places, writes Jack Goldsmith

Congress won’t check his Napoleonic instincts. Will a solidly conservative Supreme Court?


For Donald Trump, the resignations are the point

The more government lawyers who quit over their own scruples, the better for him



Latest videos


Europe’s worst nightmare

Donald Trump makes Ukraine an offer it can’t refuse 

A proposed economic deal would be punitive. Saying “no” could be worse 

How Europe must respond as Trump and Putin smash the post-war order

The region has had its bleakest week since the fall of the Iron Curtain. The implications have yet to sink in


Russian President Vladimir Putin

How Vladimir Putin plans to play Donald Trump

The Russian president thinks he is the better poker player 


Team Trump wants to get rid of Volodymyr Zelensky

America’s president calls Ukraine’s president “a dictator”



The second Trump presidency

Defense Sec. Hegseth Welcomes Israeli PM Netanyahu To The Pentagon

Donald Trump sacks America’s top military brass

The navy chief, the air force second-in-command and military lawyers have all been fired, too

This illustration shows the U.S. Capitol building with various speech bubbles around it. The bubbles contain symbols like a checkmark, dollar sign, question mark, graphs, and charts. The colors are bold, with red, yellow, white, and black

Elon Musk spells danger for Accenture, McKinsey and their rivals

Why the American government could turn against consultants


A science flask with a belt tightening around the neck

How the Trump administration wants to reshape American science

The consequences will be felt around the world


Is Elon Musk’s war on fraud just cover for a power grab?

America’s government has a big problem, but DOGE’s approach is unlikely to fix it



World news

Barrick employees at a mine in Mali

How to make cash in Africa’s coup belt 

Mining multinationals are learning to do business with juntas 


MEXICO-US-BORDER-SECURITY

Mexico deploys 10,000 troops to the US border

They have been sent to tackle the drugs trade—and placate Donald Trump


In Texas, vaccine-choice activists are ascendant

Amid a measles outbreak they are lobbying for more “medical freedom”



Business, finance and economics

People are passing by a Bitcoin office in Istanbul, Turkey.

Stablecoins: the real crypto craze

Policymakers are racing to catch up with their rapid rise

This is an illustration of a man in a white shirt and black tie, tightly bound to an office chair with green tape. He has a distressed expression, and the background is solid green

Bartleby: Leaving the seat of power

The doctrine of management by walking around matters more than ever



Investors fear inflation is coming back. They may be right

Is the world about to repeat the mistakes of the 1970s?



Other highlights

Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

What explains the enduring appeal of Bridget Jones?

From spawning “chick lit” to becoming a Gen Z icon

Patrick Schwarzenegger in Season 3 of "The White Lotus"

Escapism and fear made “The White Lotus” a pandemic-era hit

Now the show about obnoxious American tourists has become a drag


1843 magazine | Why are so many Israeli Jews spying for Iran?

Unprecedented numbers are risking everything to help their country’s bitterest enemy


Does more education lead to less sex?

Trying to make sense of the sexual “degree divide” in America



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Edition: February 22nd 2025

The would-be king


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Technology Quarterly: March 1st 2025

The age of CRISPR

Ida Emilie Steinmark explores whether it can deliver on its promise


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