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The US in brief

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Britain

Explore our prediction model for Britain’s looming election

The scale of the task facing Rishi Sunak is clear

Middle East & Africa

Iranians fear their brittle regime will drag them into war

Ultra-religious hardliners are gaining power and yearn for confrontation


Business

America hits Chinese biotech—and its own drugmakers

A sweeping bill in Congress could cost patients at home




The world in brief

Western allies advised Israel to show restraint when responding to an Iranian attack on Saturday...

China’s GDP grew by 5.3% in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, beating expectations...

Tesla, a leading manufacturer of electric vehicles, will lay off more than 10% of its staff, according to a memo seen by Electrek, a trade publication...

The price of base metals jumped after the London Metal Exchange, a commodities bourse, opened for the first time since America and Britain introduced sanctions targeting Russian metals...


What to expect as Donald Trump’s first criminal trial gets under way

And how much the spectacle will matter

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

Follow our updates from the courtroom as the first Trump trial begins

Subscriber event

Register for our live event on war in the Middle East

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

In brief

Jury selection begins in Trump trial; Mike Johnson to push Israel aid

Our daily political update, featuring the stories that matter


Interactive 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



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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



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



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


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


The next housing disaster

Weekly edition: April 13th 2024

The next housing disaster