The World Ahead
The World Ahead
The World Ahead 2025
Leaders
High rollers
America’s gambling boom should be celebrated, not feared
The gambling frenzy is mostly about people being free to enjoy themselves
A crisis in Paris
France steps into deep trouble
It has no government and no budget, and is politically gridlocked
Seoul saved
Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea should resign, or be impeached
His coup attempt was foiled. But grave tests still remain for the country
Wessex and the White House
Joe Biden abused a medieval power to pardon his son
The president’s reversal is understandable, humane and wrong
Heavy lift
NASA is an obvious target for Elon Musk’s axe
Its Moon programme is a mess. But DOGE is likely to struggle to cut it to size
Letters
On Northvolt, veterans’ benefits, iodine, Somalia, farm villains
Letters to the editor
By Invitation
Artificial Intelligence
An agenda to maximise AI’s benefits and minimise harms, by David Patterson
Briefing
What are the odds?
Gambling is growing like gangbusters in America
Technology and legal changes are spurring a betting bonanza
Asia
South Korea’s wild night
Martial law in South Korea—and then not. What comes next?
An unending nightmare
Suffering from the Bhopal disaster in India continues, 40 years on
China
Bribes and brass
Fresh doubts about China’s ability to invade Taiwan
Trees to the rescue
Will China’s “green Great Wall” save it from encroaching sands?
Rewriting the script
Chinese women are making themselves heard on the big screen
United States
Murder mystery
A health-care CEO is murdered in Manhattan
GRAS negligence
The FDA does not know what chemicals are added to foods
The muted megaphone
Donald Trump may find it harder to dominate America’s conversation
Category swap
Dinesh D’Souza admits his documentary was fiction
The Americas
X marks the spot
Canada has finally decided where to store its nuclear waste
Monumental victory
Brazilian football looks like the next Premier League
Middle East & Africa
Pick your poison
Ghana, Africa’s model democracy, is losing its sheen
A very long election
Namibia’s tired old liberation party stays in power
India Inc in trouble
Adani’s problems in Kenya undermine Narendra Modi’s ambitions for Africa
Europe
Barnier’s exit
Emmanuel Macron loses another prime minister
Bling-grabbers
If you’ve got it, don’t flaunt it in Sweden
Coming up on the right
The hard-right Vox party is winning over Spain’s youth
Britain
Devolution in the United Kingdom
Welsh voters think their government has mismanaged public services. Rightly
Assisted dying (what next)
Britain’s vote on assisted dying is just the beginning
Whitehall reform
New marching orders and a new leader for Britain’s civil service
Electric dreams
Britain’s electric-car roll-out is hitting speed bumps
Tidings of joy
Fortnum & Mason caters to a demand for festive fun
Moonlighting members
How lucrative are MPs’ second jobs?
Bagehot
The British state is blind
International
A pope of colour
Could the next pope come from Africa or Asia?
Business
Finance & economics
Blow-for-blow
How China will strike back at Trump
Pepped up
MAGA types have a point on debanking
Maladie chronique
France is not alone in its fiscal woes
Hitting the jackpot
How sports gambling became ubiquitous
Buttonwood
The hidden cost of Chinese loans
Science & technology
California’s space cadets
Dreams of asteroid mining, orbital manufacturing and much more
Oh no! Not mammoth again!
Lots of hunting. Not much gathering. The diet of early Americans
Culture
Seeds of change
The forgotten botanists who resisted the Nazis
In another world
The best video games of 2024
On language
The Economist’s word of the year for 2024
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
The Economist explains
The Economist explains
Is RFK junior right to say America allows more toxins than the EU?
Obituary
The never-broken code