Leaders
High alert
Will Donald Trump and Elon Musk wreck or reform the Pentagon?
America’s security depends upon their success
European politics
Can Friedrich Merz save Germany—and Europe?
He is on track to win the election, but to fix Europe he will have to fix his country first
The Paris discord
After DeepSeek, America and the EU are getting AI wrong
Europe has a chance to catch up, whereas America should ease up
Words before war
Countering China’s diplomatic coup
China has turned much of the global south against Taiwan. That could be laying the ground for forced unification
Blind Britain
The Lucy Letby case shows systemic failure and a national malaise
Whether or not the neonatal nurse is guilty of murder, her saga is revealing
Letters
On diversifying portfolios, the London Gazette, exit taxes, social media, red tape, braindance
Letters to the editor
By Invitation
Jaw-jawing at Yalta, 80 years ago
The neglect of Asia was the great failure of Yalta, writes Stephen Kotkin
Briefing
Disrupting the Pentagon
America’s military supremacy is in jeopardy
To win future wars it needs new weapons, new suppliers and a new system of procurement
Asia
A tidal wave of trade
South-East Asian producers are being hammered by Chinese imports
America and India
Is MAGA great for India?
Three’s a crowd
New Zealand and the Cook Islands fall out over China
China
United States
Federalist capers
Donald Trump wants states and cities to do as they are told
Dodgy politics
Donald Trump and the art of the quid pro quo
Foreign aid
What happened next at USAID
America’s payment system
Elon Musk has been pushed out of the Treasury
Lexington
How Bob Dylan broke free
The Americas
Middle East & Africa
Tasty Tilapia
How to go from fish lover to fish farmer
The new disorder
Homs’s troubles show the challenges facing Syria’s leaders
Raiding a bookshop
Israel mounts an attack on Palestinian intellectual life
Militants, disempowered
Hizbullah’s decline is a boon for Lebanon’s new government
Playing with fire
Instead of luxury condos, Gaza faces a resumption of war
Europe
The man who could lead Europe
Germany’s “business model is gone”, warns Friedrich Merz
Going over their heads
Ukraine’s fears are becoming reality, after Trump talks to Putin
An interview with Volodymyr Zelensky
Ukraine fears being cut out of talks between America and Russia
A populist turns towards Putin
Robert Fico’s pleas for cheap Russian gas bring Slovaks onto the street
Erdogan’s endgame
A new crackdown is gathering strength in Turkey
A feline helper
Le Chat, the cat-bot France has pinned its AI hopes on
Britain
Criminal incompetence
Britain’s review body for criminal convictions is struggling
Carrot and stick
Parliament is advertising for a new Black Rod
Founders and flyers
A British incubator of businesses often bound for the Bay Area
Romance in Britain
Valentine’s Day may need to adjust to the times
Urban demography
London is ageing twice as quickly as the rest of England
Bagehot
Is Sir Keir Starmer a chump?
International
Semantic strikes
China’s stunning new campaign to turn the world against Taiwan
Business
High-speed chase
Chinese cars are taking over the global south
Crisis in Standort Deutschland
German business is being suffocated by high costs and red tape
Back to petroleum
BP is underperforming and under pressure
Rearmament revolution
Could a German startup disrupt Europe’s arms industry?
Bartleby
How to get people to resign
Finance & economics
Ascension, for some
How AI will divide the best from the rest
Buttonwood
Why you should repay your mortgage early
Bluster-busting
Elon Musk is failing to cut American spending
In rust we trust
Donald Trump’s Super Bowl tariffs are an act of self-harm
War economics
Russian inflation is too high. Does that matter?
Free exchange
The danger of relying on OpenAI’s Deep Research
Science & technology
AI up to bat
How artificial intelligence is changing baseball
A game of two graphs
AI is being used to model football matches
For a fistful of dollars
Forget DeepSeek. Large language models are getting cheaper still
Well informed
Does intermittent fasting work?
Culture
Infinite jest
The secret to the success of “Saturday Night Live”
Haplessly ever after
What explains the enduring appeal of Bridget Jones?
Chapter and (re)verse
How did the Catholic church go so wrong?
The old college try
Does more education lead to less sex?
The Economist watches
Six of the best films about love
Economic & financial indicators
Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Obituary
Aparkalypse Now