economist

THIS SPRING, the Lithuanian hamlet of Lavoriskes is tranquil. No traffic disturbs the country road that leads from the village to a nearby border checkpoint with Belarus, a client state of Russia. The loudest noise is birdsong.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Putin-proofing Europe’s borders”

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After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

Its plan was to hold off a Chinese attack until America turned up. What now?

MAGA-world flirts with forces that once tore Europe apart

His regime uses payouts to salve Russian families’ grief

SIX YEARSago the British Army’s 3rd Division, the country’s flagship fighting force, visited North Carolina for an exercise. It won battles thanks to strikes deep behind enemy lines. But those strikes used munitions that the British Army did not have and was barred, by treaty, from owning. Instead, aUSArmy corps, firing dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICMs)—commonly known ascluster munitions—“saved the day time and again”, recalled John Mead, then a brigadier. “They were, and are, a game-changer.”

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Cluster-struck”

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

Its plan was to hold off a Chinese attack until America turned up. What now?

MAGA-world flirts with forces that once tore Europe apart

His regime uses payouts to salve Russian families’ grief

WHEN PRESIDENTDonald Trump signed an executive order on April 24th authorising seabed mining for critical minerals, he meant to free American companies from international constraints and license their roving hands to search for precious stones on the bottom of the deepest oceans—Earth’s last mining frontier. The order was a bombshell. Though America has never ratified theUNConvention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), under which the regulation of seabed mining sits, it had long accepted its provisions as customary international law. And the International Seabed Authority (ISA), created underUNCLOS, currently forbids mining.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “The last frontier”

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

Its plan was to hold off a Chinese attack until America turned up. What now?

MAGA-world flirts with forces that once tore Europe apart

His regime uses payouts to salve Russian families’ grief

EACH DAYPresident Donald Trumpchanges the termsof his trade war with the world. One constant, though, is his confidence that America can win a pain-infliction contest withChina. The president’s self-assurance reflects a cherished belief: that previous leaders through a mixture of naivety and greed allowed China to steal American jobs and industries. To hear Mr Trump tell it, as soon as tariffs on Chinese goods bite, trade flows will start to rebalance. Trump aides play down the sky-high tariffs that China has imposed on American goods in retaliation. Leaders in Beijing will blink, the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, recently predicted: “I believe it’s up to China to de-escalate because they sell five times more to us than we sell to them.”

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “America’s economic-pain war with China”

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

Its plan was to hold off a Chinese attack until America turned up. What now?

MAGA-world flirts with forces that once tore Europe apart

His regime uses payouts to salve Russian families’ grief

THE UNITED NATIONSheadquarters towers majestically over Manhattan’s East River. Yet its escalators are often out of order, casualties of sweeping cost cuts by the secretary-general, António Guterres. He must hope that by forcing country representatives to climb up on foot he will save on maintenance and perhaps remind their governments to pay their bills.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Deadbeats united ”

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

Its plan was to hold off a Chinese attack until America turned up. What now?

MAGA-world flirts with forces that once tore Europe apart

His regime uses payouts to salve Russian families’ grief

FORA SELF-STYLEDAmerica Firster, President Donald Trump is strikingly keen on solving other countries’ problems. Even as Mr Trump began a business-focused tour of Arab states on May 13th, geopolitical disputes on several continents had a claim on his attention. In the few days before he flew to the Middle East, Mr Trump suggested that he is just the man to end conflicts in Ukraine and in Gaza, halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions and broker a solution to India and Pakistan’s decades-old contest over Kashmir. For good measure, he hailed a 90-day pause of the highestUS-China tariffs as great for “unification and peace”. Alas, that promptly set nerves a-jangling in Taiwan, since “peaceful reunification” is China’s euphemism for conquering that democratic island.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Donald Trump is a globalist”

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

Its plan was to hold off a Chinese attack until America turned up. What now?

MAGA-world flirts with forces that once tore Europe apart

His regime uses payouts to salve Russian families’ grief

SIXTY LUCKYstudents got the chance to train as journalists last year at African Initiative, a new press agency in Bamako, Mali’s capital. Trainees were given online and in-person lessons in reporting, with the promise that three of them would eventually be hired as full-time staff at the agency. The catch, as reported by Forbidden Stories, a network of investigative journalists, was that African Initiative is run by Russian intelligence.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “The growing battle over the narrative”

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

Its plan was to hold off a Chinese attack until America turned up. What now?

MAGA-world flirts with forces that once tore Europe apart

His regime uses payouts to salve Russian families’ grief

Correcting thegigabytes of digital gibberish that circulate at high speed online is a never-ending task. YouTube removed more than half a million channels last year for broadcasting misinformation. Facebook and Instagram deleted 27m falsehoods about covid-19 at the height of the pandemic. The doughty fact-checking organisations that try to keep the internet honest face more claims than they can handle. How should they prioritise?

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “The lie-detectors”

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

Its plan was to hold off a Chinese attack until America turned up. What now?

MAGA-world flirts with forces that once tore Europe apart

His regime uses payouts to salve Russian families’ grief

This is the introduction to The War Room, a weekly, subscriber-only newsletter bringing exclusive insights into defence and security.

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

Its plan was to hold off a Chinese attack until America turned up. What now?

MAGA-world flirts with forces that once tore Europe apart

His regime uses payouts to salve Russian families’ grief