Briefing

A man smokes a cigar on a yacht at the SO! Dalian yachting event in China in 2014

Communist estate-planning

China is wrestling with a novel phenomenon: inherited wealth

Even as the economy slows and opportunity narrows, a lucky few receive big windfalls

13 min read

Aftermath of an attack by Iranian drone, in Seef, Manama

The sick man of the Gulf

America’s war on Iran may bring Bahrain to its knees

The tiny, indebted kingdom is seeing its main sources of revenue dry up

2 min read

Smoke rises following a strike on the Bapco Oil Refinery in Bahrain

Epic consequences

The damage to the world economy from the Iran war will be severe, but uneven

It has already caused the biggest energy supply shock in history

11 min read

Image

Accelerate like hell

An AI disaster is getting ever closer

The spat between America’s government and Anthropic intensifies an alarming trend

13 min read

A woman sitting holding an Iranian flag at a vigil after the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei was killed by US-Israel airstrikes in Tehran.

The third Gulf war

How the latest regional conflict is reshaping the Middle East

Neither Iran, nor Israel, nor the Gulf will ever be quite the same

13 min read

An illustration of Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump with smoke and missiles in the background.

The Telegram

Binyamin Netanyahu is the big winner from the Iran war, for now

To avoid a row with Donald Trump, Western allies are endorsing Israeli theories of war

A photo collage combining images of critical minerals and the Pentagon with close-up mineral illustrations and commodity price charts.

Rare-earth metals

America’s new era of state-sponsored mining

Desperate to break China’s grip on critical minerals, the Trump administration is splashing cash around the world

12 min read

A woman stands on a balcony of an apartment building in St. Petersburg, Russia.

No escape

How four years of war have changed Russia

The fighting in Ukraine has reshaped everyday life

13 min read

Portrait of the author

The logic of persistence

Russia’s economy has entered the death zone

Alexandra Prokopenko wonders how much longer it can go on metabolising its own muscle tissue

Illustration of two teenagers on their phones, seated under a sign that reads 'No social media'

Social outcasts

More and more countries are banning kids from social media

But the case for bans is weak and the benefits are uncertain

15 min read

An illustration of a hand grabbing and squeezing a cluster of microphones, symbolizing how power, politics, and money threaten the media.

When grifters wield gags

How democracies are using autocratic tools to muzzle journalism

As scrutiny of government withers, corruption thrives

13 min read

An illustration of an office worker holding a robot’s head—echoing Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” speech—as he contemplate AI’s role in the workplace.

Tech at work

How to avoid common AI pitfalls in the workplace

Advice from our latest season of “Boss Class”

14 min read