The Economist | World News, Economics, Politics, Business & Finance

Israel and Hamas

All of our coverage of the conflict in one place

The best of the year

Our annual guides to the finest cultural treats

Boss Class

Our podcast on management asks how to motivate staff

Middle East & Africa

The agony of 24 hostages is over. The Gaza war isn’t

Israel and Hamas trade captives during a four-day truce

Finance & economics

How will America’s economy fare in 2024? Don’t ask a forecaster

The consensus is that there is no consensus


Asia

Taiwan’s presidential election will be a three-way race after all

Even with a divided opposition, polls point to a tight contest




The world in brief

Hamas reportedly released 24 hostages, including Israeli and Thai nationals, after a temporary truce in Gaza began on Friday morning...

Geert Wilders, the leader of the far-right Party for Freedom, was thwarted in his first attempt to form a government in the Netherlands after the Liberal Party, VVD, ruled out joining a government with him...

An industry group forecast that Canadian oil-and-gas producers will drill nearly 500 more wells in 2024, an increase of 8% on this year...

China will temporarily allow visa-free entry for citizens from France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Spain in an attempt to boost tourism...


1843 magazine | The man who escaped genocide, twice

Refugees from Sudan are furious with the world for ignoring their plight

Chaguan: Why Xi Jinping sounds friendlier to America

A tactical move to boost China’s economic and diplomatic interests

Who is Geert Wilders, the surprise winner of the Dutch election?

The anti-Muslim populist has had a long career, but this is his best result yet

These are The Economist’s favourite podcasts of 2023

They covered subjects including empire, medical scandals and war

Israel and Hamas

All of our coverage of the conflict in one place

The best of the year

Our annual guides to the finest cultural treats

Boss Class

Our podcast on management asks how to motivate staff

AI

With Sam Altman’s return, a shift in AI from idealism to pragmatism

The lasting consequences of a head-spinning week

The fallout from the weirdness at OpenAI

Sam Altman is set to return, but the episode holds some disturbing lessons


Schumpeter: The many contradictions of Sam Altman

Is the boss of OpenAI a genius or an opportunist?


Your job is (probably) safe from artificial intelligence

Why predictions of an imminent economic revolution are overstated


War between Israel and Hamas

Inside Hamas’s sprawling financial empire

Why Israel is powerless to dismantle the group’s finances

What happens to Gaza after the war?

No one wants responsibility for running and rebuilding the ruined enclave


Many Arab governments would like to see Hamas gone

And they worry that the war in Gaza will upset their economic plans


Mapping Israel’s war in Gaza

Our satellite tracking of the conflict with Hamas, updated regularly



Explore our full coverage

World news

Geert Wilders’s election win leaves the Dutch in an awful quandary

Will the cordon sanitaire against the far right hold?

India is seeing a massive aviation boom

New airports, hundreds of aircraft and millions of new passengers are on their way


Does a civil-war-era ban on insurrectionists apply to Donald Trump?

So far, America’s judges have been reluctant to involve themselves in the 2024 election



Thanksgiving reads

The World Ahead Business in 2024

Travellers face another year of disruption in 2024

Demand is recovering faster than supply, which means delays and higher prices

What “Squid Game: The Challenge” reveals about the state of TV

Reality television is more important than you might think


The obesity pay gap is worse than previously thought

It affects men as well as women, and is wider for the well-educated


The best films of 2023, as chosen by The Economist

They featured cattle barons, chefs, composers, physicists and whistleblowers


Business, finance and economics

Free exchange: How to save China’s economy

Lessons from the last stimulus for the next one


Buttonwood: Ray Dalio is a monster, suggests a new book. Is it fair?

The founder of the world’s largest hedge fund comes under scrutiny


Is Japan’s economy at a turning point?

Wage and price inflation is coinciding with an exciting corporate renewal


Great reads

The Economist’s pick of the best television shows of 2023

Exceptional comedies, crime dramas, and psychological thrillers have come to the small screen this year

1843 magazine | Sorry you feel that way: why passive aggression took over the world

From Slack to the dinner table, honesty really is the best policy


Chaguan: Xi Jinping repeats imperial China’s mistakes

Lessons of a loyalty test that stifled innovation


How maths can help you win your favourite games

A global history of gaming is educational and filled with practical tips


Ukraine’s long war

The World Ahead Europe in 2024

The war in Ukraine may be heading for stalemate

Some big decisions will need to be made

The World Ahead Europe in 2024

Vladimir Putin cannot keep funding his war for ever

But after winning Russia’s presidential election in March, he will try


From Gaza to Ukraine, wars and crises are piling up

How diplomats and generals are running out of bandwidth



Visual storytelling

Inside a month of America’s school shootings

The hidden impacts of gun crime are devastating and poorly understood

Mapping Israel’s war in Gaza

Our satellite tracking of the conflict with Hamas, updated regularly


Western values are steadily diverging from the rest of the world’s

People’s principles were expected to align as countries got richer. What happened?


Large, creative AI models will transform lives and labour markets

They bring enormous promise and peril. But how do they work?


Stories most read by subscribers

Featured read

Bagehot: What kind of legacy does Rishi Sunak want to leave behind?

Outgoing British governments can bequeath a total mess or embed their preferences

Climate report: Some progress, must try harder

Weekly edition: November 25th 2023

Climate report: Some progress, must try harder