Apologies for absence
How the hard-right Alternative for Germany could take over a federal state without a majority. The return of the U.K.’s assisted-dying bill. & Is the world moving off the dollar?
‘They’re going to need it in spades’
Feature: Is the world moving off the dollar? Nicholas Mulder on where it’s slipping—and why the U.S. financial industry has so much riding on it.
Party balloons over El Paso
The tariff over Canadian cars that doesn’t tax cars. Local police in the U.S., now licensed to shoot down aircraft. & What happens when the American government hires private firms to hack foreign criminal networks?
The wrong machine
The weekend despatch: American companies, hired by the White House to break into computers overseas. Off Angola’s Lisima Plateau, a survey team’s palm-sized beetles and blue spiders. + Who is Rustie?
A mailbox in Virginia
Briefing: The CIA’s apparent attacks on Ecuadoran fishing boats. Hungary’s new president, someone its last government got rid of. + Why is the White House calling its political opponents “national security” threats?
‘The world is the sphere of influence’
Feature: Why is the White House calling its political opponents “national security” threats? Andrew Preston on the 86-year history of a curious rationale.
Leave your phone at home
Briefing: No one can get to the villages that took the worst of a magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Colombia. The White House pares American childhood vaccines down from 17 diseases to 11. + Why do temperatures keep rising—even after they cool off?
‘A shield of peace’
The weekend despatch: A new military alliance is taking applications. An unknown ancestor is in every human genome. + Who is Kurt Ballou?
Overdrawn
Briefing: The Pentagon regrets finding itself out of missiles—until 2030. In India, the ex-prime minister of Bangladesh brushes off her death sentence. + What happened to the “public intellectual”?
Tracks of uncertainty
Feature: What happened to the “public intellectual”? Raymond Geuss on a role that lasted 70 years—and why he won’t really miss it.
