Apologies for absence
Briefing: 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
Briefing: 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.
