The true danger posed by Donald Trump

Issue Date: January 24, 2026

Table of Contents

The world this week Leaders Letters By Invitation Briefing Britain Europe United States Middle East & Africa The Americas Asia China Business Finance & economics Science & technology Culture Economic & financial indicators Obituary

The world this week

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US President Donald Trump delivers a special address during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos.

Politics

The world this week

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, USA.

Business

The world this week

The weekly cartoon

The world this week

Leaders

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A shirtless Donald Trump riding a polar bear

The true danger posed by Donald Trump

Greenland’s meaning

Modi dressed as Austin Powers jumping in front of an Indian flag

The odd thing about Modi’s mojo

India

A Palestinian girl looks out from a makeshift tent in a refugee camp in Gaza.

Trump’s Board of Peace is a distraction from the real work in Gaza

Stay the course

An angry-looking robot on the left standing next to a US flag. On the right is the EU flag and the China flag closer together and another robot waving

Chinese AI is a risk for Europe. So is shunning it

Europe’s DeepSeek moment

An abstract RNA strand with flower buds sprouting

Britain’s good idea for custom genetic medicines

Trust the process

Letters

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The illustration depicts a massive red bear looming and roaring toward a much smaller armed soldier. The stark size contrast emphasizes imbalance of power and danger, suggesting a confrontation where human force appears insignificant against overwhelming,

Could Europe take on Russia without American help?

A selection of correspondence

By Invitation

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A portrait of Indermit Gill

The biggest drag on global trade isn’t tariffs, but standards

Standards complaint

Briefing

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Danish military forces participate in an exercise in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland in 2025

Donald Trump’s expansionist itch has undermined global security

Ice and heat

Coloured houses covered by snow are seen from the sea in Nuuk, Greenland

Donald Trump’s grab for Greenland makes no sense

Illogical expansionism

Illustration of two lighthouses at night: a dark U.S.-themed lighthouse on the left and a glowing Chinese lighthouse on the right, casting light onto paper boats bearing the UK and Canadian flags.

Western leaders navigate a lonely world

The Telegram

Britain

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Kemi Badenoch holding pads for shocking the conservatives patient.

A scenario for a Conservative comeback in Britain

The opportunity in a crisis

Demonstrators Rally Against Chagos Deal Outside Parliament.

Britain’s Chagos disposal looks like an idea out of time

Diego Garcia

An illustration showing a suburban street in the UK where people of different backgrounds live side by side.

What makes Britons oppose immigration?

Neighbourhood watch

Pro-immigration groups wave flags and banners outside a hotel which houses asylum seekers in Falkirk, Scotland

On Scotland’s nationalist fringes, a new Tartan intolerance rises

Saltire of the earth

illustration of a plague doctor wearing a gold beaked mask, round goggles, a black coat, and a wide-brimmed hat with a green feather.

Affluenza: the new British disease

Bagehot

Europe

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A collage illustration showing Donald Trump on one side with his arms wide open, on the other side are Viktor Orbán, Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardella, Georgia Meloni and Alice Wiedel. A Greenland flag is between them and around there are stars within which

Donald Trump’s bullying is irritating his European populist chums

MAGA v MEGA

A view of the crash site as emergency services continue their work after a train collision, on January 20, 2026 in Adamuz, Spain

An awful crash blots Spain’s gleaming super-fast trains

Derailing progress

Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum rocket takes off at the Andøya Spaceport in Norway

A German company is poised to send a rocket into space from Norway

From Europe into space

A residents enters the tent of a government-run humanitarian aid point installed in a park during a power blackout after critical civil infrastructure was hit by overnight Russian missile and drone strikes.

Ukraine’s new air-defence whiz must stop a redoubled blitz

Drones and frost

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia on May 07, 2025

Russia’s no-show in Venezuela weakens its bad-boy image

Speaking loudly, carrying a tiny stick

Illustration of a woman kneeling at a grave with the words 'The Alliance' carved into it

Europe’s five stages of grief for the transatlantic alliance

Charlemagne

United States

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The meaning of “America First” is in flux

Realists and restrainers

Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook looks on outside the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lisa Cook’s job at the Federal Reserve looks safe

Trump v the central bank

A skier is pulled by a horseman at a Skijoring competition in Idaho.

Welcome to the wild world of skijoring

Ski-haw!

4th graders work on a laptop at school.

Ed tech is profitable. It is also mostly useless

Failing the screen test

Federal law enforcement officers use pepper spray against a demonstrator during an anti-ICE protest.

Donald Trump’s siege in Minneapolis is floundering

ICE in a cold climate

Why Minneapolis is at the centre of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown

Lexington

Middle East & Africa

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Armed members of Iran's police special forces stand guard at a pro-Government rally in Tehran, Iran

After Iran’s massacres, tensions grow inside the regime

The cost of bloodshed

A boy stands on a yellow concrete block positioned by the Israeli army in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, Gaza

Trump’s grandiose peace plans may spell more pain for Gaza

Bored of peace

Syrian citizens gather to celebrate and raise Syrian flags on January 20, 2026 in Raqqa, Syria

How the Kurds lost control of north-eastern Syria

An American ally is abandoned

Ugandan presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, also known as Bobi Wine, of the National Unity Platform (NUP), addresses the crowd during his campaign

Uganda’s opposition leader is on the run

From candidate to fugitive

Woman selling dried fish at the Benin City market

African trade has been vastly underestimated

Fishy figures

The Americas

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Illustration of Mexico's flag destructed with holes.

Mexico’s mighty left-wing government is floundering

Power on paper

Canadian Brig. Gen. Robert McBride, deputy commanding general of operations, 11th Airborne Division, left, puts his gear on before a static line jump.

Canadian soldiers are subject to Donald Trump’s orders

Friendly fire

Barricades in front of the Banco Master headquarters in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The collapse of a Brazilian bank ensnares politicians and judges

Master fraud

Asia

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Illustrated portrait of Narendra Modi

The remarkable recovery of Narendra Modi

Bouncing back

Japanese PM Takaichi Sanae speaks during a press conference

Japan’s popular new prime minister gambles on a snap election

Rolling the dice

Illustration of two missiles pointing at each other surrounded by fog

Who really won the war between India and Pakistan?

Banyan

Illustration of a finger on an app ico.n button with a heart on it that is spilling out winking emojis and indian iconography

Homegrown apps are making dating in India less awkward

Plenty of fish

Tourism in Hoi An, Vietnam A local farmer wearing a Non La conical hat, pushes a cartwheel at the Tra Que Vegetable Village in Hoi An.

Ageing farmers threaten South-East Asia’s growth

Antique planters

China

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Illustration of Trump facing Xi with a grid of icons between them including, an oil drum, a missile, an assault rifle, a drone, dollar signs, a globe and the outlines of Veneziela, Iran and Taiwan

Donald Trump’s adventurism is unsettling China

What to do?

People shop at the new store of Costco in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province.

Which Chinese provinces splash their cash?

Boosting consumption

Couples take part in a group wedding in China.

What’s a good man worth in China’s marriage market?

The head and the heart

Illustration of an arm holding a torch with a small Deng Xiaoping stood on it lighting his own torch with it

Xi Jinping is carrying Deng Xiaoping’s authoritarian torch in China

Chaguan

Business

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A lipstick case containing a syringe

Why the beauty industry is booming

Looking like a trillion bucks

A hand passing a coin to a robot hand coming through the screen of their phone

Chinese AI models are popular. But can they make money?

Code red

Roland Busch, chief executive of Siemens

Europe can still win the other AI race

To the adopters, the spoils

People jogging in trainers.

Strava’s public listing will help it race ahead of competitors

On the fast track

Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, USA.

The battle for Warner Bros is only getting fiercer

Game of loans

A person stuck under a birthday card

Signing the office birthday card

Bartleby

TikTok is still a danger. America no longer cares

Schumpeter

Finance & economics

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Upwards view of silhouettes of labourers working at a Tawi Bridge construction site, with sunshine and blue sky in the background, on the outskirts of Jammu, India.

The ascent of India’s economy

Rising giant

US President Donald Trump in the foreground, and Scott Bessent, US treasury secretary, in the background.

Can America’s bond market keep defying the vigilantes?

Still afloat

People walk across a pedestrian crossing, with advertising signs and billboards at Susukino intersection Sapporo city downtown shopping street colourful neon sign, Japan.

Japan’s bond-market tremble reflects a fiscal-monetary clash

The Takaichi trade

Illustration of two trees fighting each other with a rope pulling fight.

American decay versus American dynamism

Buttonwood

Cargo ships load and unload containers at Lianyungang Port, China

China hits its GDP target—in a weird way

Surprisingly stable

A female restaurant worker slices pizza slices for customers behind a display case in a small paninoteca and pizzeria shop in the Bergamo Italy.

National job stereotypes need updating

Moving the dole posts

Illustration of the India flag in the middle of a maze with signs for justice, agriculture, trade and engineering at its exits.

An audacious new book about a “precocious” country

Free exchange

Science & technology

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Illustration of three syringes with liquid coming out of them. The liquids are of three different colours, to signify that drugs are individualised to patients diseases.

Treatment of a teenager with an ultra-rare condition is a medical milestone

Unique drugs for unique diseases

Bobcat in pictured near large boulders.

To disperse their spores, truffles rely on animals eating other animals

How truffles spread

Three CubeSats are deployed from space station, including LignoSat.

Satellites encased in wood are in the works

Wood enters the space age

An old drawing of a brain viewed from under, with white circles highlighting some zones on it.

A new study highlights the brain’s role in immune health

The placebo effect

Illustration of a heart with an irregular hearbeat rate, on a green background.

The most useful indicator of your overall health

Well informed

Culture

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Two inverted commas with cltr c written on the left one and cltr V on the right one

Are we all plagiarists now?

Copyrights and copywrongs

VALENTINO gives two days of festivities to celebrate the sumptuous 45th anniversary of his label with an exhibition entitled 'Valentino in Rome: 45 Years of Style'

Valentino was a fashion designer who rose above fashion trends

Painting the world red

Conservative political commentator and podcast host Tucker Carlson speaks at Turning Point's annual AmericaFest conference, in remembrance of late right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Who’s afraid of Tucker Carlson?

Back Story

Paul Newman (left) and Robert Redford in a scene from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The credits are rolling on Sundance Film Festival in Park City

The way we were

Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars perform onstage during the 67th Annual GRAMMY Awards.

Popular music is getting sadder and angstier

Whistle an (un)happy tune

Cadets of the Admiral Senyavin Marine Technical Academy attend a ceremony to take an oath in the Russian naval base of Kronstadt.

A chilling, yet plausible scenario: What if Putin wins?

War games

Economic & financial indicators

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Economic data, commodities and markets

Indicators

Obituary

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Cecilia Gimenez with "Ecce Homo"

Cecilia Giménez only meant to be helpful

Monstrosity or miracle?