Issue Date: March 21, 2026
War in Iran is making Donald Trump weaker—and angrier
Operation Blind Fury
Lebanon’s leaders must take on Hizbullah
Lebanon’s last chance
Africa after aid is more resilient than you might think
Open for business
A dirty deal with Cuba would be better than the alternatives
Dealing with Havana
Gas will not be killed off by renewables any time soon
Lingering fumes
Britain’s chancellor starts a tilt towards Europe
Destination Brussels
By our calculations, motoring in Britain has rarely been so cheap
U-turn if you want to
Britain’s youngsters are increasingly out of work
Not so NEET
The Duke of Edinburgh’s award is more popular than ever
Rational recreation
The new Archbishop of Canterbury inherits a church in turmoil
Holy divided
Industrial-scale fly-tipping is spreading across Britain
Scrapheap Britain
CBeebies or barbarism!
Bagehot
The Iran war is forcing Europe to confront its energy problem
Low on gas
Vladimir Putin enjoys a huge windfall from the Iran war
Barrels of laughs
Viktor Orban’s pro-natalist policies are not working
Yeah, baby
A spy scandal upends Slovenia’s election campaign
Catfishing in the Alps
The quiet recovery of Ireland’s ancient tongue
The Kneecap effect
How Ukraine and Europe got caught in a geopolitical lovers’ tiff
Charlemagne
How the Iran war is hurting Donald Trump
The man with no plan
Tucker Carlson on whether Donald Trump has betrayed his base
Conversation with an apostate
A muddled war and rising prices are boosting Democrats’ midterm hopes
Collateral advantage
American farmers are feeling the squeeze
From Hormuz to the heartland
Is an obsession with immigration leaving America exposed?
Distracted defences
Does Donald Trump even care about the midterms?
Lexington
Will America’s Asian allies get dragged into the Iran war?
Holding fire
Panicked Indians are scrambling to buy gas
The energy shock in India
What Nitish Kumar did for Bihar, India’s poorest state
Banyan
Life in Myanmar’s biggest city is increasingly grim
Burmese days
A deadly strike in Kabul could have big knock-on effects
Playing with fire
Nvidia is expanding its empire
Space Nvader
Trouble is brewing among America’s corporate borrowers
Of cockroaches, canaries and termites
War may bring lasting change to the airline business
Clearing the air
The Iran war casts a shadow over BASF’s nascent revival
Noises off
Why AI has not yet upset India’s IT industry
Coding against the machine
How Zara fought off H&M and Shein
En vogue
The secrets to a good employee survey
Bartleby
Elliott Management and the art of telling bosses they’re wrong
Schumpeter
America may be a petrostate. But the energy shock still hurts
Disunited petro-states of America
What if Donald Trump decided to ban oil exports?
Terminal solution
China cannot escape the energy shock
Green, brown and red
Which country is the biggest loser from the energy shock?
The darkest hours
The Iran war is roiling commodities far beyond oil
Scattershock
Will South Korea’s epic bull market survive the energy shock?
Buttonwood
The new economics of sex work
Free Exchange
War is only the starkest way that politics is disrupting tourism
Wanderlust and lost
Which is the best sparkling water?
World in a dish
Re-examining one of the world’s most notorious assassinations
Hatchet job
It’s strictly business: the enduring allure of mafiosi in culture
The gang’s all here
Looking for a Paris hotel with a past?
Rooms with a view