Briefing

Invincible city
Brexit? Hah! Lockdowns? Shrug! Can nothing stop London?
It has been bouncing back for 2,000 years and counting

Solution or delusion?
Despite the war in Gaza, talk of a two-state solution persists
For there to be any hope, both Israelis and Palestinians need new leaders

For the fatherland
How Putin is reshaping Russia to keep his war-machine running
He is creating a class of wealthy bureaucrats, who are the war’s biggest supporters

Port in a storm
The messier the world gets, the more the UAE seems to thrive
For a tiny country, it has outsize influence

AI did it my way
Now AI can write, sing and act, is it still possible to be a star?
The deal that ended the Hollywood actors’ strike reflects a fear of the technology

Higher for longer
Markets think interest rates could stay high for a decade or more
The economic consequences could be grim

Dread and disagreement
Why Israel’s invasion of Gaza has been delayed
Bibi and his generals are divided

Bibi and the IDF
Israel’s prime minister and its army are damagingly divided
Netanyahu and the generals disagree about how to fight Hamas

Biden’s bandwidth
The overstretched superpower
America could face wars in the Middle East, Ukraine and Taiwan

The scavenger power
Iran’s ayatollahs play the Middle East’s most dangerous game
They want to escalate without triggering full-blown war

The day after
Can the Palestinian Authority control Gaza if Hamas is ousted?
It may be lucky to keep control of the West Bank by the end of this war

Escalation in the Middle East
Why Saudi Arabia and the UAE want to keep links with Israel
Are the Abraham accords over?