The Economist - 28 June 2025

Год выпуска: June 2025

Автор: The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group

Жанр: Экономика/Политика

Издательство: «The Economist Newspaper Ltd»

Формат: PDF (журнал на английском языке)

Качество: OCR

Количество страниц: 80

How to win the peace

• After the bombs must come a plan to reset the Middle East: leader, page 9.
• The war is over but its impact remains unclear, page 17.
• Assessments of the damage to Iran’s nuclear sites vary wildly, page 20.
• The political fallout, page 21.
• The West meekly welcomes Donald Trump’s vigilante justice—at least for now: The Telegram, page 50.

The treacherous economics of defence

• The point of extra military spending is to make people safer. Politicians should not use the same pot of money to pursue multiple goals: leader, page 10.
• Modern warfare is rapidly changing the arms business, page 58.
• Defence and deindustrialisation, page 41.

RFK’s vaccine madness

• America’s health secretary is jeopardising the public: leader, page 10, and analysis, page 25.

Chinese brands: soft-toy power

• A new cohort of consumer firms is taking on sleepy Western incumbents. Good: leader, page 12.
• From Labubu dolls to Laopu Gold, Chinese brands are booming, page 51.

Conference-panel hell

• One unfiltered moderator, three panellists and a universal experience: Bartleby, page 56.

The world this week Politics

• Despite a wobbly start a ceasefire held between Iran and Israel. The truce was called at the insistence of Donald Trump and came after America deployed B-2 planes to drop bunker-busting bombs on Iran’s uranium-enrichment facilities. Iran made a symbolic retaliation against America by firing missiles at its military base in Qatar. Mr Trump said that had been expected; there were no injuries. At least 28 people were killed in Israel by Iranian strikes during their 12-day conflict and over 600 in Iran by Israeli missiles. It was a victory for Israel, which has achieved an aura of dominance in the region. Mr Trump announced that he would soon hold talks with Iran about ending its nuclear ambitions.

Murder in the church

• A suicide-bomber killed at least 22 people at a Greek-orthodox church in Damascus and injured more than 60, the deadliest incident in the Syrian capital since the Assad regime fell in December. The government, led by the interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said the bomber was sent by Islamic State to destabilise the country. The episode is another example of the new regime’s failure to protect religious minorities.
• Colonel Assimi Goita, the leader of Mali’s junta, met Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, in Moscow. The two men signed deals to deepen trade and economic ties. Following a coup in 2021 Mali has been moving away from the West and towards Russia, exploring the possibility of Russian investment in its mining sector and inviting Russian mercenaries to help fight jihadists.
• A NATO summit in The Hague ended with an agreement by the alliance’s member states to increase defence spending to 3.5% of gdp, plus an additional 1.5% on broader security-related areas, a 5% goal that Donald Trump had insisted on (Spain provoked Mr Trump’s ire by watering down some language). Before the meeting, Mr Trump questioned America’s commitment to defending NATO countries, though in The Hague he said “We’re with them all the way.” His commitment to Ukraine was less sure. The American president held a friendly meeting with his counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, but offered no new help.
• As the summit began there was no let-up in Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine. At least 17 people were killed in a daytime attack in the Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine’s south-east. Earlier, nine people were killed during one attack in Kyiv and its surrounding area.
• Meanwhile, Canada signed a defence agreement with the European Union that will allow it to procure weapons jointly with the EU. Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, has said that his country is too reliant on America for its weapons. Britain recently signed a similar deal with the EU.
• Romania’s new governing coalition, headed by the National Liberal Party’s Ilie Bolojan, won a vote of confidence in parliament with broad support. Mr Bolojan, who was nominated for prime minister by Nicusor Dan, the newly elected centrist president, has promised to cut the budget deficit through a series of tax increases and spending cuts.
• Four opposition politicians in Georgia were sent to jail for refusing to testify to a parliamentary commission that is investigating corruption under Mikheil Saakashvili, a former president, who has been imprisoned for embezzlement. The opposition says the commission is illegitimate, as it was formed after an election in October last year that it claims was rigged by the conservativepopulist government.
• On June 20th British MPs narrowly supported assisted dying at the bill’s third (and final) vote in the House of Commons. The majority was 23, down from 55 in the previous vote in November. The controversial bill had been amended, for example changing the approval needed for the procedure from a high-court judge to a panel of three experts that will include a senior legal figure. If it passes its final stage in the House of Lords the law will allow terminally ill people to end their life.
• South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae-myung, appointed the first civilian as defence minister in 64 years. Mr Lee’s choice of Ahn Gyu-back for the job fulfils a campaign promise not to have a member of the armed forces in the position. The imposition of martial law in December by the previous president, Yoon Suk Yeol, caused a crisis in the country. The new foreign minister is Cho Hyun, a former ambassador to the UN.
• In Thailand trouble mounted for Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who is battling to stay in power as prime minister following the withdrawal of a party from her governing coalition. Ms Paetongtarn reshuffled her cabinet and insisted her coalition was strong. But the party that withdrew its support, Bhumjaithai, said it would press for a no-confidence vote in parliament. An alliance of groups seeking Ms Paetong-tarn’s removal has called a mass rally for June 28th.
• Meanwhile, the Thai government took steps to tighten the sale of cannabis, which was legalised for recreational purposes in Thailand in 2022. The health ministry says that décriminalisation has led to a big increase among young people who smoke the weed, but some see the decision as overtly political. The Bhumjaithai Party was the main driver of the décriminalisation policy and it has now left the government.
• The Colombian government blamed local rebels for the kidnapping of 57 soldiers in Cauca, an area heavily dependent on cocaine production. The soldiers were captured by locals under duress from the rebels, according to the defence minister. All 57 were freed in a military operation without a shot being fired.
• Roberto Samcam, a former Nicaraguan military officer turned critic of the country’s dictatorship, was gunned down in San José, the capital of Costa Rica, where he was living in exile. He is at least the fourth Nicaraguan dissident to be assassinated in Costa Rica since 2021.

A new foil for Donald Trump

• Zohran Mamdani claimed victory in New York’s mayoral Democratic primary, a big upset for the party’s establishment. Mr Mamdani sits firmly on the Democrats’ progressive wing (his main campaign promise is to freeze rents on rent-stabilised properties) and he would be the first mayor from a Muslim and South Asian background if elected in November. Andrew Cuomo, a former state governor and firm establishment favourite, came second. He has not ruled out standing as an independent in the November election.

The world this week Business

• After several false starts over the past decade, Tesla at last launched its robotaxi service, though it was a subdued affair. The electric-car company rolled out a small fleet of vehicles in Austin that picked up invited Tesla-friendly passengers. The driver’s seat in the autonomous cars was left empty, though a safety worker sat in the front passenger’s seat. There were a few bumps in the road. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reportedly got in touch with Tesla after videos posted on social media appeared to show several driving mishaps.

Think different

• A giant merger in the advertising industry between Omnicom and Interpublic was given the go-ahead by America’s Federal Trade Commission, but only after the companies signed a consent decree promising not to boycott platforms because of their political content. The FTC is investigating whether ad agencies have violated antitrust law by co-ordinating spending boycotts of conservative media.
• Nvidia’s share price hit a new record high, its first of the year, giving it a market value of nearly $3.8trn. The chipmaker’s stock fell sharply earlier in the year amid wider investor concerns about tech companies’ commitment to spending on artificial intelligence, but those worries have receded.
• Niger said it would nationalise a uranium mine that it jointly owns with Orano, a French company. It is the latest in a series of nationalisations in Africa’s Sahel region. Mali has placed a gold mine operated by Barrick under state control, and Burkina Faso has nationalised five gold mines recently.
• America’s National Transportation Safety Board issued an executive summary of its investigation into the incident in which a panel came off a Boeing 737 MAX 9 passenger jet that had just taken off from
• Portland in January 2024. The NTSB blamed the aerospace company for failing to “provide adequate training, guidance and oversight” to its factory workers. It also criticised the Federal Aviation Administration for being “ineffective”. The full report will be published in the coming weeks.
• Israel’s stockmarkets hit new records, as investors bet that the military action taken against Iran will make the country safer. Tel Aviv’s TA 25 and TA 125 indices are up by 10% in the past month.
• Oil prices remained volatile amid the conflict. Brent crude soared to over $81 a barrel, the highest in five months, before plunging below $68 as Iran’s threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz receded. Donald Trump called on American oil companies to increase output in order to lower prices. “Drill, baby, drill,” the president exhorted, “and I mean now.”
• Two court rulings decided that the firms behind generative artificial intelligence could use copyrighted books without permission to train their models. One judge said that Meta could continue to do so after finding that a group of authors who had sued it for using their material had made “the wrong arguments”. This doesn’t mean Meta’s behaviour was “lawful”, he said. A similar judgment found in favour of Anthropic against another set of authors, though the judge in that case said that Anthropic’s storage of 7m tomes in a “central library” was not fair use of the material and set a trial for December.
• FedEx withdrew guidance on revenue and profits for its full fiscal year because of the uncertainty over trade with China. Freight volumes from China plunged in May when duties were slapped on small packages. Meanwhile, tributes were paid to Frederick Smith, who founded Federal Express in 1971 and has died at the age of 80. He ran the company until 2022, when he became executive chairman. Mr Smith started operations in 1973 with 14 small planes carrying 186 packages. Now FedEx ships 16m packages a day.
• Despite pressure from Donald Trump to cut interest rates, Jerome Powell stuck to his guns and suggested to Congress that the Federal Reserve won’t do so until September, at the earliest. The Fed’s chairman said that the impact of tariffs on the economy will be clearer by then. Speculation continues to swirl that Mr Trump is about to name a replacement for Mr Powell, even though his term doesn’t end until May 2026.

Ditching the shuffleboard

• Carnival cruise line issued a stellar set of earnings and raised its outlook. The company said that although it is not immune from current economic headwinds, business was proving to be incredibly resilient. It is helped by the popularity of cruise ships among the young. Around 67% of cruise travellers are Gen x or younger, according to an industry report, and 36% are under 40. Carnival offers many activities aimed at youthful passengers, such as “dive-in” movies at swimming pools.

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