Excited to settle in with a new book this Christmas? Rachel Lloyd, our deputy culture editor, shares five of our top novels published in 2025.

Click the link to see the rest of our top picks: https://econ.st/48Jpf1P

Is an insurgency brewing in Syria? Gareth Browne, our Middle East correspondent, joins Rosie Blau, co-host of The Intelligence podcast, to discuss Syria’s fraught transition one year after Assad’s fall and whether another uprising might be on the horizon.

00:00 – Could Syria face a new insurgency?
00:28 – What fault lines are emerging in Syria?
02:27 – How is the transition feeling on the ground?
03:25 – What are the economic and political challenges?
05:23 – What kind of state is being built?
06:47 – Is Syria heading toward a new authoritarian structure?

Listen to the full episode: https://econ.st/48KC4t3
An insurgency may be brewing against Syria’s new leaders: https://econ.st/3YkID0h
Sign up to our weekly newsletter: https://econ.st/3J0xzBr

#TheEconomist #Syria #Assad

Since the ceasefire in Gaza was announced, nothing has been done to rebuild the devastated territory. Our Middle East editor, Josie Delap, looks at how much reconstruction could cost, and who might foot the bill.

Why are more Americans being executed? Rebecca Jackson, our Southern correspondent, and Rosie Blau, co-host of The Intelligence podcast, discuss how politicians and the Supreme Court have helped usher in a new era of capital punishment.

Chapters:
00:00 – Why is America increasing the number of executions?
00:57 – Do Americans actually support executions anymore?
01:40 – If public support is low, what’s driving the surge in executions?
03:06 – With declining support, will execution rates continue to rise?
03:54 – Are states pushing the Supreme Court to expand executions even further?

Links:
Listen to the full episode: https://econ.st/4iDfvuR
More Americans are being executed: https://econ.st/49Zm3Sc
Sign up to our weekly newsletter: https://econ.st/3J0xzBr

#TheEconomist #Florida

The price of gold reached record levels in October 2025. The Economist’s commodities editor, Matthieu Favas, explains why the assumption that gold is a "safe haven" may not fully explain the surge.

Britain wants stronger growth—but politics keeps getting in the way. Zanny Minton Beddoes, Edward Carr and our Britain team unpack why closer EU ties remain difficult, how migration shapes the debate and whether the UK could ever rejoin the single market.

00:00 – Why not get closer to Europe?
02:10 – What is really happening with immigration
05:05 – How British voters feel about immigration

Watch the full show: https://econ.st/49ZXvIH

Read our Britain coverage: https://econ.st/48DsCrn

Watch the full Starmer interview: https://econ.st/48soxHH

Sign up to the Insider newsletter: https://econ.st/4nOyzIb

The Labour party stormed to victory in last year’s UK general election, following a long period in the political wilderness, but their popularity has collapsed since they took office. Like their European counterparts, they are facing pressure from the left and right. Our editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes sat down with Keir Starmer, the prime minister, to discuss his plans to address the country’s problems and what he makes of the rise of the insurgent Reform UK party.

Watch the full interview to hear how he hopes to meet the moment.

00:00 The fate of centrist politics
00:50 Reform UK’s policies
04:40 Britain’s relationship with the European Union
07:24 How Keir Starmer would sum up his politics on a bumper sticker

Watch the full interview:

The Economist’s editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, pushes Keir Starmer on why he hasn’t made bigger reforms, given the pressure Britain’s Labour party is under from the populist right-wing.

Sir Keir Starmer called Reform UK, Nigel Farage’s populist right-wing party, “pro-Putin or Putin-neutral”. In an interview with The Economist’s editor-in-chief, @ZannyMintonBeddoes, Britain’s embattled prime minister said a Reform government would harm Britain and potentially break the West.

The full interview will be available to watch at 4pm UK time. Click the link to watch: https://www.economist.com/insider

Britain’s prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has told The Economist that the populist right-wing Reform UK party would "tear our country apart" if they came to power.

Speaking to our editor-in-chief, Zanny Minton Beddoes, the prime minister said he believes that his government is the last chance for centrist politics in Britain.

The full interview will be available to watch at 6pm UK time at https://www.economist.com/insider

Arrested as he tried to leave Iran, Nicolas Pelham, The Economist’s Middle East correspondent, was detained for seven weeks in 2019. Now the regime has invited him back.

India is taking a different path on AI. It is embedding AI models built by Indian universities in the government tech stack.

On the latest episode of Inside Tech, Tom Standage and Alex Hern explain how India’s approach works and why it stands out globally.

00:00 – Why India’s AI strategy stands out
01:12 – Why language is important
03:05 – What India’s experiment means for global AI

Watch the full show: https://econ.st/4iyEJu7

How can a middle power compete in AI: https://econ.st/3Y5X48o

India has a unique opportunity to lead in AI: https://econ.st/4pa1ZBf

Sign up to the Insider newsletter: https://econ.st/4nOyzIb

Looking for a Christmas present for a bookworm in your life? Rachel Lloyd, our deputy culture editor, shares five of our favourite non-fiction books of 2025.

Plagued by corruption and weakened on the battlefield, Ukraine now risks being beaten at the negotiating table. If it does not show that it is willing to talk peace, it risks losing American support. Zanny Minton Beddoes, our editor-in-chief, and Edward Carr, deputy editor, and a panel of our experts dissect the latest peace plan and what it means for Ukraine. #ukraine #russia

Plagued by corruption and weakened on the battlefield, Ukraine now risks being beaten at the negotiating table, too. If it does not show that it is willing to talk peace, it risks losing American support. Zanny Minton Beddoes, our editor-in-chief, and Edward Carr, deputy editor, and a panel of our experts dissect the latest peace plan and what it means for Ukraine.

00:00 – What we know about the negotiations
03:30 – Who leaked the Steve Witkoff-Yuri Ushakov call?
04:48 – The details of the “peace plan”
06:35 – What the deal could mean for Ukraine

Watch the full show: https://econ.st/4indiU2

Read our coverage of the war: https://econ.st/48sr43i

Ukraine may be a step closer to peace, or to destruction: https://econ.st/4rqtCaB

If the fighting ends in Ukraine, the infighting in

What connects a drug cartel in Mexico with a flat purchase in New York? The Economist explores how Chinese underground banking networks launder billions of illicit dollars every year, often on American soil.

Is Britain’s budget a failure? Tom Carter, our Britain economics correspondent, and Jason Palmer, co-host of The Intelligence podcast, discuss why this is a missed opportunity for the Labour Party and why the government’s new policies are anti-growth.

#theeconomist #budget2025 #labour

Is Britain’s budget a failure? Tom Carter, our Britain economics correspondent, and Jason Palmer, co-host of The Intelligence podcast, discuss why this is a missed opportunity for the Labour Party and why the government’s new policies are anti-growth.

00:45 – What is the economic backdrop to the budget?
01:31 – Was the government’s economic windfall put to strategic use?
02:38 – Did the budget cause "violent market reactions"?
03:23 – Was this a good budget for Labour?

Listen to the full episode: https://econ.st/4rpIndI
This bodge-it budget does not give Britain what it needs: https://econ.st/4p9Hl4c
Sign up to our weekly newsletter: https://econ.st/3J0xzBr

#TheEconomist #Budget2025 #Labour

The Republican Party has a near-universal devotion to Donald Trump. But according to John Bolton, the president’s former national security adviser, Mr Trump’s grip on the party is starting to weaken.

There is no love lost between Donald Trump and John Bolton, his former national security adviser. Mr Bolton made a dramatic exit from the first Trump administration after months of tension. Since then he has been a fierce critic of the president’s character and competence. He has also been indicted for transmitting and storing classified information—which he denies. Mr Bolton joins David Rennie, our geopolitics editor, to dissect Mr Trump’s worldview, evaluate his America-first foreign policy and consider the future of American power.

00:00 – Is Donald Trump on a “downhill slope”?
02:19 – What Trump could do as a lame-duck president
03:29 – Has Trump damaged America’s institutions irreparably?
05:21 – The long-term impact of ‘America-First’ foreign policy

Watch the full interview:

“They should be scared.” John Bolton, the US President’s former national security adviser, says Donald Trump would sell out Taiwan for a trade deal with China.

Donald Trump is trying to create his own police force.

The federal crackdown in Chicago was officially to arrest and deport dangerous foreign criminals. In practice it looks like a blueprint for a new force answerable to the president as Aryn Braun, our West Coast correspondent, explains.

Stamp duty and property-transaction taxes are warping housing markets everywhere. Scrapping them would increase the buying and selling of homes and stimulate the economy, as our economics editor, Henry Curr, explains.

Is raising the minimum wage a good thing? Callum Williams, our Senior economics writer, and Rosie Blau, co-host of The Intelligence podcast, discuss whether raising wage floors or the welfare state is better at reducing poverty.

00:00 – Why are people talking about the minimum wage right now?
00:20– Isn’t raising the minimum wage a good thing?
01:54 – What does the research on minimum wage suggest?
02:57 – Is raising the minimum wage the best way to fight poverty?
04:35 – So the idea that “work pays” actually isn’t good for overcoming inequality?

Listen to the full episode: https://econ.st/3KjDbYl
Why governments should stop raising the minimum wage: https://econ.st/4ocF4Ux
Sign up to our weekly newsletter: https://econ.st/3J0xzBr

#TheEconomist #budget2025 #RachelReeves

For most of history parents have wanted sons, but in recent years mums and dads in the rich world have shown an emerging preference for girls. Why is this, and what happens if they start to use technology to act on this?

Video supported by @mishcondereya

00:00 – Are baby boys going out of fashion?
00:26 – Why are more boys born than girls?
01:03 – How many “missing” girls are there?
02:17 – Why do parents want baby girls?
02:58 – Are people choosing their baby’s sex?
03:39 – What are these procedures?
04:34 – What could happen to society if there are more girls?

The new economics of babymaking: https://econ.st/3WufkYw

Why the best time to be a dad is now: https://econ.st/3UHLnTJ

America’s fertility crash reaches a new low: https://econ.st/48NfYaS

Technology Quarterly: Designing

Should parents be able to choose the sex of their baby? Advances in sex-selective IVF are making this an option in some parts of the world.

The world’s population is heading for collapse—but how worried should we be? Our top economics editors explain why women around the globe are having fewer babies.

Will transplanting animal organs into humans become normal? Emilie Steinmark, our Science correspondent and Alok Jha, host of Babbage podcast, discuss the logic behind transplanting genetically-modified pig organs into humans and if this might help resolve the global organ-donor shortage.

00:00 – Why is xenotransplantation interesting again in 2025?
00:12 – Why do scientists use pigs for organ transplants?
01:05 – What risks come from using organs from animals?
02:10 – How do you prepare a pig organ for a human transplant?
03:39 – How do scientists edit pig genes to reduce rejection?
06:03 – Will pig-to-human organ transplants become normal in the future?

Links:
Listen to the full episode: https://econ.st/3X9oIkA
How pig-organ transplants might soon save lives:

Nicolas Pelham, our Middle East correspondent, and Adam Roberts, our digital editor, are just back from a rare reporting trip to Tehran. They join our top editors in the studio to discuss the future of the Islamic Republic. After 46 years of theocracy and a brief but bruising 12-day-war, where does power now lie? And with the prospects of a succession crisis, has Iran been permanently weakened—or is it storing up trouble?

00:00 – Has Iran’s defence strategy failed?
01:09 – Who could be the next supreme leader?
03:51 – Can the regime survive for another five years?
04:59 – How Iranian society is changing
06:21 – What could prevent the opening of Iranian society

Watch the full show: https://econ.st/4r9mmzX

An interview with Iran’s foreign minister: https://econ.st/43HWDEL

Nicolas Pelham, our Middle East correspondent, and Adam Roberts, our digital editor, are just back from a rare reporting trip to Tehran. They join our top editors to discuss the future of the Islamic Republic. After 46 years of theocracy and a brief but bruising 12-day-war, where does power now lie? And with the prospects of a succession crisis, has Iran been permanently weakened—or is it storing up trouble?