On 8 September, as part of a joint initiative involving twelve countries, the UK foreign secretary made a statement to the House of Commons announcing new sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Most notably, Ed Miliband condemned the ‘ethnic cleansing' taking place there. The measures he detailed will target ‘specific companies and individuals who provide services such as construction, infrastructure, financing, or real estate for settlement expansion'. This move is (…)

The small self-proclaimed state of Somaliland is aiming to become a regional player: it is now an ally of Israel and has commercial and security agreements in the Gulf. Now it's hoping for US support.

The small self-proclaimed state of Somaliland is aiming to become a regional player: it is now an ally of Israel and has commercial and security agreements in the Gulf. Now it's hoping for US support.

The dollar gives America huge power, but the international monetary system built around it is sliding into chaos, as recent US support for the yen shows. Yet replacing the dollar brings risks of its own.

The US left is making gains. With elections looming and his ratings tanking, Trump has revived the old communist spectre – and recast the left as a terrorist threat.

Emmanuel Macron leaves the Élysée in eight months. And, in keeping with the political journalism tradition whereby last-minute criticism apparently makes up for a decade of deference, the brickbats are coming thick and fast. The Economist, having once regarded him as the ‘saviour of Europe', now mocks a ‘lame duck' president. Two Parisian courtiers have devoted a book to ‘the story of an exceptional man … who screwed things up in an exceptional way'. Alain Minc, mouthpiece of the liberal (…)

Binyamin Netanyahu has vowed to ‘change the face of the Middle East'. But the war with Iran has created a situation that no single power can control.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Germany has broken with its postwar military restraint: it is rearming at speed and has set its sights on becoming NATO's leading European power, with US blessing.

Germany wants to build ‘the strongest conventional army in Europe'. And the country's defence giant Rheinmetall is expanding into new sectors, from shipbuilding to space, to supply what it needs.

As its postwar industrial export model fades, Germany is turning to rearmament to jump-start growth. This controversial strategy risks alienating neighbours and a younger generation that rejects any return to military service.

Many German companies are shifting their production towards military manufacturing – creating a dilemma for unions and workers caught between securing their livelihoods and building weapons.

China's expanding space sector is often portrayed in the West as a possible threat. A closer look reveals a growing market in which private and state-owned enterprises contend with a number of challenges.

Opposing the far right has become the cultural world's defining cause. But the battle for culture won't be won in the op-ed pages alone: it will mean confronting deep-rooted political and economic forces.

Bernie Sanders wants America's largest firms to put half their stock into a sovereign wealth fund. But could an AI socialism also transform the technology into a collective resource?

Worldwide overproduction and raised production costs are forcing winemakers in southern France out of business. With this year's drought adding to the crisis, some are moving north to start again.

The month's archives.

There are regular warnings that France risks succumbing to fascism. But Mussolini's Italy may not be the model that attracts the far right; it could be Binyamin Netanyahu's de facto apartheid state.

Cuba is undergoing its biggest economic transformation in decades: private firms are back and small businesses employ a quarter of the workforce. But market reform has brought no political opening.