April 8th 2026

The Economist Today Our best journalism, handpicked each day

Annie Crabill Senior digital editor

Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the Israeli public today, insisting that Donald Trump’s ceasefire was “fully co-ordinated” with Israel. Reports suggest otherwise. Israel, which launched the war alongside America, has plainly not achieved its aims in Iran. Having declared that the truce did not extend to its war in Lebanon, Israel killed more than 250 people in strikes there today. Is Israel a partner, scapegoat or spoiler? Buttonwood, our markets columnist, looks at the performance of “Trump trades”, ie, bets that the president’s policies would help some companies’ shares more than others. The high point of a “long Trump, short Biden” basket, he finds, was in the middle of last year.

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Editor’s picks A selection of must-read articles

Anxious ally Partner, scapegoat or spoiler? Israel’s place in a fragile ceasefire The dealmaking between America and Iran is happening without Binyamin Netanyahu

→ Questions remain about Iran and America’s truce

Buttonwood Bye, bye to the Trump trades Markets are calling time on many Donald-adjacent bets

Cards party Meet the four Democratic tribes What 19,000 survey respondents reveal about rival factions on the left

Mythical monster How dangerous is Mythos, Anthropic’s new AI model? Dario Amodei’s warnings should not be dismissed

All downhill from here The crew of Artemis II are returning to a planet they have cheered up The mission has recaptured some of the enthusiasm of early lunar flights

More of our coverage ▸ Emigration might help bad rulers survive. Could mass migration help explain democratic backsliding and the resilience of nasty regimes in recent years? A new book makes a solid, if dismaying, argument that it does. ▸ Relations between India and China are (slowly) thawing. At a meeting last year China’s vice-president, Han Zheng, said the two Asian giants should perform a “dragon-elephant tango”, an improbable metaphor for mutually beneficial relations. The footwork remains clumsy. ▸ What’s the most attractive genre of entertainment? Beauty entertainment—call it “beauTV”—is booming. The videos offer no gripping plots or pithy dialogue. But that hardly matters, for they promise something many find alluring: a flawless face.

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