President Trump is confronting a crisis that is not bending to his narrative of a “pretty reasonable” new regime in Iran and all-but-assured U.S. victory.
At the end of 2025, Patrick Wintour wrote a compelling essay for Guardian Weekly in which he described an interregnum in global history, where the rules-based order had been eroded and great powers once again jostled for control and influence.
This week’s edition sees Patrick return to a key aspect of that theme, the deteriorating global standing of the United States after a period of high-stakes brinkmanship with Iran. Donald Trump’s aborted threat that Iranian civilisation would “die … never to be brought back” unless it ceded to his demands exposed the limits of his apocalyptic foreign policy. It also pointed to the wider decline of American influence in a world where the US appears untrustworthy and strategically isolated.
Spotlight | Hungary’s new dawn After 16 years, Viktor Orbán’s populist grip on the country’s politics is over. But will his successor Péter Magyar be much different? Ashifa Kassam and Flora Garamvolgyi report amid jubilant scenes in Budapest
Science | The man who was bitten by snakes 200 times – on purpose Tim Friede put his “ass on the line” to help stop snakebite deaths – whose numbers appear to be rising amid the climate crisis. Oliver Milman met him
Feature | The brutal reality of life as a foreign student in the UK Universities in Britain rely on overseas applicants paying full fees, which has given rise to some unscrupulous recruiters and left many hopefuls and their families deep in debt. Samira Shackle investigates
Opinion | Netanyahu-ism has achieved nothing for Israelis It is the voting public in Israel that will settle their PM’s fate later this year. But, argues Jonathan Freedland, all they have heard are promises of “total victory” that prove to be hollow
Culture | Jim Jarmusch, the darling of indie cinema The 73-year-old has been at the cutting edge of US independent movies since the 1980s. As Father Mother Sister Brother opens in the UK, he tells Amy Raphael about grief, greed and “doing crazy shit” with Steve Coogan
President Trump told Fox Business that the war was “close to over.” Iran threatened to expand its influence over shipping routes if a U.S. blockade continued.
The vice president, who is Catholic, took issue with Pope Leo XIV’s statement that disciples of Christ never side with “those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
Ship-tracking data showed that several vessels, including some that had been docked at Iranian ports, had moved through the strait as the U.S. military began its blockade.
As the war in Iran extends into its seventh week and a truce feels shaky, many Americans expressed bewilderment about a conflict that came with little warning.
Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, and his right-wing playbook were embraced by parts of the American right. Now some are worried by his defeat.
High-speed accidents, crooked lawyers, and poor people desperate for cash—it was the kind of scheme that could have been cooked up only in the Big Easy. By Patrick Radden Keefe
New scholarship reconsiders the apostle who turned a Jewish sect into a world religion—and whose legacy remains contested two millennia later. By Adam Gopnik
The regime in Iran has not changed and the nuclear and missile threats have not been eliminated, leaving many Israelis to wonder what this was all for.
Pope Leo XIV said he was unafraid of the Trump administration, hours after President Trump lashed out at the pontiff on social media, calling him too liberal and “weak on crime.”
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE:The 4.12.26 Issue features Katie Engelhart on people considered in vegetative states; C.J. Chivers on how Russian weaponized the cold in the war with Ukraine; Willy Staley on meme culture; and Coralie Kraft on MAHA teens; and more.
From our jokes and slang to the White House’s policy messaging, internet “brain rot” has escaped our phones to take over … well, everything. By Willy Staley
The U.S. had demanded that Iran immediately reopen the strait, but Iran said it would do so only after a final peace deal, according to Iranian officials.
Israel’s campaign targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon has been a source of tension in the U.S.-Iran cease-fire. Israeli and Lebanese officials plan to meet for rare talks in Washington this week.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party has repeatedly tweaked Hungary’s electoral system to its advantage, making Sunday’s vote free, but not entirely fair.
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