The European Commission would like to spend three-quarters of a trillion euros to combat the crisis set off by COVID-19. The Commission would like two thirds of the money to be disbursed as grants to severely affected countries. Not everyone approves, with the loudest criticism coming from the so-called “frugal four,” made up of Austria, […]

Frank Snowden, 73, is a professor of the history of medicine at Yale University and author of the book “Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present.” Almost 50 years ago, he lived through a cholera outbreak in Rome while doing research there, and he is now stuck in the Italian capital again […]

James Lovelock is a British scientist and inventor. He is also 100 years old. His research extends into the fields of medicine, biology and geophysiology and he has filed more than 50 patents. DER SPIEGEL: Mr. Lovelock, how are Earth’s chances of survival? Lovelock: Gaia is in double jeopardy. On the one hand, our sun […]

What are the underlying forces at work in the 2020’s? Haim Israel:   We identified 28 underlying forces in three categories. The first is innovation: Big Data, artificial intelligence, robotics, cybersecurity, privacy, genomics, all that stuff. Second is people: aging, silver economy, Gen Z, Gen Y, millennials, education, inequality, everything that has to do with demographics. […]

Even if our world is lucky enough to save itself from self-annihilation in the coming decades by avoiding a nuclear war, Diamond believes an end point may still come from a more obvious threat: climate change. The starting point of this issue comes down to the increase of the world’s population – reaching 9.8 billion […]

Dalio, who grew up middle class, is alarmed about the growing divide between the haves and have-nots. He points out that over the span of a decade, America’s lowest paid workers had just a 14 percent chance of rising to the middle class. Bill Whitaker: What has happened to the American dream? Ray Dalio: I […]

Octavian Report: What do you think is driving the seeming realignment of certain nations towards Israel? Michael Oren: Today, you’ll find that Israel today is pointedly and emphatically less isolated than at any other time in its history. To the best of my knowledge, we’ve yet to make peace with Palestinians. Our relationship with Latin America is […]

I met with Kronman in his office at the Yale Law School to talk about democracy and aristocracy, campus debates over free speech, affirmative action, and what he calls “the conversational ideal.” • The Assault on American Excellenceis tonally restrained and evenhanded, but there’s also anger here. What are you angry about? What is it […]

In Estonia, public administration is completely digitalized. Residents can pay their taxes, register their cars and even set up a company online. It’s not only convenient — the country also saves around 2 percent of its gross domestic product by eliminating bureaucratic costs. DER SPIEGEL: How do you define innovative governance then? Kaljulaid: I remember […]

Interview with Manfred Curbach, a professor and one of the engineers behind the reconstruction of Dresden’s Frauenkirche church.   SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Curbach, how do you rebuild a church like Notre Dame, which is more than 800 years old? Manfred Curbach: That depends greatly on how severe the damage to the walls is. The Frauenkirche in Dresden was […]