It’s hard to overstate the significance of the verdict by a criminal court in France: it found Marine Le Pen, the early front-runner in a presidential election due in 2027, guilty of misusing public funds and barred her from running for office. Our article assesses the consequences for France’s hard right and for the country’s political future.

In Japan a quiet revolution is happening. The “salaryman” model of lifetime employment with a single company is breaking down. We ask what that means for the world’s fourth-largest economy.