The Economist.
Hello and welcome to The Intelligence from The Economist.
I'm Rosie Blau.
And I'm Jason Palmer.
Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.
As part of our history series on America at 250,
we move on to the next chapter in its growth as a nation.
Despite being the world's leading industrial power,
America started closing its borders to migrants and looking overseas for new opportunities.
And as more and more cinema seats stay empty,
many people think the genre that might fill them back up is science fiction.
We take a look at Project Hail Mary as one film that's rightly leading the charge
in what some are calling the year of sci-fi.
But first.
The war with Iran has entered its fifth week with little prospect of an end.
Few think that any kind of talks will lead to a deal.
There are suggestions that America might deploy thousands of troops on the ground,
and in a further sign of escalation over the weekend,
the Houthis, Yemen's Shia militia that's aligned with Iran,
launched missiles at southern Israel.