2025-06-30
9 分钟Welcome to Editor's Picks. I'm Charlotte Howard.
I'm the co-host of our American podcast, Checks and Balance.
You are about to hear an article we have chosen from the most recent edition of The Economist.
Thanks for tuning in.
Donald Trump gambled.
But has he won?
He has bombed Iran's nuclear programme and immediately imposed a ceasefire on Israel and the Islamic Republic,
and without a single American casualty.
That is vindication over those who, like this newspaper, feared that Iran would lash out.
But the risks were only half the calculus.
The other factor was whether America would be able to use a strike to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon.
The best way to accomplish that would now be for Mr Trump to reach a full nuclear agreement with the regime.
He can bolster it by pressing the Middle East to solve its problems through trade and investment,
rather than preparing for wars.
Those are daunting tasks.
but if Mr Trump even partially accomplished them,
he would have secured a prize that has eluded his predecessors.
His efforts should begin with an assessment of how much his 14 bunker-busting bombs and 30 or so cruise missiles damaged three facilities in Iran.
Characteristically, Mr Trump claimed to have obliterated the Iranian programme.
Within days,