Our Christmas double issue is an Economist tradition. It provides my colleagues with a once-a-year opportunity to stray from the news agenda and write about the animals, people, places or trends that have piqued their interest. The results are some fantastically varied pieces of writing on unusual topics. In this year’s edition you can read about everything from axolotls to the afterlife of aeroplanes to Arctic economics. And this year’s cover might be our best double-issue design yet. Be sure to read our Cover Story newsletter this weekend, where we’ll explain how it came together.

Another annual tradition, albeit a more recent one, is our country of the year. We’ve been giving out this award since 2013 to the nation that we believe has improved the most in the preceding 12 months. Five countries made our shortlist for 2024: find out which one came out top, and why. 

There will be no print edition next week but we’ll continue to publish online and in our app every day—and send you our newsletters. If you subscribe to The Economist, I’d like to thank you for your support this year. Happy reading.