The Economist.

Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist.

I'm Jason Palmer.

And I'm Rosie Bloor.

Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

A little bit of economic lingo for you.

Exorbitant privilege.

It's the benefit that a country gets when its currency is what other countries save and deal in.

As part of our World Ahead series, we look at how America's privilege may be in danger in 2026. And fancy handbags used to be the very definition of a desirable good,

cradled for all to see how wealthy in fashion forward you were, and a walking advert for the luxury

brand. Now shoppers are questioning their worth.

Have designers left the craft out of their bags?

But first...

So much attention has been spent on the fine detail of the American mission to snatch Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro and his unplanned trip to the U.S.

But let's go back in time just a tiny bit to the last foreign visitors he met with just hours before he met with American Special Forces,

a delegation of senior Chinese diplomats, led by President Xi Jinping's special envoy for Latin America.

Afterwards, Mr. Maduro took to Instagram, China and Venezuela United, he wrote.

Fast forward a couple of days,

and that union maybe doesn't look like Venezuela

or China's other pals around the world thought it did.

China is Venezuela's most important ally in Asia.

It is condemned the operation.

...