"Duel of the Giants"

SPIEGEL cover story: China's rapid rise has left America in a state of shock. The two superpowers are wrestling for jobs, markets, resources - and global supremacy. Change is in the air: the United States' monopoly of power is coming to an end. Is this the beginning of China's century? What began in the 1970s, when the reformer Deng Xiaoping opened up the country economically, has now achieved a momentum which appears to be unstoppable: for 25 years the Chinese economy has been growing year after year by an average of nine percent annually. On the one hand: China, bursting with self-confidence and driven by the ambition to prove itself to the whole world, in business terms of course, but also in sports at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing - and possibly also militarily. And on the other hand: the USA, economically and militarily the uncontested number one, yet ailing and increasingly afflicted by self-doubt. For years it has been living beyond its means, allowing other countries, especially China, to finance its huge trade deficit. The race between these two superpowers, today's and tomorrow's, is reminiscent of the rise of former new major powers - and brings to mind how unpeacefully the world initially dealt with this.

"It's Stupid to Be Afraid"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Singapore's founding statesman Lee Kuan Yew, 81, who was its prime minister for many years and has recently been appointed Minister Mentor, about Asia's rise to become an economic world power, China's ambitions and the West's chances for coping with this competition:

"The balance of power which characterised the world in the late 18th and early 19th century is gradually being restored. Back then, China and India generated over 40 percent of the world's gross national product. Meanwhile these two countries have once again become partners in global trade and are recapturing their old positions. However this alone doesn't yet make them superpowers. ... The Chinese have worked out that they need 30 to 40 years of peace and quiet, perhaps 50 years, in order to catch up with the lead of other countries and turn their communist system into a market economy. At all cost they want to avoid the mistakes made by Germany and Japan. The latter countries' struggle for power, influence and resources led to devastating wars in the past century."

"We Wanted to Be Unique"

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with US actress Eva Marie Saint about the secret of classical Hollywood films, Alfred Hitchcock's penchant for cool blondes and the downside of fame:

"The nice thing about growing older is that you can work with people you don't yet know. ... In the old days there used to be one producer, one scriptwriter and one director per film. ... Nowadays many films suffer from the fact that too many people have fiddled around with them. Also, the big films cost so much money that the studios are reluctant to take any risks. ... America is now obsessed by stars in an unhealthy way. They don't actually deserve this kind of attention. They're only actors - not scientists who are triumphing over cancer or doing some other wonderful thing. ... The whole world attaches so much importance to [stars] - and in the end the stars believe it themselves. They lack an anchor in life. No one ever says 'No' to them."

"Good Bye, Deutschland"

Cultural history: Never before in post-war history have so many Germans left their home country behind to start a new life abroad; with this there is a growing interest in the historical exodus from Europe. Now the continent's largest emigration museum is opening in Bremerhaven. It was set up in collaboration with the Ellis Island Immigration Museum - on the island off Manhattan where, up until 1954, new arrivals to America were greeted and screened. Bremerhaven's emigration museum, which is designed as an "adventure museum", is meant to give visitors a sense of what it meant in previous times to leave the country, what fears people faced and what dangers they were willing to accept, how high their hopes were for a better life and what became of these - imparting history the emotional way.

"The Gratitude of the People"

Contemporary history: A new study looks into the embarrassing tragedy of the Salzburg Festival in the reign of the swastika. When Hitler seized power, the festival initially served as a refuge for numerous musicians, but following the Anschluss of Austria, it was artists who acquiesced to the Nazis who celebrated the triumphs.

"At Some Point It Was Dead"

Crime: Is Eastern Germany to blame for the death of nine babies? Following the alleged infanticides of Frankfurt / Oder, politicians are once again succumbing to the temptation of glossing over their own helplessness by means of inappropriate explanations. In actual fact the underlying causes rest solely in the case itself: in the biography of an obviously deranged woman. Had there only been one child, or perhaps two, this case would have remained what it really is: a case for police detectives. But the number 9 has transformed the criminal file into an incomprehensible crime, and the bewilderment of the past week has inevitably triggered a reflex in politicians, psychologists and newspaper commentators: the reflex of having to explain the crime by more than the circumstances of the particular case. So that the bewilderment does not remain quite so leaden, nor the helplessness so depressing. So as to find reasons which make the blackest depths more bearable. Despite all the riddles posed by this case - possibly more than the police officers or eventually even psychiatrists will be able to answer - this story does fit a woman with two faces and many more secrets.

"Doing Business with Global Warming"

Climate: The trade in pollution rights to protect the global climate has begun. At Leipzig's electricity exchange, companies buy and sell certificates which are meant to regulate the emission of the greenhouse gas CO2. The EU-wide trade in emission rights is viewed as one of the world's biggest experiments in environmental policy - with an uncertain outcome. Each member state provides its industrial companies - power generators, chemical manufacturers, steelworks or paper factories - with a specific quantity of such emission rights every year. For six months now, anyone producing less carbon dioxide than during a set baseline period, can turn emissions into hard cash - by selling this year's emission rights to a company that wants to emit more CO2. Economists, climatologists and environmental activists are now watching eagerly to see how the system performs in practice. Climate protectors are also looking to the months ahead with deep concern. During this period European politicians will be haggling over the number of emission certificates to be issued beyond the year 2008. If they fail to markedly reduce these levels, the pressure on industry to reduce carbon dioxide emissions could well become inadequate.

"Surveillance in the Icy Gloom"

Astronomy: The world's largest telescope is being constructed at the South Pole. Far beneath the Antarctic ice it is to detect neutrinos that bear witness to distant stellar explosions and galactic collisions. Every second, trillions of these ghostly particles pass straight through every one of us. They are omnipresent and yet virtually intangible - celestial messengers from the violent days of the primordial universe. The fleeting nature of neutrinos is both a blessing and a curse: it forces scientists to make their telescope extremely large - because it is very rare for the ghostly particles to collide with an atomic nucleus at all. When this does happen in the crystal clear ice below the South Pole, a bluish whisker of light flashes out briefly.

"God's Underprivileged"

Religious history: Conspiracies, sex and murder - in earlier times, power struggles in the Vatican also involved strong-minded women. A new book describes their considerable influence on the Holy Fathers. Alois Ruhl concludes that powerful women used to have far more say in the See of Rome. From the 18th century on, no influential women are to be found in the society of the popes any more - at least no real ones. Instead the Holy Fathers, who now lived in self-imposed seclusion, went down in history as ardent venerators of the Virgin Mary.

"The Shanghai Phenomenon"