President Trump’s final days
"There was nothing ignoble about Trump’s defeat — at least, not initially"
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
Why decriminalisation could work for the UK
More and more jurisdictions are decriminalising drugs. The policy may appear radical but it is a pragmatic response to help the most vulnerable
Hibernating with Mary and Helène
The work of the great Jewish artist Helène Aylon, who died earlier this year, will help me in my seasonal contemplation of birth, death and resurrection
War and truce in Nagorno-Karabakh
The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has global significance, not least because of its powerful backers: Russia and Turkey
Europe and the Macron Doctrine
The French president’s grand international strategy is founded on one questionable premise: the coherence and solidity of the EU
Why Henry James still matters
Not everyone will find a haven in his work. But his magnificently eloquent body of work challenges us and repays the effort
Concreting over the countryside
‘The reality is that, under this government’s stewardship, a plethora of damaging developments have been unleashed in the countryside. Historic hedgerows are being grubbed up. Ancient woodlands are being bulldozed’
The trouble with idealism
Why do people with the best of intentions so often create the worst of outcomes? They come up against reality
A lost paradise of purity
Terror and transcendence in the late masterpieces of Schubert
Doubts and certainties
It has been a year of doubts and uncertainties: fluctuating infection and death rates, empty promises and political false starts, civil unrest, social injustice, abject diplomacy
Minds of their own
Contagious curiosity about the way consciousness works
Testing positivism
"The Murder of Professor Schlick" brilliantly illuminates an ambitious movement in philosophy