Donald Trump
Ali Smith’s Winter is calm, cool and consoling
In 1939, Barbara Hepworth gathered her children and her chisels and fled Hampstead for Cornwall. She expected war to challenge…
One man rules
Optimists speculate that Xi Jinping’s power accumulation is the prelude to a burst of liberalising reform in his second five-year…
Imran’s biggest test
It’s been a long journey for Imran Khan. He founded his political party, PTI (Pakistan Movement for Justice), in 1996,…
At this rate, we’ll have to rename New York
Growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina, I took the monuments around the state capitol for granted. The first Confederate soldier…
Low life
I got off the plane at Changi still pleasantly sedated by Xanax, passed through the ‘nothing to declare’ channel, and…
Punks vs. Putin
What makes for meaningful political protest? In regimes where ideology was taken seriously (such as the Soviet Union or America…
Low life
I arrived for lunch a bit late and was led to the dining table. Our hostess disappeared back into the…
The true Trump scandal
Washington DC The National Enquirer presented Trump watchers with a mystery last week. Why did it print an attack on…
America’s identity crisis
Long before student activists started talking about pulling down statues of Cecil Rhodes, a cultural war was being waged in…
Going nuclear
Wednesday marked the 72nd anniversary of the dropping of the bomb on Nagasaki. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki prompted…
General rule
Dwight Eisenhower was right to warn Americans in 1961 of the ‘military industrial complex’, but perhaps it is now the…
Portrait of the week
Home British negotiators are prepared to pay up to £36 billion to the EU to settle the so-called divorce bill…
You’re fired!
Washington D.C. Even a reality show needs good plot twists, and Donald Trump has delivered them like the master he…
Portrait of the week
Home Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, appeared to wrest control of plans for Brexit from cabinet rivals, while…
Playing chicken
Besides being important in themselves, the trade talks between Britain and the United States which began this week are symbolic…
Trump’s eastern front
Kiev There is no lavatory paper to be found in government buildings in Kiev. Plan ahead, locals advise, if you…
Why must I have a strong opinion about everything?
At a party earlier this summer, I was chatting to a man who asked me how I voted in last…
Britain’s winning hand
On the morning after the European Union referendum, Britain looked like a country in crisis. The Prime Minister had resigned,…
The devil they know
You will, by now, be familiar with the argument: that Donald Trump’s triumph in the American presidential election represents a…
High life
New York If only my wordsmith friend Jeremy Clarke had been with me. What fun he’d have had with…
The new normal
What was your favourite response from the liberals to Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election? Actress Emma Watson…
Trump’s inside man
Let’s take stock. Donald Trump, until last week, had never done a government job or held an elected office. He…
The Breitbart conspiracy
Donald J. Trump always keeps everyone guessing. Is the president-elect ditching his crazy act in order to bring in a…
Moscow rules
Moscow To the Union Jack pub on Potapovsky Lane for a US election night party. The jolly Muscovite Trump supporters…
A monkey-brained case for Donald Trump
A few years ago I was asked to speak at a conference in New York. ‘Where would be the best…
