Postcards from an infected world: Germany’s esoteric capital refuses to sign up to coronavirus panic
Berlin is behind the curve. At the time of writing, 48 people here have the virus and the city…
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How the world is closing down
Postcards from an infected world: Coronavirus highlights the deep flaws in the US healthcare system
Twenty-seven million Americans do not have health insurance and many more have insufficient insurance coverage; the US could be…
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Postcards from an infected world: Once Tokyo smelled of plum blossom, now it is soap
Coronavirus has hit Japanese exports, and is keeping consumers at home. Shops, bars and restaurants are quiet and Tokyo…
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Postcards from an infected world: Can the EU operate with just a virtual capital?
As the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in EU institutions rises, there is speculation that the European Parliament…
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Postcards from an infected world: In Taiwan, we are learning that the best way to fight coronavirus is with trust
When coronavirus erupted, many predicted Taiwan would be among the worst-hit nations. But thanks to the government's fast reactions disaster seems…
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Postcards from an infected world: In Italy, people are staying off the streets. Avoiding hand gestures is harder
Italians braced themselves for the worst, and they were right. Now that the lockdown has been extended to the…
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Postcards from an infected world: Life is returning to normal in China, but the costs are yet to be seen
After weeks of quarantine, Shanghai is slowly reopening. Many here say that China is the safest place now: no new cases…
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Grace under pressure: how coronavirus is testing the world’s self-image
Stoicism is a part of many nations’ identity, not just Britain’s: can the pandemic be met with dispassionate resilience?
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Postcards from an infected world: Reports from the cities impacted by coronavirus
As public life is shut down, travel is curtailed and economies falter, writers from blighted cities report on the…
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How Joe Biden became the front-runner to take on Trump
The former vice president’s surge in the Democratic primaries reveals a split between those who aspire to transform the…
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How the spectre of the Black Death still haunts our collective memory
Despite 800 years of medical advancement, coronavirus has resurrected our dormant fear of the plague.
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How Shakespeare shaped America’s culture wars
The United States has always looked to Shakespeare to illuminate its politics – and in the polarised age of Donald…
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Adam Kucharski’s The Rules of Contagion shows the parallels between epidemics, recessions and fake news
Cracking down hard on online misinformation and disinformation is equivalent to vaccination.
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Rise of the keyboard fascists: how the internet enables radicalisation
In Going Dark, Julia Ebner goes undercover online to study the dynamics and tactics of far-right extremist networks.
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Untitled
A new poem by Serhiy Zhadan, translated by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin.
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Letter of the week: Jeremy Heywood, the radical
A selection of the best letters received from our readers this week. Email letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced…
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Leader: The world must prepare for a coronavirus recession – and other crises to come
Individuals may self-isolate but the world’s nations must not.
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Glenda Jackson is superb as the eccentric poet in Radio 4’s Edith Sitwell in Scarborough
Jackson is just so Jacksonian throughout: projecting fast-thinking and decisive intelligence, and a complete inability to suffer fools.
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It is hard to feel anything for the sleep-deprived parents in Sky’s comedy Breeders
It may be that I’m getting a bit soft in my old age, but I think the tone is…
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Miss World comedy Misbehaviour stays true to the upbeat but simplistic Brit-com formula
In this story of Women’s Lib protesters interrupting the 1970 pageant, it’s unclear what the story gains repackaged as drama…
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Netflix’s dating show Love is Blind is horrific but compelling viewing
Grown men talk about “butterflies”. Dogs drink wine. And that’s before the weddings…
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The rise of disaster nationalism: why the authoritarian right is resurgent
This is not the enlightened self-interest of classical liberalism – it is a movement fascinated with the prospect of annihilation,…
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The contagious power of fear: why some believe that panic is a virus
Panic evokes the past, as well as offering nightmarish visions of the future.
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First Thoughts: In defence of Trevor Phillips, stockpiling loo roll and why the BBC must temper its language
Labour would do better to listen to my old friend Trevor Phillips, former chair of the Equality and Human…
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Drillminister: “Sadiq Khan is clout-chasing while people’s sons are dying”
The anonymous rapper who wants to be London mayor.
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Commons Confidential: Dodgy Dave’s huffy moment
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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What makes us vulnerable to Covid-19
Why are some people worse affected by Covid-19 (and other viruses) than others? Estimates of the fatality rate vary…
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As Bernie Sanders discovered, playing the underdog is easy – it’s becoming the overdog that is hard
If his path to the White House now seems vanishingly narrow, that’s because being a successful overdog requires a…
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As a Catholic child I believed in miracles – I still do but I know they aren’t necessarily divine
Without belief in the power of the impossible and the inexplicable, life would be far less interesting.
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Samira Ahmed’s Diary: The struggle for equal pay, no-platforming Selina Todd and sympathy for Priti Patel
I think how much more we could all learn from listening to the experience of older feminists.
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The strength of the US economy has looked like Trump’s best path to re-election, but that’s changing
Chaos ensued in the financial markets after the US Federal Reserve announced that it was cutting rates.
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Rishi Sunak is learning that a chancellor is at the mercy of forces beyond his control
The Chancellor’s first Budget was stolen by a global health crisis that makes the Treasury’s economic projections even more…
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Life is complicated enough, so swhy oh swhy have I been afflicted with keyboard trouble?
Whenever I press the hitherto blameless and reliable W key, it comes out as “sw”, and I have to…
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Borders can’t control grapes any more than they can control people – some of the best wines emerge when winemakers refuse to follow the rules
We are better off for obscure wines brought across borders to our table.
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Teenagers are turning to TikTok not just for dance clips, but for urgent political debate
TikTok has become a hotbed of political debate, social issue advocacy and policy arguments – and most recently, a…
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Our Covid-19 dilemma: how do we prepare for the worst without making things worse?
There may come a time to escalate, but prematurity risks increasing the sense of threat to no good purpose.
By
Marlon James Q&A: “I was an exorcist in another life“
The Booker Prize-winning author on Thomas Piketty, Buffy and why firemen are his heroes.
By First Thoughts: In defence of Trevor Phillips, stockpiling loo roll and why the BBC must temper its language
Labour would do better to listen to my old friend Trevor Phillips, former chair of the Equality and Human…
By Samira Ahmed’s Diary: The struggle for equal pay, no-platforming Selina Todd and sympathy for Priti Patel
I think how much more we could all learn from listening to the experience of older feminists.
By The rise of disaster nationalism: why the authoritarian right is resurgent
This is not the enlightened self-interest of classical liberalism – it is a movement fascinated with the prospect of annihilation,…
By The contagious power of fear: why some believe that panic is a virus
Panic evokes the past, as well as offering nightmarish visions of the future.
By Drillminister: “Sadiq Khan is clout-chasing while people’s sons are dying”
The anonymous rapper who wants to be London mayor.
By Commons Confidential: Dodgy Dave’s huffy moment
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
By What makes us vulnerable to Covid-19
Why are some people worse affected by Covid-19 (and other viruses) than others? Estimates of the fatality rate vary…
By As a Catholic child I believed in miracles – I still do but I know they aren’t necessarily divine
Without belief in the power of the impossible and the inexplicable, life would be far less interesting.
By Letter of the week: Jeremy Heywood, the radical
A selection of the best letters received from our readers this week. Email letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced…
By As Bernie Sanders discovered, playing the underdog is easy – it’s becoming the overdog that is hard
If his path to the White House now seems vanishingly narrow, that’s because being a successful overdog requires a…
By Untitled
A new poem by Serhiy Zhadan, translated by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin.
By Netflix’s dating show Love is Blind is horrific but compelling viewing
Grown men talk about “butterflies”. Dogs drink wine. And that’s before the weddings…
By The strength of the US economy has looked like Trump’s best path to re-election, but that’s changing
Chaos ensued in the financial markets after the US Federal Reserve announced that it was cutting rates.
By Rishi Sunak is learning that a chancellor is at the mercy of forces beyond his control
The Chancellor’s first Budget was stolen by a global health crisis that makes the Treasury’s economic projections even more…
By Glenda Jackson is superb as the eccentric poet in Radio 4’s Edith Sitwell in Scarborough
Jackson is just so Jacksonian throughout: projecting fast-thinking and decisive intelligence, and a complete inability to suffer fools.
By It is hard to feel anything for the sleep-deprived parents in Sky’s comedy Breeders
It may be that I’m getting a bit soft in my old age, but I think the tone is…
By Miss World comedy Misbehaviour stays true to the upbeat but simplistic Brit-com formula
In this story of Women’s Lib protesters interrupting the 1970 pageant, it’s unclear what the story gains repackaged as drama…
By Borders can’t control grapes any more than they can control people – some of the best wines emerge when winemakers refuse to follow the rules
We are better off for obscure wines brought across borders to our table.
By Teenagers are turning to TikTok not just for dance clips, but for urgent political debate
TikTok has become a hotbed of political debate, social issue advocacy and policy arguments – and most recently, a…
By Life is complicated enough, so swhy oh swhy have I been afflicted with keyboard trouble?
Whenever I press the hitherto blameless and reliable W key, it comes out as “sw”, and I have to…
By Our Covid-19 dilemma: how do we prepare for the worst without making things worse?
There may come a time to escalate, but prematurity risks increasing the sense of threat to no good purpose.
By Marlon James Q&A: “I was an exorcist in another life“
The Booker Prize-winning author on Thomas Piketty, Buffy and why firemen are his heroes.
By Leader: The world must prepare for a coronavirus recession – and other crises to come
Individuals may self-isolate but the world’s nations must not.
By How the spectre of the Black Death still haunts our collective memory
Despite 800 years of medical advancement, coronavirus has resurrected our dormant fear of the plague.
By