Leader: Vladimir Putin’s game of nuclear blackmail
By threatening a nuclear strike Russia hopes to bully the West into reducing support for Kyiv. This is a…
ByThe Magazine
In this week’s issue
Crashed!
Letter of the week: A doomed dash for growth
Write to [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
By
The Conservatives’ Birmingham conference: more Speaky Blunders than Peaky Blinders
Your weekly dose of political gossip.
By
For Ukrainians, Russia is now Tolkien’s Mordor
Magic in The Lord of the Rings sagas mirrors today’s powerful technology – and the dark impulses it can…
By
Will Tanner’s Diary: Conservative conference blues, Michael Gove on manoeuvres, and the joys of insomnia
The vibe among the MPs in Birmingham (many stayed away) is not conspiratorial – yet. But everyone is on…
By
Sally Davies: “Anti-microbial resistance could kill us before the climate crisis does”
The former chief medical officer for England warns about the threat AMR poses to humanity – and why we…
By
Brazil’s election proves it – the pandemic did not kill nationalist populism
Jair Bolsonaro has run Lula surprisingly close in the first round of the presidential vote, piling on the pressure…
By
The Qatar World Cup is immoral and weird. How did we allow this to happen?
The whole enterprise is a kind of power move – a gigantic middle finger levelled in the general direction…
By
The Brexit revolution devours its children
As Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng lose authority and control, the Tories’ divisions can be traced back to the…
By
How Liz Truss crashed to earth
By waging a culture war against reality, the government has made the UK economy one of the most unstable…
By
Vladimir Putin’s land grab is an act of desperation
By annexing parts of Ukraine, the Russian president has created a perilous situation. But will it do anything to…
By
The struggle for Italy
As Giorgia Meloni celebrates victory, Italians are already questioning how long her government will last.
By
Is America worth keeping?
Richard Rorty, the philosopher who predicted Trump, was scathing about the US’s failings but believed in the country’s capacity…
By
From David Dimbleby to Chelsea Conaboy: recent books reviewed in short
Also featuring A History of Lying by Juan Jacinto Muñoz-Rengel and Euphoria by Elin Cullhed.
By
The bonfire of the Middle East
Jeremy Bowen’s personal history shows how hopes of peace failed and the region entered a new era of instability.
By
The cutting wit of Alan Rickman
In the late actor’s diaries, his merciless verdicts on showbiz idiocy are tempered by a deep loyalty and humanity.
By
The degradation of Marilyn Monroe
In death as in life, the actress has been used, abused and commodified. Netflix’s film Blonde is just the…
By
Why cheating in chess does not pay
The Carlsen-Niemann saga is a reminder of what is at stake in a game that has gripped writers, scientists…
By
How Pharoah Sanders played against reality
The tenor saxophonist, who has died aged 81, merged jazz and spiritualism to forge a new sound.
By
The Lost King: a sly, subversive take on the discovery of Richard III
Sally Hawkins and Steve Coogan star in Stephen Frears’ witty dramatisation of the monarch’s extraction from a Leicester car…
By
The Walk-In should be gripping – but this is a made-by-numbers neo-Nazi drama
Stephen Graham plays an undercover anti-fascist – but each scene in this ITV series is more unsurprising than the…
By
The podcast Hoaxed packages suburban trauma as grim entertainment
No matter how well researched, an investigation into a fake satanic conspiracy can’t help but seem salacious.
By
Swapping hotels for hostels and luggage for a backpack has recharged my love of travel
The pandemic has reminded us that human interaction is a privilege – that’s why I’ll opt for budget trips…
By
It is just as my resources run dry that direct debits make a direct line for me
I’m still being billed for a dating site I last used 15 years ago – perhaps I’m not allowed…
By
This England: No rest for the living
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain…
ByEmail [email protected] if you would like to be the New Statesman’s Subscriber of the Week.
By
Sian E Harding Q&A: “I have inherited my grandmother’s gravy gene”
The cardiac scientist on her love of Sherlock Holmes, animals’ sexual behaviour and the phrases that bug her.
By