Trump takes America

The great American rupture

Kamala Harris’s doomed campaign failed to deter voters from the promise of “America First”.

Letter of the week: Democracy in chains

Write to [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.

Wanted: one Fleet Street hack

Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.

Southport and the rage of England

The violence of the summer has left deep scars, and open wounds, across the country.

That time I met Donald Trump

Also this week: Kemi Badenoch’s anti-identity politics and Masayoshi Son’s love of risk.

Ralph Nader: “The election is between the fascism of Trump and the autocracy of Harris”

The four-time presidential candidate on why he holds out little hope for the future of American democracy.

Like Thatcherism, Donald Trump is here to stay

The Maga movement has cultural roots that the left failed to understand or confront.

Badenoch’s Thatcher-like qualities will inspire both admiration and horror

Is the new Conservative leader “fresh”, or are we back in 1975? Plus: more drama at the Observer and…

Britain must learn from America’s populist disaster

If we don’t, we shall be doomed to repeat it.

The provincial working class is being abandoned by Labour

The Budget proved it – the Treasury can’t be trusted to reverse the inequality of poorer regions with London.

Sara Sharif died alone. We need to strengthen our communities

When it comes to looking out for children in danger, we can’t just expect the state to step in.

The political afterlife of Paradise Lost

From white supremacists to black activists, readers have sought moral legitimacy in Milton’s epic poem.

Hanif Kureishi’s interrupted life

In 2022 an accident left the novelist paralysed. His blackly comic memoir, Shattered, is a devastating portrait of an…

How to survive the age of anger

In Josh Cohen’s All the Rage, a psychoanalyst offers a path through the divisive world of online grievance and…

The making of a media mogul

For centuries, the news industry has been shaped by wealthy, powerful men. Have they also helped to destroy it?

The atrocity exhibition

Over a single night in 2015, terrorists killed 130 people in Paris. In Emmanuel Carrère’s account of the ensuing…

Why Rachel Cusk won the 2024 Goldsmiths Prize for fiction

Her novel Parade, slim but complex, is the latest product of a career dedicated to breaking new formal ground.

Rachel Cusk: “Women are writing more boldly about female experience”

The Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted novelist on visual art, writing womanhood, and the value of difficulty in literature.

From Simon Jenkins to Tessa Hadley: new books reviewed in short

Also featuring Patria: Lost Countries of South America by Laurence Blair and What Nails It by Greil Marcus.

The NS Poem: Full of flint

A new poem by Annabel Taylor-Munt.

Laura Marling’s songs of experience

As the singer showcased her new album Patterns in Repeat at Hackney Church, the parallels across her work –…

Paddington in Peru loses the magic of the first films

In this third instalment, the bear travels “home” – and the franchise’s feel-good, pro-immigration spirit vanishes.

The Day of the Jackal is more lifestyle show than thriller

In this slick adaptation of Freddie Forsyth’s novel, Eddie Redmayne’s cheekbones shine.

Nick Cave’s Wild God tour: a transcendental experience

After watching this two-and-a-half-hour show, it’s hard not to feel a little closer to God.

Quincy Jones’s gift to music

The venerated producer, who has died at the age of 91, brought a jazz sensibility to pop.

Why do Brits neglect barley?

After all, we grow seven million tonnes of it a year.

Rachel Reeves’ Budget will stabilise the NHS – but only reform will save it

Health needs that aren’t met in primary care simply turn up in secondary care.

I am dissatisfied with every single aspect of life

I didn’t expect “Horlicks causes agony” to be on my 2024 bingo card, but here I am.

Staying up all night for elections used to be fun. But not any more

Perhaps it is the weariness of age, or that it’s hard to find optimism in politics these days.

This England: MisLED

This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain…

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Emily Watson Q&A: “Happiness is something that comes and goes in waves”

The actor on the Booker Prize-winning author Paul Lynch and being a master of time-wasting.