Why Germany doesn’t do it better

What Germany gets wrong

The war in Ukraine is among the biggest tests the EU has faced – but instead of showing leadership,…

Letter of the week: The decline of general practice

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To ward off election hubris, Labour raises the spectre of Neil Kinnock in 1992

Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.

Stephen Flynn: “The Tories and Labour are one and the same”

The SNP’s new man in Westminster on the party’s internal divisions, Scotland’s gender bill and Brexit.

Rachel Reeves’ Diary: At Davos, there are two challenges – fixing the global economy, and walking in snow boots

Keir Starmer and I received a warm welcome at the World Economic Forum, despite the -14°C temperatures.

Bret Easton Ellis: “Wokeness is running out of room”

The Shards is the famously morbid author’s latest “trickster book”. He prefers cabinet shopping to culture wars now.

Why Labour thinks it has solved the Brexit conundrum

If Keir Starmer’s party wins, expect a slew of specific UK-EU treaties to be negotiated.

Germany is isolated once more – and no one now trusts Olaf Scholz

For Europe, the German chancellor’s first year in office has been a series of broken promises and fractured relationships.

Once you’ve seen the true extent of Tory sleaze, it’s impossible to unsee it

How can Nadhim Zahawi have made a “careless and not deliberate” error that left him with a tax bill…

Norway’s golden generation of athletes proves the value of sport as a public good

A unique commitment to making the “joy of sport” available to all is producing world-class talent in everything from…

In search of a language of loss

Is there a correct way to mourn? When my mother died, I scoured the literature of grief for answers

From Don Paterson to Brigitte Reimann: new titles reviewed in short

Also featuring Pegasus by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud and Sensational by Ashley Ward.

How identity politics props up racism

There are many ways to be black, as new books by Kenan Malik and Colin Grant show –and a…

The myth of America’s love affair with guns

In Bloodbath Nation Paul Auster says fixing the firearms crisis requires deep cultural change. What it really needs is…

Nan Goldin’s politics of sex

The film All the Beauty and the Bloodshed shows how, from the Aids crisis onwards, the photographer merged steely…

Boris Johnson is writing a memoir. Will we be able to trust it?

The problem with prime ministers’ autobiographies. Plus: self-indulgent podcasts, perfect pianos and the genius of Vermeer.

A history of Spain in 150 objects

From El Greco to Goya and Mexican clay to Moorish gold, a new show at the Royal Academy reveals…

Spielberg’s The Fabelmans is a major and personal work

The director’s 34th feature – and the first to turn the camera on himself – ranks as one of…

Everyone Else Burns attempts “edgy” comedy – but ends up predictable

Like so many supposedly funny shows just lately, this sitcom about an extreme Christian sect isn’t funny enough.

The mystery of Havana syndrome

This strange story from investigative journalist Nicky Woolf sits at the intersection of so many dark subjects.

I live with two children who are not my own and they are doing me the world of good

How sweet it is to enter into a world created by the contortions of child’s imagination, and to pretend…

I missed one of the best World Cup finals ever, but now I know all about the crisis in the NHS

We asked if we could turn the match on in A&E and were told: “This is a hospital. Not…

This England: Spice king

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

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George McGavin Q&A: “All species live on the knife-edge of survival”

The entomologist on lush prehistoric forests and inescapable doom.