Trump feeds on despair. Don’t surrender to it

Fear and loathing: two emotions connected with the American right,

If I ruled the world

If I ruled the world, I would re-introduce the Classics

Letters & opinions

Joris Luyendijk (“Narcissist nation,” November) nails the ridiculous national grandiosity

In fact

Uber recorded losses of roughly $1.2bn in the first half

A preposterous answer to a serious grievance

By grappling with class, however crudely, Trump has smashed a smug consensus

Statement of intent

The “just managing” need deeds, not words

The art of dealing with Trumpski

Putin spies an opportunity for some sorely-needed conversations

Partied out

You can sometimes get what you want—but if you do, expect trouble

A hard Brexit will spell hard times

The belief that the UK can go it alone defies economics, geography and the law

A continent confronts the ballot box. Again

Matteo Renzi has put Italy’s future—and that of the Euro—at stake in a referendum

British exit, Irish wound

The border dividing Northern Ireland from the South has been a problem for years. If it now becomes a land frontier between the UK and the EU, old sores will open up

A driverless journey down a dead-end street

Self-driving cars are a distraction from a transport policy that puts people first. So who is behind the obsession?

Prophet and loss

With Alan Greenspan and the economy, a lot of knowledge proved to be a dangerous thing

Playing with gender

The question of “trans” is at the heart of a new culture war. But centuries of box office history reveal that the line between male and female has always been clouded

The Brexit Brokers

Meet the men who will deal the cards that could seal Britain’s fate—on Europe’s behalf UTA STAIGER AND NICHOLAS WRIGHT

Spin and death in Raqqa

In Syria’s war, perception is everything. There is no objective reality—except the bodies

Brexit, the backstory: poets, princes and an island apart

To many who voted “Remain” in June, the Leavers’ insistence on British or English exceptionalism was chauvinistic and deluded. But reflecting on how our great writers and rulers over the centuries would have voted reveals that conflicted attitudes towards Europe are nothing new. Besides, don’t you want to know how George Orwell would have voted?

Will the NHS fall off a cliff this winter?

The General Medical Council has warned a crunch is coming, and polls suggest the public is getting worried. John Appleby of the Nueld Trust reviews the evidence

Should parliament have a binding vote on the terms of Brexit?

The High Court has ruled that Theresa May cannot commence

Welcome to the void

Trump is a born campaigning demagogue. But will he be too lazy to rule?

A nation loses its ardour

For better or worse, the US has led the world. Trump threatens to change that

Unbalanced, unchecked

Individual states might resist Trump. But the Constitution can’t hold him back in Washington

Grabber in chief

Trump’s contempt for women is astonishing. Decades of progress are now at stake

He’s a poet and don’t we know it

Bob Dylan reaches his audience with the power of the best writers. The Nobel committee was right to place him in their company, says

Delivery man

A politician more interested in striking deals than posturing? Alan Johnson belongs to another age, says Michael White

When the feeling’s gone and you can’t go on...

How can Rowan Williams reconcile his Christianity with the Greek tragic vision, asks Edith Hall

Out for blood, not tea

One hundred years after Saki’s death in the Great War, his stories are still wickedly funny, argues Fatema Ahmed

Books in brief

Ken Clarke became an MP when David Cameron was three

Recommends Art

Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) was a pioneer of almost every art

Recommends Theatre

5th December to 11th February 2017 Henrik Ibsen’s heroine is

Recommends Classical

You know the soloist is special when the Royal Opera’s

Recommends Film

After a bird strike caused both of his plane engines

Recommends Opera

When it was premiered in Dresden in 1911, Der Rosenkavalier

Recommends Science

The stunning new gallery, dedicated to mathematics, is funded by

Events

The Prospect Book Club meets every third Monday of the

Leith on language

Say what you like about Jonathon Green: the man works

Life of the mind

“I’m depressed,” my patient said, settling into her chair with

Matters of taste

I went to Northern Ireland in October because my boyfriend

Wine

The most over-used word in the world of wine is

DIY investor

Possibly the least contentious financial prediction one can make for

The way we were

Extracts from memoirs and diaries, chosen by Ian Irvine