The populist moment

Mendacity and caprice have always been found in politics

Wages of sin

More than a trillion dollars are looted each year from poor countries, then stashed in rich ones—and Britain is at the heart of it. How did an ancient office of the Archbishop of Canterbury end up on the frontline in the battle against money laundering?

Bolsonaro, the Amazon and the world’s next environmental catastrophe

Brazil’s far-right leader has designs on the rainforest—and we will all suffer the consequences

Is there anything out there?

Philip Ball goes on the hunt for dark matter

The transformer

Jeanette Winterson’s inventive fiction has always pushed boundaries. She tells AN Devers why her new novel is taking on gender-fluidity and the rise of humanoid robots

Shelf life

In the days before Amazon algorithms served up your next read, one of the joys of reading was serendipity. As writers assemble in Britain’s town of books, speakers at Hay tell us about a chance encounter in a library, a B&B or a second-hand bookshop that took them down an unexpected path

Letters

The idea that current events demonstrate the need in

As our old parties dissolve, we need a new referendum—with “no deal” on the ballot

As our old parties dissolve, we need a new referendum—with

Huawei, hacking, and the stench of western hypocrisy

An Edinburgh-based company engaged in an innovative

Diversity, discomfort and my lament for a lost London

I live in Harringay, Green Lanes, in the long, elegant

Mourning a phantom: the cherished “rules-based order” never existed

Mourning a phantom: the cherished “rules-based order”

Mugabe has gone—but the Zimbabwean economy is perilously close to the edge

Mugabe has gone—but the Zimbabwean economy is perilously

Is reason the slave of the passions?

YES Yes, reason is ultimately subordinate to the passions.

A populist in Number 10?

The forces of nationalism are on the rise around the world, and they could soon carry a demagogue to Downing Street

The other left behind England

Fed up since the hunting ban, rural England provides a readymade base for the Brexiteer right. But the Tories should be wary of chasing after a lost past

Politics with bloodshed

Mao Zedong inspired millions across the world to follow his revolutionary path—with disastrous results, says Isabel Hilton

Crisis management

“How nations cope with crisis and change” is rather

Propaganda of the deed

Terrorism depends on exploiting the imagination of its victims, as Joseph Conrad knew all too well, says Will Self

Enabled

More disabled people are represented in the arts now, finds Tom Shakespeare, but the struggle goes on

Late reading with Clive James

Recovering at home, Clive finds that lovely words count more and more—and recalls Cleopatra

Books in brief

Oliver Sacks died in August 2015 at the age of 82,

Recommends

Today a multi-billion pound global industry, Manga

Divorcing dad

All being well, by the time you read this, the House

The hungry gap

We are just emerging from the “hungry gap,” the part

Turn on, tune in

Sailors like to spin the line that the hours you spend

Inside the Brexit labyrinth

The idea of the labyrinth—the myth of the confounding

Attacking anxiety

As I understand the causes of anxiety, we think that

Policy report: Environment

On climate we have grown used to inaction. Should we look to markets or farming reform to unlock the discussion?

Economics and investment

The analyst: Duncan Weldon Associate Economics Editor

Events

The Prospect Book Club meets every third Monday of

The generalist by Didymus

The 16 single-word clues have to be treated in a similar

Brief encounter

VJ Day 1945. Bonfires on bombed-out street corners.