With the Trump administration’s backing down on its tariffs on China, its military abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, its insistence on seizing Greenland one way or another, its bombings in Nigeria, and its declaration that the official U.S. military budget will be increased by 50 percent in 2027—the last four events occurring in a two-week span in late December and early January—establishment commentators are all over the map.
Vijay Prashad critiques the argument that colonialism was, at most, ancillary to the transition between capitalism and feudalism in Western Europe. Instead, Prashad argues, “capitalism as it historically emerged—industrial, global, racialized, and imperial—was inseparable from colonial expropriation.” This reality must fuel a Marxist conception of the global struggle for reparations for those who have been oppressed and exploited at the hands of empires past and present.
In this dual review, Paul Buhle lends contemporary context to the histories of McCarthyism found in the recently published A Blacklist Education, by Jane S. Smith, and Operation Mind, by Natalie Zemon Davis and Elizabeth Donovan. In these two books, Buhle writes, readers can find parallels with the was that is today being waged against university professors and students for political activities—a stark reminder that political witch-hunts did not end with Joe McCarthy.
Craig Medlen dissects the logic behind the Trump administration’s efforts to impose tariffs as a way to counteract “unfair” U.S. trade deficits. Situating these deficits in the longer history of U.S. trade hegemony and its crumbling position in the global economy, Medlen uses incontrovertible data to illustrate how mainstream economic orthodoxy fails to acknowledge the effects of foreign inputs that integral to the workings of U.S. monopoly capital.
The self-taught painter had a trememdous sense of self-belief, despite being ridiculed in his lifetime. A landmark exhibition confirms him as a singularly modern artist
Since 1956, the New York institution has fostered cross-cultural understanding, equipped with a collection of masterpieces assembled by its founder, John D. Rockefeller
When art becomes an act of last resort
Joseph Koerner’s account of art made in extremis turns Bosch, Beckmann and Kentridge into unexpected associates across the ages
The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor last week, after allegations he had shared confidential information with the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, sent shock waves around the world.
What happens next is unclear, but the ramifications will go far beyond the former prince, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein. It was one of the most consequential days for Britain’s monarchy in generations, shattering the traditional aura of royal mystique and raising questions of accountability, deference and whether the royal family should have acted sooner.
In a powerful essay for our big story this week, Stephen Bates asks whether the royal family can survive the unfolding scandal.
Spotlight | The limits to the supreme court’s assent Last week’s declaration by the conservative-heavy court that Trump’s sweeping tariffs are unlawful is a major setback for the president, writes Ed Pilkington
Health | Why big pharma stands to gain from weight-loss pills Oral tablets could bring obesity treatment into the mainstream, with the sector predicted to be worth $200bn by the end of the decade. Julia Kollewe reports
Special report | The road to war in Ukraine In a remarkably detailed piece drawing on more than 100 interviews with senior intelligence officials and other insiders, Shaun Walker explains how the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans – and why nobody believed them
Opinion | A degree? A trade? Every rung for young people is a trap Is it to be a degree and heavy debt when graduate jobs are shrinking? Or forgoing a degree, knowing society still worships them? Confused, angry: who wouldn’t be, asks Jason Okundaye
Culture | Big in Beijing (but less so in Blackpool) James Balmont’s band, Swim Deep, plays to crowds of hundreds across the UK – but in China, they perform in front of tens of thousands. And they’re not the only ones
The Sahara has cycled between eons of bountiful life and arid desolation. What will it mean when the world’s largest desert turns green once again? By Henry Wismayer | Photographs by Marcus Westberg
Choreography that changed the language of dance, avant-garde costumes by runway designers, music that defined a new American sound. As her company turns 100, an inside look at the enduring world of Martha Graham. Photographs by ioulex | Text by Jacoba Urist
She was known as Vicky With Three Kisses—a German radio star whose singing and sweet talk comforted weary Nazi soldiers. She was actually a secret weapon in a little-known Allied propaganda effort. By April White
In central Texas, ranchers are beset by threats, from coyotes to drought and foreign competition. To protect their flocks from predators and help preserve their own way of life, they’re turning to the ancient know-how of man’s best friend. By Chris Pomorski | Photographs by Jordan Vonderhaar
In A House for Miss Pauline, the Jamaican novelist Diana McCaulay examines her family’s shadowy history by telling the story of a woman who builds her house with the remains of the manor of a former slave plantation.
Four years after their full-scale invasion, the Russians are trying to freeze Ukraine into submission by relentlessly attacking the country’s energy grid.
What Bernie Sanders brought to the job of mayor of Burlington and what he did with it help explain what matters to him and how he fits into American political argument.
Bernie for Burlington: The Rise of the People’s Politician and the Transformation of One American Place by Dan Chiasson
The first shots of an infamous day were fired in Rio’s Complexo da Penha favela at 4.30am. It was 28 October 2025 and the deadliest police raid in Brazil’s history had just begun. By the end of the day, 122 people, including five police, were dead.
The raid, nicknamed Operation Containment, was intended to apprehend members of one of the country’s most powerful organised crime groups, the Red Command – and in particular its kingpin, Edgar Alves de Andrade, who is also known as “the Bear”.
But the list of 100 arrest warrants justifying the operation featured none of the 117 people killed, and at least one of the dead was not involved in organised crime at all. The Bear, meanwhile, remains at large. Activists, security experts and even Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have described the operation as a futile massacre.
Now, in a forensic investigation encompassing interviews with community leaders, lawyers, security specialists and bereaved relatives, the Guardian’s South America correspondents Tom Phillips and Thiago Rogero have pieced together the full, previously untold story of what happened.
The big story | Continental drift in Munich Europe’s leaders met to discuss the continent’s future safety at the Munich Security Conference, a gathering characterised by mistrust of the US Trump administration and divisions over Ukraine. Patrick Wintour was there
Spotlight | Pressure mounts for Andrew to talk to police As calls for the former prince to cooperate with the investigation become deafening, this may be the reckoning the British king’s brother cannot escape. Caroline DaviesandAlexandra Topping investigate
Interview | Tracey Emin on reputation and radical honesty She scandalised the art world in the 1990s with her unmade bed, partied hard in the 2000s – then a brush with death turned the artist’s life upside down. Now Tracey Emin is as frank as ever, as Charlotte Higgins discovered
Opinion | Iran’s 1979 revolution offers some present-day pointers The similarities between Iran’s current crisis and events preceding the shah’s exile are striking. The radical clerics benefited then – but, asks Jason Burke, who would prevail this time?
Culture | Thundercat on funk, lost friends and being fired by Snoop Dogg The genre-hopping bass virtuoso has backed Ariana Grande and Herbie Hancock, appeared in Star Wars and become a boxer. Stephen Bruner explains his polymath mindset to Alexis Petridis
The latest tranche of the Jeffrey Epstein files have been in the public domain for less than two weeks, but already their contents have sent shock waves around the world.
Nowhere is this more true than in Britain, where the fallout has come to the door of Keir Starmer over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington, amid questions about how much the prime minister knew of his former envoy’s links to Epstein.
Starmer looks to have weathered the immediate pressure to resign this week, despite having lost his influential chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, over the scandal. But the vultures are still circling and it seems a matter of when, rather than if, the prime minister will go. Kiran Stacey weighs up the possible challengers from within the Labour party, while Oliver Holmes and Chris Michael consider why the scandal hit home so hard in the UK.
Spotlight | The last post for press freedom in the US? Jeff Bezos’s axing of more than 300 jobs at the Washington Post has renewed fears about the resilience of America’s democracy to withstand Donald Trump’s attacks. Ed Pilkington and Jeremy Barr report
Technology | The continuing risks and rewards of AI As policymakers and tech executives prepare for the next global AI summit in India, an annual safety report highlights the issues that will be at stake, writes Dan Milmo
Interview | Can Zack Polanski pull off a green revolution in the UK? With polls and membership at an all-time high, the UK Green party is having a moment – and it’s largely down to the party’s charismatic (if slightly cheesy) new leader. Simon Hattenstone went on the road with him
Opinion | What links UK politics and Epstein? A thick seam of contempt We’re often told the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, is a ‘decent’ man. But in appointing Peter Mandelson he chose political convenience over doing right, argues Nesrine Malik
Culture | The sign language of Margaret Calvert Airports, road signs, typefaces … the design legend revolutionised how Britain looked and her brilliantly clear designs are still used today. Catherine Slessor met her
COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The fine art issue, featuring Seurat, art in literature and Sir Antony Gormley, plus Ampthill Park House and the long-eared eagle owl.
Cast in the same mould
Sir Antony Gormley examines the parallels between his own Reflect and the Adriaen de Vries bronze of Antiope and Theseus
Don’t believe in modern love?
With Valentine’s Day looming and singlehood rising, Will Hosie seeks dating tips from the finest minds among the Ancients
Ford momentum
Harry Pearson enjoys the thrill of splashing through the countless fords criss-crossing the rivers and streams of the British Isles
Luxury
Jonathan Self is bewitched by the poetry of poesy rings and Amie Elizabeth White says ‘if you only buy one Derby boot…’
Life in the fast lane
Norfolk farmer Gavin Lane tells Julie Harding of the sleepless nights he has endured since taking the reins at the CLA
Sir Thomas Drew and Hélène Duchêne’s favourite paintings
His Majesty’s Ambassador to France and the French Ambassador to the Court of St James share their artworks of choice
Country-house treasure
John Goodall glimpses early-20th-century life at Mapperton House in Dorset in the form of a black-and-gold satin dress
A house of collections
In the second of two articles, Jeremy Musson explores the exceptional modern collection in the historic setting of Ampthill Park House in Bedfordshire
The legacy
Carla Passino hails the artworks amassed by Sir William Burrell
Where the wild things are
Exotic animals from around the world were unveiled to European eyes by artists such as Dürer and Stubbs, finds Michael Prodger
Winging it
Mark Cocker profiles the elusive and elegant long-eared owl
Interiors
Arabella Youens lauds a London drawing room and Amelia Thorpe keeps the home fires burning
Floral geometry
Banish the gloom with glorious winter-flowering Camellia japonica, suggests Charles Quest-Ritson
Slow and steady wins the race
Tom Parker Bowles savours the boozy boeuf à la Bourguignonne
Travel
Ben Lerwill delves into the story of space travel when he touches down at NASA HQ in Houston
Arts & antiques
Georges Seurat’s sublime French seascapes are taking centre stage at the Courtauld Gallery in London, reveals Carla Passino
Write side up
Art has long drawn inspiration from literature — from Ovid and Virgil to Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll, discovers Carla Passino
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
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