North America Donald Trump’s former fixer surrenders to the FBI over porn star payment The president’s longtime attorney pleaded guilty Tuesday on multiple counts of fraud and campaign finance violations. By Nicky Woolf
Middle East Labour can be Jo Cox’s party or Chris Williamson’s – it cannot be both Williamson’s message of support for pro-Assad propagandist Vanessa Beeley will be greeted as a dog-whistle by conspiracy theorists. By Oz Katerji
North America Trump’s nightmare day continues as former campaign chair Paul Manafort found guilty The jury found Manafort guilty on eight charges including failure to report a foreign bank account and bank fraud. By Nicky Woolf
Privacy Mind-reading technology was once part of a dystopian future. Now it exists Even political stances can be detected. By Simon McCarthy-Jones
Film How Netflix revolutionised foreign-language TV Subtitled media was once for pretentious film nerds obsessed with Amelie. Netflix has changed this. By Amna Saleem
Brexit The Brexodus is real, and it will hurt the UK The number of EU nationals working in the UK is falling, leaving a skills shortage. And the government is doing too little to stop it. By Maike Bohn
Middle East The secret history of Mossad, Israel’s feared and respected intelligence agency Israeli intelligence from the outset occupied a shadow realm, separate from the country’s democratic institutions. A deep state. By Ronen Bergman
Books The post-crash world: how the 2008 crisis led to our current age of extremes Ten years on, the aftershocks of the crash threaten the very notion of the nation state. By Aditya Chakrabortty
Health Why the “gender data gap” means doctors don’t take women’s pain seriously enough For many years, the preclinical pain research was done almost exclusively on male cells and animals. By Caroline Criado-Perez
Technology How AI could kill off democracy Are we willing to give up our freedom in exchange for efficient, data-driven public services owned and run by tech giants? By Jamie Bartlett
Observations How good fortune is self-generated: the benefits to feeling lucky Luck is usually a matter of perspective – yet those who think they have it often end up attracting more success. By Sophie McBain
UK 2018: the year the failure of privatisation and austerity became undisguisable The state takeover of Birmingham prison adds to a catalogue of private sector chaos: Carillion, East Coast, Northern Rail and bankrupt Northamptonshire council. By George Eaton
UK After the storm: what should Corbynism 2.0 look like? Labour should promise a second Brexit referendum, make a radical devolution offer to Scotland and revitalise the shadow cabinet. By Paul Mason
The Staggers Prisons don’t need a resignation threat. They need more money Junior ministers promising to resign makes good headlines, but doesn’t really tackle the problem. By Stephen Bush
UK The Tories are uniquely vulnerable to hard-right entryism With a dwindling membership and near-dormant local parties, the likes of Anna Soubry are right to fear a putsch by Brexiteers. By Patrick Maguire
Sponsored by Royal Bank of Scotland Scotland Standing up for Scotland’s microbusinesses Microbusinesses form the fabric of Scotland’s business landscape. By Marcelino Castrillo
Scotland The SNP meeting arms dealers is unlikely to stir voters – but will enrage party members Scottish voters are more likely to see Raytheon as a major employer than a moral quandary. By Julia Rampen
Books Varlam Shalamov’s Gulag stories The Russian author turned 15 years in the Gulag into fiction of extraordinary daring. His stories are timely reminders of the human cost of communism. By John Gray
Music & Theatre Sixties hippies to anarchist drag queens, I discovered one cultural treasure after another From Joshua Gamson’s The Fabulous Sylvester, I learnt of the birth of the San Francisco gay scene and the counterculture of the late 1960s. By Tracey Thorn
North America Nixon helped save the bald eagle – but what will Trump do for America’s patriotic emblem? Republicans must protect their national bird, and its homeland, against the dishonour and greed of Trump. By John Burnside
Film Spike Lee’s grotesque comic thriller BlacKkKlansman is unique and electrifying BlacKkKlansman is inspired by actual events – or, as the opening titles put it, “Dis joint is based on some fo’ real, fo’ real shit.” By Ryan Gilbey
Music & Theatre The best of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018 Moral debate and questions of the right to offend dominate this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. By Mark Lawson
Music & Theatre Mitski’s Be the Cowboy is a record of big, existential, open plain longing The album features 14 dense, precise, tightly constructed songs – most refuse a traditional verse/chorus structure for shorter, stranger vignettes. By Anna Leszkiewicz
Media New York Times food review thinks London restaurants served porridge and boiled mutton If it weren’t for the foodie revolution ten years ago, we’d still be eating tough sheep and wet oats. By Media Mole
Media There’s no point in the BBC’s Today programme blaming Brexit for a loss of listeners We need a return to John Birt’s news strategy of the Eighties, which prioritised expertise and analysis and discarded froth. By Roger Mosey
Media The BBC isn’t wedded to balance – it’s dedicated to serving its audience Speaking to, and for, the whole of the UK – means hearing from a wide range of voices, and airing conflicting opinions. By Gavin Allen
Media How the BBC’s balance issue is alienating its supporters – just when it needs them most The pursuit of balance breaks down when applied to people who have no interest in telling the truth, and who in fact set out to deliberately mislead. By Patrick Howse
UK Don’t waste valuable water on your lawn – you’ll only regret it when your vegetables bolt We should not be surprised when plants bolt or run to flower and seed – but if they’re vegetables, it is hard to be sympathetic. By Stefan Buczacki
Media Shout it from the rooftops: Alex Jones’s YouTube ban is NOT a First Amendment issue The alt-right conspiracy theorist doesn’t want free speech – he wants consequence-free speech. By Nicky Woolf
North America Donald Trump created the reality TV star Omorosa – now she might destroy him Trump’s former protégé has turned the president’s publicity tactics against him, and it’s driving him nuts. By Nicky Woolf
Observations The alt-right’s long march In the last year the Unite the Right movement has splintered and its organisational capacity dwindled, but the Overton window is still shifting. By Louis Amis
Middle East How the Islamic State caliphate was lost IS has lost control of most of the territory it once held. But it is not defeated and is morphing into an international movement, inspiring more attacks. By Shiraz Maher
Asia The Nepalese girls who lost their childhoods In 2002, Nepal outlawed indentured labour for children. Now, girls taken from their families are trying to make up for missing out on education. By Helen Lewis
Middle East Trump’s Iran sanctions are a dangerous gamble As US sanctions kick in against the Islamic Republic, Iranians suffer and the world becomes a more perilous place. By Sophie McBain
Africa South Africa is the only country with a chance of stopping the bloodshed in Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa wants the international community to forget the past, but the escalating violence makes it impossible. By Martin Plaut
