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The cost of environmental destruction far exceeds the cost of preventing it. But the world is sleepwalking into catastrophe.
A selection of the best letters received from our readers this week. Email letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
Starmer's cool, competent leadership has won him plaudits, but he remains troubled by one defining issue: what's the party for and who should it represent?
A study found around 100 symptoms the virus may cause, but only a dozen or so are widely recognised. At this stage, we're not ruling anything out.
The Prime Minister’s approach could lead the way for a new age of law-breaking – and a more sinister politics entirely.
The nationalist cacophony that followed the fire at the Moria refugee camp on Lesbos ignored the shocking reality of what had become an EU-sanctioned prison camp.
Europe is the only controversy around which the Conservatives’ unstable coalition can unite.
For both the Conservatives and Labour, the risk of shunning a deal with Brussels involves the further risk of allowing another Scottish referendum.
It is time our major art institutions address the mucky business of money.
When trying to get the public on side, ministers should remember patriotism is the basis of progress.
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
The author and former Fleet Street political editor on Silicon Valley, Keir Starmer, and why politics has become a “grim comedy”.
The movement’s stated ambition to “go beyond politics” sits uneasily with its pursuit of parliamentary legislation.
The world has now had more than half a year to get used to the pandemic. As our contributors describe, an array of common experiences have been forged in very different societies.
JM Keynes was convinced that if democracies failed to tackle mass unemployment, people would turn to dictatorships. We must urgently remember his warning.
Driving through some of the most desolate reaches of the continental US, our writer hoped to find places untouched by Covid-19. What he saw instead was the true reach of the American government.
Across continents, in every sort of society, the pandemic has exposed the weakest links.
India’s lockdown wrecked the country’s economy and transformed life in its capital, a city of more than 20 million. Worst-hit are the casual workers who make up most of the labour force.
In Sweden, one of Europe's worst-hit countries, some are furious at the decision not to lock down – but many others are pleased to have been spared draconian measures.
Six weeks on from a devastating explosion in Lebanon’s capital, coronavirus-prevention measures are low on residents’ priority lists – and cases are rising.
With little appetite to return to self-isolation, and social-distancing fatigue setting in, many in Russia now see the pandemic as a closed issue.
The city’s infection rates are among the worst in Brazil. But in June its mayor, Marcelo Crivella, said that it should return to normal – and many are embracing the new freedoms.
The mood in the Vietnamese city, home to some 13 million people, is one of confidence. Given the country’s low active-case total, there has been no sense of panic.
Scientists predict that infections in Washington, DC, will increase as the weather cools and people take their gatherings indoors.
“Shakespearean” as an adjective has had an unexpected currency in contemporary political journalism – but there are so many other dimensions to a “Shakespearean” sensibility.
Collateral Damage – Darroch’s warm and witty memoir of his time as the British ambassador in Donald Trump’s Washington – is a study in diplomatic tradecraft.
A new poem by Will Eaves
A new study of the destruction of knowledge explores how societies depend on fragile archives.
Kunzru’s Red Pill, Owens’ Spirit of Place, Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs (translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd), and Roberts’ The War on the Uyghurs.
Matt Gaw's Under the Stars is part diary, part self-exploration, and part clarion call for change.
The philosophical landscapes of Lucian Freud's lesser-known contemporary.
The history of the RAR movement, from Eric Clapton's racist comments in 1976 to the 1978 Victoria Park concert.
The Dennis Nilsen drama is never tasteless or glib – but it's still entirely gratuitous.
Instead of a grumpy comic monologue, Futile Attempts is a bold mix of documentary, fiction and meta-satire.
While watching Romeo and Juliet recently, I struck upon an important horticultural truth.
Misery is learning that, in 1930, I could have earned the equivalent of $2,130 for one lousy review.
I've started venturing out more, but already I hear the warning: we're not done yet.
Peter Crouch, when asked what he would have been if not a footballer, famously answered “a virgin”.
The American poet talks Nina Simone, making art of grief, and the joy of writing.
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