Commentariat

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Letters: It is the west’s reluctance to accommodate Russia’s security concerns which will initiate the new cold war

Letters: Friedman’s scholarship made him one of the most influential economists of the 20th century

Editorial: This week’s Democratic convention builds towards open-air speech by Barack Obama

Editorial: Paperwork held by the government could make all the difference for Binyam Mohamed

Seumas Milne: Russia’s defiance in the Caucasus has brought down the curtain on Bush senior’s new world order - not before time

Hadley Freeman: The labels won’t, and nor will the glossies. It takes the likes of Kate Moss to challenge the addiction to skinny models

Timothy Garton Ash: Look beyond Denver’s schmaltzfest and you see how the relative power of a US president is diminishing on all sides

Editorial: Titian’s two paintings are among the most important old masters in private hands

David Thomson: Protests at a new satirical film are misplaced. Blunt expression is less harmful than suffocating piety

Roy Hattersley: Energy firms’ profits are unearned. In hard times, it is intolerable that they cash in as people go cold

Ron Prosor: The protesters who came ashore last week should blame Hamas rather than Israel for the territory’s ills

Ray Collier: Loch Ruthven

Letters: In your report on the Notting Hill carnival you overlooked the fact that the majority of it was peaceful

Today’s corrections

Letters: What was the point of Her Naked Skin? To show risible scenes of lesbian sex and a forced-feeding scene?

Response: Halting development allows teenagers time to consider their potential treatment, says Richard Green

Hugh Muir: David Lyscom, who will take the helm at the Independent Schools Council, may be our hero

Letters: Government’s plans would cement this country’s position as the prison capital of western Europe

Look beyond tonight’s Denver schmaltzfest and you see how the relative power of a US president is diminishing on all sides

Soft politics is out. Hard politics is back. A looming economic crisis is forcing us all to sort out our priorities. Voters must adjust to dearer food, fuel and mortgages. Politicians must adapt to help them.

This summer I've been in that black hole that every working mother falls into at some point: when the childcare fails. The person who was looking after my children decided to leave, and I have been struggling to find a replacement. Some women cope by calling in sick; others hunch over the mobile between meetings, organising extended “playdates” with sympathetic friends and explaining to ageing relatives that Teddy must go in the cold wash, however gooey he is. When you're in the black hole, the gravitational pull of home can become overwhelming.

To judge by Barack Obama's disappointing performance so far in the opinion polls, reflected in the surprisingly subdued atmosphere at the Denver convention, Democrats are suffering a bad case of “buyer's remorse”.

When Lord of the Flies was first written it sold only 3,000 copies before
going out of print. No one could believe in Jack, Piggy and Ralph and the
thought that boys could turn into murderers, lacerating each other’s flesh
and revelling in torture and death.

What do these three men - all comfortably beyond the age of retirement - have in common: Sean Connery, Alfred Brendel, George Steiner?

Russia, according to President Medvedev, is ready for a “new Cold War”. If
politicians, including our own, want a new Cold War, they will get one. But
the fault will be lie as much with us as Russia.