The Irish Times view on Vladimir Putin’s unwinnable war

A battle that may last months at great cost in lives could be a pyrrhic victory

Simon Schama: A fight to the death between two visions of America

A bitterly polarised nation could do with a little of the spirit Lyndon Johnson showed in 1965

Words made flesh: Why author events are the new hot tickets

The growth of spoken-word festivals reflects our hunger for real-life experiences

Europe ‘coming apart before our eyes’, say 30 writers, historians and nobel laureates

Despite its ‘mistakes, lapses, and occasional acts of cowardice’, Europe remains ‘the second home of every free man and woman’

Go back to Dublin with yourself Dermot Bannon. We’re grand here in the dark

Watching the ‘Room to Improve’ architect repressing his rage is my favourite thing on television

Eight of the best TV shows to watch this week

‘Billions’ returns, Idris Elba’s new comedy series debuts and Irish couple’s wedding dilemmas

The Rolling Stones are still on tour – something is very wrong with our culture

Now in their seventh decade as a band, Jagger and his vassals are bringing their nostalgic money-printing machine to Croke Park

Simon Schama in ‘Civilisations’: History has found its hype man

Sometimes, I suspect, he throws in academic jokes to check if his class is paying attention

Video

Lucy Kellaway: Being bad at maths is not cute – it’s dangerous

Diane Abbott’s difficulty with a simple sum is evidence of widespread failing

Leonard Cohen, the poet channelling Byron and Lorca

From the archive: Of all the singer-songwriters of his era labelled as poets, Cohen was perhaps the one who truly bridged the divide

Far-right congratulates Trump: ‘Their world is collapsing. Ours is being built’

Politicians around the world react to the election of new US president

Television: Great fire of London? This one never quite catches light

ITV’s four-part series is overly complex and struggles for authenticity

Leonard Cohen at 80, still a tower of song

Radio: Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss

As Sean O’Rourke and Pat Kenny settle into their new slots on RTÉ Radio 1 and Newstalk, it’s hard to tell what’s changed