Full steam ahead: from left, Nigel Farage, David Bowie, Leigh Bowery, a character from Memoir of a Snail and Liam Gallagher. The new US president will almost certainly bring unpredictability but several themes will dominate the year ahead. Observer writers offer their guide on what lies ahead in politics, film, fashion, sport and more Foreign affairs The only thing that can be predicted with absolute certainty about Donald Trump ’s second term as US president is that it will be unpredictable. Trump does not really know what he wants to do on a range of issues. He talks a good game, which is how he got re-elected. But he often seems to decide policy on the basis of what the last person he spoke to told him. Is he serious about mobilising the military to carry out mass deportations of “illegal” migrants? Will he use the justice department to hunt down political enemies and media critics ? Will he impose sweeping tariffs on foreign imports and trigger a global trade war? Or will he act with greater circumspection, using these threats as bargaining tools? Who knows? He doesn’t yet. Donald and Melania Trump on the last day of his first term as president on 20 January 2021. In Ukraine , it’s a fairly safe bet that some form of negotiations or talks about negotiations to halt, if not end, the war with Russia will begin. European governments appear to be preparing for a Trump-led effort to force a reluctant Kyiv to the table, with the price of peace being territorial concessions involving Crimea and the large chunk of eastern Ukraine currently under Moscow’s control. Any such deal may be preceded by a ceasefire and the separation of opposing forces along a line of control or demilitarised zone. Ukraine will […]