Piddington’s very English revolution
At a packed village hall meeting in picturesque Piddington, parish council leader Tim McNally railed against the British state. “The Government has stacked all of…
The Russian Church’s war on Europe
Women in white headscarves selling festive decorations, floral teacups, Orthodox icons and matryoshka dolls were once a familiar sight at Christmas markets across Europe. But ever since Russia’s full-scale invasion…
Will the Gulfies dump Trump?
We know the playbook by now. Donald Trump intermittently bombs Iran, albeit less intensely than when the US and Israel began their war in February. Meanwhile, his threats escalate along…
Suicide is a tragedy, not an argument
Marie Sophie Hingst was a promising young woman. Born in Germany, she received a doctorate in history from Trinity College Dublin. Her blog, “Read On, My Dear, Read On”, detailed…
Eric Hobsbawm’s age of contradictions
For most academics, professional success extends to citations and conference invites. Eric Hobsbawm was different. His towering Ages series of books remains among the most celebrated and widely read works…
Inside the Albanian revolution
On 16 May 2026, a revolution began in Zvërnec, a sleepy village on the Albanian coast where Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump planned to build a luxury resort. It spread…
How to Nixonmaxx the right way
Richard Nixon is back — this time as a source of viral memes. “Nixonmaxxing” is the latest fad roiling the young, very-online Right. Yet Nixon is being revived for the…
Why I’ve got the hots for localism
In England, we used to moan about rainy gray summers. Now it feels like we are in the meteorological version of a monkey paw story. I’m writing from a horrifically…
Why ‘responsible’ liberals coddle the irresponsible
It began with The New York Times’s long-time opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof posting on the X app: “I disagree with @LauraLoomer on 1,000 things, but I admire her willingness to…
Politicians deserve our cynicism
What do people usually say about politicians? “They’re all the same.” “They never do anything for anybody.” “They’re only in it for themselves.” None of this is particularly accurate. Jeremy…
Marco Rubio’s Havana syndrome
Pedro Víctor García had enough grandchildren to start a baseball team, but he had a favorite: Little Tony. There was something special about Tony. Unlike the others, he listened to…