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Negotiations on a significant reset of the UK’s relationship with the European Union have gone “down to the wire”, with fisheries and youth mobility among outstanding sticking points with hours to go before the start of a crucial summit. In scenes reminiscent of the Brexit talks, British officials were still trying to reach a compromise … Read more
We often hear that it is Russia’s inability or unwillingness to deal with the crimes of its past that has led to the restoration of tyranny and the military aggression that we see now. Such a narrative usually focuses only on internal Soviet deeds: forced collectivisation, the Great Terror of the 1930s, the Gulag system … Read more
Ukrainian officials believe a largely stalemated war of attrition with Russia is likely to continue for several more years, despite international efforts pushed by Donald Trump to end the fighting. After the inconclusive breakup of the first direct talks between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul on Friday, and despite the US president’s planned calls with … Read more
British holidaymakers could face shorter airport queues this summer, with negotiators on the verge of striking an agreement for UK passport holders to use e-gates across Europe. Downing Street said on Saturday that it was poised to strike a deal with the EU that would improve things for Britons facing “queues on holiday”. The Guardian … Read more
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/may/18/pete-songi-keir-starmer-dance-eu-cartoon
As Donald Trump abandons any pretense of promoting human rights abroad, he has sparked concern about the future of the human rights movement. The US government has never been a consistent promoter of human rights, but when it applied itself, it was certainly the most powerful. Yet this is not the first time that the … Read more
It’s tempting to hope the establishment last week of a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, to give its full name, will lead to the speedy trial and indefinite incarceration of Vladimir Putin and senior Russian leaders. After all, the new court is backed by about 40 countries, including the UK, plus … Read more
When Keir Starmer was asked last week whether he thought Britons had finally moved on from the issue of Brexit, his answer was a definitive yes. It’s not difficult to see why the prime minister would hope to settle the question, before a week in which he hopes to reset the UK’s relationship with the … Read more
Peter the Great’s long war against Sweden – a grinding conflict that claimed countless Russian lives – is rarely held up as a model for modern diplomacy. Yet behind closed doors on Friday, during the first direct peace talks with Ukraine in three years, Russia’s lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, cited it as an explicit warning: … Read more
Somewhere in my attic, among my rather extensive Polly Pocket and Barbie dolls collection, there’s a poster by the Romanian caricaturist Mihai Stănescu gathering dust. Truth be told it isn’t mine, it’s my mother’s. She passed it on to me a while ago and it spent most of my early adulthood taped to my bedroom … Read more