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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
When Gérard Depardieu, one of France’s biggest cinema stars, was placed on the sex offender register this week after being found guilty of sexually assaulting two women on a film set in 2021, it was a historic moment for the #MeToo movement in the country. “It was a message to all men in power that … Read more
The first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine for three years should have been a momentous occasion. Since 2022, Russian war crimes have only deepened the chasm between them. Yet Donald Trump, who demanded this meeting, underlined that it was largely a charade when he told reporters: “Nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I … Read more