Wars do not have to be won. Total victories loom largest in the popular imagination because those are the stories nations always tell to sustain patriotic feeling. The fuller version of history is written in stalemates. That is worth remembering when Donald Trump meets Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. Both leaders have incentives to … Read more
Growing up in Zurich often felt like being removed from the world. It shouldn’t be that way: after all, Switzerland is at the heart of Europe. Riding on the cosy Zurich trams, one hears all the world’s languages; and the airport offers more direct intercontinental flights than Berlin. And yet, coming of age in Switzerland … Read more
EU citizens waiting for the Home Office to decide their pre-Brexit residency status should not be removed from the UK if they make a short return visit abroad for business, leisure or family matters, the statutory body for EU citizens’ rights has said. The Independent Monitoring Authority for Citizens’ Rights Agreements (IMA) has written to … Read more
The Conservatives are “not close to recognising” how badly they are positioned for the next election, the former cabinet minister David Gauke has said. Gauke, a former justice secretary who also worked in the Treasury under George Osborne, said many in the party were not willing to fully repudiate Liz Truss and Boris Johnson. The … Read more
Good to have it confirmed that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will be talking about Ukraine behind its back on Friday in Alaska, as the US president rambled through a press conference on Monday in which he explained that Putin “wasn’t going to mess with me” and that Ukraine was going to have to accept … Read more
In recent weeks, as Russia continued its assault on Ukraine in frank disregard of White House deadlines and demands, there was hope in Kyiv and European capitals that the scales might finally be falling from Donald Trump’s eyes. Last month, Mr Trump noted that although his conversations with Vladimir Putin repeatedly led him to believe that a … Read more
After a period of cooler weather, swaths of central and eastern Europe face another heatwave as hot air over south-western Europe pushes north-west. Since late July, large parts of the Iberian peninsula have endured persistent heat, with temperatures frequently climbing to the high 30s to low 40s celsius. Last Thursday, a weather station 350 metres … Read more
It is unlikely that Vladimir Putin will arrive in Alaska on Friday to present Donald Trump with a territorial demand for the 49th state, sold by Tsar Alexander II to the US for $7.2m (£5.4m) in 1867. The Russian president, after all, has another land deal on his mind – to persuade Trump of the … Read more
The passing of the 100-day milestone for any world leader usually denotes the end of their honeymoon period. Friedrich Merz has not been able to enjoy even a single day of grace, beginning with the very moment he was supposed to be elected Germany’s chancellor but wasn’t. On 6 May, as Angela Merkel watched from … Read more
Most British citizens have little contact with human rights law, which is as it should be in a mature democracy. Widespread anxiety about basic freedoms is a feature of more repressive regimes. Many people will only have heard of the European convention on human rights (ECHR) in the context of the last Conservative government’s failed … Read more