Pope Francis died hours after meeting the US vice-president, JD Vance. If that wasn’t a bad enough omen, the Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Donald Trump’s acolyte and self-styled “Christian nationalist”, appeared to welcome the pope’s death as a sign of “evil” being “defeated”. In fact, despite a series of clashes with the Trump White … Read more
Do you reach for your phone first thing in the morning as soon as you wake up? Me too. Only, for the past week, it’s not my WhatsApp, email or social media I’ve been desperate to check, but how many moose have managed to swim across the Ångerman river overnight. I know. I need more … Read more
The Finns say “spring comes in swinging” – when winter gives way to spring, and green shoots meet the final flurries of snow, often well into April. In Finnish politics, too, some hope is beginning to emerge after a long, dark winter. In municipal, regional and mayoral elections held across the country last week, rightwing … Read more
Youth might not be wasted on the young, but for the longest time I thought Interrailing was. When I was a student, as the 1980s became the 1990s, many of my friends took the opportunity to discover Europe by train and they all returned with amazing stories of discovery. But for long-forgotten reasons, it was … Read more
Defying doctors’ orders to rest following his battle with double pneumonia, a weak Pope Francis last week visited Rome’s Regina Coeli prison, where he blew kisses towards inmates and spent half an hour in discussion with some of those incarcerated. Sadly, this Maundy Thursday encounter turned out to be one of the last acts of … Read more
After a spell of record-breaking heat last week, eastern Europe and western parts of Russia will experience further unseasonable warmth in the next few days. The burst of mid-spring warmth began during the middle of last week, when temperatures climbed to the high 20s celsius in eastern Germany and Poland. By Friday, the northern coastal … Read more
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/apr/20/ella-baron-vladimir-putin-easter-ceasefire-ukraine-cartoon
Strong hints that a rebranded “youth opportunity scheme” will top the EU’s wishlist at next month’s EU-UK summit are good news for anyone who regrets the diminished travel opportunities that were one result of Brexit. Rising expectations of new European train routes – possibly including direct trains from London to Italy – can only add … Read more
One key to a successful negotiation is always being willing to walk away from the table. But it isn’t clear whether the Trump administration has threatened to give up on a Russia-Ukraine peace deal as a negotiating tactic or simply because it lacks the concentration for a complicated negotiation – a shortcoming that has dogged … Read more
There’s a black and white image of the photographer and war correspondent Lee Miller and her friend Tanja Ramm. The two are having breakfast in bed at Miller’s studio in Paris, casually reading newspapers. Their faces are framed by untamed hair and they’re dressed in cotton shirts, with coffee cups in front of them. The … Read more