As Ursula von der Leyen begins her second term as President of the European Commission, she does so as a colossus, enjoying sweeping authority over the European Union and its 450 million inhabitants. The Empress rules a bloc that’s undemocratic …
Will Putin escalate in Ukraine?
Putin’s nuclear sabre-rattling may be intended to alarm Western publics. But the course of the war has been shaped precisely by Western fear of escalation. In the frankest terms, Nato has not directly entered the war as a combatant because …
How Orthodoxy can save Russia’s soul
When Lucy Ash was escorted round the vast and numinous island monastery of Valaam, located in Lake Ladoga near St. Petersburg, she had an intriguing guide: a monk who introduced himself as Father Iosif but spoke fluent English in the …
Led By Donkeys have no shame
How do you get a hypocrite to feel shame? The activist collective Led By Donkeys think they have found the answer: organise a needling visual provocation in the hypocrite’s vicinity, put the film of it online, then watch it go …