The fight of Kherson’s mothers, rave meets fitness, and Dua Lipa’s book picks
OCTOBER 16-27. MOTHERS OF KHERSON / WARSAW, POLAND Giving voice to the grief of Ukrainian mothers Bring Kids Back UA, the association launched by Volodymyr Zelensky to save Ukrainian children forcibly deported to Russia and to occupied territories, brought 103 children and teenagers home in August. Since 2022, more than 20,000 have been deported through […]
Yes Means No and Vice Versa. The EU and the Balkans
There is a very good reason to admit the countries of the Western Balkans into the EU as quickly as possible. There is a very good reason not to do so, under no circumstances. There is a way to resolve this radical contradiction. This solution would be entirely logical. This possibility is practically unfeasible, for […]
The loveless marriage with America didn’t start with Trump. A conversation
There’s a poll someone should run to explain the relationship between Washington and Brussels: how many American officials who entered foreign policy after 2001 actually know the EU’s institutions? Max Bergmann, who runs the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at CSIS, one of the most important American think tanks, has the answer. “Over these twenty-five […]
At the funeral of Oleksii Yukov, who searched for the bodies and the souls of fallen soldiers
Kyiv In August 2022, Ukraine was in the grip of terrible heat. But a team of searchers led by Oleksii Yukov made their way to the village of Sydorove, in the Donetsk region, to recover the bodies of two fallen soldiers. They had died in a Russian missile strike on May 16, 2022. Their surviving […]
September has arrived crueler than ever for the girls of Ceuta
September has arrived cruel in Ceuta, with the cleanup of the schools that, over the summer, served as shelter for the migrants stranded in the Spanish exclave in North Africa — above all unaccompanied minors, so many, so many girls: the schools are needed by Ceuta’s own students, who rightly have to go back to […]
Some outstanding British schools are criticized for being “too strict”
Rightly or wrongly, the British Education System seems to be an object of constant fascination to other countries, perhaps due to the endless number of books, plays and films that have been inspired by it. The variety of scholastic systems offered in the UK is unusually broad; English vs. Scottish; Boarding vs.Day Schools; Private vs […]
At the playground in Europe, with the unattainable myth of “zero risk”
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and that something is a park where parents are offered coffee and their children a bladed weapon. At Valbyparken in Copenhagen there are dunes of rocks and sand, every piece of play equipment is crooked, you can light a bonfire in the middle of miles of woods, […]
The education of a teenage English prince, today and thirty years ago
Prince George of Wales (George Alexander Louis), thirteen years old, now ready for secondary school and almost ready for the throne. He is second in line to the throne and will start at Eton in September. Son of William and Catherine, older brother to Charlotte and Louis, grandson of the King. That’s about all we […]
Malta has the cynical talent of playing ahead of the curve, from iGaming to AI
Valletta, Malta Mdina makes no noise even in August, despite the pressure and crowds of tourists, many of them Italian. It’s been called the “Silent City” ever since the 18th century, when the nobility moved to Valletta and left behind these golden limestone alleyways. Across the Grand Harbour, the Three Cities answer with names the […]
Thomas Mann’s houses of exile in Los Angeles, a symbol of refuge and freedom
Berlin Saved from neglect, from real estate developers, and from the fury of the flames, two historic buildings from Thomas Mann’s roughly twelve years of exile in Los Angeles are now in the hands of the German state and used as centers for transatlantic cultural exchange. The Thomas Mann House, the residence where the Nobel […]