Sunday 5 July 2026 The reopening of Russian diplomatic missions across Africa is a reminder that great-power competition is rarely conducted only through military deployments or dramatic summit meetings. Diplomacy remains the infrastructure of international influence. An embassy is not merely a building housing diplomats; it is a permanent declaration of strategic intent. Russia’s decision to expand her diplomatic footprint across the African continent demonstrates that Mosco

Sunday 5 July 2026 The contest to succeed António Guterres as Secretary-General of the United Nations is assuming exceptional significance. The next holder of the office will inherit an organisation confronting perhaps the greatest crisis of confidence in its modern history. Wars in Ukraine, the Middle East and parts of Africa continue to challenge the international system. Competition between the United States and China has deepened into strategic rivalry. The authority of i

Saturday 4 July 2026 Russia’s decision to close its remaining railway border crossings with Finland, Estonia and Latvia is striking less because of its immediate economic impact than because of what it reveals about the Kremlin’s conception of security. Most of these routes had already seen dramatically reduced traffic as a consequence of sanctions, Finland’s closure of its land border and the collapse of commercial relations following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

By Robert Harris Saturday 4 July 2026 Today is July 4th. For US citizens, it's a beer-and-fireworks-fueled celebration of independence, an idea that takes on a far less abstract meaning for an American living in Ukraine during the present war. For EU citizens, it's a chance to indulge in jokes mostly centered around their favorite stereotypes about the American fondness for alcohol, calories and explosives, stereotypes which Americans do nothing to dissuade on this particular

Friday 3 July 2026 The first great boom in artificial intelligence has taken place almost entirely inside computers. Large language models have transformed the production of text, images, software and research. Businesses have rushed to automate customer service, legal drafting, marketing, accounting and countless other information-intensive tasks. Billions of dollars have flowed into data centres, graphics processors and cloud infrastructure, creating a technological revolut

Friday 3 July 2026 The Soviet Union was founded upon an explicit rejection of religion. Yet one of the great paradoxes of the twentieth century is that under the rule of Joseph Stalin, the officially atheist state developed many of the characteristics of a religious civilisation. Churches were demolished, priests were imprisoned and religious education was prohibited. Nevertheless faith did not disappear. Rather, it was redirected. Stalin’s regime created a political theology