Articles

Five years after the COVID-19 swept the world off its feet and many are, understandably, reluctant to discuss it. Yet, the fallout stays with us, academically, economoically, and in so many ways.

After the catastrophic performance of the traffic light coalition, what Germany needs is a strong, unified government able to provide an antidote to the new fascism. Friedrich Merz must begin by rebuilding trust, writes the editor of ‘Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik’.

Radio waves may travel indefinitely through space, but maintaining a record of live transmissions requires dedicated archival practices. In Portugal, where an outdated legal deposit law only safeguards printed material, even historically important broadcasts are recorded over. Could a new law based on a French model be the answer to libraries saving priceless material from obscurity?

Governments are scrambling to stop the sharp decline in birth rates across the developed world; the pronatalist policies on offer don’t seem to have found a solution. They do, however, disproportionately target women, fuel culture wars and some very gendered propaganda. This is our International Women’s Day edition of the Standard Time talk show.

Why does peace in Ukraine hang on a ‘mineral deal’ whose handling is more reminiscent of trade than negotiations? Perhaps because the global race for critical raw material mining is well and truly underway, digging for today’s equivalent of gold: raw earth elements and lithium critical for renewables and digital technology but also modern weaponry.

Under the aegis of the Council of Europe, a ‘core’ group of countries have been moving forward with plans for a tribunal capable of prosecuting the Russian leadership for the crime of international aggression. The US administration’s switch of allegiance now puts these plans at risk, writes Gwara Media.

The fall of the Berlin Wall, and not the human chain across the Baltics, is emblematic of 1989. But what if this show of unity had become iconic of communism’s disintegration? Could acknowledging Eastern Europe’s liberation positively reframe what Russia otherwise perceives as loss since the Soviet Union’s demise?

Pro-Irishness was part of the Democratic-Party-dominated political culture that MAGA despises and whose day is done. Time for Ireland to opt once and for all for Brussels over Boston, argues the co-editor of the Dublin Review of Books.

Syria’s reinvigorated civil society must assert itself not just in negotiations with the new government, but also in its dealings with Europe. Neo-colonial assumptions regarding minorities and gender are a source of tension that Europe would do well to reflect on.

The ‘Trump–Putin deal’ again places Ukrainians in a subaltern role. The leaked contract with its fantasy $500 billion ‘payback’ has been compared to Versailles, but the US betrayal recalls nothing so much as Molotov–Ribbentrop.

Ukraine faces its greatest diplomatic challenge yet, as the Trump administration succumbs to disinformation and blames them for the Russian aggression. How can they navigate the storm?

In this edition of the Gagarin podcast, we talk with Per Nyholm, a seasoned journalist whose multiple visits to Ukraine’s front line provide stark, first-hand insights, critical of Trump’s bullish intervention. The Danish reporter also holds strong views on the US President’s land-grabbing plans for Greenland.

Provocative far-right calls for Germany to ‘move on’ from historical guilt miss the point: politics of memory and its practices may transition from contrition to responsible forgetting, but there is no end date to remembering that should accommodate diverse members of society.

Does Europe’s vaunted ‘post-heroic mentality’ render it indifferent to the self-sacrifice of Ukrainians in defending their country – and would it prevent Europeans from doing the same in the event of Russian aggression?

For those watching closely, Musk’s ‘Roman salute’ at the inauguration parade wasn’t the only portent of America’s imminent descent into tyranny. Art historian Konstantin Akinsha on Trump’s tawdry imperialism.

Ritual as anti-art: for Jay Jordan, ecological activism is a form of ritual whose reciprocal nature distinguishes it from the individualism of the ‘extractivist’, gallery-based artwork.