Europe

Kawthoolei Republic: Italy’s CasaPound Export Radical Dreams to Myanmar

In Myanmar’s remote hills, a rogue general and his Italian allies are forging a sovereign state on a harvest of ideas Rome would not permit at home. 

Bury the Lead: MTV ‘Death’ and the Way We Read Now

As MTV continued broadcasting across the United States and most of Europe on 1 January 2026, millions of social media tributes mourned a channel that had never actually shut down.

La Befana: Italy’s Winter Gift Giver

As Rome's Piazza Navona packed with families yesterday for the 2026 Befana celebrations, one tradition proves that Italy's Christmas season runs on its own clock.

GoVolta €10 Amsterdam-Berlin Route: Promising Start, Limited Scale

Cheap tickets and glossy promises suggest Europe's trains can finally take on planes, yet the realities of infrastructure, price and time tell a more complicated story.

McDonald’s AI Christmas Ad Backlash: Audiences Reject Synthetic Sentiment

An AI Christmas advert that told viewers to hide in McDonald's because the holidays are "terrible" has done something many feared: it made people miss imperfect, human-made ads.

Popular

Hammer and Anvil: Washington’s Kurdish Strategy

Washington's push to arm Kurdish fighters for the Iran war hit a barrier of defiance that forced Donald Trump to meet a history of broken alliances.

Oil and Water: A Secondary Theatre of War

Black rain and chemical smog is quietly overshadowing any military gains, poisoning the air and water that millions need to survive.

Playing Both Sides: Russia and the Strategic Windfall

As Washington and Tehran engage in a brutal zugzwang, Moscow is enjoying a massive windfall by selling energy to a panicked global market.

A School Bombing Tests AI’s Liability Limits

A US strike killed up to 168 people at a girls' school in Iran last week. Investigators now believe an AI system using outdated targeting data identified it as a military site.

Mojtaba: Who is Iran’s New Strongman?

The Islamic Republic named a new Supreme Leader this week: the son of the man killed less than ten days ago.