The subtext of this war game is deadly serious. Finland’s entry into Nato in 2023 more than doubled the defence alliance’s border with Russia to almost 2,600km, stretching from the Arctic down to Belarus.

While Moscow is currently tied up with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many along this frontier expect Russian President Vladimir Putin to one day turn his attention to Nato’s eastern flank. The Russian economy is already geared towards conflict and Putin’s imperialist ambitions may mean it goes on to look for conquest elsewhere.

Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte warned last month that Moscow could be ready to use force against the alliance “within five years”. “Let’s not kid ourselves, we are all on the eastern flank now,” Rutte said in a speech. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later said that Russia was planning “new military operations on Nato territory” in an address to the alliance’s summit last week.

While US President Donald Trump reassured allies he was “with them all the way” on arrival at the summit, he had spooked European capitals hours before with a suggestion that the military alliance’s mutual defence pact, known as Article 5, was open to interpretation.

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Can't wait to get to the office and see how this map for today's @FT Big Read printed. A comprehensive look at whether Europe is prepared for war. https://t.co/4neP2wMdoh
A lighter version for print to avoid it printing too dark and issues with white text.#dataviz #gistribe pic.twitter.com/KepzQ6nW76

— Steven Bernard (@sdbernard) July 1, 2025

A crowd of journalists, politicians, commentators, and activists gathered in central London on the hottest day of the year so far to attend a black-tie event organised by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).  Last night I had the pleasure of attending the UK premiere of Live Not By Lies, the documentary adaptation of Rod Dreher’s 2020 book of the same name. 

Before the screening, there was a speech by Triggernometry’s Konstantin Kisin. Kisin, having spent a large part of his childhood in the Soviet Union, was well-placed to bring together the themes of the film—totalitarianism, in its various forms, past and present. 

Live Not By Lies was released by Angel Studios in April this year on its streaming platform as a four-part miniseries, though at yesterday evening’s viewing, we watched it in one go. It describes itself as “a powerful warning from Soviet dissidents about the emerging totalitarianism in our society,” which it undoubtedly is. The film features interviews with various experts on the subject—notably, author Douglas Murray, associate professor of philosophy of religion at Cambridge University Dr. James Orr, and the ADF’s senior legal communications officer, Lois McLatchie Miller. McLatchie Miller herself has experience with being arrested for speech-related crimes. Just last month, she and Chris Elston (better known as Billboard Chris) were arrested in Brussels for holding signs decrying the gender transitioning of children. They were both released without charges after a few hours, but the whole ordeal was a frightening reminder that free speech now holds little sway in many Western countries. 

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Live Not By Lies provides sustained deep delves into the plights of individuals whacked with the censorious stick. @_BellaEpoque https://t.co/Zsn6zjxSt8

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali (@Ayaan) July 2, 2025

Loving God, we offer thanks for the work and witness of Isabel Florence Hapgood, who introduced the Divine Liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church to English-speaking Christians, and encouraged dialogue between Anglicans and Orthodox. Guide us as we build on the foundation that she gave us, that all may be one in Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, unto ages of ages. Amen.

On the Episcopal calendar of commemorations for today: Isabel Florence Hapgood (1851-1928), journalist, linguist, and lifelong Episcopalian, who translated the Divine Liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church into English. pic.twitter.com/ucMvSYtrZW

— Peter J. Thuesen (@peterjthuesen) June 26, 2020

I have also to announce to the House that during the night and the early hours of this morning the first of the series of landings in force upon the European Continent has taken place. In this case the liberating assault fell upon the coast of France. An immense armada of upwards of 4,000 ships, together with several thousand smaller craft, crossed the Channel. Massed airborne landings have been successfully effected behind the enemy lines, and landings on the beaches are proceeding at various points at the present time. The fire of the shore batteries has been largely quelled. The obstacles that were constructed in the sea have not proved so difficult as was apprehended. The Anglo-American Allies are sustained by about 11,000 firstline aircraft, which can be drawn upon as may be needed for the purposes of the battle. I cannot, of course, commit myself to any particular details. Reports are coming in in rapid succession. So far the Commanders who are engaged report that everything is proceeding according to plan. And what a plan! This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever taken place. It involves tides, wind, waves, visibility, both from the air and the sea standpoint, and the combined employment of land, air and sea forces in the highest degree of intimacy and in contact with conditions which could not and cannot be fully foreseen.

There are already hopes that actual tactical surprise has been attained, and we hope to furnish the enemy with a succession of surprises during the course of the fighting. The battle that has now begun will grow constantly in scale and in intensity for many weeks to come, and I shall not attempt to speculate upon its course. This I may say, however. Complete unity prevails throughout the Allied Armies. There is a brotherhood in arms between us and our friends of the United States. There is complete confidence in the supreme commander, General Eisenhower, and his lieutenants, and also in the commander of the Expeditionary Force, General Montgomery. The ardour and spirit of the troops, as I saw myself, embarking in these last few days was splendid to witness. Nothing that equipment, science or forethought could do has been neglected, and the whole process of opening this great new front will be pursued with the utmost resolution both by the commanders and by the United States and British Governments whom they serve. I have been at the centres where the latest information is received, and I can state to the House that this operation is proceeding in a thoroughly satisfactory manner. Many dangers and difficulties which at this time last night appeared extremely formidable are behind us. The passage of the sea has been made with far less loss than we apprehended. The resistance of the batteries has been greatly weakened by the bombing of the Air Force, and the superior bombardment of our ships quickly reduced their fire to dimensions which did not affect the problem. The landings of the troops on a broad front, both British and American- -Allied troops, I will not give lists of all the different nationalities they represent-but the landings along the whole front have been effective, and our troops have penetrated, in some cases, several miles inland. Lodgments exist on a broad front.

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The D-Day landings began #OTD 6 June 1944, one of the great turning points in WWII, 81 years ago this morning. A detail of the memorial glass in Portsmouth Anglican Cathedral by Carl Edwards and Hugh Powell, 1955.#DDay #DDay81 pic.twitter.com/aQQpMFhOgw

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) June 6, 2025

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

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6 June 1944. A total of 21,400 Canadian troops landed on Juno Beach. They met with stiff resistance, but as 30 per cent of the invaders were skilled marksmen they were able to fight their way off the beach, and then linked up with the British troops who had landed on Gold Beach. pic.twitter.com/UKAgtJl1nj

— Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) June 6, 2025

Norway is “an unlikely place for a transportation revolution,” acknowledged Christina Bu, head of the Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association.

At the Skoda dealership in Alta, Finnmark’s largest city, salesman Orjan Dragland marveled at the transformation — how five years ago, every car on the showroom floor had a combustion engine, and now the inventory is all EVs.

In 2024, nearly 90 percent of new passenger cars sold in Norway were fully electric. Of the cars sold last month, the EV share was 97 percent.

By comparison, EVs last year accounted for 8 percent of new car sales in the United States, 13 percent in the euro zone and 27 percent in China.

“What happened” in Norway? Dragland said. “The government happened.”

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#AGoodRead #Most new cars in #Norway are EVs. How a freezing country beat range anxiety #In 2024, nearly 90 percent of new passenger cars sold in Norway were fully electric. Of the cars sold last month, the EV share was 97 percent https://t.co/icnkGJsa8d pic.twitter.com/tZz7JjwNEq

— Shashi Kumar (@shashinetwork) May 31, 2025

Holy God, whose power is made perfect in weakness: we honor thy calling of Jeanne d’Arc, who, though young, rose up in valor to bear thy standard for her country, and endured with grace and fortitude both victory and defeat; and we pray that we, like Jeanne, may bear witness to the truth that is in us to friends and enemies alike, and, encouraged by the companionship of thy saints, give ourselves bravely to the struggle for justice in our time; through Christ our Savior, who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

May 30th is also the feast of St Joan of Arc in some places. This Joan of Arc Monument is in the French Quarter in New Orleans, a gilded bronze equestrian statue. This statue was one of ten copies created from the original statue that remains in Paris, France. The Joan of Arc… pic.twitter.com/TDEFcCUHdS

— Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P. (@LawrenceOP) May 30, 2025

The May 25-26 strike is now the second largest combined strike of the war, after Russian forces conducted the largest combined strike on the night of May 24 to 25. The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russian forces launched nine Kh-101 cruise missiles from the airspace over Saratov Oblast and 355 Shahed and decoy drones from the directions of Bryansk, Kursk, and Oryol cities; Millerovo, Rostov Oblast; Shatalovo, Smolensk Oblast; Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Krasnodar Krai; and occupied Cape Chauda, Crimea.[1] The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Ukrainian forces shot down all nine Kh-101 missiles and 233 drones over northern, eastern, southern, western, and central Ukraine and that 55 drones were “lost.” Ukrainian officials reported that the Russian strikes targeted Chernihiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Kyiv oblasts.[2] Ukrainian officials stated that the strikes caused civilian casualties and damaged civilian infrastructure and private residences.

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NEW: Russian forces conducted one of their largest drone and missile strikes of the war against Ukraine on the night of May 25 to 26 after three nights of record strikes. ⬇️(1/3)

The May 25-26 strike is now the second largest combined strike of the war after Russian forces… pic.twitter.com/MnYt11RSKA

— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) May 27, 2025

The world’s technology revolution is leaving Europe behind. 

Europe lacks any homegrown alternatives to the likes of Google, Amazon or Meta. Apple’s market value is bigger than the entire German stock market. The continent’s inability to create more big technology firms is seen as one of its biggest challenges and is a major reason why its economies are stagnating. The issue is even more urgent with the prospect of higher tariffs threatening to further curb economic growth. 

Investors and entrepreneurs say obstacles to tech growth are deeply entrenched: a timid and risk-averse business culture, strict labor laws, suffocating regulations, a smaller pool of venture capital and lackluster economic and demographic growth. 

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"The Tech Industry Is Huge—and Europe’s Share of It Is Very Small" via @WSJ https://t.co/X2pM7psIZp

— Jon Hartley (@Jon_Hartley_) May 20, 2025

German Protestants have commemorated one of their foremost theologians on the 80th anniversary of his execution during the final days of the Second World War.

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived to be only 39 — yet hardly any 20th-century Protestant had such a profound impact on Church and society,” the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) said on its website.

“His passionate protest against the National Socialists, his active role in the resistance against Hitler, his books and his death have resonated far beyond Germany’s borders.”

The statement was published as young Christians gathered last weekend at the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp memorial, in the Fichtel Mountains of Bavaria, near the Czech border, to debate the legacy of Bonhoeffer. His death was also commemorated in a service on Wednesday, as well as in an exhibition and reading of his works.

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German Protestants have commemorated one of their foremost theologians on the 80th anniversary of his execution during the final days of the Second World War#Bonhoeffer #DietrichBonhoefferhttps://t.co/xGc7JpsBJU

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) April 9, 2025

Certainly you two, of all people, have every reason to look back with special thankfulness on your lives up to now. The beautiful things and joys of life have been showered on you, you have succeeded in everything, and you have been surrounded by love and friendship. Your ways have, for the most part, been smoothed before you took them, and you have always been able to count on the support of your families and friends. Everyone has wished you well, and now it has been given to you to find each other and to reach the goal of your desires. You yourselves know that no one can create and assume such a life from his own strength, but that what is given to one is withheld from another; and that is what we call God’s guidance. So today, however much you rejoice that you have reached your goal, you will be just as thankful that God’s will and God’s way have brought you here; and however confidently you accept responsibility for your action today, you may and will put it today with equal confidence into God’s hands.

As God today adds His ‘Yes’ to your ‘Yes’, as He confirms your will with His will, and as He allows you, and approves of, your triumph and rejoicing and pride, He makes you at the same time instruments of His will and purpose both for yourselves and for others. In His unfathomable condescension God does add His ‘Yes’ to yours; but by doing so, He creates out of your love something quite new – the holy estate of matrimony.

God is guiding your marriage. Marriage is more than your love for each other. It has a higher dignity and power, for it is God’s holy ordinance, through which He wills to perpetuate the human race till the end of time. In your love you see only your two selves in the world, but in marriage you are a link in the chain of the generations, which God causes to come and to pass away to His glory, and calls into His kingdom. In your love you see only the heaven of your own happiness, but in marriage you are placed at a post of responsibility towards the world and mankind. Your love is your own private possession, but marriage is more that something personal – it is a status, an office. Just as it is the crown, and not merely the will to rule, that makes the king, so it is marriage, and not merely your love for each other, that joins you together in the sight of God and man. As you first gave the ring to one another and have now received it a second time from the hand of the pastor, so love comes from you, but marriage from above, from God. As high as God is above man, so high are the sanctity the rights, and the promise of marriage above the sanctity, the rights, and the promise of love. It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.

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9 April 1945: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor, spy, and anti-Nazi, is hanged, accused of being part of the Operation Valkyrie conspiracy to kill Hitler. He is executed with #Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and others a month before the end of #WWII. #OTD #ad https://t.co/VTQ683Bc46 pic.twitter.com/R39hPNoMe8

— Today In History (@URDailyHistory) April 9, 2025

Gracious God, the Beyond in the midst of our life, who gavest grace to thy servant Dietrich Bonhoeffer to know and teach the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, and to bear the cost of following him: Grant that we, strengthened by his teaching and example, may receive thy word and embrace its call with an undivided heart; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

„Jeder neue Morgen ist ein neuer Anfang unseres Lebens. Jeder Tag ist ein abgeschlossenes Ganzes."
Guten Morgen mit Dietrich Bonhoeffer, geb am 4. Februar 1907, Mitbegründer der bekennenden Kirche, Widerstandskämpfer, der am 9. April 1945 im Konzentrationslager erhängt wurde pic.twitter.com/EHp051Lnsg

— H.P. (@Peine01) April 9, 2025

The Baltic Sea, with a coastline heavily militarized by Northern European and Russian navies, has become an increasingly tense theater in the conflict between Moscow and the West.

Three times over the past year and a half, commercial ships are suspected of having damaged critical undersea communications cables and a gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea. European officials fear that these were acts of sabotage, with the Kremlin viewed as the primary suspect, though finding hard evidence has proved difficult. In response, NATO announced in January the start of a new program called Baltic Sentry, boosting sea and air patrols of the Baltic Sea.

Though mostly reliant on NATO members with Baltic coastlines, like Sweden, Finland and Poland, the French and the British also participate, along with U.S. Marines deployed to Finland.

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A NATO Plane’s Busy Duty: Tracking (and Dodging) Russia in the Baltic Sea https://t.co/bps8iUpXwZ

— Anders Carlgren (@AndersCarlgren) March 31, 2025

Donald Trump is holding a gun to the head of Volodymyr Zelensky, demanding huge reparations payments and laying claim to half of Ukraine’s oil, gas, and hydrocarbon resources as well as almost all its metals and much of its infrastructure.

The latest version of his “minerals deal”, obtained by The Telegraph, is unprecedented in the history of modern diplomacy and state relations.

“It is an expropriation document,” said Alan Riley, an expert on energy law at the Atlantic Council. “There are no guarantees, no defence clauses, the US puts up nothing.

“The Americans can walk away, the Ukrainians can’t. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

Read it all.

Trump now threatens Europe with assisting Putin in rebuilding his war machine if Zelensky doesn’t sign over Ukraine’s resources.https://t.co/jhRH9B0aeE

— Jay in Kyiv (@JayinKyiv) March 27, 2025

At the beginning of March, Norwegian evangelist Jan Eriksen, a former criminal and drug addict, visited Czech prisons, again.

He has been visiting the Czech Republic for more than 20 years, and during that time he has addressed thousands of prisoners.

This time, Jan Eriksen told his life story in prisons in Karviná, Opava, Kuřim, Rapotice and Mírov. During these five visits, about 120 prisoners responded to his call to repent and follow Christ.

All who were interested could also take away from the meeting a copy of the New Testament and Eriksen’s autobiographical book I lived in the underworld (in Czech: Žil jsem v podsvětí, originally Handlager der Unterwelt in Norwegian). In the book, he describes how as a pimp and drug dealer he experienced the bitter reality of a world full of violence, murder, rape and prostitution.

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Jan Eriksen, a former pimp and drug addict, has been sharing his testimony of conversion with inmates in the Czech Republic and other countries for more than 20 years. https://t.co/0QJqo4MUud

— Evangelical Focus (@Evan_Focus) March 24, 2025

President Trump said the US and Russia are already talking about dividing “assets” as part of a push to end the fighting in Ukraine, the latest sign that he may be preparing to sacrifice Kyiv’s interests when he speaks with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

One objective of the call is expected to be getting the Russian president to agree to a 30-day ceasefire that Trump proposed this month and Ukraine has agreed to. Putin has been noncommittal so far, saying he accepted the idea in principle but wants certain conditions to be met.

“Tomorrow morning I will be speaking to President Putin concerning the War in Ukraine,” Trump said Monday evening in a social media post. “Many elements of a Final Agreement have been agreed to, but much remains.” Those remarks, along with Trump’s comments to reporters Sunday night that the two sides were already talking about how to divide assets, suggest that many decisions have already been made — with or without Ukraine.

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President Donald Trump said the US and Russia are already talking about dividing “assets” as part of a push to end the fighting in Ukraine, the latest sign that he may be preparing to sacrifice Kyiv’s interests when he speaks with Vladimir Putin https://t.co/VssbS4Uy1T

— Bloomberg (@business) March 18, 2025

Few would expect the future of artificial intelligence (AI) to depend on Eindhoven, a quiet Dutch town. Yet just beyond its borders sits the headquarters of ASML, the only company that makes the machines, known as lithography tools, needed to produce cutting-edge AI chips. ASML’s latest creation is a 150-tonne colossus, around the size of two shipping containers and priced at around $350m. It is also the most advanced machine for sale.

The firm’s expertise has placed it at the centre of a global technology battle. To prevent China from building whizzy AI chips, America has barred ASML from selling its most advanced gear to Chinese chipmakers. In response, China is pouring billions of dollars into building homegrown alternatives. Meanwhile, Canon, a Japanese rival, is betting on a simpler, cheaper technology to loosen ASML’s grip. Yet unlike software, where industry leadership can shift in a matter of months, success in lithography is a slow-moving race measured in decades. Overtaking ASML won’t be easy. At stake is control of the machine that will shape the future of computing, AI and technology itself.

ASML’s most advanced machine is mind-boggling. It works by firing 50,000 droplets of molten tin into a vacuum chamber. Each droplet takes a double hit—first from a weak laser pulse that flattens it into a tiny pancake, then from a powerful laser that vaporises it. The process turns each droplet into hot plasma, reaching nearly 220,000°C, roughly 40 times hotter than the surface of the Sun, and emits light of extremely short wavelength (extreme ultraviolet, or EUV). This light is then reflected by a series of mirrors so smooth that imperfections are measured in trillionths of a metre. The mirrors focus the light onto a mask or template that contains blueprints of the chip’s circuits. Finally the rays bounce from the mask onto a silicon wafer coated with light-sensitive chemicals, imprinting the design onto the chip.

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ASML’s tools are indispensable to modern chipmaking. Rivals are now racing to dethrone the company—but it won’t be easy https://t.co/WNWBencgIo

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) March 14, 2025

When a mortar round exploded on top of their American-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, the Ukrainian soldiers inside were shaken but not terribly worried, having been hardened by artillery shelling over three years of war.

But then the small drones started to swarm.

They targeted the weakest points of the armored Bradley with a deadly precision that mortar fire doesn’t possess. One of the explosive drones struck the hatch right above where the commander was sitting.

“It tore my arm off,” recounted Jr. Sgt. Taras, the 31-year-old commander who, like others, used his first name in accordance with Ukrainian military protocols.

Scrambling for a tourniquet, Sergeant Taras saw that the team’s driver had also been hit, his eye blasted from its socket.

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Drones are now responsible for 70% of deaths and casualties in the Ukraine war.

A Thousand Snipers in the Sky: The New War in Ukraine https://t.co/53dQU6uF2q

— Martin Ford (@MFordFuture) March 3, 2025

One in three people displaced by the war in Ukraine remain in urgent need of humanitarian aid, charities have warned on the third anniversary of the Russian invasion, on Monday.

An estimated 3.6 million people have been internally displaced in Ukraine, while 6.5 million people have fled the country to find safety elsewhere: 90 per cent of the refugees are women and children. Vital infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals, has been destroyed in parts of the country. Conditions are worst along the eastern and southern frontlines.

Children are traumatised, and suffering from a lack of food and disrupted education, World Vision reports. An estimated 659 children have been killed in three years, and 1747 injured. “The emotional burden faced by Ukrainian children cannot be overlooked,” its Operations Director, Arman Grigoryan, said.

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One in three people displaced by the war in Ukraine remain in urgent need of humanitarian aid, charities have warned on the third anniversary of the Russian invasion, on Monday https://t.co/L1wPcXQsZh pic.twitter.com/7WIc1MLm89

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 24, 2025

It’s been a grim election season in Germany. Spanning the harsh winter months, the campaign — set off by the collapse of the government in December — has played out against a backdrop of short days, low temperatures and dark moods. The poor level of political debate has done little to lift the country’s spirits.

For a brief spell, taxes, jobs and government spending — the meat and drink of electoral contest — got most of the attention. But in late January an Afghan attacked a kindergarten group in a Bavarian town, killing a toddler and a bystander. The incident set off a political storm that eclipsed everything else.

Politicians jumped right in. Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative Christian Democrats, introduced to Parliament a nonbinding proposal for stricter border controls and a crackdown on illegal immigration. To pass the motion, he relied on the support of the far-right Alternative for Germany. There was uproar. The center-left Social Democrats and the Greens cried foul, casting themselves as bastions against the rise of extremism.

The debate simmered away through February. That was until last Friday, when Vice President JD Vance made an incendiary speech at the Munich Security Conference, lambasting European governments for lax migration policies and their supposed censorship of the far right. Germany was shocked, plunged into deep anxiety about its relationship with an increasingly hostile America.

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Germany Is in Big Trouble, and Nobody Knows What to Do About It
https://t.co/3ThTI1Ip2g

— Mary Lee Johnson (@mljtpa) February 21, 2025

Friedrich Merz, the man favored to be Germany’s next chancellor after elections on Sunday, is a conservative businessman who has never been a government minister and was forced out of party leadership years ago for challenging Angela Merkel.

As a Christian Democrat and committed trans-Atlanticist, he has been considered a potentially better match for President Trump than the current Social Democratic chancellor, Olaf Scholz. He is also expected to lead a foreign policy more aligned with Mr. Trump’s ideas about Europe’s taking responsibility for its own defense.

But recent comments by Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have displayed just how difficult any partnership may be with a United States that is less reliable and possibly hostile, and sympathetic to Russia’s narrative on Ukraine and spheres of influence.

That challenge is especially profound for Germany, and after Sunday is likely to fall on Mr. Merz, 69, who is known to be assertive and direct, if a bit awkward.

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"Next Likely Chancellor Promises a Tougher Germany" by Steven Erlanger via NYT New York Times https://t.co/k70kWvVQ7b

— LadyEleanorA (@LadyEleanorA) February 20, 2025

The past week has been the bleakest in Europe since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Ukraine is being sold out, Russia is being rehabilitated and, under Donald Trump, America can no longer be counted on to come to Europe’s aid in wartime. The implications for Europe’s security are grave, but they have yet to sink in to the continent’s leaders and people. The old world needs a crash course on how to wield hard power in a lawless era, or it will fall victim to the new world disorder.

Speaking in Munich last week, America’s vice-president, J.D. Vance, offered a taste of how the home of fine wines, classical architecture and welfare cheques faces humiliation, when he ridiculed Europe as decadent and undemocratic. Its leaders have been excluded from peace talks between the White House and the Kremlin, which began officially in Riyadh on February 18th. However, the unfolding crisis goes far beyond insults and diplomatic niceties.

Mr Trump appears ready to walk away from Ukraine which he falsely blames for the war. Calling its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, a “dictator”, Mr Trump warned him that he had “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left”. America may try to impose an unstable ceasefire on Ukraine with only weak security guarantees that limit its right to re-arm.

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Europe’s worst nightmare, and what to do about it. Our cover this week @TheEconomist https://t.co/JVwHunz4Cr pic.twitter.com/SCJc0rjs4R

— Sophie Pedder (@PedderSophie) February 20, 2025

What Ilyich faces in the final moment is grace. He is graced with the realization that he needs to offer care. Knowing that the real is compassion is not his accomplishment but is the gift of his son’s presence. We, who would so quickly assist him out of this life, would do so because we can bear with neither grace nor compassion. They ask too much of us for another. 

Because death is not taken from him by “assistance” that offers no real help, Ilyich is graced with realization that death is no more. “Instead of death there was light.” He sees this light and realizes that “death is over . . . there is no more death.” Ilyich’s realization echoes Revelation 21:4 that “death will be no more.” Only a culture that can see death and care for those who are dying can be a culture open to the One who bore all our burdens. Christ’s dying offers us abundant life even in our deaths if we are willing to face them. In his Good Death, death itself dies. Euthanasia denies us a good death because it is the denial of care, the denial of facing death authentically, and the denial of the goodness of life. It is thus the denial of the Author of Life—or of any possible spiritual breakthrough at all.

Each fall for many more years, my students and I will read a novella about a dying, loveless lawyer from Tsarist Russia. We will ask what the real life is and wonder if we are living it. We will consider what love and care look like and whether we live in a culture in which we bear each other’s burdens. To bear those burdens is to face our deaths together. The direction of our culture is increasingly toward “death pods” where we will die alone, because we, like Ivan, have refused to really live together. Resisting such a culture of solitary and uncared for assisted dying will take legislation, but it will also require that we spend some time with Ilyich and try to recover the goodness of a good life and of a good death. Someday I will face death. Someday my students will face it as well. Will we do so in a world detached from reality or attached to it? A culture that dispatches the burdensome or bears their burdens? A culture that offers care or that offers death? The euthanasia of Ilyich would have made impossible his eu thanatos. Our society’s growing practice of euthanasia may well prove to be the denial not only of our good deaths but also of the only real thing, a good life.

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Resisting the march of euthanasia will require numerous approaches. I hope this reflection on the good death of Ivan Ilyich contributes in some small way. https://t.co/wOO6VTKdnF

— Terence Sweeney (@TerenceJSweeney) February 19, 2025

Donald Trump’s demand for a $500bn (£400bn) “payback” from Ukraine goes far beyond US control over the country’s critical minerals. It covers everything from ports and infrastructure to oil and gas, and the larger resource base of the country.

The terms of the contract that landed at Volodymyr Zelensky’s office a week ago amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity. It implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved. The document has caused consternation and panic in Kyiv.

The Telegraph has obtained a draft of the pre-decisional contract, marked “Privileged & Confidential’ and dated Feb 7 2025. It states that the US and Ukraine should form a joint investment fund to ensure that “hostile parties to the conflict do not benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine”.

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Revealed: Trump’s confidential plan to put Ukraine in a stranglehold

Panic in Kyiv as US president demands higher share of GDP than Germany’s First World War reparations.https://t.co/3rFDHydtCd

— Ruchir Sharma (@ruchirsharma_1) February 18, 2025

Ukraine sent its largest-ever delegation to Washington, DC, last week to rally support for more military defense and plead with Donald Trump not to pull the plug and make a deal that favors Russia. Pastors and religious leaders in the delegation fear that time is running out. 

“We know that President Trump is working on the new negotiations to help bring this war to an end,” said Igor Bandura, vice president of the Baptist Union of Ukraine. “We are here to pray, to advocate, to share our experience, and to remind the American people and American politicians that we are looking not just to end the war, but we need a just peace.”

American conservative and evangelical support for Ukraine has waned as the war has gone on and the Republican Party under Trump has grown increasingly skeptical of international alliances. Past efforts to shore up support for Ukraine among Republicans have yielded results, though, so the delegation remained hopeful, despite deep concerns.

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Ukrainian Christians are pleading with the Trump administration not to pull the plug on support and make a deal that favors Russia.

“We are looking not just to end the war, but we need a just peace.”https://t.co/wQ0WrrLZGI

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) February 13, 2025

O God of Love, thou didst deliver servant Josephine Margaret Bakhita from the bondage of slavery to serve you in true freedom; by her example help us to see those enslaved among us, and work to release them from their chains. In your mercy, give to all survivors healing from their wounds and joy in their liberation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"Seeing the sun, the moon and the stars, I said to myself, 'Who could be the Master of these beautiful things?'" Saint Josephine Bakhita (1869 – 1947). More: https://t.co/WWzvuOO3sW pic.twitter.com/qVR9QNI4mA

— Bishop Earl Boyea (@BishopBoyea) February 8, 2025

Rudenstrand, who is deputy general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, explained that “Örebro is a church-dense city”, and that it is encouraging to see that “many churches have opened for counseling and prayer. This is our task as the Body of Christ: to weep with, mourn with, and comfort those who suffer”.

“My prayer is that both those who were wounded and those who have lost loved ones will find comfort and strength during this difficult time”, he added. “That Jesus will make his presence felt to those who are grieving, especially those who have lost family members”. 

Asked what the attacker’s motives might be, Jacob Rudenstrand remarked that police have found no evidence of an ideological motivation for the attack so far. But “even if an investigation may provide some answers, many questions will not be satisfied”, he said.

In a time in which Sweden has “experienced a sharp increase in bombings in recent years, mainly related to conflicts between warring criminal gangs, this will leave a mark for a long time. Now is a time for mourning”.

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Kommenterar attacken på min gamla gymnasieskola i @Evan_Focus:
”My prayer is that both those who were wounded and those who have lost loved ones will find comfort and strength during this difficult time.” https://t.co/f2zXwDOYY8

— Jacob Rudenstrand (@JRudenstrand) February 5, 2025

Almighty and everlasting God, who didst send thy servant Anskar as an apostle to the people of Scandinavia, and dist enable him to lay a firm foundation for their conversion, though he did not see the results of his labors: Keep thy Church from discouragement in the day of small things, knowing that when thou hast begun a good work thou wilt bring it to a faithful conclusion; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Anskar, also known as Ansgar, which means “God's Spear,” is known as the Apostle to the Scandinavians and as the Apostle of the North. Anskar was the first Archbishop of Bremen and is the patron saint of Denmark. He died Feb. 3, 865. pic.twitter.com/9h8KuQy3kD

— Saint Barnabas Anglican Church (@Barnabas_FW) February 3, 2025

A key determinant of becoming a global leader in AI is the ability to build an efficient, sustainable and resilient infrastructure that ensures energy is available, reliable and constant. The state of national power grids in China, the EU, and the US remains a significant barrier. China’s creaking grid represents a major constraint to progress and the government is planning to invest more than US$800bn over the next six years. The investment will support Beijing’s Eastern Data, Western Computing initiative, which aims to tap into China’s energy resources in the west and transfer computing power to economic hubs along the coast.

The European power grid is one of the oldest in the world. Moreover, around 40% of the grid is around ten years off its expected lifespan, while over half of the physical grid needs to be repaired or replaced. It remains uncertain whether the estimated US$584bn in European grid investments needed this decade will materialise. In 2024, the EU’s Modernisation Fund handed out almost US$3bn to modernise member states’ energy systems, amongst other activities.

The ageing and fragmented US grid comprises three main regions (Western, Eastern and Texas), which remain inefficient, especially for interconnections between regions. The US Department of Energy (DoE) estimates that power outages cost the US economy US$150bn annually. Modernising the US grid will cost trillions over the coming decades.

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Building AI infrastructure is only one part of the story, as sovereign AI capabilities may prove more decisive.

Read the latest analysis by Charlie Edwards: https://t.co/5y4Hb1bd1o pic.twitter.com/HWb7vskEoL

— IISS News (@IISS_org) January 31, 2025

Sailing off the south coast of England, the Russian trawler known as the Yantar carried its usual array of hi-tech equipment.

In photographs released by the Ministry of Defence, a large radar dome can be seen behind two masts bristling with antennae.

Officially, these allow the 108 metre-long craft to monitor ocean currents, befitting a vessel the Kremlin maintains is part of its oceanographic research fleet.

But it was the ship’s more nefarious purposes that prompted a rare display of British naval power on Jan 20, when the Yantar was confronted by a British warship, HMS Somerset, and patrol vessel HMS Tyne.

Humdrum though it may appear, the Yantar is known to carry two submersibles that can dive down up to 6,000 metres, allowing their crew to map, monitor and potentially sever the undersea cables that transmit data around the world.

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"It's Moscow's usual deep-sea games again"- Huh? Nothing routine about a spy ship lurking near critical infrastructure. This just proves how vulnerable undersea cables really are in modern warfare. #spyship #Russia #UnderseaCables #UKDefense #Geopoliticshttps://t.co/VzwwMSpqVy pic.twitter.com/k0EjAdaAuJ

— Robert Morton (@Robert4787) January 29, 2025