Notebooks

Notebooks are snapshots from our writers, reflecting on current affairs and underappreciated aspects of culture and history.

Israeli first responders at a site of an Iranian ballistic missile strike in Haifa.

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Twelve days that shook the Middle East

In the wake of a sudden ceasefire brokered by Donald Trump, the brief but explosive conflict between Israel and Iran has left more questions than answers.

Ali Fathollah-Nejad July 3, 2025

Edvard Munch's painting of Friedrich Nietzsche.

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Nietzsche’s manifesto for reading

Nietzsche did not write for the distracted, the hurried, or the comfortable. He believed that a book should demand effort, provoke resistance, and leave a mark.

Ioannes Chountis de Fabbri July 2, 2025

Renaudin's print of the composer Erik Satie.

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Erik Satie, prophet of the aurally overloaded world

The composer Erik Satie would have understood our era of atrophied attention spans and mass-produced music.

Richard Bratby July 1, 2025

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The unravelling of the rock festival

Despite the peace signs and pat slogans of togetherness and diversity, the rock festival, like the genre it celebrates, has, from its beginnings, had issues with ethical consistenc..

Paul Lay July 1, 2025

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Russian President Vladimir Putin greet each other during their meeting in Tehran (July 2022). Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo.

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How Putin got the Middle East wrong

With Russia’s key partner in the Middle East on the ropes, the Kremlin runs the risk of being drawn into a broader conflict it cannot afford.

Sergey Radchenko July 1, 2025

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Russia’s reinvention of invasion literature

Russian 'Z' literature, a best-selling genre of fiction with storylines that inculcate young readers into the ideology of Putin’s regime, has its antecedents in the darker chapters..

Oliver Soden June 30, 2025

The steamer 'Caroline' drifting over Niagara Falls in 1837.

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The rights and wrongs of self-defence

International law on self-defence has a long history, dating back to the ‘Caroline affair’ of 1837. In a new age of conflict, states are testing the limits of pre-emptive action.

Suzanne Raine June 30, 2025