Notebooks

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Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan — for Xi, it’s personal

Xi Jinping's petulant reaction to Nancy Pelosi's visit seems likely only to encourage more international backing for Taiwan and reinforce demands for formal independence.

Michael Reilly August 5, 2022

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Total football — from catenaccio to gegenpressing it’s about openness to ideas

Footballing philosophies are central to the national mythologies of the cultures that produce them.

Josh Mcloughlin August 3, 2022

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Putin’s land war — cautionary lessons from Ancient Greece

Although his army was far larger and far better equipped than that of his opponents, the Persian King Xerxes' invasion of Greece was a disaster. Putin and other would be invaders o..

John Raine July 29, 2022

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The enemy within — the Russians filling Ukrainian homes

It’s a pattern repeated in every conflict — displaced people permanently lose their homes to occupiers. But statistics and ‘integration initiatives’ barely hint at the raw human st..

Elisabeth Braw July 27, 2022

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HIMARS permit Ukrainians to fight how they know best — a strategy of corrosion

American High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems are wreaking havoc on Russian forces in Ukraine but they are only one part of the battlefield's complicated tableau.

Mick Ryan July 21, 2022

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Why we don’t remember pandemics

While wars are endlessly memorialised in the West, the non-narrative and morally complex nature of a pandemic mean it is rare to come across a memorial to its victims, much less a ..

Mark Honigsbaum July 19, 2022

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George Orwell’s idea of technology

Orwell was no scientific illiterate, but his focus on the moral implications of surveillance society suggest a disinterest in the realities of technology.

D. J. Taylor July 15, 2022

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Bat-and-ball-games — an Italian obsession

Italy today is synonymous with football, but it wasn’t always so — historically, a great variety of bat-and-ball games enjoyed huge success throughout the peninsula — and created f..

Tobias Jones July 13, 2022

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The British have lost the art of eating out

Social changes mean there is no clear script in service industry scenarios.

Daisy Dunn July 8, 2022