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Covering the war in Ukraine on a regular basis over nearly four years now, I’ve found that the extent of the divisions between the west and Putin’s Russia have become increasingly evident. So it was fascinating to read this week about a recent visit by Matthew Alford, who researches politics and propaganda at the University of Bath, who travelled to Moscow to co-author an article with a Russian academic.
Here he found many people puzzled and saddened by their country’s break with the west, while encountering a degree of resentment from Muscovites tired of hearing western talking points that heaped the blame for the estrangement entirely on their country. “It seems all sides have become accustomed to the deathly chill of a new cold war,” Alford concludes.
Having just re-read the masterpiece that is Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, I have to admit shamefacedly that so enamoured have I become of the humanistic version of Thomas Cromwell she gives us that I simply can’t bring myself to watch him being executed in the BBC’s excellent TV adaptation of The MIrror and The Light. But we all love a show about the Tudors, and here’s your guide to five of the best, curated by a historian.
It’s fair to say most of us also love a good heist story. So I hazard that you’ll enjoy this piece about the psychology of the recent Louvre robbery and what it can tell us about shortcomings in the way we use AI.
Those of us who share their lives with dogs will know how sometimes their behaviour can seem downright perverse to human understanding. So it’s interesting that scientists are working with dogs to better understand how their idiosyncrasies reflect a degree of neurodivergence. It’s research that will also help us provide therapeutic support for neurodiversity in humans.
This week we also explored the unhealthy world of honey fraud, we looked into a plan to tax EVs by the mile, we worried that racism is once again becoming socially acceptable in the UK and about common habits that could be harming your pancreas.
As a cricket “tragic”, I’m looking forward to six or so weeks of interrupted sleep while the England men’s team contests the Ashes in Australia. Without wanting to tempt fate, here’s why the Aussies are worried about “Bazball”, England’s freewheeling and aggressive approach to the contest.
It’s going to be cold again this weekend. So why not curl up with the latest from our podcast series on Jane Austen, produced by our talented arts and culture team. This week’s episode looks at how Austen dealt with the issue of slavery in her novel Mansfield Park, taking us to the Liverpool docks, which were at the centre of the transatlantic trade.
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