Germansplaining: The madness of King Ludwig
The eccentric monarch’s fantastical Bavarian castles, once dismissed as kitsch, have finally gained Unesco World Heritage status
Letter of the Week: Silencing protest won’t help Palestinians
Write to letters@thenewworld.co.uk to have your views voiced in the magazine
Sizzling while Rome burns
Extreme summer heat, driven by climate change, is putting off tourists and having a devastating effect on the Eternal City’s economy
How Merz talks his way up in the polls
The chancellor’s straight-talking has, unexpectedly, boosted his popularity
My struggle with Mein Kampf
The world of extremism has moved on during the past 100 years – but the core ideas of Hitler’s book have not gone away
Is Meloni now leaning to the left?
Like right wingers everywhere, the Italian government hates immigrants – it also can’t carry on without them. Which means only one thing
What would Rousseau think of Bezos’s wedding?
If Rousseau is right, it’s not just Venice and Bezos that are sinking. We all are
The ex-Nazis who got away with their past
A new book reveals the former Nazis at the heart of Das Kanzleramt, the chancellor’s office, the power hub of the young German democracy
The pride of Budapest
Using the LGBTQ+ community as a punchbag is an age-old trick for Orbán but this time, the prime minister miscalculated
Watching Pussy Riot in the city that defied Putin
The protest band got an ecstatic welcome in Dresden, the city where a young Vladimir Putin was stationed as KGB officer
Starmer risks blundering into disaster with ECHR reform
While trying to outflank the right, Labour risks relighting a highly flammable issue
Can Germany, finally, cut red tape?
Under Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz, laws were passed to this end. But, it never happened
Why Europe’s heart lost a swimming pool
Brussels, a city of 1.2 million, now has no open-air swimming facilities – just in time for summer
European integration, Balkan style
Like many European countries, Bulgaria is facing divisions about its future
Europe’s history is repeating itself
In the age of drone warfare, people in Ukraine are living a higher-tech version of the terror that struck suburban London
Why do the Brexit betrayed still believe in Farage?
Nine years on, Leave’s most enthusiastic voters have suffered the most. Yet they’re still backing the man who sold them the snake oil in the first place
Italy’s royals wave goodbye to the family silver – and the past
Italy’s blue bloods don’t have the money to maintain their historic properties – so they’re giving them away
The lessons of Greece’s summer of tears
Ten years on, the country’s treatment in the midst of financial crisis remains a stain on European democracy
What makes the Finns so happy?
Britain has tumbled down the wellbeing rankings – and now it is time to learn from the country at the top
This is what it means to be European
To be in Europe is to live without boundaries. The Irish have chosen that path, and their national identity has soared
A weak and feeble woman
Why did Queen Elizabeth I, in her famous speech at Tilbury in 1588, use two words with almost identical meanings to describe herself?
Luc Tuymans, the angry artist who went to church
The Belgian is – temporarily – replacing Tintoretto in one of the Venice’s sacred spaces. But first he wants to talk about Trump
Saint Phalle and Tinguely, the couple who taught art to explode
Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely turned machines and myths into joyful rebellion
When Europe fell for the New World’s seductive power
From the Pilgrims to Star Trek, every promised land ends up looking suspiciously like the one we left behind
Merz promised a migration crackdown. Can he deliver?
For now, the chancellor is sticking to policy – if only to keep the AfD in check
If we stay quiet, Trump might not notice us
John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, has a warning for Iceland: stay out of Trump’s line of sight
Merz can’t win with Trump. So why try?
Trump’s disdain for ‘Good old Germany’ is well known. Will the chancellor hold his own on his first official trip to the White House?
Visiting Spain – but in France
The charming town of Llivia, a Spanish exclave in France, thrives with Catalan investment, in sharp contrast to its forgotten French surroundings
Letters: Europe has a tech problem. Here’s how to fix it
The continent lacks tech giants due to fragmented capital markets – a true single market also needs fiscal union
Geert Wilders: the fall of an extremist
Hard right populists can get thrown out of power – just look at the Netherlands
The charlatans are clearly here to stay
Both Europe and America are being forced to face the populist right and they aren’t going to vanish all by themselves
Karol Nawrocki, Poland’s MAGA president
Yet another had right opportunist has exploited the opening in European politics that the left continues to ignore
The country desperate for EU membership
Unfortunately for Edi Rama, Albania’s prime minister, the country’s place in the EU will be secured not by optics, but by its democratic credentials and right now, those are being tested
Letters: Resounding silence greets Starmer’s reset
The new UK-EU deal has annoyed all the usual suspects, so Keir Starmer must be doing something right
Eating my way through Europe with the Eagles
Crystal Palace’s first-ever European campaign offers fans the opportunity of a gastronomic adventure too
Gerhard Schröder isn’t doing himself any favours
The 81-year-old former chancellor claimed it prevented him from attending a parliamentary inquiry in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern over his role in the Nord Stream 2 saga
Here’s how Orbán could be ousted
Don’t discount the role of Gergely Kovács, head of the Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party (MKKP), if Hungarians vote to remove Orbán from power next year
La Liga needs a Nou direction
As in the Scottish Premiership, Spain’s Primera División is dominated by the same two clubs every season. And it’s getting boring
In Kyiv, my app told me: You are about to be bombed
What it’s like to be in the centre of one of Putin’s airstrikes
The new Greek minister’s war on refugees
Makis Voridis, Greece’s new minister for migration and asylum, and his ultra-nationalist links are catastrophic for refugees
Am I welcome in Britain?
I’m one of those people who’s lived in more than one country and has now settled in the UK. Is that really so unreasonable?
The House of Hohenzollern, a dynasty fit for a Netflix drama
After 99 years, the German authorities and the Hohenzollern family have decided to bury the hatchet
Robert Fico goes to Moscow
Just like Putin, Slovakia’s prime minister is cultivating a carefully crafted image of strength
In Belgium, even the dogs protest against Trump
In Brussels, Americans are distancing themselves from Trump’s policies – and they’re taking their dogs with them
Romania’s narrow political escape
Nicușor Dan, the pro-European presidential candidate, emerged victorious in the most emotional and consequential election in Romania’s post-communist history
Letters: Labour needs to stop apeing Reform and start being positive
Following Farage means inching towards him as he inches further right – doing this has already left the Conservatives in ruins
Père-Lachaise: Where Paris goes to die
The cemetery, opened by Napoleon, was unpopular at first. But then the VIPs came – followed by the ghosts
Alastair Campbell’s Diary: The Pope vs JD Vance
Robert Prevost may have been born American, but his experience, views and values are as far from Trumpian as were his predecessor’s
Bertrand Russell: lessons from a pacifist prophet
Many secular philosophers have opposed war and particular wars, but Russell stands in a class apart
