A surprisingly difficult question for a successful adult is this: who are you when nobody needs you? Imagine Helen. For twenty years she has been a wife, mother, manager, organiser,…
There is a kind of peace that isn’t peace at all. Imagine a small community where everyone is determined to be nice. Nobody raises difficult subjects. Nobody challenges the person…
What if your purpose isn’t a hidden destination that you’re supposed to discover? Imagine David scrolling through social media. One person has founded a charity. Another has built a successful…
At what age are you supposed to finally become the person you intended to be? Forty? Fifty? Sixty? Imagine Anne looking back over her life. There are things she’s proud…
In March 2019 Italy became the only G7 country to sign up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. In December 2023 it withdrew. Nothing dramatic happened in between. There was…
In March 2025, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, found himself added to a group chat. It was on Signal. The other members included the US national security adviser,…
When gang violence overwhelmed Haiti, the international response was to ask for a volunteer. Kenya stepped forward. In October 2023 the UN Security Council authorised a Kenya-led Multinational Security Support…
On 4 December 2025, the presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda signed a peace accord in Washington. President Trump called it “a great day for Africa, great…
Most atrocities are described afterwards as things nobody saw coming. El Fasher can’t be described that way. The city in Sudan’s Darfur region was besieged by the Rapid Support Forces…
In April 2022, the Metropolitan Police did something no force had done to a serving British prime minister before: they fined him. Boris Johnson had broken the lockdown rules his…
