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Despite its name, the Palace of Parliament in the centre of Bucharest, Romania’s capital, is no monument to democracy. It was conceived in the 1980s by Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania’s late communist dictator, and built to match the size of his ego. It boasts 365,000 square metres of floor space, much of which stands unused and unheated (Buckingham Palace, in comparison, is downright cosy, spreading across only 77,000).

Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur

It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice

The answer matters more than you think

Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

On september21st Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, announced the calling-up of perhaps 300,000 military reservists to fight in hissputtering war against Ukraine. The 18m followers of thert(formerly known as Russia Today) Spanish-language Facebook page were left in no doubt as to why. Framing his invasion of Ukraine as a war for national survival, Mr Putin,rtreported, had declared that the goal of the West was to “divide and destroy” Russia.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Peddling Putin’s piffle”

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Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur

It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice

The answer matters more than you think

Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

Sixty yearsago the world was staring at a nuclear cataclysm. The Cuban missile crisis began in October 1962 when America detected Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. It blockaded the island, and debated invading it. The Soviets yielded, removing their nukes; America secretly removed nuclear-tipped missiles of its own from Turkey. Annihilation was averted.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Climbing the ladder”

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Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur

It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice

The answer matters more than you think

Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

Throngs descendedon the Jamsil Arena in Seoul, the South Korean capital, in July to see Super Junior, a band that exemplifies the “Korean Wave”. The crowd reflected the global reach ofk-pop. Melonie was visiting from Ecuador. When asked about her “bias”, the term fans use to discuss which band member is their favourite, she pulled her top aside to reveal a tattoo of the name of the group’s leader, Leeteuk, on her chest. Karen, from Peru, is doing a master’s degree in South Korea. She thinks she likes Super Junior even more than she likes Korea itself.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “How pop culture went multipolar”

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Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur

It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice

The answer matters more than you think

Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

Coca is ubiquitousin remote rural parts of Colombia. Farmers plant the hardy, high-altitude bush, harvest its foliage and sell it in bulk to the small local laboratories that have made the country into the world’s biggest producer of cocaine. The pickers, known asraspachines, are mostly poor migrants from Venezuela or elsewhere in Colombia. Their hands are often shredded and bloodied by their labour, which involves ripping the leaves off the stalk. But it pays more than cultivating most legal crops. And even being on the bottom rung of the drug business confers a certain glamour. “I’m theraspachin,” trills the singer on a jaunty hit from 2015 by Los Bacanes del Sur, a popular folk band. “And I get all the women.”

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “The war on drugs don’t work”

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Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur

It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice

The answer matters more than you think

Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

On October12thVladimir Putin, Russia’s president, gave an ominous warning. Energy infrastructure around the world was now “at risk”, he said. Mr Putin’s warning came a month after explosions tore through Nord Stream 1 and 2, a pair of gas pipelines running from Russia to Europe under the Baltic Sea. The pipes were not in use at the time. But the ruptures left plumes of methane bubbling to the surface for days.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Sabotage at sea”

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Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur

It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice

The answer matters more than you think

Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young

Earlier thisyear, Antônio Carlos Lombardi Peixoto went to his doctor complaining of fever and an endless cough. He thought it was something to do with his diabetes. Instead, he was told he had a disease he had never heard of: tuberculosis.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “A baleful legacy”

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Sweden is banning OnlyFans content as the lines around sex work blur

It is meekly welcoming the new sheriff’s vigilante justice

The answer matters more than you think

Donald Trump prefers deals to regime change

After decades of rising secularism, Christianity is holding its ground—and gaining among the young