Traveling to Finland for Lessons on Happiness

The ferry ride from Helsinki’s city center to the island of Pihlajasaari takes only 10 minutes and deposits visitors at a playground of beaches, trails and rocky shoals excellent for sunbathing. But I had a different mission: to speak to a tree. This was meant to be a therapeutic exercise, one championed by the Finnish … Read more

As Tensions Escalate Between Trump and Europe, Meloni Is Caught in the Middle

Amid raucous questioning by opposition members in Italy’s Parliament this month, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni noted that she had been asked repeatedly: “Are you with Europe or with the United States?” The prime minister responded that she was always with Italy and by extension, Europe. “I don’t blindly follow Europe or the United States,” she … Read more

Monday Briefing – The New York Times

The secret history of the war in Ukraine After Russia’s armies crossed into Ukraine in 2022, two Ukrainian generals traveled in secret to a U.S. military garrison in Germany. There, they sealed a partnership that brought America into the war far more intimately than has previously been known. That deal, known only to a small … Read more