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A Venetian Gothic facade adorned with banners for the 2026 Venice Biennale, in Venice, Italy, on Feb. 25, 2026.
Culture

What's on at the Venice Biennale? Russian soft power

by Kate Tsurkan

In the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the Russian pavilion is set to return to the Venice Art Biennale with a “musical festival come to life” that serves as “a space for dialogue and exchange.” The pavilion was effectively canceled in 2022 after the artists and curator chosen to represent Russia withdrew in protest of the invasion. At the time, the organizers of the Biennale released a statement praising the decision and condemning “all those who use violence to prevent

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As recently as this January and February, Russia was going through its worst fiscal period since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Oil and gas budget revenues had fallen by 50% year-on-year, and the deficit for the first two months reached $42 billion. The government was preparing to slash non-military spending by 10%. It seemed like sanctions were finally working. Then this happened: the United States struck Iran, and the Strait of Hormuz — through which one-fifth of the world'

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Passenger train following russian drone strike in Sumy Oblast, Ukraine, on March 14, 2026.

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Our reporting on literature, films, art, and traditions from Ukraine and the latest news on culture in Eastern Europe.

Ukrainian culture
Ukrainian culture has survived centuries of Russian attempts to appropriate Ukrainian art, silence Ukrainian artists, and erase the Ukrainian language. Modern Ukrainian writers, filmmakers, and musicians — some of whom are serving on the front lines — continue to develop Ukrainian culture and fight for Ukraine’s future.

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Ukraine used Storm Shadow to strike Russia's most irreplaceable weapons factory — and why it matters

An MBDA Storm Shadow/Scalp cruise missile on display at the Paris Air Show in Paris, France, on June 17, 2025.

As you read this, somewhere at a TSMC fab in Taiwan's Hsinchu a robot is moving a silicon wafer packed with transistors measuring 2 nanometers — 20 atoms in a row. Mass production of chips using the 2-nanometer process began in late 2025, and TSMC's entire 2026 capacity is already sold out — Apple, Qualcomm, NVIDIA, and AMD are all in line. Samsung has launched its own 2-nanometer Exynos 2600 processor. Intel is advancing its 18A node (1.8 nm). We are talking about the kind of density and effi

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