ANGUS REID squirms at the spectacle of a bitter millennial on work experience in a gay sauna
Papal skulduggery
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by an account of the long history of Catholic Church’s involvement in espionage
SEEING EYE TO EYE: US President Meeting with Pope John Paul II during a visit to Vatican City, 1982
[Public Domain] 
PAUL BUHLE agrees that a grassroots movements for change in needed in the US, independent of electoral politics
MIKE COWLEY relishes an exhibition that reminds us, in the teeth of establishment pushback, that lasting change always begins in workplaces, communities and the street
ED RAMPELL is disappointed by the confusing results of embedding cameras amid a Ukranian platoon
KEVIN BRYAN reviews Soul 66, Suzy Thompson, and Butterfield Blues Band
With reservations, RON JACOBS recommends a deep dive into the nature, history, and mindset of US intelligence
Vatican Spies
Yvonnick Denoel, Hurst, £25
VATICAN SPIES reveals much about how the Catholic Church developed its own intelligence network, often with the help of other agencies such as the CIA, French and Italian security services.
The interactions with the mafia during World War II period at the behest of the US, and getting caught up with the Mob through various dodgy financial dealings, makes for a fascinating read.
The Catholic Church with its universal reach to 1.2 billion Catholics worldwide, connected by a network of parishes and dioceses, amounts to a spy master’s dream. On the face of it virtuous and God-serving, below the surface it is as ruthless and brutal as any other intelligence operation.
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PAUL DONOVAN relishes the spectacle of a 1950s detective in pursuit of a 500-year-old murder mystery
From Gaza protest bans to proscribing Palestine Action, political elites are showing a crisis of confidence as they abandon Roy Jenkins’s apologetic approach for Suella Braverman’s aggressive ‘hate march’ rhetoric, writes PAUL DONOVAN
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by a deep dive into contemporary social crises, that examines how they are manipulated by elites
PAUL DONOVAN applauds a timely play that explores the resonances of McCarthyite nationalism in today’s US
