When Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, announced the creation of a new public body to combat disinformation, he likely believed he was offering a sensible, forward-looking solution to one of the most corrosive problems of modern democracy. According to the Hungarian Conservative, however, that announcement was immediately branded in the starkest terms imaginable: an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth.” The phrase lands like a cold stone in the stomach, because no matter how well-intentioned the plan might be, calling any government agency a “Ministry of Truth” summons a dystopian image of state-controlled reality, where official narratives are polished and…

Late-evening flights between Portugal and Ireland rarely make headlines. The Boeing 737 carrying passengers from Porto to Dublin on the night of Tuesday, 22 September was, by all appearances, behaving like any other short-haul Ryanair service. It departed Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport at 10.55pm, a mercifully late hour for travellers who hoped to sleep through the short crossing and land in Ireland ready for the day ahead. The aircraft climbed into the dark sky, heading north along the coast, and many of the passengers probably switched off their reading lights and closed their eyes. But somewhere over northern Portugal, just…