European voters are in the habit of treating the European Parliament elections every five years as inconsequential protest votes based on national issues not related to the EU. But if they vote for the far right, it will have major economic, environmental, and geopolitical consequences.

The rules say politics has no place in the Eurovision Song Contest. But for the past 20 years messages protesting Russia's actions have snuck in, and it may be impossible to keep them out of this week’s contest.

The rot of EU dysfunction has one origin: the European Council—the most powerful political institution in Europe unknown to most citizens. National governments like it that way, but democracy campaigners do not.

For the first time, the transatlantic alliance has lost a war. The trauma of that experience—and the sidelining of its European members—has big implications for NATO's future.