Geopolitics and Security
International affairs, wars, militaries, intelligence, and diplomacy, including Israel's wars and external security.
#5727: Do We Still Need This Memorial?
Three years after October 7, a quiet question — "do we still need this?" — collides with shame, stigma, and a coming election.
#5726: Vetting Pilots: The Flydubai 1073 Questions
A crash-axe attack over Israel raises five hard questions about who actually vets flight crews — and whether route-specific screening can work.
#5715: No Phone, No Panic: Safety Without Surveillance
A parent takes a kid out for hours, phone-free. When does check-in become care, and when does it become control?
#5713: Who Rescues You at the Ends of the Earth?
The Arctic has a binding rescue treaty. Antarctica has nothing. Here's who actually comes when you're stranded at the poles.
#5711: Ireland's Offshore Islands: Who Lives There Now?
Ireland's offshore islands were dying for a century. Then the 2022 census showed the first real uptick. Here's what changed.
#5710: Tristan da Cunha: Life on the World's Most Remote Island
222 people, one village, and a dialect that conjugates like a single person — what life is actually like on the world's most remote inhabited island.
#5708: The Islands Between Two Oceans
Fifteen obscure sub-Antarctic islands, the governments that run them, and the penguin who holds a noble title.
#5706: Two Poles, Two Fates: Arctic vs Antarctic
One pole is a militarized chessboard, the other a treaty-bound science preserve. Same frozen water — completely opposite outcomes.
#5698: What Happened to Iran's Nuclear Threat?
A war was launched over an imminent nuclear threat. Now the threat has vanished from the conversation — and "degraded" is doing all the work.
#5686: What Arab Israelis Actually Say About Identity
Same population, same year, wildly different numbers — why the Arab Israeli identity polling keeps contradicting itself.
#5685: East Jerusalem's Residency Trap: What 300,000 People Actually Want
A third of East Jerusalem's residents hold residency, not citizenship. What the polling says about identity surprises almost everyone.
#5671: Why Armies Still Fight With Paper Maps
Paper maps mean opposite things: prudence in Finland, a broken supply chain in Russia. Same artifact, opposite story.
#5669: Flydubai 1073: When the Threat Is in the Cockpit
A first officer stabbed his captain mid-flight. What happened next — and why aviation's security model has no answer for it.
#5662: Right of Reply: What the Rulebook Actually Says
The IDF's 10-page rebuttal to NAZA bundles a valid procedural complaint with an invalid one. Here's what journalism codes actually require.
#5659: The Ethics of Anonymous Testimony in Documentary
A new IDF response to a Venice-winning film raises a sharp question: what do documentarians owe when sources stay truly anonymous?
#5652: Ireland, Israel, and the Price of a Gesture
Black armbands, a bowed anthem, a handshake withheld — what the Ireland-Israel fixture reveals about protest without a price.
#5651: Nuclear Convoys: The Physics Package and the Highway
The most secretive objects on Earth move by truck on civilian highways — and people photograph them at rest stops.
#5649: Who Actually Controls Europe's B61 Bombs?
The US parks B61 bombs in six allied countries — but never hands over the keys. How nuclear sharing is engineered to not require trust.
#5647: Can Any Country Actually Go It Alone?
Ninety percent of rare earth processing runs through one country. So what happens when a nation tries to trade with nobody at all?
#5644: Scrambled Jets and the Hijack Code: What Really Happens
A 737 squawks 7500 over Saudi airspace and Israel scrambles fighters. What those jets can actually do — and why "escort" isn't the right word.