Geopolitics and Security
International affairs, wars, militaries, intelligence, and diplomacy, including Israel's wars and external security.
#5788: What Is a Consulate That Isn't a Consulate?
Israel says the consulate closed. Britain says the mission lives. Same building, same seven staff, one screwdriver.
#5752: Two Frances, One Protest: Reading the Same Streets Differently
A high school walkout over unfilled teaching posts became a national movement — and two completely incompatible stories about what it means.
#5747: Jamming Drones: The Physics of the Wearable Skylock Kit
How does a vest-sized jammer take on frequency-hopping drones? The inverse-square law, spread spectrum, and why jamming reaches farther than detect...
#5736: The UK's 14 Overseas Territories, From Pitcairn to Chagos
Fourteen territories, three Crown Dependencies, and one fight that won't end: why the Chagos Archipelago dispute keeps going.
#5731: Inside the FlyDubai Cockpit Axe Interrogation
A co-pilot, an axe, and a 14,000-foot dive. What actually happens in the interrogation room — and why the calm matters.
#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?