STEALING PUSHKIN
There is a particular silence in Europe’s great reading rooms: the soft drag of felt on oak, the dry breath of paper, the little
BOILING THE PORCUPINE
For decades, discussions about Taiwan’s future have been dominated by the specter of invasion: amphibious landings, missile strikes, and regional escalation. Yet Beijing’s most effective path to control Taiwan may not run through the Taiwan Strait at all. It may instead unfold quietly, incrementally
BICYCLE
At its mechanical heart, the bicycle remains astonishingly efficient. In terms of energy conversion, it outperforms almost every other form of transport ever devised. A human on a bicycle can travel farther per unit of energy than any animal or machine of comparable scale. This is not marketing lang
NEW COLONIALISM
As global energy markets tighten, as China and Russia deepen their presence in Latin America, and as Europe quietly looks elsewhere for supply security, Venezuela becomes once again relevant. Not as a pariah, but as a prize. The strike, in this sense, is less about Caracas and more about Beijing and
KSA FUEL GAUGE
If you want to understand what’s happening in Saudi Arabia now, don’t start from the renderings. Start from the governance: The Kingdom is deciding what creates real economic gravity—jobs, skills, housing, logistics, repeatable tourism demand—and what remains an expensive monument to ambition. For y