For years, Venezuela sat in that strange place on our mental map: close enough to be “in the neighborhood,” but distant enough to be filed under later. We heard the headlines—sanctions, elections under a cloud, desperate migration, a state oil company held together with tape and political loyalty. And then we moved on. That routine… Read More »The Day Venezuela Stopped Being “Far Away”

On New Year’s Eve, we expect noise. We expect crowds. We even expect mild chaos, the kind that feels harmless because it comes with confetti. What we do not expect is an Alpine ski town waking up to body bags. In the early hours of January 1, 2026, a fire tore through Le Constellation, a… Read More »The Swiss Ski Bar Fire in Crans-Montana: When “Just a Sparkler” Isn’t

Skydiving has a funny habit. It takes a simple idea and adds a lot of moving parts. Step out of a plane. Fall for a while. Open a parachute. Land. Smile. Do it again. Then one day, a tiny thing catches. A handle. A flap. A line. A bad angle. And the whole “simple idea”… Read More »A Door at 15,000 Feet

Thailand dissolved its parliament on Friday and set the country on a fast track to a new election early next year—right as deadly fighting with Cambodia grinds on along a long-disputed border. The mechanics were formal and familiar. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul asked for dissolution. King Maha Vajiralongkorn approved it. The endorsement became effective when… Read More »Thailand Hit the “Reset” Button in the Middle of a Border War

Europe has a strange new export. It is not wine. It is not cars. It is not cheese. It is interest income. After more than three years of sanctions, about €210 billion in Russian central bank assets remain immobilized inside the EU, with a very large share sitting at Euroclear in Belgium. And now the… Read More »The Frozen Fortune and the Courtroom Thaw