Geopolitics have long intruded on the Eurovision Song Contest. But they were not really a factor as the event prepared to expand into Asia for the first time. That was still true as of Saturday evening, as the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest Asia was about to start in Bangkok. Over the decades, Eurovision organizers have insisted that the contest is nonpolitical. Its organizers impose rules governing lyrics, political symbols and what can be broadcast. Even so, wars and diplomatic disputes have shaped who gets to sing, who stays home and…
Day: November 14, 2026
Yalta became a byword for betrayal. Will Trump, Xi and Putin enact another carve-up?
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is among those who have expressed concern that the world will witness a Yalta 2.0 moment if Donald Trump, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin meet trilaterally, as expected, on the sidelines of the Apec summit in China next week. It is a truism in diplomacy that if you are not around the table, the risk is that you, or your values, are on the menu and about to be carved up. Many excluded from the summit in Shenzhen, principally Ukraine but also eastern Europe and…