“Can you think of a country that starts with the letter U?”

You’ve seen those “Are you smarter than a 5 year old” videos on Youtube (it’s an actual TV show) or marveled at the intelligence of Miss Teen South Carolina, now here’s the kids from a suburban high school in Washington State. We learn that “Somebody Bin Laden” is the Vice-President of the United States, that the US gained its independence in the Civil War, that Canada is actually a state in the US, that “South America is a country that borders the US.” Oh, and one student suggested Europe and Utopia are countries that start with a U.

Further Reading

Securing Nigeria

Nigeria’s insecurity cannot be solved by foreign airstrikes or a failing state, but by rebuilding democratic, community-rooted systems of collective self-defense.

Empire’s middlemen

From Portuguese Goa to colonial Kampala, Mahmood Mamdani’s latest book shows how India became an instrument of empire, and a scapegoat in its aftermath.

À qui s’adresse la CAN ?

Entre le coût du transport aérien, les régimes de visas, la culture télévisuelle et l’exclusion de classe, le problème de l’affluence à la CAN est structurel — et non le signe d’un manque de passion des supporters.

Lions in the rain

The 2025 AFCON final between Senegal and Morocco was a dramatic spectacle that tested the limits of the match and the crowd, until a defining moment held everything together.