The most culturally diverse men’s football World Cup in history is taking place in the United States at a time when foreign nationals feel less and less welcome in the country.

The 2026 competition kicks off on 11 June with games in Canada, Mexico, and the US. The US will host by far the largest number of matches, including the championship game. The 2026 cup is also hosting the largest number of competing teams in history – 48.

Over its near century-long history, the competition has remained the premier sporting event, attracting the largest number of travellers. Some spend huge sums of personal savings to be at the matches to cheer on their country and favourite teams.

Held every four years, the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) World Cup is a mega sporting event that serves as a large avenue for cultural meetings and exchanges.

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The 2022 World Cup in Qatar attracted 1.4 million visitors to a country of slightly over 2 million people. The number of travellers for the 2026 World Cup is expected to drop to 1.2 million due in part to the activities of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Still, the number remains significant.

As a professor of intercultural communication, with decades of research connecting culture to communication, I have found the World Cup of particular interest. The number of global travellers to the World Cup brings with it cultural communication exchanges that cannot be overstated.

Intercultural communication involves contact between people with differing beliefs, values and norms. Cultural communication theorists define such exchanges over a short period as the earliest stages of acculturation, called the honeymoon stage.

It is an important stage of cultural encounter that helps advance social comfort and learning. It eases anxiety in a different cultural environment. These encounters go beyond the stadiums that will host games. They include encounters in neighbourhood stores, transport systems, bars and hotels, among others. Even for those watching remotely.

Matches on the field have the power to rise above the politics of the day and bring cultural unity.

Football and cultural exchange

Cultural encounters at previous World Cups have led to the spread of fan culture across the world. Think of the spread of the stadium wave or use of the vuvuzela, a coloured plastic horn.

The wave involves sections of fans in a stadium standing up by turns. This provides a spectacle that is believed to have spread to most of the world after magnificent wave scenes at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

At the 2010 World Cup, a South African fan tradition of blowing the vuvuzela spread to the rest of the world. There were vigorous attempts to clamp down on it because it was so noisy. But a few fans have kept the tradition alive.

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Cultural exchange remains a critical aspect of a World Cup. The 2026 event will be no different. While most media reports focus on the vivid exchanges like the wave and vuvuzela, there are others that happen at the interpersonal and small group levels. Those exchanges can be just as long lasting. They include friendships, cultural learning, and the countering of cultural loathing and stereotyping.

How will that work in the US?

The US is a strong location for such cultural exchange. The country has historically accepted the largest number of migrants in the world and the resulting interactions have led to indelible cultural impact over generations. There is, for instance, a large Asian population in the north-west parts of the country and a large Mexican population in the south.

Yet, in 2026, the US has created an unwelcome situation for potential travellers. ICE raids on suspected migrant populations have dominated the news for months. This has an impact on numbers.

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Hotel bookings are far below expectation in 11 US host cities. One report claims there is a booking pace “below expectations, trailing even a typical June or July without any major events”. Human Rights Watch has urged Fifa to pressure the US government to establish an “ICE Truce” during the competition.

An expensive trip

Fans hoping to attend the World Cup are also reportedly concerned about ticket and transport prices. Recently, Fifa’s marketplace, which serves as a resale platform, advertised “four tickets to the final at a cost of $2.3 million each”. While Fifa does not control pricing on its resale site, it takes 15% of the purchase fee from the buyer and 15% from the seller. This means Fifa would make US$690,000 if just one of the tickets sold at that price. It’s a staggering sum for a football match.

Fifa president Gianni Infantino defended the high cost of tickets by claiming it was the cost of doing business in the US market. Yet, such prices are nearly five times higher than the last World Cup in Qatar.

The New Jersey transport system eventually set train roundtrip transport at US$105 after a public outcry after an initial plan to increase the fare to US$150. The fare normally costs US$18.

The high costs and hyper immigration control associated with attending the World Cup in the US are likely responsible for the dampened hotel bookings.

Global broadcasts

There are even concerns with global broadcasts of games. China and India, the two most populated countries in the World Cup, may not often reach the final stages, but they are avid viewers of the games. Neither has access as Fifa has yet to reach TV and digital coverage agreements with providers in those countries. At the 2022 World Cup, the two countries reportedly accounted for 22.6% of total global TV reach. China alone accounted for 49.8% of viewing hours on digital and social platforms. The dispute involves the huge sums Fifa is asking for broadcast rights.

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There are cultural exchanges that the World Cup provides even for those who watch from home in different parts of the world. While not as powerful as cultural learning through in-person contacts, there are still opportunities to learn, depending on the focus of the media coverage.

The men’s World Cup, which celebrates 100 years in 2030 and is co-hosted by an African country (Morocco), remains a key event in fostering cultural understanding and exchange. While the 2026 World Cup will do this, it has also brought to the fore the event’s ability to create division.

Chuka Onwumechili does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The World Bank made history in 1994 by creating the Inspection Panel, the first independent accountability mechanism at any international organisation. Its function is to investigate complaints from communities who allege they were harmed because the bank failed to comply with its own policies and procedures.

By establishing the three-member Inspection Panel, the World Bank showed support for a democratic vision of international governance based on the rule of law and the rights of individuals to take part in development decisions that affect their lives.

To date, the panel has received 186 complaints. Fifty-two have been from Africa. They involved projects in 56 countries, including 26 African countries. The complaints have raised issues such as the World Bank’s failure to comply with its own policies regarding public consultations, environmental and social impact assessments and involuntary resettlement in the projects that it funds.

The board has expanded the bank’s accountability process to include both compliance reviews and dispute resolution processes. Today, the World Bank Group has three independent accountability mechanisms:

• the Inspection Panel, which focuses on compliance reviews in public sector projects

• a separate dispute resolution mechanism for public sector projects

• the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, which offers both compliance reviews and dispute resolution services for private sector projects, primarily funded by the International Finance Corporation.

These accountability mechanisms have operated with mixed success. There have been some wins, for example in a case in Uganda involving risks for women and children associated with the building of a road. And some failures. An example is the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman finding against the International Finance Corporation for noncompliance in a coal fired power plant in India that was ignored.

We were involved, as legal academics and working with civil society organisations, in the establishment of the Inspection Panel. We have been following the activities of these independent accountability mechanisms for over 30 years. We are concerned about their future.

The World Bank Group is seeking to become a “bigger and better” bank. This involves promoting more collaboration between the five entities that make up the group. It is doing so under the banner of “One WBG”. This is an important development because the World Bank is the only global multilateral development bank. It offers developing countries both financial and advisory services. For example, it is the biggest funder of development projects in Africa.

The increasing collaboration between the different institutions in the bank raises concerns about which of their policies are applicable to a particular project. It also raises the issue of whether the bank should integrate the group’s independent accountability mechanisms so that there is no question about which mechanism is applicable to the project.

We believe that resolving this issue offers the bank’s board an opportunity to improve the structure of its independent accountability mechanisms and their contribution to the bank’s operations.

The dangers

The board appointed a two-person task force in September 2025 to advise it on the feasibility of integrating the three organisations in a way that does not reduce their independence, accessibility and effectiveness. The task force prepared a thorough and well-reasoned draft report.

The report was finalised after public consultations and is being considered by the board. It shows that integration of the mechanisms is a feasible, but complex exercise. The existing mechanisms have different operating cultures, policies and practices and human resource needs. The report describes various models for integrating the existing mechanisms.

The report also demonstrates that if mishandled, the exercise could result in a less independent and less effective accountability mechanism. To avoid this risk, we propose that the board adopt a model consisting of two separate independent accountability mechanisms. One to cover compliance reviews across the entire group. The other to cover dispute resolution across the group. This will enable both functions to operate independently and efficiently.

Our proposal raises four issues.

First, it is important that each mechanism is independent of the bank’s management. Each mechanism must have sufficient resources to undertake effective compliance reviews or dispute resolutions. Their processes must also be robust enough to result in meaningful outcomes for the complainants.

Second, the new compliance mechanism must retain a three-member panel appointed by and reporting to the bank’s board. The panel should have a permanent chair serving a six-year term. The chair must have the authority to decide which cases need the panel’s attention. The other two panel members should also serve staggered six-year terms.

A three-person panel allows for some geographic, technical and experiential diversity. Gaining a consensus among the panel members improves the quality and increases the credibility of the panel reports. A three-member panel is better able to withstand pressure from the bank’s management and other stakeholders than is a mechanism headed by one person.

Third, the dispute resolution mechanism should be headed by an experienced dispute resolution professional at the vice-president level. This official should report to the president of the bank. Our view is that this arrangement could encourage the institution to play a more proactive role in resolving disputes.

To ensure that the unit has some independence it should also have regularly scheduled meetings with the board. The head of the unit should also be able to request a meeting with the board whenever they deem it necessary and without requiring the prior approval of the bank’s president.

Fourth, the process of consolidating accountability mechanisms will be complex. Consequently, the board should first decide on the basic structure: a compliance review unit headed by a three-member panel and a separate dispute resolution unit headed by a senior professional.

It should delay any decisions on the policies, principles and practices of the mechanisms until it receives advice from a multi-stakeholder working group that includes external stakeholders and management and is co-chaired by one person from each of the units being merged.

An opportunity to fix things

The bank has the opportunity to strengthen its development mission. The changes it makes should be designed to:

• help make the bank a better institution that supports higher quality projects

• make the bank a learning institution that openly accepts criticism and looks to implement solutions

• ensure it becomes an institution that recognises that people affected by bank-funded projects are stakeholders in its operations who may be forced to risk their well-being for the greater good.

Danny Bradlow, in addition to his position at the University of Pretoria, is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Global Development Policy Center, Boston University.

David Hunter has previously received grants of up to $100,000 per year from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, an independent US foundation that supports groups that work on sustainable finance). He serves on the Board of Directors of Accountability Counsel, a non-profit advocacy group in the United States that supports affected communities in bringing claims to accountability mechanisms, like the World Bank Groups' Inspection Panel and CAO.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is taking an unusual step to secure its critical minerals. It plans to create a new paramilitary unit to protect mining sites and transport routes, backed by funding and support from the United States (US) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In the past, mining companies contracted private security companies to protect their assets and infrastructure. For instance, in 2020, Frontier Services Group Congo signed an agreement with a Chinese mining firm, Sicomines, to provide security services for its mining operations.

But the scale and geopolitical significance of mineral security in the DRC has changed significantly. The country hosts substantial deposits of critical minerals, including cobalt, copper and other resources, that are used in electric vehicles, renewable energy systems and modern technologies. As global demand for these resources rises, control over their extraction, transport and trade is becoming increasingly strategic.

The proposed unit (mining guards) is expected to oversee major mining areas across the country. Around 20,000 personnel could be deployed by 2028 across the mining provinces under the supervision of the General Inspectorate of Mines. The overall goal is to reduce smuggling, replace corrupt security forces, and improve transparency and the traceability of minerals. The initiative also aims to limit the influence of armed groups, which have long been active in parts of eastern DRC and are often linked to illegal mining and the trade of minerals. Increasing insecurities in eastern DRC drive mining investors away.

In principle, this could help address long-standing concerns about illegal trade and weak control over mining activities. For international partners, this could create conditions that make it easier to invest in the DRC’s mining sector while meeting growing expectations around responsible sourcing.

However, improving resource governance in the DRC will require more than a single intervention. We are researchers interested in resource governance, and have recently published a paper that examines the environmental, social and governance landscape of the DRC. The aim of the research was to assess whether current governance practices enable participation in regulated, high-value minerals markets.

We conclude from our findings that the DRC’s 2018 Mining Code expanded state participation and strengthened environmental and social obligations. But enforcement remains weak, transparency is partial, and community consent mechanisms are procedural rather than rights-based. Without these issues being addressed, security measures alone are insufficient to resolve resource-governance challenges in the DRC.

Why DRC is at the centre of global competition

The DRC holds a unique position in the global economy. It produces almost three-quarters of global cobalt output and also contains substantial deposits of gold, tantalum, tin, copper and tungsten. This has made the country a focal point for international competition.

Chinese companies currently dominate much of the DRC’s mining sector, particularly cobalt production. The US and the European Union are seeking to secure more reliable access to these resources and reduce dependence on existing supply chains.

Recent partnerships between the US and the DRC aim to support regional supply chains for electric vehicle batteries and to invest in transport and processing infrastructure. The proposed mining guard can be seen as part of this broader effort to strengthen control over the sourcing and governance of these minerals.

National security forces have been deployed in mining areas before

Using national security forces to protect mining operations is not new in the DRC. For decades, the DRC’s state security forces, including the national army, the Republican Guard and military-aligned police units, have been deployed around mining sites, transport corridors and mineral-rich territories. But this approach has had mixed results.

In some cases, security forces have been linked to illegal mining, informal taxation of artisanal miners and abuses against local communities. Rather than solving governance problems, their involvement has sometimes reinforced them, raising concerns about this new mining guard.

The deeper governance problem

Our research shows that laws already exist to regulate mining, protect the environment and support local communities. The difficulty lies in enforcement. Illegal mining, smuggling and corruption remain widespread. Oversight institutions often lack the resources and independence needed to monitor activities effectively.

As a result, it is often difficult to trace where minerals come from or the conditions under which they are produced. This is becoming a growing concern for global companies under pressure to show that their supply chains are responsible. International frameworks, such as those developed by the OECD, require companies to assess risks in their mineral supply chains. This increases the importance of reliable systems for monitoring and verification.

What should change

We argue that strengthening security alone is unlikely to resolve these issues; more fundamental changes are needed.

For instance, companies need to be held legally accountable for environmental damage. Local communities need enforceable rights, including a real say in decisions that affect their land. Payments and contracts must be transparent and open to scrutiny. Crucially, mining projects should proceed only where there is clear evidence that environmental and social standards can be met and enforced. In many parts of the DRC, the absence of such governance and accountability mechanisms has contributed to conditions that enable insecurity, illicit mineral trade and the persistence of armed group activity.

The new mining guard reflects a broader shift in the governance of mineral supply chains. It shows that access to resources is no longer solely about geology or production capacity.

Trust is becoming just as important. The DRC’s minerals will remain essential to the global energy transition. But the country’s long-term position in these supply chains will depend on whether it can demonstrate that its resources are managed in a way that is credible, transparent and accountable.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Across many cities and towns in South Africa, turning on a tap no longer guarantees water. Instead, trucks – known as water tankers – arrive to deliver water to communities facing shortages.

Water tankers have shifted from being an emergency stopgap to a routine feature of water provision by municipalities. In many communities, especially informal settlements and areas affected by repeated outages, residents now depend on trucks to deliver water for months at a time.

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This reliance has grown over more than 10 years as ageing pipes, leaking networks, failed pumps, power cuts and poor maintenance have made supply increasingly unreliable.

Water tankering has also become a lucrative municipal business. Johannesburg Water, an entity owned by the City of Johannesburg, reportedly spent R130.5 million (US$8 million) on tankers in the 2024/25 financial year. Although this is only about 0.16% of Johannesburg’s combined R83.1 billion operating and capital budget for 2024/25, it is a large recurring outlay for what is meant to be an emergency service. It is also about 1.8% of the city’s R7.4 billion capital budget, money that could otherwise support longer-term infrastructure investment.

In Johannesburg, the tankers are largely supplied through private contractors appointed by Johannesburg Water. They deliver water from Johannesburg Water’s own supply.

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The water tanker contracts have also attracted controversy: a R263 million (about US$16 million) Johannesburg Water contract for 70 water tankers was declared invalid and set aside by the Gauteng High Court in December 2025 because of irregularities in the tender process.

South Africa’s growing reliance on water tankers reflects a deepening collapse in municipal water systems. A 2023 government report found that 46% of water supply systems in the country had poor or bad microbiological water quality, compared with only 5% in 2014.

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Water lost through leaks, faulty meters, illegal connections, poor billing or uncollected revenue rose from 37% in 2014 to 47% in 2023. This is far above the international average of about 30%.

By 2025, 47% of audited wastewater treatment systems were in a critical state, up from 39% in the previous assessment. Water systems rated excellent or good fell from 14% to 8%.

Together, these reports point to a long-running deterioration in municipal capacity: infrastructure is ageing, maintenance budgets are inadequate, skilled staff are in short supply, and many municipalities are losing treated water faster than they can reliably deliver it.

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As a researcher working in public governance and service delivery, I conducted a study aimed at understanding what happens when a temporary water solution becomes permanent. I wanted to find out how this shapes the lives of people forced to collect their only water supply in buckets from tankers over long periods.

My research explored how tanker-based water provision affects fairness, environmental sustainability, and trust in government in the eThekwini Municipality (formerly known as Durban), a coastal city in South Africa.

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The findings reveal a troubling pattern. Marginalised communities, particularly those in informal settlements or peri-urban areas, receive irregular and unreliable water deliveries. Some wait hours or even days for water, while others have more consistent access.

The key findings of my research are that water tankering:

• delays real solutions to water shortages

• is the result of top-down decisions that communities haven’t been part of

• has a negative impact on the environment

• makes inequality much worse.

The challenges seen in eThekwini are not unique. Cities around the world are facing similar pressures from climate change, urbanisation and ageing infrastructure. Relying on short-term fixes like tankering is becoming more common. But understanding its consequences is critical for avoiding larger crises in the future.

On the ground

I spoke directly to people affected by water shortages and those responsible for managing supply: municipal officials, engineers, community leaders, activists and residents living in water-scarce areas. My aim was to record real life stories about how people receive water, how they perceive the system and what challenges they face.

The problems identified included:

• delays in real solutions to water shortages. Instead of investing in infrastructure like pipes, reservoirs and treatment plants, municipalities are relying on tankers as a stopgap. Over time, this delays tackling the root causes. As one participant described, tankering becomes a “Band-Aid” rather than a cure.

• a lack of community involvement. Decisions about water distribution are often made without input from those most affected, leading to mistrust, frustration and a sense of exclusion. When people feel they have no voice in how water is managed, it undermines both governance and social cohesion, as one person I interviewed told me:

I advocate for community-driven solutions such as rainwater harvesting systems or decentralised water treatment facilities. These approaches empower communities to manage their water resources sustainably and reduce dependence on external interventions like water tankering.

• environmental impact. The tankers use diesel, which causes carbon emissions and pollution. Extracting and transporting water at scale can strain natural resources, especially in already water-stressed regions. As another person I interviewed said:

It’s not a sustainable solution for ensuring water security. It’s costly, energy-intensive, and can have negative environmental impacts.

• inequality. Water is essential to life, health and dignity. When access to water is unequal, it affects everything from education and employment to public health. Children in water-scarce households may miss school. Families may spend hours collecting water instead of working. Poor water quality can lead to disease. These are not isolated issues. A community member told me that getting water from tankers instead of from the tap is frustrating and demoralising:

We feel like second-class citizens, constantly at the mercy of erratic delivery schedules and uncertain water quality. Ethically, we deserve access to reliable, clean water just like any other community. The current situation undermines our dignity and perpetuates a cycle of poverty and dependence.

What needs to happen next?

First, governments must shift from reactive to proactive solutions. This means investing in long-term water infrastructure rather than relying on emergency measures. Pipes, treatment plants and storage systems may require large upfront costs, but they provide sustainable and equitable access to water over time.

Second, governance must improve. Transparency, accountability and anti-corruption measures are essential to ensure that resources are used effectively. Public funds spent on repeated tanker contracts could often be better invested in permanent systems.

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Third, communities must be included in decision-making. Local knowledge and participation can lead to more effective and context-specific solutions, such as rainwater harvesting or decentralised water systems. When people are involved, they are more likely to trust and support water management strategies.

Finally, policymakers need to treat water access as a matter of justice, not just logistics. This means recognising water as a basic human right and ensuring that policies prioritise the most vulnerable populations.

Nyashadzashe Chiwawa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Keir Starmer is the United Kingdom’s sixth prime minster in the past ten years. For a country that likes to think of itself as the birthplace of modern democracy and a model of stability in a turbulent world, this is not a good look.

It’s also a painful reminder that democratic politics everywhere is becoming increasingly febrile.

Much of the chaos that has characterised contemporary British politics has been self-inflicted. The self-promoting Conservative prime ministers who preceded Starmer – Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – were clearly part of the problem. But others have made catastrophic errors of judgement, too. David Cameron’s decision to have a referendum about leaving the European Union is an egregious case in point.

Understandably enough, this revolving door of prime ministers led to a desire for stability and predictability. This culminated in the Labour Party’s thumping election win in 2024 under Starmer. He promised to restore public confidence in politics through a process of calm and careful rebuilding.

Starmer’s failures and missteps

It hasn’t quite worked out that way. On the contrary, Starmer has been criticised for being too cautious and unwilling to make the sort of bold decisions that are seen as necessary to address some of Britain’s underlying problems.

He has also been tagged with the unfortunate nickname “Never Here Keir” for the perception he spends more time with his international counterparts than he does focusing on domestic issues.

Some of these are familiar to residents in democracies around the world: cost-of-living pressures, unaffordable housing, unhappiness with public services, and a failure to spell out – much less follow through on – a progressive social agenda that one might expect from a supposedly left-of-centre political party.

Specific to the UK, Starmer has also been criticised for:

• a failure to deliver on pledges to abolish tuition fees for students

• a decision to restrict eligibility for the winter fuel payment for pensioners (which he has since walked back)

• and announcing cuts to welfare benefits, which he was also forced to abandon after a rebellion in his own party.

Potholes, too, have become symbolic of Starmer’s inability to fix even the simplest of problems. This is the kind of issue guaranteed to induce anger among middle-of-the-road voters. After spending the past few weeks driving around Britain, I can understand their frustration.

All this helps explain why so many Labour voters deserted the party in the recent local elections.

Lacking courage and failing to connect

But it’s not just the UK. Centrist governments everywhere are struggling to convince voters they have the vision or courage to address the parochial issues that generally resonate with the public.

Like Starmer, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz both suffer from a charisma deficit – and are facing challenges from surging far-right parties. This is partially because they have tried to occupy the middle ground – it leads to underwhelming policy agendas that are nevertheless criticised on both sides of the political spectrum.

At least Merz has had the courage to criticise the increasingly destabilising actions of US President Donald Trump, for all the good it has done him.

Yet, as France’s Emmanuel Macron reminds us, there are few votes in foreign policy. Macron is struggling in the polls too. His international prominence has contributed to a perception of arrogance and a failure to understand – much less address – domestic issues.

As Starmer has discovered in the UK, defenestration remains a real danger for leaders in an era when political convulsions are increasingly commonplace.

This may be one area in which Britain really is a world leader. The beneficiary of this recent political chaos is the far-right Reform UK Party, led by Nigel Farage. Despite the allegations of racism and incompetence that have been levelled at him and his party, there is a real chance Farage could become Britain’s next prime minster in the 2029 general elections.

Where does the UK go from here?

Before this can happen, though, Labour will likely change leaders in an effort to revive its popularity. The main contenders are circling, hoping Starmer will obligingly step aside. Regicide has its downsides, after all.

Whoever emerges from the leadership saga, the expectations of voters in the UK – like those elsewhere – may simply have become too great, too complex and too contradictory for any leader to adequately satisfy them.

A real test of this thesis will be provided by the popular Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, who is busily engineering a return to parliament. If he can defeat Reform in the necessary byelection, that will likely cement his place as Starmer’s successor.

And yet, he may face the same political headwinds from a cynical electorate. Polarisation is now endemic in the West, and democracy is no longer seen by many disillusioned young people as the political gold standard.

No wonder young people are increasingly despairing about their futures. Not even filling in all those potholes is likely to change that in Britain.

Mark Beeson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Diplomacy often masquerades as theater. And nearly nine years after his first state visit to China, Donald Trump returned to Beijing with an extended cast of characters.

Alongside the U.S. president on his May 2026 visit was a senior delegation of politicians including his secretary of defense, and a phalanx of business leaders and technology executives. It was a traveling display of American political and corporate power.

Not that the hosting Chinese were short of symbolic gestures themselves. Trump’s first China visit in 2017 had already shown how far Beijing was willing to go to turn diplomacy into theater. On that occasion, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan personally accompanied Donald and Melania Trump through the Forbidden City, Beijing’s former imperial palace, drinking tea inside the palace walls and taking in a Peking opera at the Belvedere of Pleasant Sounds, a Qing imperial theater built for court entertainment.

So what was being conveyed this time around? As a cultural historian of modern China, I took a peek beyond the official statements and trade headlines of the Xi-Trump summit and into the images, gestures and cultural symbolism on display.

The weight of heaven

The formal choreography began at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, where the two leaders exchanged views on the Iran conflict, the war in Ukraine and the Korean Peninsula, among other items.

But the more interesting story of the visit, to me, was told outside the meeting room.

After their two-hour bilateral meeting, Trump and Xi paid a cultural visit to the Temple of Heaven in Southern Beijing. Built in the early 15th century, the temple is China’s most complete surviving imperial religious complex. For nearly five centuries, emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties came here to worship Heaven and pray for good harvests.

Its most recognizable structure, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, rises in three tiers of blue-glazed tiles above a marble platform, its circular form and crimson columns translating cosmology into architecture. UNESCO inscribed the site as a World Heritage Site in 1998, recognizing it as “a masterpiece of architecture and landscape design.”

When Trump and Xi posed for photographs, they were standing in a place long associated with cosmic order and the welfare of the people. To bring a foreign leader there is to invite a particular reading of the relationship: not simply as a bargain between states, but as a relationship that Beijing hopes to associate with order, abundance and peace.

There was also a more practical layer to this symbolism. The Temple of Heaven links political authority to agricultural abundance. Emperors came here to pray not for abstract harmony but for grain. That made it a pointed setting for a visit in which American agricultural exports — soybeans, grains and beef among them — were expected to matter.

For Trump, any Chinese commitment to buy more U.S. farm goods would have clear domestic political value. For Xi, the setting allowed a hard bargaining issue — farm purchases — to be translated into an older symbolic language of harvest that spoke to both domestic and international audiences.

Before Trump, Kissinger

Trump was not the first American statesman to be brought to the Temple of Heaven.

In July 1971, Henry Kissinger, then national security adviser to President Richard Nixon, arrived in Beijing on his famous secret mission — the back-channel visit that helped re-open the door between two countries that had little direct contact for more than two decades. Between tense negotiations with Chinese premier Zhou Enlai, Kissinger made time to visit the temple.

There, standing amid the old cypress groves, he was said to have been deeply moved by the timeless atmosphere of the hall and its surroundings.

The motif of old trees and deep time returned on May 15, when Xi gave Trump a rare walk through Zhongnanhai, the walled compound that now houses the core of China’s party-state leadership. Reuters reported that a hot mic captured Xi drawing Trump’s attention to the age of the trees around them — some centuries old, some said to be more than a thousand years old. When Trump asked whether Xi had taken other presidents on similar walks, Xi replied that he had only rarely.

Together, the Kissinger anecdote and the Zhongnanhai walk reveal a recurring logic in Chinese-American diplomacy: America’s fast-moving economy is invited to look at China’s sense of tradition. Xi has used this tactic with other leaders, too. When French President Emmanuel Macron visited China in 2023, he attended a guqin performance invoking the classical idea of the zhiyin — the rare listener who truly understands one’s music.

Basketball and roast duck

Trump’s visit was not staged only through imperial grandeur, however. It also moved into a more familiar register: food, sports and popular culture.

The state dinner on May 14 was another study in careful hospitality. Chefs designed the menu to honor both Chinese culinary prestige and Americans’ — and Trump’s — known preferences: Peking roast duck, crispy beef ribs, pan-fried pork bun, tiramisu and fruit and ice cream.

Trump thanked Xi for a “magnificent welcome like none other,” then replied in a language more recognizably his own. He spoke not only of power politics but of people-to-people ties: Chinese workers who helped build America’s railroads, Chinese enthusiasm for basketball and blue jeans and the sheer presence of Chinese restaurants across the U.S.

The examples were characteristically Trumpian — simple, vivid and easy to grasp. But they pointed to something important. U.S.–China relations have never been made only by presidents, diplomats and official communiques. They have also been shaped by athletes, musicians, restaurant owners, students and tourists.

The basketball reference was especially resonant. Sports have long offered a softer language for U.S.–China relations. In April 2026, just weeks before Trump’s visit, China and the U.S. marked the 55th anniversary of ping-pong diplomacy — the famous 1971 exchange in which a “little ball” helped move the “big ball” of world politics.

Basketball now plays a similar role. For many Chinese fans, the NBA is a deeply familiar world of players, teams and memories that represents the spirit of America: Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Yao Ming. That reservoir of affection has survived even periods of political tension. Trump, in invoking it, was drawing on something real.

A second act in the US?

The main lesson of all this symbolism is that, in U.S.–China relations, atmosphere has never been secondary.

Diplomatic theater cannot settle disputes over technology or Taiwan, or determine the future of the global order. But it can shape the mood in which rivalries are managed, and the stories that leaders tell their public about what the relationship means.

And on that front, the summit worked on several levels. To the Chinese audience, it presented their leaders as confident and capable of managing a tense relationship with the U.S. on China’s own cultural terms.

For Trump and the American delegation, it offered a lesson in Chinese traditions and culture that promotes deeper understanding across political divides. And for both societies, the references for food, sports and popular culture created a more neutral ground on which connection could still be imagined.

From the 1970s opening to Trump’s 2017 visit to the Forbidden City, and from the Temple of Heaven photo-op to the walk among old trees at Zhongnanhai in 2026, cultural staging remains central to how China presents itself to America — and how America is invited to imagine China. It was announced on May 15 that Xi will pay a state visit to the U.S. in September at the invitation of Trump. If that happens, the theater of diplomacy will move to American soil, and the question will be how Washington chooses to stage China in return.

Xianda Huang does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

In March 2026, a tropical-like cyclone named ‘Jolina’ produced significant damage across North Africa. In 2020 and 2023, storms Ianos and Daniel both caused severe damage in Greece, and the latter triggered a humanitarian disaster in the city of Derna, Libya, where thousands were declared dead or missing.

These tropical-like cyclones occur in a non-tropical region. They are known as ‘medicanes’ – a portmanteau of Mediterranean and hurricanes.

As any major storm, medicanes know no borders. Their impacts spread across multiple countries as they sweep across the Mediterranean coast, one of the world’s most densely populated and vulnerable regions (the total population of Mediterranean countries in 2020 was about 540 million people, around one-third of them living in coastal areas).

Rising sea temperatures due to climate change increase the reservoir of energy these storms can feed on. More research on this phenomenon, which couples atmospheric and oceanic effects, is urgently needed in order to improve early warning systems and the preparedness of populations, in terms of civil protection and regarding how we would affront a catastrophic event that might exceed our ability to prepare for them.

Medicanes: rare and devastating hurricanes in the Mediterranean

One of the earliest research papers on the subject, in 1983, opened with the sentence: “At times, Mother Nature does her best to deceive us”, accompanied by a satellite image of a cyclone displaying a well-organised spiral cloud structure and a cloudless eye at its centre, strikingly similar to those that habitually occur in the tropics. The opening line implies what a surprise it would be to encounter such an impressive and counterintuitive occurence of a tropical-like storm structure in the Mediterranean.

Since then, significant progress has been made in understanding medicanes through international scientific collaboration.

In 2025, a collective research effort produced a formal definition of this once counterintuitive phenomenon.

In short, medicanes share important physical characteristics with tropical cyclones, but are not identical to them. Flooding from intense and widespread precipitation are their most dangerous hazard, often extending well beyond the cyclone’s centre and covering areas of country-wide extent. But what is even more critical to retain is the very strong winds close to their centre, which make their track and landfall location highly relevant to impacts from windstorms and storm surges.

Events that meet this formal definition occur on average less than three times per year. This limited frequency means our statistical record is still too small to draw firm conclusions about preferred locations of occurrence.

How does climate change affect hurricane risk in the Mediterranean

The question of what climate change holds in store for medicanes does not have a reassuring answer.

Recent advances point to sea surface temperature as a key factor in storm intensification: a warmer sea drives greater evaporation and stronger heat fluxes into the atmosphere, providing the energy needed to develop and intensify a medicane. According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service Atlas, the Mediterranean warmed by approximately 0.4°C per decade during the 1990–2020 period, a clear and accelerating trend.

While such a figure may seem small in everyday terms, its physical implications are far from negligible. Indeed, an increase of just 1–2°C can produce significantly higher wind speeds and precipitation rates. Moreover, the figure above represents a basin-wide average (i.e. for the whole Mediterranean Sea); locally, during individual medicane events, sea surface temperatures of 2°C or more above normal have already been recorded.

A recent study demonstrating links between the intensity of a Mediterranean medicane and climate change appeared in 2022 and focused on the storm “Apollo”, showed that warmer sea surface temperatures and a warmer atmosphere increased moisture availability and heavy rainfall over Sicily.

Later analyses of Daniel also found that extreme precipitation over the eastern Mediterranean and Libya was intensified by climate change.

More broadly, recent research indicates that the most robust signal for Mediterranean cyclones concerns rainfall, with clearer increases in precipitation than in wind intensity. Wind changes can also be detected in some events. Today, climameter.org, an international consortium which rapid attribution studies with a peer-reviewed protocol, monitors medicanes and Mediterranean cyclones through rapid attribution studies of emerging extremes.

New methods to monitor and better understand medicanes are urgently needed

Collaborative research between the scientific community and civil protection agencies has been central to developing early warning systems and improving preparedness.

One such effort is the MEDICANES project of the European Space Agency, some of the research is being applied as we write to the latest medicane Jolina.

Ultimately, however, efficient adaptation requires better climate prediction models and therefore more reliable and accurate estimation of extremes caused by cyclones. This can be only achieved through scientific research. An end-to-end approach that translates research findings into actionable information for climate adaptation and civil protection is both timely and essential, including for example infrastructure resilience planning and early warning systems to reduce vulnerability and socioeconomic impacts.

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The AXA science philanthropy is now part of the AXA Foundation for Human Progress, which brings together the commitments of AXA Group and Mutuelles d’Assurances in the fields of Science, Nature, Solidarity, and Culture. Before 2025, the global science philanthropy was held by the AXA Research Fund, which has supported over 750 projects around the world since its inception back in 2007. To learn more, visit Axa Foundation for Human Progress.

Emmanouil Flaounas a reçu des financements de l'Agence Spatiale Européenne (MEDICANES project with Contract No. 4000144111/23/I-KE).

Davide Faranda a reçu des financements de ANR et ERC (Horizon)

The importance of bees for pollinating wild plants and crops is well known. If we lose the bees, we lose our food. But this is only part of the picture. Bees also support a hidden network of other species, sometimes as mutual partners, sometimes as prey, sometimes as other unwilling victims.

Many organisms depend on bees for survival, and many of these interactions are not mutually supportive. Some predators focus on bees, for example bee wolves (Philanthus triangulum), capture bees to feed their young in their underground nests.

Crab spiders, also known as the white death spider, are often found camouflaged on the top of flowers. They wait for bees to sip on some nectar and then the spider consumes the bee, and afterwards vomits the corpse back up.

It’s not just insects, vertebrates depend on bees too. Birds such as bee‑eaters and great tits, as well as some species of bat consume bees as part of their diet, while badgers and foxes often raid nests for larvae and honey. And, of course, humans have been eating honey from before there were written records.

Playing host to unwelcome guests

Around 40% of animals are actually parasites and bees support a wide range of these species. The wingless fly Braula coeca, sometimes referred to as the bee louse, lives on honey bees, feeding on their secretions. Though small, these parasites are a constant presence in some colonies.

Another parasite, Sphaerularia bombi, the nematode (a type of worm-like creature), enters bumblebee queens during hibernation. Once inside they inflate, filling much of the queen’s body. When she emerges in the spring, this queen has been neutered by the parasite and is no longer able to find a new family. She instead just acts as a vehicle to spread the parasite to new sites.

Some bees need other bees to help them survive. Cuckoo bees infiltrate the nests of bumblebees. After they gain access they suppress the bumble bee queen and force her workers to raise their young.

Invading the lives of bees

Sometimes parasitic interactions go one step further and ultimately kill the bee by spending part of their lifecycle within their host. Strepsiptera are an unusual insect, which most people may not have heard of. Stylops are one genus of Strepsiptera which live in the abdomens of bees, visible only by a small protrusion in the abdomen. But when it is time for Stylops to mate they explode from the abdomen of their bee host, killing it.

Bee flies definitely deserves a mention, as they bear a striking resemblance to bees. In the UK, species such as Bombylius major dance around flowers with their fuzzy, bee‑like bodies. While the adults are harmless and actually serve a role as pollinators themselves, their larvae are parasitoids of solitary mining bees. Parasitoids are defined as those that live on (or in) their host eventually killing it, a subset of parasites. The females flick their eggs into the entrances of bee nests and when they hatch, the larva consumes bee eggs or young larvae before feeding on the pollen stores.

Using bees to hitch a ride

Some species just use bees for transport. Mites such as Chaetodactylus attach themselves to solitary bees in order to travel between nests. Their larvae however, are less benign. They greedily consume the pollen stores of nests, occasionally eating eggs.

Perhaps even weirder however are the trigulins (or larvae) of blister beetles. These often cluster around flowerheads. They wait for bees, only to then climb on board for a free ride – using them as a free taxi to a nest where they feed on its contents with a particular fondness for bee eggs.

Pseudoscorpions are a distant relative of scorpions. They bear a striking resemblance to true scorpions, but these instead of carrying a sting in their tail, use the bee for a free ride. Hanging on to the bees with their pincers they use the bees as a taxi, but in their case just as a way to save energy on long-distance travel.

In the end, bees – whether they are solitary bees, mining bees, honey bees or bumble bees – are far more than pollinators. They support a much wider ecosystem. Countless other organisms rely on bees as hosts, prey, transport, or providers of food and shelter every day. Without bees we would not only lose those plants they pollinate but also those animals that need the bees to feed them and help them reproduce.

Alex Dittrich does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.