NATO’s New Chemistry

Strongmen personal chemistry has replaced institutional consensus as the guarantor of NATO cohesion. At the Ankara summit, which US President Donald Trump claimed to have attended only because his Turkey counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan hostedit, Ukrainecameoutawinnerwith thealliancepledging$80billion in military equipment and assistance. But it was Trump’s decision to “show” Ukraine how to produce Patriot missile systems that symbolised his shift, which doesn’t change the fundamentals though. Europe pays;America enables. Turkey, on the other hand, is not only indispensable to the alliance but Erdogan is NATO’s lifeline.

Turkey has the largest military in NATO after the US and a booming defence industry. Without Ankara, the 1936 Montreux Convention, limiting Russian naval reinforcements in the Black Sea by giving Turkey control over the Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits, can’t be enforced— criticaltothedefenceofUkraine. Turkey’s leverage over NATO is structural and permanent, albeit bolstered by the Erdogan-Trump equation today. Kyiv has got some quantifiable wins out of the summit. But Trump still wants Europe to do the long-term heavylifting and made an example of Spain and reinvoked Greenland. While all underlying tensions persist, the glue of personal chemistry only makes the alliance more fragile. Trump wants to sell F-110 engines and F-35s but Ankara’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 system automatically expelled it from the F-35 programme and there is a battle looming between the president and Congress if he makes an exception for his friend.

Does Infantino Love Messi Too Much?

FIFA has been accused of pulling the big teams up since the World Cup wedded commerce. The allegations aren’t paranoid but structural. Money and narrative appeal need pedigreed teams to last long. That doesn’t mean anything is ever proved. Just as Egypt’s loud protests about questionable calls by referee François Letexierwon’t go anywhere. Maybe there’s nothing to the charges. But some of the facts don’t look good: Argentina were awarded more penalties than any other team up to the Round of 16; they received a caution every 19.7 fouls (England got one every 7.7); Messi arguablydeserved a red card for his challenge on Algeria’s Aissa Mandi in the group game which would have changed his stats and perhaps Argentina’s trajectory (in fact, the US reportedly used Messi’s reprieve to get Folarin Balogun’s red card overturned); Messi’s Inter Miami represented the US in the inaugural Club World Cup last year although LA Galaxy won the MLS in 2024 (because Gianni Infantino apparently likes Messi at his tournaments); but most damningly, what was FIFA thinking when putting an all-Argentine referring team for France’s quarter-final against Morocco? Surely, Argentina would like France knocked out early? None of that is to question said officials’ integrity. Nor is it to deny Argentina their resilienceor Messi’s superhuman success at 39.

Homecoming Queen

At 67, Madonna insists it’s not nostalgia but a genuine homecoming as her dance album Confessions II turns out to be her best work in two decades, as the Wall Street Journal calls it. This year, the Queen of Pop is making a full comeback, putting the 2023 Celebration Tour and her life-threatening sepsis scare behind her. A sequel to Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005), perhaps Confessions II could have been better called ‘Forgive Yourself’ after the track.