President Donald Trump may continue his rhetoric against Greenland, but 1,200 miles away, Svalbard faces similar pressure from other countries. With increasing influence from China and Russia, Svalbard could end up playing an outsize role in global affairs.

What’s happening in Svalbard?
Despite being a Norwegian territory, Svalbard is subject to a 1920 treaty that allows people from 49 nations to live and work there without a visa, largely for scientific research. The island has since become the “planet’s leading hub of Arctic science and a rare site of international cooperation,” but this also collides with “increasingly fractured international relations and countries’ quest for influence in the fast-warming Arctic,” said CNN. 

Russia and China have established research stations that “provide a gateway to Arctic influence,” said CNN. Due to its abundant natural resources, Svalbard has become a “pawn on Russia’s chessboard,” said France24. 

In China’s 2018 strategy outline for the Arctic, it “called itself a near-Arctic state and repeatedly referred to Svalbard,” said CNN. The country also has “plans for a ‘polar silk road,’ an infrastructure and shipping corridor across the top of the world.” 

What next?
Some are worried that Svalbard’s use by other countries will embolden authoritarianism, as Russia and China will “likely work toward common ends in the development of future Arctic governance,” said The Arctic Institute. So Norway’s response may “determine if Svalbard maintains its status as an international research hub or becomes defined by its importance in global trade and military security.”

The 1920 treaty only briefly says Svalbard cannot be “used for ‘warlike purposes,’ leaving much room for interpretation,” said The Arctic Institute. Russia has been using Svalbard as a “gray zone” for military testing, and the “utilization of these methods is becoming more concentrated” as the Arctic Circle “captures evermore geopolitical attention.”

Norway seems to be pushing back. In 2022, the government “changed voting rules to prevent non-Norwegians from voting” in Svalbard, said CNN. And this year, a pair of granite Chinese lions were removed from the research station on Spitsbergen. 

There’s “no Chinese research station on Svalbard,” said Eivind Vad Petersson, the state secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to CNN. There’s a “Norwegian research station with Chinese tenants. That’s a distinction with a difference.”

Video assistant referee technology was introduced to correct clear refereeing errors, but it has since “morphed into something far greater,” said Kevin Baxter at the Los Angeles Times. At this year’s World Cup, there were more than 100 VAR interventions through the round of 16. Most were technically correct, but the infractions were both “imperceptible” and “consequential,” raising the criticism that “allowing a game to be decided by electronic evidence” only detectable by “NASA-level technology” is “violating the spirit of the game.”

‘Joy-denial device’
The tournament’s most influential figure has not been a star player or even President Donald Trump but instead the VAR official, said Roey Hadar at MS Now. Technology in soccer is a “great idea on paper,” but the “perfect has become the enemy of the good.”

Take Croatia’s last-gasp equalizer against Portugal, disallowed as offside after a microchip in the ball detected a slight touch by a Croatian player in the buildup to the goal. Or the sending off of Switzerland’s Breel Embolo (pictured above) after a “mistaken identity” VAR check. Or Egypt’s goal against Argentina, disallowed for a perceived earlier foul, leading sobbing scorer Mostafa Ziko to declare the match had been “rigged.”

VAR “doesn’t feel like a backstop” that it’s meant to be, said Jason Gay at The Wall Street Journal. This “baffling, deeply unpopular replay doohickey” has become a “joy-denial device,” designed by “evil robots” to “suck the soul out of a beautiful game based on constant flow.”

‘Toenail offsides’
FIFA must now draw a “line in the sand, ending once and for all the unfair and disfiguring use of slow-motion and freeze-frames”, said Adam Crafton on The Athletic. I would introduce a rule that VAR reviews must “conclude in a set short amount of time”, said Hadar on MS Now. “If the error is visible in that time,” it’s obvious. “If not, then it’s too inconclusive to change. Just keep the game moving.”

A majority of officials would prefer that referees have discretion to ignore VAR, according to former FIFA referee Christina Unkel, per the Los Angeles Times. Most decision-making on the pitch is “very subjective,” and there’s agreement that certain VAR decisions shouldn’t be part of the game. They are, ultimately, “toenail offsides” and “hair follicle arguments.”

A swimmer looks on at the Toronto skyline shrouded in haze as a result of the Ontario forest fires. Nearly 200 fires have devastated communities and forced widespread evacuations this week, and Toronto has logged some of the worst air quality in the world today.
Steve Russell / Toronto Star / Getty Images

If you ask any gamer what the best game ever is, the answers will vary. Over time, video games have evolved from simple pastimes enjoyed by children to vehicles for layered storytelling with lush graphics that transport players. So what qualifies as the best may be more complicated in an era when games can rival movies in quality. Still, some of these titles have yet to be knocked off their top spots.

Tetris (1989)
Alexey Pajitnov’s puzzle game, as simple as it is, has had millions of fans around the world who know that the “simple act of turning geometric shapes and fitting them together” is “at once stimulating and meditative,” and the “drive to beat a high score could be a lifelong fixation,” said Rolling Stone. For 40 years, the “act of placing Tetrominoes has been iterated to exhaustion.”

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
This version of Zelda is “indisputably one of the greatest games ever made,” said IGN. Not only did it “redefine action/adventure games,” but it also “completely changed the way the industry thought about 3D combat and exploration.” This video game “took what was great about its predecessors” and “expanded on those themes and ideas exponentially.”

Disco Elysium (2019)
The 30-hour story at the core of the game, which remembers your choices, is a “unique blend of noir detective fiction, traditional pen-and-paper role-playing games (RPG),” and a “large helping of existentialist theory,” said IGN. A “gorgeously designed isometric RPG,” Disco Elysium (pictured above) is “truly a unique experience.”