Bobby Ghosh
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Articles by Bobby Ghosh
A Maigret by Any Other Name
My wife and I invented a game while watching the first season of the new Maigret, which returned last week on PBS. Whenever anyone on-screen addressed the young, tousle-haired chief inspector by name, one of us would shout “Munier!” By the end of the second episode, we had persuaded ourselves that this was the lead character’s name, and it allowed us to stop comparing the show to every previous series centered on Georges Simenon’s high-toned and self-possessed Parisian chief inspector.
The Cockroach party has rattled Modi. My hit on CNN this evening, with Brian Able
The Cockroach party has rattled Modi. My hit on CNN this evening, with Brian Able …more To view or add a comment, sign in 3,035 followers More from this author Come to The Next Billion! Bobby Ghosh 10y Explore content categories Create your free account or sign in to continue your search
Messi on Their Mind, Argentines Still Hold Maradona in Their Hearts
Children play at Sportivo Pereyra de Barracas football club, where local artist Santiago Barbeito created a football version of Michelangelo's “Creation of Adam” on the ceiling, in Buenos Aires on April 24, 2018. Juan Mabromata/AFP via Getty Images Lionel Messi said goodbye to the Argentine national team in Buenos Aires the night of Oct. 6 the way that he did most things in the blue-and-white shirt for 21 years: by setting up two goals and scoring a third in a 3-0 friendly win over Benin.
Messi on Their Mind, Argentines Still Hold Maradona in Their Hearts
BUENOS AIRES, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Argentina will allow foreigners to apply for citizenship in exchange for a contribution of at least $350,000 to the …
Messi on Their Mind, Argentines Still Hold Maradona in Their Hearts
Lionel Messi said goodbye to the Argentine national team in Buenos Aires the night of Oct. 6 the way that he did most things in the blue-and-white shirt for 21 years: by setting up two goals and scoring a third in a 3-0 friendly win over Benin. Having let his feet do the talking for 90 minutes, he then picked up a microphone and made his way to the center circle of the Estadio Monumental to address the 85,000 people who were hoarse from chanting his name.
The United States Is Not Ready for the Arctic Age
“WE DON’T NEED CANADA, THEY NEED US!” Donald Trump wrote on TruthSocial in late August, after he announced a fresh round of tariffs on exports from the United States’ northern neighbor. Seen from the lower latitudes, this was just another of the president’s tirades, straining both the caps-lock key and credulity, but in fact, the United States depends a great deal on Canada, to the tune of 4 million barrels of crude oil a day, plus electricity, aluminum, auto parts, and much else besides.
My hit on CNN this evening, on the Trump-Xi love-fest.
My hit on CNN this evening, on the Trump-Xi love-fest. …more To view or add a comment, sign in 3,025 followers More from this author Come to The Next Billion! Bobby Ghosh 10y Explore content categories Create your free account or sign in to continue your search
My hit on CNN early this morning, on what to expect from Iran at the UNGA, with Audie Cornish
My hit on CNN early this morning, on what to expect from Iran at the UNGA, with Audie Cornish …more 1 To view or add a comment, sign in 3,026 followers More from this author Come to The Next Billion! Bobby Ghosh 10y Explore content categories Create your free account or sign in to continue your search
My hit on MSNOW this evening, discussing the impact of the Houthi chokehold on the Bab-el-Mandeb, with Ali Velshi
My hit on MSNOW this evening, discussing the impact of the Houthi chokehold on the Bab-el-Mandeb, with Ali Velshi …more To view or add a comment, sign in 3,025 followers More from this author Come to The Next Billion! Bobby Ghosh 10y Explore content categories Create your free account or sign in to continue your search
Why K-Pop Took Off When C-Pop Didn’t Original
It’s not often that an 18th century folk song can be said to be the inspiration for a pop concert. But those who attended the finale of BTS’ “ARIRANG” North American concert tour at Los Angeles’ giant SoFi Stadium earlier this month will long remember the tens of thousands of fans who waved South Korean flags and sang along to the traditional Korean melody.
Why K-Pop Took Off When C-Pop Didn’t
It’s not often that an 18 th century folk song can be said to be the inspiration for a pop concert. But those who attended the finale of BTS’ “ARIRANG” North American concert tour at Los Angeles’ giant SoFi Stadium earlier this month will long remember the tens of thousands of fans who waved South Korean flags and sang along to the traditional Korean melody.
My hit on CNN last night.
My hit on CNN last night. …more 1 To view or add a comment, sign in 3,024 followers More from this author Come to The Next Billion! Bobby Ghosh 10y Explore content categories Create your free account or sign in to continue your search
Whatever Happened to the Mecca Pact?
Who’s he gonna call? (Photo: Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0) At dawn on Thursday, the Saudi-backed Yemeni national forces pulled out of Mocha, the old coffee port on the Red Sea coast, and the town fell to the Houthis. This is not merely the latest twist in Yemen’s long-running civil war.
My hit on MSNOW last night, discussing the latest developments in the war against Iran with Ali Velshi
My hit on MSNOW last night, discussing the latest developments in the war against Iran with Ali Velshi …more
Can You Engineer Civic Pride? Dubai Thinks So
2 hours ago You’ve spent the day exploring Vienna, one of Europe’s great capital cities. You’ve visited its wonderful museums and galleries, taken a spin on the giant Ferris wheel in Prater Park and indulged in a slice of Sacher torte at Café Central, but now it’s time to move on. Vienna’s Hauptbahnhof (main …
Can You Engineer Civic Pride? Dubai Thinks So Original
In the summer of 1987, I saw two men in a subway station force a third to crouch down to wipe his spit off the platform, while other commuters cheered them on. The incident was remarkable, and has remained in my memory, for two reasons. First, it was in Calcutta, a city synonymous with squalor. Second, the two men were not officials responsible for enforcing cleanliness in public places but simply commuters, like the man they had taken to task.
The Bomb, and the Trouble With Hindsight
ALSO SEE: Ghoshworld, Bobby Ghosh on Substack Four books for a weekend when the argument over Hiroshima and Nagasaki refuses, once again, to be buried. Every August the calendar drags us predictably back to the same quarrel. There are observances in Hiroshima on the 6th, in Nagasaki on the 9th, and they resurface the oldest moral argument of the nuclear age: did the US need to drop the bombs at all.
The Saudi Kingdon Braces Massive Assault
SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE THE FUTURE OF RSN — The old donation system isn’t working. The financial consequences have been devastating. Everything RSN does is in immediate danger. The new fundraising-free subscription list gives RSN hope for the future and it’s a lot easier on the sanity of our donors. Need to get you signed up. It takes a certain audacity to sign a mutual-defense treaty on a morning when one of the signatories is already under fire.
The Mecca Pact Is Less Than the Sum of Its Parts
Where’s the cavalry? (Photo: Al Jazeera English, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons) It takes a certain audacity to sign a mutual-defense treaty on a morning when one of the signatories is already under fire.
Tehran’s New Weapon Is Not a Bomb. It Is an Invoice. Original
Iran is expanding the theater of war with an eye on the Strait of Hormuz. Last week, according to U.S. Central Command, more than 30 Iranian-directed drones attacked American forces and Saudi energy installations near Riyadh and the Eastern Province. On July 28, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spread the battle to Jordan, firing a fresh volley of ballistic missiles at U.S. forces in the country.
Beijing Is Celebrating a Race It Never Ran
The Global Times could not help itself. Two days after the Pew Research Center published its annual audit of global opinion, the English-language megaphone of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ran an editorial with all the restraint of a victory parade. “When 27 of the 36 countries and regions surveyed ‘chose China,’” it announced, “it was not simply that China had ‘won.’” Actually, the number is 25. The other two are countries where the gap is too small to mean anything.
Saffron shadows: Hockey India should have adopted the three-colour football kit of 1984
January 13,1984: I was 16, and it was the first football match I had watched with my own eyes rather than through the grain of a Doordarshan transmission. My father and I were among the 80,000 football fans crowded into Eden Gardens, for a Nehru Cup encounter between an unfancied India and mighty Argentina. A video clip of that game resurfaced on YouTube a couple of weeks ago and refreshed three of my lasting memories of the game.
Saffron shadows: Hockey India should have adopted the three-colour football kit of 1984
Arundhati Choudhary 2 hours ago CWG Boxing: Arundhati, Jaismine, Preeti, Sakshi, Priya, Ankush, Jadumani in finals theprint.in - PTI • 2h Glasgow, Jul 31 (PTI) Arundhati Choudhary upset defending champion Rosie Eccles of Wales in the women’s 70kg semifinals, while world champion … Judo 5 hours ago CWG Day 9 India Wrap: 2 Judo Golds, Neeraj Chopra Wins Silver, Tejaswini Makes History news18.com - Rudransh Khurana • 5h India won 6 medals, including 2 golds in judo by Asmita Dey and Harsh Singh,...
Turkey’s Latest Drama Is an Indonesian Tale Retold
Ozel is in the center of the front row; Imamoglu is to his right, in glasses. (Photo: Yıldız Yazıcıoğlu, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) In the summer of 1996, I was an editor at the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong, and the copy arriving from our bureau in Jakarta read like a political obituary of Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Beijing Is Celebrating a Race It Never Ran
Tarek Qaddumi, the executive director of the Saudi megaproject NEOM, gestures at a map showing NEOM sites as he stands beside Nicholas Ho, the top Hong Kong official responsible for implementing China's Belt and Road Initiative, at an exhibition in Hong Kong on April 19, 2024. Holmes Chan/AFP via Getty Images The Global Times could not help itself.
A Hundred Saddams Now
Iraq’s founders set out to make the old authoritarianism impossible. A new handbook explains what they were up against. In the summer of 2004, Iyad Allawi told me he was reading constitutions. Iraq’s interim prime minister had collected the founding documents of a number of democracies and wanted more of them. He was looking for a model to replace the Ba’athist constitution and everything built on top of it. Could I get him India’s? I could, and did.
Beijing Is Celebrating a Race It Never Ran Original
The Global Times could not help itself. Two days after the Pew Research Center published its annual audit of global opinion, the English-language megaphone of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ran an editorial with all the restraint of a victory parade. “When 27 of the 36 countries and regions surveyed ‘chose China,’” it announced, “it was not simply that China had ‘won.’” Actually, the number is 25. The other two are countries where the gap is too small to mean anything.
How Trump Lost America the World Cup
Folarin Balogun of the U.S. men’s national soccer team shows dejection after the United States lost to Belgium in the 2026 FIFA World Cup round of 16 match in Seattle on July 6. David Ramos / Getty Images Folarin Balogun has gone home. The U.S. men’s national soccer team is out of the World Cup, beaten 4-1 by Belgium in the round of 16. Its star striker will be crossing his fingers that “being Baloguned” does not enter the lexicon of the sport. He may not be that lucky.
How Trump lost America the World Cup
Ripple brings together diverse perspectives from other publications to show how the country is engaging with today's biggest stories. It operates independently from the Washington Post News and Opinion departments, and isn't subject to their policies and standards. How Trump lost America the World Cup A host is supposed to harvest the world’s goodwill, not burn it. July 7, 2026 at 3:20 p.m. EDT3 minutes ago
How Trump Lost America the World Cup
Folarin Balogun has gone home. The U.S. men’s national soccer team is out of the World Cup, beaten 4-1 by Belgium in the round of 16. Its star striker will be crossing his fingers that “being Baloguned” does not enter the lexicon of the sport. He may not be that lucky. The episode that now bears his name looks likely to become the thing this World Cup is remembered for—the summer the United States hosted the world and showed itself at its worst.
A Coronation Disguised as a Funeral
ALSO SEE: Ghoshworld, Bobby Ghosh on Substack Iran's elaborate entombment ceremony for Ali Khamenei may look like defiance aimed at Trump — it’s really about legitimizing his son. Of all the images Iran has manufactured for the burial of Ali Khamenei, the strangest is a fist.
He Thereby Declared
ALSO SEE: Ghoshworld, Bobby Ghosh on Substack The Founders proclaimed America’s independence 250 years ago. An Indian barber in Virginia beat them to it by seven weeks.
A Coronation Disguised as a Funeral
Of all the images Iran has manufactured for the burial of Ali Khamenei, the strangest is a fist. His son Mojtaba, who has not been seen in public since the joint US-Israeli strike that killed his father in February, let it be known that he found the old man’s body with one hand clenched — a last gesture of defiance, the story goes, frozen in death. That fist is now on banners across Tehran and raised as a statue in Enghelab Square. No one else witnessed the deathbed detail.
Seventy-Four Lashes for a Song
ALSO SEE: Ghoshworld, Bobby Ghosh on Substack The deal Trump signed to end his war refinances the men who wield the whip and run the gallows in Iran. The performance was a quiet thing. As reported by AFP, Parastoo Ahmadi stood on a dim stage in a restored caravanserai, a Persian carpet under her feet and a few musicians in black behind her, and sang to an empty hall. She wore a long gown and red lipstick and no headscarf, which in the Islamic Republic is enough to turn a song into a crime.
The Farce of a Humiliation Foretold
ALSO SEE: Ghoshworld, Bobby Ghosh on Substack There is no alternate universe in which Trump’s disastrous war could have gone differently. Long before the first American bomb fell on Iran this February, the US military had already fought this war dozens of times — on paper, in classified exercises, in rooms full of officers pushing markers around a map. It kept losing.
Netanyahu Wanted This War. He’s Getting Trump’s Peace
ALSO SEE: Ghoshworld, Bobby Ghosh on Substack The Israeli prime minister now faces the likelihood that the regime he swore to destroy will outlast him. Donald Trump says he has his deal. On Sunday the President pronounced the agreement with Iran “complete,” ordered the U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz lifted, and set a signing for Friday — by his own hand or Vice President JD Vance’s.
Netanyahu Wanted This War; He’s Getting Trump’s Peace
Donald Trump says he has his deal. On Sunday, the President pronounced the agreement with Iran “complete,” ordered the U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz lifted, and set a signing for Friday — by his own hand or Vice President JD Vance’s. The verdict from the foreign-policy salons will be that Trump lost: that a President who promised regime change and vowed to bomb Iran into submission has settled for a memorandum that leaves the mullahs standing.
Netanyahu Wanted This War. He’s Getting Trump’s Peace
Who’s the lapdog now? (Image: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) Donald Trump says he has his deal. On Sunday the President pronounced the agreement with Iran “complete,” ordered the U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz lifted, and set a signing for Friday — by his own hand or Vice President JD Vance’s.
THE JAPANESE CLEAN UP
At World Cup matches going all the way back to their country’s debut in France in 1998, Japanese supporters have stayed behind after the final whistle, pulled out blue plastic bags, and worked the rows, picking up cups, wrappers, and discarded flags until their section looked the way they found it. Japan fans flourish their trash bags before a 2022 World Cup match in Qatar Viral videos mean tens of millions of people who could not name a Japanese player can describe the scene.
When the Beautiful Game Meets the Ugliest Ego
In the nearly centurylong history of soccer’s greatest spectacle, the World Cup has survived dictators, juntas, and a menagerie of autocrats who sought to exploit the tournament for their own glorification. Benito Mussolini turned the 1934 tournament in Italy into a fascist pageant. Argentina’s military rulers in 1978 deployed it as a propaganda weapon even as they were disappearing thousands of their own citizens.
The Harder Trump Pulls, the Tighter the Trap
Redlinux, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Every child who has handled a Chinese finger trap learns its single lesson within seconds. Slide two fingers into the woven tube, pull, and the weave cinches down. Pull harder and it grips harder. Panic, thrash, yank with everything you have, and you are more thoroughly caught than when you began. The way out is the one move that feels like giving up: push your fingers toward each other, let the bamboo go slack, and slip free.
Trump Does Not Call the Shots
ALSO SEE: Ghoshworld, Bobby Ghosh on Substack The President’s ill-considered war has left America hostage to calculations being made in Tel Aviv and Tehran. On Sunday evening, with Iranian missiles still arcing toward northern Israel, Donald Trump picked up the phone to the Financial Times to explain who was in charge. Benjamin Netanyahu, he said, would have to accept whatever bargain Washington struck with Tehran, because “I call the shots. I call all the shots.
Trump Does Not Call the Shots
Photo by Max Letek on Unsplash On Sunday evening, with Iranian missiles still arcing toward northern Israel, Donald Trump picked up the phone to the Financial Times to explain who was in charge. Benjamin Netanyahu, he said, would have to accept whatever bargain Washington struck with Tehran, because “I call the shots. I call all the shots.
Sleeping in Mexico, Playing in America
A person walks past a billboard supporting Iran's national men's soccer team in Tehran on May 18. AFP via Getty Images On the morning of June 15, an airliner will leave Tijuana, Mexico, with Iran’s national men’s soccer team on board, fly 55 minutes north, and land at Los Angeles International Airport in California. The players will be driven to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, where, that evening, they will play their opening World Cup match against New Zealand.
Sleeping in Mexico, Playing in America
On the morning of June 15, an airliner will leave Tijuana, Mexico, with Iran’s national men’s soccer team on board, fly 55 minutes north, and land at Los Angeles International Airport in California. The players will be driven to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, where, that evening, they will play their opening World Cup match against New Zealand. After the final whistle, they will return to Tijuana, because that is where the United States government has agreed they may sleep.
RIP Marjane Satrapi
Photo: Nyitott Könyvműhely Kiadó, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons On the opening page of “Persepolis,” a round-faced 10-year-old sits in a black headscarf she has just been ordered to wear, arms folded, glaring out of the panel. The year is 1980, and Iran’s new rulers have decreed that girls must cover their hair at school. The scowling child is Marjane Satrapi, and the book is her own account of growing up as the revolution remade the country around her.
TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates
by Irwin Cotler and Brandon Silver
Trump’s Flattery of Khamenei Gives the Game Away
Mojtaba Khamenei won’t be so easy to please. (Photo: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons) In March, Donald Trump was dismissive about the man about to inherit Iran’s supreme leadership. Mojtaba Khamenei, the President told Axios, was “a lightweight.” When Mojtaba was elevated regardless, Trump declared the new leader was unlikely to last long.
Ce que le Japon gagne à chaque Coupe du monde
Le 11 juin, la Coupe du monde de la FIFA débutera à Mexico. Les prochains jours nous promettent une cérémonie d’ouverture spectaculaire, des buts éblouissants, des arbitrages vidéo controversés, une danse de la victoire qui deviendra virale, au moins une séance de tirs au but qui se terminera en larmes, un licenciement d’entraîneur et la remise du trophée au MetLife Stadium, dans le New Jersey, le 19 juillet.
An Old Fort Retaken, An Old Folly Forgotten
Israel’s renewed military campaign in Lebanon endangers chances of a US-Iran deal. It’s a bad idea on its own. Benjamin Netanyahu rarely stops a war to give a history lesson, so it was worth listening when he did. Hailing the capture of Beaufort Castle at the weekend, the prime minister reached back 44 years, to the night in June 1982 when Israeli soldiers first stormed the Crusader fortress above the Litani River.
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