🎙️ The Ensemble: Winter Bites - World Cup Draw, G20 Closet Trouble and Campaign Music Rows

We look across the world's headlines to find the things you need to know this week - from fashion power plays, redrawn immigration policy, and open warfare on the high seas (again).

Welcome from Washington DC - H2H is back in town after Thanksgiving in New Hampshire to find Winter has truly arrived, here and across the Northern Hemisphere. We’re in town in time for the World Cup Draw this week - marking the beginning of Soccer Diplomacy year, which sees the World Cup come to the US next Summer. Last tournament’s pick was the group that pitted the US against Iran (and older enemy England!) - I’ll update on the diplo Group of Death next week. Plus a warm welcome to Curacao - in their first World Cup, and my 95th country visited, in June of this year.

As the snow falls, I am here for amusingly named snowploughs. Proving that puns are the lowest form of wit, first out of the gate is ‘The Big LePloughski’, spotted on US cable news today. And for those who want more - the Scottish Government has a clickable live map of all their snowploughs and gritters here; sample names Coldfinger and Sled Zeppelin...

Are the US and Venezuela on the brink of war? The biggest row in US politics this week is about the allegation, first broken in the Washington Post , that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered that a September US military strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in international waters should leave no survivors. There’s been a fair amount of to and fro between the Pentagon (whose entire press corps walked out earlier in the Fall) and the White House this week trying to reach an agreed version of who in the chain of command gave what orders, and when. It’s also raised questions about the morality and legality of these strikes. Drug mules are not combatants in a war, nor are they enemies of the United States, under the laws governing combat. Government and military officials involved in the strikes are being asked to sign NDAs. When I asked a former intelligence officer why that would be necessary for a mission that’s already classified, they said it’s a powerful deterrent for anyone who may be tempted to leak details.

Sources: ABC New (image)

Border Patrol: Meanwhile, in a swift response to last weekend’s attack on two National Guard officers, Trump is redrawing US immigration law. Effective immediately, a new policy memo issued by Trump directs USCIS personnel to suspend all pending asylum and USCIS benefit applications filed by nationals from 9 countries designated as “high risk” including Afghanistan, Iran, and Sudan.

In another move aimed to redefine national belonging, Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno recently introduced the “Exclusive Citizenship Act” that would require Americans to forfeit dual citizenship, declaring that “allegiance to the United States must be undivided”.

Speaking of national identity, is Canada dialing back its feminist foreign policy? Prime Minister Carney recently broke from the feminist foreign policy branding of former prime minister Trudeau’s government, triggering accusations of backpedaling from women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights groups. In an open letter, Oxfam Canada says Carney risks “weakening the country’s long-standing leadership on gender equality, human rights, and multilateralism.” Further angering women’s rights and religious freedom advocates, Quebec is considering a ban on visible religious symbols, mirroring a global trend including a right-wing proposal in Austria to ban headscarves in public schools.

Proving that fashion is a core element of political signaling, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi recently opened up on X about her struggles over what to wear to the G20 summit. Takaichi faced pressure from Hiroshi Ando of the opposition party to wear an ensemble highlighting Japan’s “finest” fabrics and artisans. Taking to heart Ando’s advice to signal national identity and elite class status with her outfit, Takaichi struggled to find pieces in her wardrobe that “didn’t look cheap.” Channeling style inspiration from the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, she opted for a cobalt blue power blazer. Torn between projecting softness or strength through ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ looks, women face critique on both sides of the spectrum. Think Hilary Clinton’s white pantsuit, Melania Trump’s “I Really Don’t Care, Do U?” jacket, Madeleine Albright’s brooch collection, and Sara Palin’s red skirt suit and librarian glasses. Especially for women, the struggle is real(politik).

Sources: Vox (image), Japan Today (image), DailyMail (image), Betweenmypeers (image)

On the luxury fashion front, designer cruise collections are coming for the US. Haute couture cruise wear has typically found top designers looking to exotic locales, stunning cultural monuments, and distant time zones. In 2023, Dior’s men’s cruise collection sent models to walk the runway in front of the pyramids of Giza in a stunning meeting of archaeology, spectacle, and live fashion.

Flash forward to this year: with a shaky economy backstage and global tariffs still on the racks, cruise collections are staging a staycation of sorts. Charting a course to North America, home to 22% of the world’s luxury sales, makes financial sense in a market with a dwindling customer base.

Sources: Grazia (image)

Moving to very different patterns of spending, can a nation drive population growth through cash incentives? In China, the answer seems to be a resounding ‘no’. In a policy U-turn that would have been unthinkable ten years ago, China recently began rolling out incentives for new parents including childcare allowances, housing subsidies, maternity leave payments, and financial incentives. In Tianmen, cash allowances total as much as 355,988 yuan, or 7-9 times the local average annual income. In January the central government introduced an annual baby bonus of 3,600 yuan for the first three years of a child’s life. By leveraging soft power at home, China hopes to spark a baby boom that projects superpower energies overseas. But so far, China’s investment in family-friendly policy isn’t paying off. Recent data from Capital University in Beijing showed a disconnect between fertility conditions and policy support. Until 2016, China adopted a strict one-child policy, part of a population control regime that regulated women’s reproductive lives, entrenched a cultural preference for boys, and contributed to the femicide of an estimated 20-40 million baby girls Now, some fear China will resort to more invasive tactics to engineer population growth, testing the limits of social control in China.

In Sweden, women in public office are noting a disturbing trend. Although Scandinavia is widely viewed as a global champion of gender equality, Swedish women politicians are painting a very different picture. Anna-Karina Hatt, former leader of Sweden’s Centre party, resigned in October after only five months in office. She confessed to fearing for her safety while in office. In the wake of Hatt’s resignation, the safety of women politicians is a big topic of conversation in Sweden, with hate speech, AI deepfakes, and assassination attempts constraining public debate and cramping the style, digital lives, and appearances of women politicians. Designed to delegitimize women’s authority, this violence often ties to a broader push back against gender equality, punishing women for entering spaces historically dominated by men. It’s a reminder of just how controversial it is for women to enter the political arena.

In a welcome counter-trend, American pop star Sabrina Carpenter is igniting a new public conversation about desire. Her new work ditches cultural narratives of shame surrounding women’s sexualized images. It also breaks with a long history in the entertainment industry where women’s desire is silenced or scripted, staged, and monetized by powerful male creators and producers. Carpenter’s controversial album Man’s Best Friend is sending a strong message that women are ready to own their voices, sexual representation and desire. Reinforcing this trend, Carpenter got into a scrap with the White House this week after she asked them to stop using her music in political campaign ads. Responding on social media to the use of her song Juno in a video depicting ICE raids, Carpenter said, “This video is evil and disgusting. Do not involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda.” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson retorted: “Here’s a Short ‘n Sweet message for Sabrina Carpenter: we won’t apologize for deporting dangerous criminal illegal murderers, rapists, and pedophiles from our country. Anyone who would defend these sick monsters must be stupid, or is it slow?”, turning her lyrics against her and reinforcing the violence trending in Sweden. To reverse this cycle, we’ll hand it over to Carpenter and few of her adorable, unidentified backup dancers…

Sources: Women’s News (image), Hollywood Insider (image), CNN via LinkedIn (image)