Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

And the (geopolitical) Oscar goes to …

Illustration of a world map with an Academy Award statue
Annie Gugliotta
Make us preferred on Google

It's the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday, and we all know that the Oscars often get political. You can expect speeches to reference Russia's war in Ukraine and, of course, US culture-war issues like identity politics. But in this era of political hyper-polarization in America and beyond, we’ve got our own awards to give out.

Here are our picks for a few of the best performances of the past 12 months.


Best Documentary Feature: "The Little Short," by El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, based on his get-rich-quick bestseller "Bukele's Guide to Wealth and Fame in Crypto Markets."

Best Cameo/Actress in a Limited TV Miniseries: Liz Truss as British PM.

Lifetime Achievement: Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for "My Trip to Taipei," a tour de force in DNGAF about the geopolitical consequences of my actions.

Best Costume Design: US Rep. (and alleged serial liar) George Santos (R-NY) as a drag queen in Brazil.

Best Editing: Xi Jinping for ending zero-COVID in China — and all references to it too.

Best Special Effects: The US/Russia/pro-Ukrainian group/we'll-never-know-who for the Nord Stream pipeline explosion.

Best Sound Editing in Parliament/Exit From the Party: Former New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern.

Best Screenplay/Cinematography: C-SPAN for "The House Speaker Fight," an unexpectedly riveting story of failed votes, failed fistfights, and failed leadership in the US Congress.

Best Remake: Jair Bolsonaro, director of the 8 de Janeiro reboot of January 6.

Best Picture: "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Balloon," a Kubrick-esque Cold War 2.0 satire featuring Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, and a floating weapon of mass puns.

The one nominee that, for real, we definitely want to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature is “Navalny.” Watch our interview with director Daniel Roher to find out why. Also, if you have your own picks, let us know here and we might include a few in the next edition.

More For You

People walk past near a campaign billboard featuring Milorad Dodik, Aco Stanisic, Savo Minic, Zeljka Cvijanovic and Damjan Skipina, candidates of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) in Bosnia and Herzegovina's 2026 general election, in Pale, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

People walk past near a campaign billboard featuring Milorad Dodik, Aco Stanisic, Savo Minic, Zeljka Cvijanovic and Damjan Skipina, candidates of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) in Bosnia and Herzegovina's 2026 general election, in Pale, Bosnia and Herzegovina, September 29, 2026.

REUTERS/Amel Emric
EU vs. Russia on the ballot in BosniaBosnians will head to the polls this weekend for elections in one of the world’s most complicated political systems. Voters will elect three national presidents representing three main ethnic groups – one Bosniak, one Croat, and one Serb. Collectively, they serve as the country’s head of state. But the biggest [...]
A person holds a depiction of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, as people gather on the day of a campaign rally of a pre-candidate of the right-wing Brazil's senator Flavio Bolsonaro, ahead of the presidential elections, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

A person holds a depiction of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, as people gather on the day of a campaign rally of a pre-candidate of the right-wing Brazil's senator Flavio Bolsonaro, ahead of the presidential elections, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 1, 2026.

REUTERS/Jorge Silva
Brazilians head to the polls on Sunday to take the first step in deciding the future of Latin America’s largest economy, and potentially the political direction of the entire continent.The field is crowded, but two major players stand out: left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term, and right-wing Senator [...]
Unemployment on the up
Lottie Tellyn
Republicans won’t be happy with the final jobs report before the midterms. Job market growth was weaker than expected, adding fewer than half of the jobs economists had predicted. It was particularly bad for Black Americans, for whom the unemployment rate rose a whole percentage point to 7% – nearly double that of white Americans. Overall [...]
US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping watch a military demonstration from a balcony of the White House in Washington, D.C.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping watch a military demonstration from a balcony of the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 24, 2026.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Just three years ago, people around the world viewed the US more favorably than China. That is no longer the case. According to data published by the Pew Research Center this summer, China now receives more favorable ratings in most of the 36 countries surveyed.It’s a dramatic change from just a year ago, when 49% of those surveyed had a favorable [...]