Foreign Relations
Current leaders and their ties abroad
Current leaders and their ties abroad
| Person | The clue |
|---|---|
| 🇮🇱 Benjamin Netanyahu Israel | Spent much of his childhood and teens near Philadelphia |
| 🇨🇳 Xi Jinping China | Slept in a Star Trek-themed bedroom in Iowa while learning about farming |
| 🇹🇭 Maha Vajiralongkorn Thailand | Lived mostly in German luxury hotels, even after becoming king |
| 🇯🇵 Sanae Takaichi Japan | Worked for a US congresswoman in Washington |
Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu lived in Cheltenham Township outside Philadelphia in 1956–58 and 1963–67 and graduated from Cheltenham High School in 1967.
Xi Jinping. In 1985 Xi, then a county official in Hebei, led a five-man agricultural delegation to Iowa and stayed in Muscatine in the Dvorchak family's son's Star Trek-themed room.
Maha Vajiralongkorn. King since 2016, he spent most of his time in Bavaria (a villa in Tutzing, the Sonnenbichl hotel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen) until protests at home in 2020, when Germany warned that Thai politics must not be conducted from German soil.
Sanae Takaichi. From 1987 to 1989 Takaichi was a US congressional fellow in the office of Rep. Pat Schroeder, a Colorado Democrat.
Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency (2025); Chinese government portal gov.cn (2025); DW (2020); NPR (2025) See the source.
Tea Champion
Which country drinks the most tea per person?
| # | Country | Tea consumption per capita (kg per year) (kg/yr per capita) | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇹🇷 Turkey | 3.16 | 2016 |
| 2 | 🇮🇪 Ireland | 2.19 | 2016 |
| 3 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 1.94 | 2016 |
| 4 | 🇷🇺 Russia | 1.38 | 2016 |
| 5 | 🇲🇦 Morocco | 1.22 | 2016 |
| 6 | 🇳🇿 New Zealand | 1.19 | 2016 |
| 7 | 🇪🇬 Egypt | 1.01 | 2016 |
| 8 | 🇵🇱 Poland | 1 | 2016 |
| 9 | 🇯🇵 Japan | 0.97 | 2016 |
| 10 | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | 0.9 | 2016 |
| 11 | 🇿🇦 South Africa | 0.81 | 2016 |
| 12 | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 0.78 | 2016 |
| 13 | 🇦🇺 Australia | 0.75 | 2016 |
| 14 | 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | 0.72 | 2016 |
| 15 | 🇩🇪 Germany | 0.69 | 2016 |
| 16 | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong | 0.65 | 2016 |
| 17 | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | 0.58 | 2016 |
| 18 | 🇨🇳 China | 0.57 | 2016 |
| 19 | 🇨🇦 Canada | 0.51 | 2016 |
| 20 | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | 0.48 | 2016 |
| 21 | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | 0.46 | 2016 |
| 22 | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 0.44 | 2016 |
| 23 | 🇨🇿 Czechia | 0.42 | 2016 |
| 24 | 🇸🇬 Singapore | 0.37 | 2016 |
| 25 | 🇸🇰 Slovakia | 0.36 | 2016 |
| 26 | 🇮🇳 India | 0.33 | 2016 |
| 27 | 🇸🇪 Sweden | 0.29 | 2016 |
| 28 | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | 0.29 | 2016 |
| 29 | 🇭🇺 Hungary | 0.28 | 2016 |
| 30 | 🇦🇹 Austria | 0.27 | 2016 |
| 31 | 🇳🇴 Norway | 0.27 | 2016 |
| 32 | 🇫🇮 Finland | 0.24 | 2016 |
| 33 | 🇺🇸 United States | 0.23 | 2016 |
| 34 | 🇦🇷 Argentina | 0.21 | 2016 |
| 35 | 🇫🇷 France | 0.2 | 2016 |
| 36 | 🇮🇱 Israel | 0.2 | 2016 |
| 37 | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | 0.2 | 2016 |
| 38 | 🇰🇷 South Korea | 0.17 | 2016 |
| 39 | 🇩🇰 Denmark | 0.15 | 2016 |
| 40 | 🇪🇸 Spain | 0.15 | 2016 |
| 41 | 🇮🇹 Italy | 0.14 | 2016 |
| 42 | 🇧🇪 Belgium | 0.13 | 2016 |
| 43 | 🇧🇬 Bulgaria | 0.11 | 2016 |
| 44 | 🇷🇴 Romania | 0.07 | 2016 |
| 45 | 🇵🇹 Portugal | 0.06 | 2016 |
| 46 | 🇹🇭 Thailand | 0.05 | 2016 |
| 47 | 🇵🇭 Philippines | 0.03 | 2016 |
| 48 | 🇧🇷 Brazil | 0.02 | 2016 |
| 49 | 🇨🇴 Colombia | 0.02 | 2016 |
| 50 | 🇬🇷 Greece | 0.02 | 2016 |
| 51 | 🇵🇪 Peru | 0.02 | 2016 |
| 52 | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | 0.02 | 2016 |
| 53 | 🇲🇽 Mexico | 0.01 | 2016 |
Turkey drinks 3.16 kg of tea per person a year, ahead of Ireland and the UK. China is only #18 (0.57 kg) and India #26, even though both grow it. Tea is the everyday drink in Turkey. Statista 2016, 53 countries.
Source: Statista (2016, paywalled; original publisher unverified) via Wikipedia "List of countries by tea consumption per capita" (revision of 10 Feb 2020) See the source.
Lakes Don't Count
Largest countries by land area
| # | Country | Land area, inland water excluded (km²) | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇷🇺 Russia | 16,376,870 | 2024 |
| 2 | 🇨🇳 China | 9,388,210 | 2024 |
| 3 | 🇺🇸 United States | 9,147,420 | 2024 |
| 4 | 🇨🇦 Canada | 8,788,700 | 2024 |
| 5 | 🇧🇷 Brazil | 8,358,140 | 2024 |
| 6 | 🇦🇺 Australia | 7,688,287 | 2024 |
Russia is first, at 16,376,870 km² of land. China (9,388,210) is second and the United States (9,147,420) is third. Canada is fourth, not second: the usual 'second largest' ranking counts lakes and other inland water, and this series leaves that water out. Brazil and Australia are fifth and sixth.
Source: World Bank land area (AG.LND.TOTL.K2), 2024 See the source.