And, lately, the country’s ultrarich have been behaving like modern-day land barons, quietly assembling empires measured not just in acres but in square miles and state sizes.
Abu Dhabi is the biggest by landmass of the seven emirates making up the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the second most populous after Dubai, while its main city is both the capital of the emirate and the wider UAE.
But these are relatively new arrivals on Earth; all three kingdoms are less than one billion years old.
—
Big Think,
Big Think,
17 Feb. 2026
Discovering a site like this allows archaeologists to further understand the culture and society of early medieval England, when the country was fragmented into several kingdoms but rulers like Offa were beginning to unify it and Alfred the Great was fighting off Viking invaders.
Several countries that once abolished their monarchies—including Spain, Cambodia, and Britain (under Oliver Cromwell)—later restored them as constitutional monarchies.
And they are captivated by a vision of an imperial federation, with a parliament in London, where Britain would be an important partner, but just one, and where Canada and the other dominions would have representation.
And the reason for that is that the default data and the default experience does not coincide with the ratings that the ratings agencies attribute to African sovereigns.
—
Harvard Business Review,
Harvard Business Review,
13 Nov. 2025
Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, has similarly dropped into deep curtsies when meeting other sovereigns on trips abroad.
There are no better CEOs in the nation than in the airline industry – in operational, financial, strategic domains and their individual characters are sterling.
With crops failing and fears of starvation rising, some wealthy Italian city-states like Florence and Venice imported grain from elsewhere in the world.
—
Evan Bush,
NBC news,
4 Dec. 2025
An ensuing grain shortage threatened to spark a famine or civil unrest, so Italian city-states, such as Venice and Genoa, resorted to emergency imports from the Black Sea region, which helped keep the population fed.
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