non sapere che pesci pigliare

Italian

Literally, “to not know which fish to take”.

(idiomatic) to be unable to find possible inroads or solutions to a problem; to be at a loss for what to do
- 2020, Barack Obama, chapter 21, in Chicca Galli, Paolo Lucca, Giuseppe Maugeri, transl., Una terra promessa [A Promised Land], Garzanti Libri:
  ... al telefono ci avevano descritto un gran caos, con i cinesi e gli altri leader dei BRICS che non si schiodavano dalle loro posizioni... i danesi e gli organizzatori dell'ONU che non sapevano più che pesci pigliare e i gruppi ambientalisti in attesa, disperati di fronte a quello che assomigliava ogni istante di più a un completo sfacelo.
  ... over the phone, they described a chaotic scene, with the Chinese and other BRICS leaders dug in on their position... Danish and UN organizers feeling overwhelmed, and environmental groups in attendance despairing over what increasingly looked like a dumpster fire.
  (literally, “... over the phone they had described to us a great chaos, with the Chinese and the other BRICS leaders who were not budging from their positions... the Danes and the UN organizers who were now at a loss for what to do and the environmental groups in attendance desperate in front of what seemed more and more like a collapse by the second.”)