Jason Manford: The Comedian Who Accidentally Became a Geopolitical Weathervane When the first missiles landed in Kyiv last February, global Twitter feeds briefly synchronized around a single, improbable question: “What would Jason Manford do?” The query, posted by a bored Ukrainian conscript from a Lviv bomb shelter, trended in 42 countries within hours—not because Manford…
Kecoughtan High School: Where American Adolescence Meets the Apocalypse—A Dispatch from the Frontlines of Global Decline By Dave’s International Affairs Desk Hampton, Virginia—If you want to see the future of the planet laid out like a poorly supervised group project, buy a one-way ticket to Kecoughtan High School. From the outside it’s a red-brick rectangle…
It’s 3 a.m. in a Nairobi newsroom, and the overnight editor is scanning a live feed from Washington, watching Jeanine Pirro bark at a camera about “globalist conspiracies” with the volume of a small jet engine. Halfway across the planet, a Brussels policy wonk pours another espresso, wondering how a former small-town district attorney turned…
The Curious Case of Malik Nabers: How a 20-Year-Old from Louisiana Became the Canary in the NFL’s Global Coal Mine By Our Man in the Cheap Seats, Somewhere over the Atlantic If you had told a Parisian sommelier, a Singaporean crypto-evangelist, and a Lagos ride-hailing driver to place bets on the next American export likely…
Lesotho vs. South Africa: A David-and-Goliath Match Nobody Asked For By Our Man in Maseru Who’s Learned to Never Order a Steak in Either Country If you squint at the map long enough, Lesotho looks like South Africa’s kidney stone—small, painful, and lodged precisely where Pretoria can’t ignore it. This week, however, the two countries…
Benin vs Zimbabwe: A Tale of Two Economies, One Currency Crisis, and the Global Circus That Watches By the time the final whistle blows in Cotonou this weekend, the real score won’t be on the pitch—it’ll be in the IMF’s inbox. Benin versus Zimbabwe isn’t just an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier; it’s a geopolitical…
Peter Kyle and the Great British Firewall: How One Minister Accidentally Became the World’s Most Reluctant Cyber-Czar By Dave’s Locker International Desk Somewhere between the second flat white and the third existential crisis of a Wednesday, Peter Kyle—the UK’s Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology—found himself promoted from obscure MP for Hove to…
Steve Reed and the Curious Resilience of the Provincial Everyman on the World Stage By Our Cynical Correspondent, Somewhere Between Gatwick and Gatling If you mention “Steve Reed” in a bar in Brooklyn, a bodega in Bogotá, or a boardroom in Beijing, the reaction is a blank stare followed by polite nodding—the universal sign for…
Victoria Falls rumbles like an overworked espresso machine while the rest of the planet argues about whose currency is collapsing fastest. Downstream, Zambia—population 20 million, GDP roughly the cost of a Silicon Valley parking lot—keeps calm and carries on, which is what you do when carrying on is the only option left on the menu….
Justice Secretary: A Title That Travels Poorly By Our Correspondent Somewhere Slightly Safer Than Where You Are The phrase “Justice Secretary” sounds like a job invented by a wishful-thinking focus group: a bureaucrat who keeps justice in a filing cabinet, dusts it off for photo-ops, and quietly mails it to the wrong address when no…
UFC 321: A Global Punchline in a Fractured World by Marcello “The Guillotine” Ghirga Abu Dhabi, 04:30 local—somewhere between the falafel stands and the $17 mojitos, the planet’s most profitable fistfight just ended, and the International Monetary Fund barely noticed. UFC 321, officially christened “Worlds Collide (Visa Fees Not Included),” rolled out the red carpet…
The Curious Case of Hugo Hernández-Méndez: How One Man’s Misfortune Became the World’s Favorite Schadenfreude By the time Hugo Hernández-Méndez’s name started trending in five languages and three alphabets, the poor man had already missed his own funeral—twice. First, when a premature death notice circulated on a Mexican state-run website; second, when the same government…
