Volcanic ash from Iceland had barely settled on European flight paths when, six time zones west, a modest college basketball arena in Johnson City, Tennessee, staged the kind of mismatch that makes the rest of the planet shrug, sip its espresso, and mutter, “Ah, America, still exporting spectacle over substance.” East Tennessee State—population 14,000 students,…
Rugby World Cup 2025: When the World Decides to Beat Each Other Up Politely By Our Correspondent, Nursing a Concussion of the Soul England, 7 September 2025 – While the planet smolders gently under record July temperatures and central banks play “who can spook the markets faster,” twenty nations have agreed to settle their differences…
The Ballad of JJ McCarthy, or How a Kid from La Grange Park Accidentally Became a Geopolitical Prop Somewhere between the Danube and the Mekong, foreign-policy wonks are quietly updating their risk matrices because a 21-year-old quarterback with a Roman-numeral nickname just got drafted by the Minnesota Vikings. The name is JJ McCarthy—two initials so…
Austin Peay vs. Georgia: When the World’s Problems Pause for 40 Minutes of Manufactured Hope by Diego Morales, International Correspondent-at-Large The University of Georgia Bulldogs—an outfit valued somewhere between a Baltic nation’s GDP and Jeff Bezos’ weekend yacht budget—took the floor Saturday against Austin Peay State University, whose annual athletics subsidy is roughly what the…
Morgan Rogers and the Grand Illusion of Modern Football By Dave’s Foreign Correspondent (Still Jet-Lagged in Dubai Duty-Free) There is a moment—usually around the 73rd minute, when the floodlights hum like tired cicadas and the stadium Wi-Fi finally buckles under 60,000 TikTok uploads—when a player like Morgan Rogers reminds the planet why it collectively agreed…
Bryson DeChambeau, the human launch monitor who looks like he bench-presses physics textbooks, has become golf’s most reliable export of controlled chaos. While the rest of the planet argues over tariffs, carbon credits, and whose submarine is parked in whose harbor, DeChambeau is busy re-engineering the supposedly pastoral game into something resembling a NASA stress…
PARIS—Somewhere between the fifth croissant and the third existential crisis of the week, the name Kellen Moore ping-ponged through the global sports-commentariat like a ricocheting drone strike. To the average Parisian barista, the phrase “Kellen Moore” sounds like the latest Scandinavian furniture line—minimalist, vaguely threatening, and guaranteed to fall apart after four seasons. Yet on…
FAYETTEVILLE, USA — Somewhere between the Ozarks and the Ozempic, the Arkansas Razorbacks are playing football again. That may sound like local color to most of the planet, but in an era when American college sports have become the last reliable export that doesn’t explode on the launchpad, the Razorbacks are—believe it or not—global news….
Notts County: The 160-Year-Old Football Club Teaching the World How to Survive Its Own Stupidity By Our Man in the East Midlands, nursing a lukewarm pint and déjà vu Meadow Lane, Nottingham – In a week when Silicon Valley titans were congratulating themselves for inventing the “metaverse pub” (basically a chat room with beer NFTs),…
Yerevan—The Armenian capital smells of apricots, diesel, and the faint, metallic whiff of existential dread that hovers over any nation whose neighbor keeps tanks on the lawn. On Thursday night, that bouquet was joined by grilled sardines and Cristiano Ronaldo’s cologne as Portugal rolled into town for a Euro qualifier. The final score—Portugal 3, Armenia…
Tyrese Haliburton and the Quiet Americanization of the World’s Living Room By Dave’s Locker Foreign Desk When a 23-year-old from Oshkosh, Wisconsin—yes, the place that still manufactures overalls—drops 43 points on the NBA’s most marketable franchise while wearing sneakers named after a Japanese manga demon, you begin to understand why geopolitics now comes with a…
Arsenal Women’s meteoric rise isn’t merely a feel-good subplot for North-London nostalgists eating lukewarm pies at the Emirates; it’s a geopolitical mood ring that turns pink whenever global power shifts. While diplomats in Geneva argue over commas in climate accords, Jonas Eidevall’s side has quietly weaponised possession statistics and pressed the patriarchy into its own…
