The Pugilist Paradox: How Christy Martin Became the World’s Most Unlikely Geopolitical Barometer By L. Marchetti, Senior Correspondent, Somewhere Between the MGM Grand and Geneva On paper, Christy Martin was simply the first female boxer to land on the cover of Sports Illustrated, a southpaw sprite who could knock the enamel off your molars before…
WARSAW—Somewhere over the Bug River on Tuesday night, an unidentified flying object performed the drone-world equivalent of drunk-dialing an ex: it blundered into Polish airspace, ignored frantic radio calls, and finally face-planted into a forest outside the village of Zamość. Within minutes the Polish military—already jumpier than a cat at a dog show—scrambled F-16s, put…
Deebo Samuel’s 2023 stat line—1,770 all-purpose yards, 12 touchdowns, and an unofficial 247 bruised egos—may look like just another American football spreadsheet entry, but try explaining that to a Marseille dockworker streaming the NFC Championship on a cracked iPhone at 3 a.m. CET. To him, Deebo is less athlete, more avatar of late-capitalist velocity: a…
The mirror, that smug pane of silver-backed glass, has quietly become the most overworked diplomat on the planet. While ambassadors haggle over tariffs in Geneva, the mirror is out there every morning conducting its own multi-lateral negotiations—between one human face and the global supply chain that keeps it presentable. One quick glance and you’re staring…
Padres Games: The Last Imperial Pastime No One Asked For By Dorian S. Blight, International Correspondent SAN DIEGO—While half the planet scrambles to keep the lights on and the other half negotiates the price of daylight, the San Diego Padres are busy losing baseball games in exquisitely baroque fashion. To the untrained eye, it’s just…
The Eternal Press Conference An International Dispatch on Palestine, or How to Hold a 75-Year-Long Vigil for a Map By the time you finish reading this sentence, another minister in some distant capital will have declared that the “two-state solution remains the only viable path.” Meanwhile, the cartographers of the Levant have long since given…
Major League, Minor Morals: How the World’s Most Expensive Circus Keeps Re-Exporting American Exceptionalism By Ignacio “Nacho” Vega, International Correspondent, Dave’s Locker PARIS—On a drizzly evening in the 15th arrondissement, a bistro TV flickers between Ligue 1 highlights and the Yankees-Red Sox tilt. The French patrons, who pretend to disdain anything louder than a mime,…
John Simpson and the Uneasy Crown of the World’s Oldest War Correspondent By our man in the departure lounge, still waiting for the jet bridge to connect There is a moment, somewhere over the Hindu Kush or the Donbas steppe, when the cabin lights dim and the young reporter next to you begins composing a…
Nintendo Direct: The Planet Holds Its Breath While a Japanese Toymaker Reboots Our Collective Delusion By Dave’s Locker Global Affairs Desk Kyoto, 6 a.m. local time: salarymen stumble off night trains clutching convenience-store coffee, commuters queue for bullet-train platforms, and a small island nation quietly steers the attention span of eight billion people. Elsewhere, the…
From Lagos to Lisbon, Chance the Rapper has become the polite global ambassador of American angst—an improbable export who somehow convinced the planet that existential dread pairs nicely with gospel choirs and a knit cap. While other U.S. artists hawk gilded despair, Chance peddles it in pastel packaging, a marketing coup that makes even the…
The Curious Case of Harold Fannin Jr., or How a Buckeye Tight End Became the Planet’s Newest Geopolitical Football By the time Harold Fannin Jr. caught his third touchdown against Kent State last September, satellites from three continents had already locked onto the 6-foot-4, 242-pound sophomore. Not because the NSA suddenly cares about MACtion, mind…
Rio de Janeiro—Early evening, and the Atlantic is doing that postcard trick where the sun melts into the sea like cheap margarine. Somewhere behind me, a vendor hawks caipirinhas to German influencers who will later post “good-vibes-only” captions while their home government debates whether sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine is still gauche. Brazil, ever the…
