MADRID—Somewhere in Silicon Valley, a bean-bag chair the size of Liechtenstein has just exhaled in relief. Facebook—sorry, Meta—has agreed to pay a modest €1.2 billion (roughly what Mark Zuckerberg spends annually on SPF 50) to settle a European privacy case that began when a law student in Vienna asked, in 2018, “Hey, what exactly do…
PARIS, 06:07 a.m. CEST—While polite Europeans were still arguing over whose turn it was to buy the croissants, shares of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) were already sliding in New York like a tourist who’s just discovered the metro ticket machines don’t take cash. The stock, which once promised to fuse Hollywood glamour with Discovery’s unembarrassed…
It is a truth universally acknowledged—by hedge-fund analysts in Singapore, crypto bros in Miami, and the guy who sells knock-off scarves outside the Waldstadion—that when Eintracht Frankfurt hosts Real Madrid, the planet tilts two degrees toward Europe’s financial black hole. On the surface it’s merely the second leg of a Champions League quarter-final, but down…
Sean Avery Is the Bad Boy Who Went Global, and We’re Still Watching the Replays By Dave’s Locker International Desk From the fjords of Finland to the noodle bars of Shanghai, references to “Sean Avery” now serve as shorthand for a very particular flavor of chaos: the kind that sells jerseys, court cases, and—if you…
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…
