Bears, Bombers, and the Bering Strait: Russian Jets Over Alaska Remind the World the Cold War Has Excellent Brand Recall By Our Correspondent Who Once Mistook a MiG for a Migrating Goose ANCHORAGE—Somewhere between the salmon canneries and Sarah Palin’s former backyard, NORAD’s radar operators had a moment of déjà vu this week: four Russian…
Brittany Fortinberry and the Quiet Collapse of International Order By Our Correspondent, Somewhere Over the Atlantic (Wi-Fi permitting) PARIS—In the grand bazaar of global affairs, where nuclear threats are tweeted at breakfast and supply-chain hiccups bankrupt nations by tea-time, the name Brittany Fortinberry might scan as a typo. Yet the 34-year-old Baton Rouge native—currently sipping…
Amber Davis and the Algorithmic Afterlife of a Name By Our Sardonically Jet-Lagged Correspondent PARIS—Somewhere between the croissant crumbs and the existential dread that coats every European breakfast, the name “Amber Davis” started trending on five continents at once. Not the Amber Davis who teaches pilates in Wichita, nor the Amber Davis who sells artisanal…
Zion Foster and the Global Machinery of Missing Children By Dave’s Far-Flung Correspondent, sipping tepid coffee in an airport that still thinks it’s 2019 The name “Zion Foster” first pinged on international radar not with the fanfare of a royal birth or a crypto-crash, but with the quiet dread that accompanies every new entry in…
The Global Fender-Bender Economy: Why Your Search for a “Car Accident Lawyer Near Me” Is a Tiny, Honking Piece of World History By Our Correspondent, currently stuck in traffic outside Manila PARIS—Somewhere between the Arc de Triomphe and the seventh Uber that just clipped a Smart car, a tourist from Bangalore Googles “car accident lawyer…
Today’s Weather: A Planet-Wide Mood Ring That Refuses to Cooperate By Dave’s International Desk, still waiting for the sun to show up to its own press conference Somewhere between the Sahara and Siberia, the atmosphere is once again playing roulette with our collective sanity. From Ulaanbaatar to Ushuaia, “today’s weather” is less a forecast than…
Coventry Building Society Arena: A Carpeted Coliseum for the Age of Perpetual Rebranding By Our Man in Limbo, filing from a hotel minibar somewhere east of everywhere In the grand tradition of naming rights gone wild, the Coventry Building Society Arena stands as a monument to late-capitalist nomenclature—half gladiatorial bowl, half mortgage brochure. To the…
Country to Country 2026: A Global Hoedown Where Apocalypse Meets Banjo By Our Correspondent, filed from an undisclosed airport lounge with suspiciously sticky floors Somewhere between Reykjavik and Riyadh, the marketing department for Country to Country 2026 has decided the world is finally ready for a three-day, multi-continental yee-haw, complete with corporate-branded Stetsons and carbon…
Argyle Street Ash: The Tiny Cigarette Butt That Went Viral and Took the World With It By Our Correspondent in a Hotel Minibar, Somewhere Over the Pacific It began, as most modern catastrophes do, with a single flick—an idle gesture from a Scottish tourist outside a shuttered noodle shop in Hong Kong’s Mong Kok district….
Kasabian: The Word That Refuses to Stay Buried By Dave’s Foreign Desk PARIS—Every so often a single syllable ricochets across continents like a drunken tourist who’s lost his passport. “Kasabian” is that syllable—pronounced kuh-SAH-bee-un to the Brits, ka-SAH-bian to the Americans, and “turn that racket down” to anyone over 55. Internationally, the word now carries…
Greatest Hits Radio: The Planet’s Collective Nostalgia Loop, Now with Ads for Funeral Insurance By Our Correspondent Somewhere Between the 80s and Oblivion There’s a moment, somewhere over the mid-Atlantic, when the in-flight entertainment system offers “Classic Rock Workout” and the opening bars of “Eye of the Tiger” leak from 300 plastic headsets like a…
Bobby Witt Jr. and the Last Empire: How a Kid from Texas Became the World’s Unwitting Soft-Power Asset By Dave’s International Sourpuss-in-Residence Somewhere between a NATO summit and a TikTok dance-off, the planet’s attention economy pivoted last week to a 24-year-old shortstop who still looks like he ought to be carded at a Kansas City…
