Shamim Hossain: The Man Who Accidentally Became a Global Metaphor By Dave’s Locker International Desk DHAKA—On a humid Tuesday that felt like every other humid Tuesday, 34-year-old Shamim Hossain stepped off the back of a Dhaka-bound pickup truck clutching a plastic bag full of SIM cards and a ream of photocopied invoices. In that instant,…
**The Digital Gold Rush: How MicroStrategy Became the World’s Most Expensive Bitcoin ETF (With a Side of Existential Dread)** In the grand casino we call global finance, MicroStrategy (MSTR) has emerged as the high-roller who mortgaged his house to buy more chips, convinced the roulette wheel owes him one. The Virginia-based business intelligence firm—remember when…
Tony Blair Rides Again: The Eternal Comeback Kid of the Post-Liberal Order An International Post-Mortem on the Man Who Refuses to Lie Down By the time you finish this sentence, Tony Blair will have appeared on a panel in Singapore, launched a commission in Abuja, and offered “strategic advice” to a clutch of nervous Gulf…
Colin Firth: The Last Englishman the World Still Pretends to Admire By Elias Moreau, Senior Continental Correspondent PARIS—Every few years the planet’s streaming algorithms decide we need another reminder that Britain once ruled the waves by giving Colin Firth a new costume and a tragic backstory. From Delhi duplexes to São Paulo sublets, subtitles flicker…
Billy Vigar: A Name Whispered Between Bankers and Baristas from Buenos Aires to Bangkok By Dave’s Locker Foreign Desk In the grand casino we call the early-2020s global economy, every few months a new face appears at the high-stakes table, chips stacked suspiciously high, smile calibrated to look simultaneously boyish and sociopathic. This season’s guest…
The Empire Strikes Back—With Ball-by-Ball Commentary By the Bureau Chief for Existential Sportsball, somewhere over the Indian Ocean Somewhere between the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of TikTok, a quiet data-colony called ESPNcricinfo slipped its leash and began running the cricket world by remote control. Once a modest scorecard service born in…
**Predators in the Bargain Bin: How Sale Sharks Circle the Globe** The term “sale sharks” once conjured images of rugby players in Manchester rain. Today it describes a far more dangerous breed: the predatory operators who stalk global markets with the patience of crocodiles and the ethics of piranhas. From Lagos to London, these creatures…
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – The Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium, Tuesday night. Floodlights glare like interrogation lamps over a patch of grass that, for 90 minutes, will serve as a microcosm of the entire petroleum-funded fever dream we politely call the 21st-century Gulf. On one side, Al-Hilal—Cristiano Ronaldo’s neighbor, Neymar’s current employer, and the sovereign…
Moscow and Kyiv, once the estranged siblings of a very dysfunctional Slavic family, have now spent more than two years demonstrating how quickly the polite fictions of international order can be strip-mined for scrap metal. The rest of the planet, meanwhile, has perfected the art of watching from a safe distance while pretending to be…
Harlem’s bulletproof baritone has done what most UN envoys only fantasize about: he’s become a one-man soft-power export. From Lagos barbershops to Seoul karaoke booths, Luke Cage—Marvel’s titanium-skinned ex-con turned reluctant folk hero—has transcended his Netflix zip code to become a global allegory for indestructible cool. The character, born in 1972 as a blaxploitation quick-buck…
When Kyle Lowry finally packed his bags for Miami, the transaction felt less like a sports trade and more like a geopolitical realignment. Overnight, a 35-year-old point guard from North Philly became the Raptors’ most successful export since insulin and polite resentment. Around the globe, embassies did not issue advisories, but they probably should have:…
Genoa vs Empoli: A Maritime Tragedy Masquerading as a Football Match If you stare long enough at the Ligurian Sea from the crumbling terraces of Stadio Luigi Ferraris, you can almost see container ships full of cheap plastic optimism sailing straight past Genoa toward richer ports. Thursday’s relegation six-pointer against Empoli will not divert that…
