Tax Season: The World’s Least-Wanted World Cup By Our Globally Jet-Lagged Correspondent Every spring—autumn if you’re unlucky enough to live below the equator—humanity divides itself into two camps: those who file tax returns and those who pretend their Wi-Fi died three weeks ago. From the fjords of Norway to the fluorescent cubicles of Manila’s BPO…
**The Mouse That Streams: Disney+ and the Global Colonization of Eyeballs** While the world burns through its remaining fossil fuels and democratic institutions, 164 million households across six continents have found something far more pressing to worry about: whether they can stream *Moana* in 4K. Disney+, the entertainment giant’s three-year-old streaming service, has become the…
Home-Run Diplomacy: How Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani Accidentally Became Soft-Power Envoys By Dave’s Locker Global Desk TOKYO—While the world’s foreign ministries argue over tariffs and tweets, the two men most likely to decide the 2024 MLB home-run crown are conducting their own brand of shuttle diplomacy—one swing at a time. Aaron Judge, the 6-foot-7…
Dodger Score: How a Hollywood Box-Office Metric Became the World’s Favorite Anxiety Index By our correspondent in the cheap seats, watching the planet swing and miss LOS ANGELES—MANILA—LONDON—The phrase “Dodger score” still sounds, to innocent ears, like the nightly tally of how many millions the boys in blue left on base in Chavez Ravine. But…
The Ballad of Martha Wainwright, or How One Contralto Became the Soundtrack to a Planet Unraveling The first time Martha Wainwright’s voice reached Ulaanbaatar, it arrived via a bootleg cassette smuggled in a yak-wool sock. The customs agent who confiscated it was later found weeping in a yurt, clutching the tape like contraband absolution. That,…
**The 5-Second Rule Goes Global: How Mel Robbins Became Earth’s Favorite Life Coach** While the planet burns through its third consecutive hottest year on record and various apocalypses compete for our attention, humanity has found its savior in a former criminal defense attorney from Massachusetts. Mel Robbins—whose name sounds like either a self-help guru or…
Screaming Eagle, Meet World: How a Stylized Helmet Became a Global Rorschach Test By the time the average European commuter has finished her second espresso, the average American commuter has already pledged emotional allegiance to a cartoon bird, a nautical pirate, or an anthropomorphic piece of dairy. The NFL logo—technically just a shield with a…
PARIS — Somewhere between a croissant and a nervous breakdown, I found myself staring at a pair of Ray-Bans that can translate Mandarin in real time, tell me my blood sugar is spiking, and—because why not—live-stream my existential dread to a server in North Virginia. Meta’s newest “smart glasses” have landed on five continents at…
**The Postcode Lottery: Where Your Address Determines Your Destiny** In the grand casino of life, it appears the house always wins—especially when the house in question is determined by a random string of letters and numbers assigned by postal services. The People’s Postcode Lottery, that peculiarly British invention where neighbors collectively gamble on their geographic…
SAP Center: Silicon Valley’s Coliseum Where Code Meets Chaos By Our Correspondent, who once watched a hockey fight break out during a blockchain keynote—San José, California. From the moment you step off the VTA light-rail and inhale the mingled aromas of churros, burnt clutch, and existential dread, it’s clear the SAP Center isn’t just another…
PARIS—While diplomats in Brussels were busy arguing over the precise shade of green that denotes “sustainable” natural gas, 9,317 spectators inside the Accor Arena were witnessing something genuinely renewable: a fourth-quarter Diana Taurasi tantrum so volcanic it could have been classified under the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme. The Mercury’s 84-78 loss to the Storm was,…
Real Salt Lake vs LAFC: A Riot in the Rockies, a Ballet in Beverly Hills—And Why a Kazakhstani Goat Herder Should Care SALT LAKE CITY—High above the Great Basin, where the air is thin and the liquor laws Byzantine, two Major League Soccer franchises prepared to do battle last night with the solemn urgency of…
