**The North London Derby’s Ugly Cousin: How Tottenham-West Ham Became the World’s Most Watched Family Feud** While diplomats in Geneva debate nuclear non-proliferation and central bankers fret over inflation rates, a more ancient form of human conflict unfolds in North London this weekend—one that proves our species hasn’t evolved nearly as much as we’d like…
The Patriots Schedule as Geopolitical Weather Vane A Dispatch from the Department of Overthinking Sports By the time the New England Patriots open their 2024 campaign against the Bengals in Cincinnati, no fewer than twelve sovereign governments will have changed, three currencies will have wobbled, and one rogue nation will have discovered that threatening nuclear…
Liverpool vs Everton: A 120-Year Grudge Match in a World on Fire By Diego “Seen Too Much” Morales, International Correspondent The Merseyside derby—Liverpool vs Everton, if you prefer the branding—is one of those quaint English customs that somehow still matters while the planet smolders. On Saturday, satellites will beam images of two sets of Scousers…
The planet’s most expensive mobile circus has published its 2025 itinerary, and—surprise—everywhere it lands it will find locals protesting, politicians posing, and hoteliers salivating like greyhounds at the starting gate. Twenty-four races, five continents, one global pandemic’s worth of carbon footprint: the Formula 1 calendar is back, and this year it is even more determined…
The Global Brotherhood of Commanders: A Field Guide to the Men (and Occasionally Women) Who Tell Everyone Else What to Do By Dave’s Foreign Desk, somewhere between a G-7 cocktail reception and a bunker in Burkina Faso There is a moment, usually around 2:00 a.m. local time, when every commander on earth—regardless of flag, ideology,…
WSL Fixtures: When London’s Sunday League Becomes a Geopolitical Chess Piece By Matteo “Still Jet-Lagged” Rossi, International Correspondent The Women’s Super League fixture list dropped this week, and—because nothing escapes the gravitational pull of global absurdity—its 22 matchdays now carry the weight of supply-chain crises, soft-power diplomacy, and whatever fresh dread the algorithm has queued…
Athletic Club – Barcelona: The Last Romantic Standing in a World That Swiped Right on Moneyball There are, roughly speaking, two kinds of football clubs left on the planet: those that treat the beautiful game as a balance sheet appendage, and Athletic Club, the stubborn Basque outpost that still insists football is a birthright rather…
MANCHESTER — Somewhere between the 17th replay of Marcus Rashford’s missed sitter and the 23rd VAR freeze-frame of a Leicester toenail in offside purgatory, the planet remembered that football is still the most efficient way to export existential dread. Manchester United versus Leicester City at Old Trafford wasn’t merely a mid-table squabble over the right…
CINCINNATI, OHIO—Somewhere between the Mekong Delta and the Ohio River Valley, the word “Bengal” mutates like a passport-forged variant. In Delhi it conjures visions of Royal Bengal tigers padding through Sunderbans mud; in London it evokes the 1970s curry houses of Brick Lane; and here, inside a $650-million riverside coliseum, it refers to a football…
The Granite State’s weekly ritual of scratching, tapping, and weeping over the New Hampshire Lottery looks, from 30,000 feet, like a charming New England quirk—until you notice the same scene playing out in 200-plus nations, each with its own fluorescent ticket and slightly more depressing odds. In Mumbai, commuters queue for “Playwin”; in São Paulo,…
Jane McDonald and the Curious Soft Power of a Cruise-Ship Chanteuse Dave’s Locker – International Desk, somewhere between the buffet and the lifeboats If you mention “Jane McDonald” in a Manchester pub, someone will involuntarily hum “Cruise,” raise an imaginary piña colada, and reminisce about 1998—the year Britain briefly convinced itself that nautical karaoke could…
Time Zones, Tyrants, and Tire Strategy: The Existential Question of “What Time Is F1 Today?” By our jaded correspondent in the cheap seats with a warm beer and a hotter passport Every race weekend, the planet’s most affluent insomniacs raise the same plaintive query: “What time is F1 today?” It sounds innocent—almost childlike—yet the question…
