**Quantum Roulette: Why the Whole Planet Is Watching a Maryland Startup’s Stock Ticker** *From Davos to Delhi, the IonQ wager is the latest proof that humanity will happily mortgage tomorrow for a 3% pop today.* GENEVA—While the Doomsday Clock inched to 89 seconds from midnight, delegates at this week’s UN “AI for Good” summit were…
When Edward Enninful closed the September 2023 issue of British Vogue with a quiet, almost surgical finality, the international fashion establishment did what it always does when confronted by an ending: it threw a lavish wake, posted it on Instagram, and wondered who would inherit the handbag allowance. From the glass-and-Dior-tiled offices of Condé Nast…
Emanuel Emegha: The Accidental Poster-Boy for a World That Can’t Kick Its Addiction to Speed By the time Emanuel Emegha buried the ball in the far corner for Royal Antwerp last month—clocked at an eye-watering 36.2 km/h by the league’s semi-reliable tracking drones—he wasn’t just outrunning a back-pedalling right-back. He was outpacing the attention span…
Daily Horoscope Today: A Cosmic Weather Report for a Planet That Forgot Its Umbrella By the time you read this, roughly 2.9 billion people—give or take a distracted doom-scroller in Jakarta—have already glanced at a horoscope. Some did it for comfort, others for procrastination, and a brave few to confirm that yes, Mercury is indeed…
Oti Mabuse and the Global Glitter Bomb: How a Pretoria-Born Dancer Became the UN’s Most Unlikely Soft-Power Weapon By A. Correspondent, filing from a hotel bar where the Wi-Fi costs more than the whisky There are, broadly speaking, two ways a country can project power in 2024. Option A: park a carrier group off someone…
Gabriella Brooks and the Global Art of Being Photographed Next to Liam Hemsworth By R. S. Delgado, International Correspondent Sydney to São Paulo, Stockholm to Seoul: if you’ve glanced at a screen in the last four years you’ve probably seen Gabriella Brooks standing next to a Hemsworth brother with the serene expression of someone who…
Priyanka Chopra Jonas: The Global Empress of Strategic Ambiguity By Our Resident Bureau Chief, Nursing a Third Espresso in a Hotel Bar Somewhere Between Continents When the United Nations announced its newest Goodwill Ambassador in 2016, diplomats who had spent the morning arguing over the precise definition of “genocide” were treated to the spectacle of…
The Petition: A Global Ritual in the Age of Empty Gestures By “Not Enough Signatures” McAllister, International Affairs Desk GENEVA—Somewhere between the morning espresso and the 11 a.m. existential crisis, the modern citizen reaches for the last tool of self-respect left in the diplomatic toolkit: the petition. In 2024, this humble scroll of grievances—now pixelated,…
WISSA INJURY: WHEN THE WORLD CUP MET THE WORLD’S MOST RELIABLE ACHILLES TENDON By the time the third orthopedic surgeon in three countries had tapped the same spot on Mohamed Wissa’s left hamstring, the injury had already become an international incident. Egyptian striker, Italian MRI machine, Qatari hospital, French rehab guru, and a global audience…
Baxter Dury: The World’s Most Reluctant Global Icon Sings From the Gutter Up by “International” Marvin, still jet-lagged in Terminal 3 Last Tuesday, while the planet’s stock markets performed their usual interpretive dance of cardiac arrest, a man who looks like he’s been personally wronged by daylight released a new record in a basement somewhere…
DP World Tour: Shipping Magnates, Sand Traps, and the Curious Alchemy of Global Branding By our correspondent, still jet-lagged in three time zones at once Jumeirah, Dubai — If you squint past the sun-flared skyline, you can just make out the 18th green of the Earth course, where golf’s latest multinational caravan has pitched its…
Appeal: The Last Refuge of the Global Scoundrel By Our Correspondent, Somewhere Between the Hague and Hollywood There is, perhaps, no finer spectator sport than watching the mighty file an appeal. From war-crimes defendants in bespoke suits to TikTok influencers clutching restraining orders, the act of appeal has become the universal pastime of the modern…
