GENEVA—While Washington practiced its favorite ritual dance of self-immolation last weekend, the rest of the planet watched with the same polite horror one reserves for a tipsy uncle lighting the Christmas pudding a little too enthusiastically. The Office of Management and Budget’s 127-page shutdown memo—equal parts bureaucratic lullaby and fiscal ransom note—was greeted from Nairobi…
The Nine-Lives of Lisa Aguilar: A Global Parable for the Post-Truth Age Dateline: Somewhere over the international date line, where yesterday’s conspiracy is tomorrow’s Netflix docu-series. If you missed the latest Twitter cyclone, allow me to catch you up: Lisa Aguilar, a 29-year-old municipal clerk from a mid-sized city whose greatest previous claim to fame…
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…
Steve Evans, the Man Who Accidentally Became a Global Metaphor By Our Correspondent in the Departures Lounge, Somewhere Over the Mid-Atlantic DATELINE—Somewhere between Brexit and BRICS, a 42-year-old civil servant named Steve Evans missed his flight to Frankfurt. By the time he reached the gate, the Airbus had already taxied away, carrying the last hopes…
Max Johnston: The Mid-Level Bureaucrat Who Accidentally Shook the World By “P. W. Blister,” Senior Correspondent, Dave’s Locker Global Desk VIENNA—At first glance, Max Johnston looks like the kind of man airports were built to ignore: mid-forties, off-the-rack suit the color of yesterday’s oatmeal, boarding pass perpetually creased in the exact same place. His passport—issued…
DEFRA: The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, or, as the rest of the planet calls it, “the world’s most polite ecological apocalypse manager.” While most nations still pretend climate change is a future problem, the United Kingdom has gamely elevated it to a cabinet-level spectator sport, complete with white papers, select committees, and…
