Thin Mints as Soft Power: How Girl Scout Cookies Conquered a Planet That Can’t Agree on Anything Else By [Name Withheld to Protect the Guilty], International Affairs Desk GENEVA—While the UN Security Council spends another evening locked in performative stalemate over whose war crimes are more “contextual,” a stealthier multilateral force has managed unanimous global…
UnitedHealth Group’s ticker, UNH, has become the planet’s barometer for how much we’re collectively willing to pay not to die. From Singapore to São Paulo, analysts watch the same squiggly line crawl across their Bloomberg terminals, interpreting each uptick as proof that sickness remains the world’s most reliable growth industry. The stock hit another all-time…
Ashley Graham: The Planet-Sized Supermodel Who Refuses to Shrink (and Why That Terrifies Every Government from Oslo to Ouagadougou) When Ashley Graham sashays down a runway in Milan, the seismic ripples are measurable on every Richter scale from Reykjavík to Riyadh. The 36-year-old Nebraska export—equal parts collagen, charisma, and calculated rebellion—has done something no multinational…
In the grand bazaar of American football, where every yard gained is a national referendum on manhood and every dropped pass a Shakespearean tragedy, DeAndre “Nuk” Hopkins has always been the silk among the polyester. To the rest of the planet—where the word “football” still means a round ball you actually kick—Hopkins is less a…
ITV’s “Win Win” and the Global Glitter of Manufactured Hope By “Lucky” Lachlan Grimble, Senior Correspondent, Dave’s Locker Somewhere between the collapse of the Turkish lira and the re-election of a man who sells $60 Bibles in the United States, ITV quietly rolled out “Win Win,” a game show that promises contestants a lifetime salary…
Issa Rae and the Global Business of Being Seen Dave’s Locker – International Desk Somewhere between the 405 and the A1, Issa Rae stopped being merely “that awkward Black girl from YouTube” and became a stealth export product—part cultural soft power, part quarterly-earnings call. The rest of the planet, always hungry for American dysfunction packaged…
