Rhea Ripley, the Australian-born harbinger of controlled chaos currently squatting in the WWE’s “Raw” division like a goth tarantula on a wedding cake, has become the rare piece of sports entertainment that actually exports something other than merch and disappointment. From the neon back-alleys of Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall to the fluorescent aisles of a São…
In the spring of 2025, governments from Reykjavík to Rabat will once again reach into the same threadbare pocket and pull out a fistful of freshly minted cost-of-living payments—those discreet fiscal love-taps meant to convince citizens that inflation is just a passing mood swing. The sums vary: Berlin dishes out €300 per adult, Jakarta opts…
Flushing, Queens—population 2.4 million if you count the pigeons—plays host today to a modest nine-inning affair between the New York Mets and whoever fate has lined up to be sacrificial. On the surface it’s merely “Mets game today,” three words that sound as routine as a Tokyo salaryman bowing to the 6:02 a.m. Chuo Line….
Michigan’s Schedule Is the New Geopolitical Crystal Ball By Dave’s Locker International Desk In a world where central banks blink and markets convulse, the one document that now moves global capital faster than a Russian troll farm is the humble Michigan Wolverines football schedule. Yes, the same scrap of paper your cousin in Kalamazoo tapes…
Southern Miss vs Louisiana Tech: A Microcosm of Global Decline, Played on Astroturf in Hattiesburg By Dave’s Locker Foreign Correspondent-at-Large There are, at any given moment, roughly 7.9 billion people who do not care that the University of Southern Mississippi is scheduled to collide with Louisiana Tech on a mild Saturday in Conference-USA’s death rattle….
Georgia State vs Vanderbilt: When a Commodore Meets a Panther, the Rest of the World Checks Its Watch By Our Man in Exile, currently somewhere over the Atlantic In the grand tapestry of human endeavor, there are events that tilt continents and others that merely rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. Somewhere between those…
Flushing, Queens—Tuesday night—where the Mets are busy losing in extra innings while the rest of the planet pretends to be asleep. Somewhere above Citi Field, a Lufthansa A-350 banks toward Frankfurt, its passengers blissfully unaware that their 401(k)s are now being piloted by a rookie relief pitcher who just walked the bases loaded. In the…
Idaho’s capital is not, by any stretch, a geopolitical choke point. Yet on a crisp Saturday evening in late November, the Boise State Broncos and the Air Force Falcons will square off on a rectangle of blue plastic so garish it can be seen from the International Space Station—an orbital fact proudly cited by locals…
Nathaniel Rateliff: The Whiskey-Soaked Minstrel Exporting Heartbreak to a Planet Already on the Brink By the time the sun rises over the Mekong, Nathaniel Rateliff has already soundtracked three break-ups, two political implosions, and one very confused rooster in a Vientiane hostel courtyard. In a world where Spotify algorithms decide geopolitical mood swings faster than…
Casualty, n. – a word the world keeps in its back pocket like a crumpled receipt for something it never meant to buy. From Kyiv’s shell-pocked maternity wards to California’s smouldering subdivisions, the term is waved about by generals, insurers, and TikTok livestreamers alike, each polishing the same grim syllables until they shine with bespoke…
PARIS—In the grand amphitheatre of Roland-Garros, where the clay is the color of dried blood and the Parisian sky looks perpetually disappointed in you, Alexander Zverev appears to be auditioning for a role he never asked to play: the last sane man in tennis. At 6’6″, with the gait of someone who has read too…
If you squint at the right angle, Trevon Diggs looks less like a cornerback and more like a one-man global supply-chain disruption. Every time the Dallas Cowboys’ No. 7 snatches a pass out of the sky, somewhere in Shenzhen a factory foreman is told to halt production on the next batch of opposing-quarterback jerseys—demand just…
