Lisbon, Portugal – Somewhere between the fado bars and the pastel de nata stands a 120-year-old football club whose annual drama is more binge-worthy than any Netflix mini-series. Benfica FC, the self-anointed “People’s Club,” has spent the past century perfecting the art of almost-glory while exporting heartbreak to five continents. From Maputo to Macau, supporters…
The planet is currently 8.3 billion souls deep and still counting, yet for nine consecutive nights every autumn roughly a fifth of them voluntarily surrender sleep, carbohydrates, and any remaining sense of irony. Welcome to Navratri— the festival that proves humanity can synchronize global insomnia without a single push-notification from Meta. Picture it: from the…
Celtic’s 3-1 dismissal of Hibernian at Parkhead this afternoon was, on the face of it, a routine domestic chore in a league where the only real suspense is whether the Hoops will secure the title before the clocks change. Yet the match arrived on global screens carrying more geopolitical baggage than a Davos delegate’s suitcase….
Rosh Hashanah: The World’s Most Expensive Ten-Day Existential Audit If you listen carefully this Monday night, you’ll hear the same low, slightly off-key blast from ram’s horns from Melbourne to Montevideo, followed by the unmistakable thud of overpriced apples hitting honey jars. That sound is the planet’s 15-million-strong Jewish diaspora starting its fiscal year with…
Ireland, that verdant island dangling off Europe’s northwestern fringe like an afterthought God forgot to edit out, has spent the last century turning national neuroses into a surprisingly lucrative export. While the rest of us were busy weaponising nostalgia or monetising trauma, the Irish quietly packaged both, slapped a shamrock on it, and sold it…
The Punjabi Diaspora’s Favorite Baritone: Karan Aujla and the Globalization of Revenge Pop By Our Man in the Duty-Free Lounge Somewhere between the 39,000-foot cruising altitude of Emirates EK215 and the fluorescent hell of LAX baggage claim, Karan Aujla’s bass line is rattling in a stranger’s AirPods. The song—“52 Bars”—isn’t technically new, yet it’s charting…
