Stockholm Syndrome, Global Edition: Watching the World Argue Over a 20-Year-Old Who Still Can’t Legally Rent a Car in Most U.S. States By Dave’s International Affairs Desk The planet’s most famous truant is at it again. Greta Thunberg, whose 2018 “Skolstrejk för klimatet” began as a solo cardboard protest outside the Swedish parliament, has now…
Guatemala vs. The Rest of the World: A David-sized Slingshot Aimed at the Goliath of Global Indifference By Our Correspondent, still brushing volcanic ash off his notebook At first glance, “Guatemala vs” looks like an unfinished Twitter feud—half a headline, half a dare. Yet the open-ended preposition is precisely the point. In courtrooms from Washington…
**The Age of Gridiron Diplomacy: How JJ McCarthy’s 21 Years Shook the Geopolitical Chessboard** In a world where nuclear codes rest in the hands of men who can’t operate TikTok, the international community found itself breathlessly consulting Wikipedia today to answer the burning question: exactly how old is University of Michigan quarterback JJ McCarthy? The…
Nebius: The Cloud That Slipped Out of Russia’s Sanctions Like a Thief in a Fog Bank By Dave’s Locker Foreign Desk It was bound to happen. Somewhere between the tenth EU sanctions package and the fifteenth round of “never again” promises, a Russian tech company discovered that the fastest route to global respectability is to…
Sweden: A Nation So Pleasant It Hurts By Dave’s Locker International Desk (and a lukewarm cup of overpriced filter coffee) STOCKHOLM—Somewhere between the 14th-century cobblestones and the 5G antenna disguised as a birch tree, Sweden has managed to become a geopolitical Rorschach test for the rest of the planet. To American progressives, it’s a pastel-coloured…
The Eternal Derby of Inconvenience Guatemala vs Panama, or How to Misplace a Canal and Still Win the Century By the time you finish this paragraph, a container ship the length of lower Manhattan will have slipped through the Panama Canal, earning the Panamanian treasury roughly the GDP of a midsize Baltic nation. Meanwhile, 600…
Joanna Lumley: The Accidental Diplomat Who Weaponised Charm Against the World Order By Our Correspondent in a Hotel Bar Where the Ice Has Already Melted PARIS—Across the river from Notre-Dame, a gaggle of European finance ministers once waited half an hour to take a selfie with a woman who once played a drunken heiress on…
Coronation Street Spoilers: A Microcosm of Geopolitical Meltdown, but with Better Biscuits By Dave’s International Affairs Desk (and the intern who still thinks Weatherfield is a UN observer state) GENEVA — While the Security Council spent the week arguing over whose turn it is to veto human rights, a far more consequential power struggle unfolded…
Delta Air Lines: When a Georgia Peach Tries to Fly the Whole World By Our Man in Seat 24B, Somewhere over the Doldrums There are airlines that merely move people; then there is Delta Air Lines, an Atlanta-born overachiever that appears determined to drag the entire planet through Hartsfield-Jackson whether it wants to go or…
Kosovo vs Sweden: The Friendly That Forgot to Be Friendly By Dave’s Locker International Affairs Desk Pristina—Somewhere between the Balkan hinterlands and the land of IKEA meatballs, a routine Nations League qualifier turned into a masterclass in geopolitical absurdity last night. Kosovo, population 1.8 million and still waiting for the last five UN members to…
Israel vs. Italy: When a Soccer Qualifier Becomes a Geopolitical Mood Ring Dave’s Locker, Tel Aviv–Rome Express, 5 June 2024 In the grand carnival of global sport, most qualifiers are polite affairs—ninety minutes of hair gel and mild cardiac stress, after which everyone flies home to argue on podcasts. Not this one. Thursday night’s Euro…
Guinea vs Algeria: When Two Nations Duke It Out and the Rest of the World Pretends It’s Just Football By Our Man in the Departure Lounge, Conakry-Dar es Salaam Route Conakry, Thursday night. The lights flicker like a bad omen at Stade du 28 Septembre, which is fitting because every time Guinea and Algeria meet,…
