The Curious Diplomacy of Shedeur Sanders: How a Quarterback Became the World’s Most Unwilling Soft-Power Asset By Our Man in Geneva (Where Else?) GENEVA—In the marble corridors of the Palais des Nations, where diplomats habitually argue over comma placement in climate accords, the newest topic of cocktail-hour chatter is not grain corridors or submarine cables…
Kareena Kapoor: Global Soft-Power in a Size-Zero Sari By Our Man in Mumbai (and Everywhere Else with Wi-Fi) There is a moment, somewhere between the seventh Instagram reel and the algorithmic abyss, when the planet collectively pauses to watch a Bollywood actress sip iced coffee on a balcony in Bandra. That actress is usually Kareena…
Zac Efron, the human equivalent of a perfectly chilled Aperol Spritz, has become the planet’s unofficial ambassador of curated abs and existential dread. While most nations appoint career diplomats to shuffle between summits, the 36-year-old former Disney cipher has spent the last decade circumnavigating the globe, armed with nothing more threatening than sunscreen and a…
Colgate Football and the Twilight of Western Civilization By “B. Traven” – Senior Correspondent, Dave’s Locker World Desk Hamilton, New York – Population 4,000, three stoplights, and one football team whose annual budget could bankroll a modest Balkan navy. On a slate-gray Saturday, Colgate University’s Raiders jogged onto Andy Kerr Stadium in front of 5,200…
CU BOULDER: THE WORLD’S MOST POLITE GEOLOGICAL INSURRECTION Boulder, Colorado – For the uninitiated, the University of Colorado at Boulder looks like the sort of place where Mother Nature took a liberal-arts elective and never left. Flatirons the colour of burnt toast rise behind neo-brutalist dorms that appear to have been poured, not built. Students…
Batman, Brand, and the Bleak Ballet of Global Fame: Robert Pattinson’s Accidental Geopolitics By “Gravedigger” G. M. Alonso, filing from the last airport lounge still serving warm beer PARIS—Somewhere above the Atlantic, Robert Pattinson is probably trying to sleep in business class while the rest of us mortals doom-scroll through cascading crises. The man once…
Aaron Thiara and the Curious Business of Making Villains for Export By Dave’s Locker Global Correspondent There is a moment, somewhere between the closing credits and the next binge queue, when the world’s 8.3 billion eyeballs collectively ask, “Wait, who is that guy?” This week the question ricochets from Lagos to Lima because Aaron Thiara—British…
Dispatch from the Global Giggleplex: Chris Pratt as the Planet’s Punchline-in-Chief By Dave’s Locker, International Affairs (and Occasional Existential Dread) Desk Somewhere between the first Avengers box-office billion and the fifteenth Jurassic sequel, Chris Pratt evolved from genial sitcom sidekick to a geopolitical constant—like climate change, but with better teeth and a dedicated meme department….
In the grand, ever-spinning kaleidoscope of American college football—a pastime so provincial that Europeans mistake it for rugby with shoulder pads—one Alex Orji has emerged as the latest proof that the planet’s remaining superpower still believes salvation can be found between the hash marks. The Michigan quarterback’s spring-game pyrotechnics (two passing touchdowns, one electrifying scramble,…
Aaron Judge: The 6’7” American Export Who Reminds the World That Size Still Matters By “Globetrotting” Grigor Malinov, filing from somewhere with regrettable Wi-Fi and excellent bourbon Somewhere between the collapse of the Turkish lira and the news that Beijing’s smog now has its own diplomatic passport, a man named Aaron Judge—built like a Cold-War…
Don Lemon and the Global Ripple of a Very American Firing By “Cynicus Maximus,” Senior Correspondent, Dave’s Locker PARIS—In most latitudes, when a television host is shown the door, the story is buried somewhere between the obituaries and the weather. But when CNN dispatches Don Lemon—its last primetime anchor who still pronounced “Kyiv” correctly on…
Adam Sandler: The Last American Export That Even Trade Wars Can’t Kill By Dave’s Locker International Desk Somewhere between the collapse of the global liberal order and the day Netflix’s algorithm achieved sentience, the planet quietly agreed on one point of consensus: Adam Sandler is inevitable. From the air-conditioned multiplexes of Riyadh—where his latest comedy…
