Soft Power

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    tinytan

    TinyTan and the Global Shrinking of Attention Spans By Our Correspondent, Still Recovering from a 7-Second Reel of Existential Dread SEOUL—Somewhere between the DMZ and the nearest duty-free Bulgogi stand, seven pastel figurines the height of a credit card have become the most efficient diplomats South Korea never hired. TinyTan—BTS reimagined as chibi mercenaries—now storm…

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    brandi carlile

    From the Ruins of the American Empire, a Six-Stringed Consolation Prize Dave’s Locker Foreign Desk | 12 June 2025 Paris—It is 2 a.m. on the Rive Gauche and the bistros have finally run out of rosé. Somewhere between a tab of questionable MDMA and a heated debate on whether NATO still exists, a busker breaks…

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    marvel angela

    Marvel’s Angela: How a Forgotten Spawn Sidekick Quietly Conquered the Global Imagination By A. S. de Winter, International Cultural Correspondent Somewhere between a NATO summit and the latest crypto scandal, the planet’s collective id decided that what it really needed was a six-foot-tall, platinum-haired Valkyrie-lawyer who can audit your taxes and then split you in…

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    vuelta espana

    The Vuelta a España, the Tour’s moody younger sibling who still wears black nail polish at 35, kicked off last weekend under a sun so brutal even the asphalt looked apologetic. While the planet elsewhere debated which apocalypse to schedule next—climate, debt, or the next crypto-currency—2,000 kilometres of Iberian tarmac offered an alternate reality where…

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    nate bargatze

    Nate Bargatze and the Soft Power of the American Mumble: How One Tennessee Everyman Quietly Became the Planet’s Preferred Sedative By Dave’s Locker Foreign Desk PARIS—On any given Thursday, while ministers in Brussels argue over grain tariffs and Beijing’s censors sharpen their knives for the next celebrity, a 44-year-old man from Old Hickory, Tennessee, is…