Soft Power

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    vuelta espana

    ByDaveslocker

    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

    ByDaveslocker

    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…