Nowadays, the majority of therapists describe a similar moment. A patient takes a seat, turns on their phone, and places it face down on the side table as though it were radioactive. They sigh. Then, as though it had happened to them directly, they discuss an event that occurred eight thousand miles away. It’s difficult to ignore how frequently this scene occurs in different cities, at different income levels, and in different political contexts. There is no agreed-upon clinical term for what is occurring. Some refer to it as anxiety related to war. Some people favor moral harm, vicarious trauma,…
Author: Jack Ward
When the index turns red, a certain silence descends upon Dubai. It’s evident in the DIFC tower lobbies, where men wearing pressed shirts spend a bit too much time staring at their phones before entering meetings. It’s evident at Madinat Jumeirah brunches, where the laughter is still present but seems a little staged. Between February and mid-March of this year, the Dubai Financial Market lost more than a fifth of its value, officially entering bear territory. The city has been reacting to the news in the same way that Dubai typically handles bad news: with calm on the outside and…
Around dusk, you begin to notice the little things when you stroll through any neighborhood in central Tehran. With the composure of someone who has done it a hundred times, a shopkeeper resets a generator. Before the tap dries up once more, a woman fills plastic jerrycans. Kids working on their homework under a phone’s blue light. It appears that no one is shocked anymore. That’s the part that merits a pause. Due to sanctions, internal mismanagement, aging power plants, and the more recent shock of military strikes, Iran’s infrastructure has been deteriorating for years. Power outages are no longer…
When the topic shifts from policy to family, a politician experiences a certain kind of silence that John Swinney attributes to a quiet science. Sitting opposite Brian Taylor in front of an Edinburgh Fringe audience at The Herald’s Unspun Live event in August, he refrained from making the customary political digressions. Simply put, he stated that things at home are “not too good.” Elizabeth Quigley, his wife, has had secondary progressive multiple sclerosis for more than 20 years, and the way he talked about it that night—calm, a little worn out, almost apologetic—suggested a man who has long since stopped…
The undercard at Co-op Live on Saturday night had a subtle peculiarity. Fabio Wardley’s defense of his WBO heavyweight title against Daniel Dubois was the main event; this is the kind of bout that steals the show in any arena. However, many people in Manchester had turned their attention away from the main event by the time the lights came up on the sixth round of the welterweight fight earlier in the evening. They were staring at Jack Rafferty, who had been told he had less than two days to live eight months prior. He hadn’t mentioned it. Not at…
The way Joe Swash addresses the camera has a disarming quality. There’s no script, no makeup counter polish, just a 44-year-old man telling the internet that he’s not doing well in what appears to be his kitchen. The video he uploaded to Instagram in late April of this year, with Pickle Cottage humming in the background, was more of a check-in than a confession. About a year ago, he had stopped taking his medication for ADHD. In retrospect, he had concluded that this was a mistake. Additionally, he wanted his supporters to understand that he was starting over. Ten years…
Every few months, a certain type of online outrage that is as predictable as a seasonal shift reappears, and in early 2026, Rihanna was the target of it once more. On a chilly January afternoon in Manhattan, she went out with her son Riot, her coat half-buttoned and sunglasses on. The moment was captured by paparazzi. In a matter of hours, the online discussion had nothing to do with her destination or attire. It had to do with her body. Less than six months prior, she had given birth to a child. Somehow, I kept forgetting that detail. In September…
A small whiteboard is kept behind the desk of a therapist I know in Karachi. There are two columns on it in faded marker. One is marked “yours.” Not you, but the other. She once told me that nearly every client over the past two years has at some point found themselves staring at that board, usually after bringing up the cost of cooking oil, which seems to increase every few weeks, the price of gasoline, or the electricity bill. “It’s not a fancy board,” she said. However, it is the only thing that constantly causes people to slow down.…