Rest of the World Report – Full Disclosure

And why I do this.

When Donald Trump won the U.S. Presidency I started receiving a small handful of messages that were all along different versions of the same question: what is the world saying about it?

My friend, Amy, even went as far as to drop hints that I should do Tik-Toks, or reels updating people in the United States on the news as I was seeing it here in Paris. I made half-assed efforts, shared things from smarter people than I.

Then this damn war kicked off in Iran. Again.

For the first few days I was glued to the television and my phone. The messages started coming again. I answered message after message and it was becoming obvious – a little over a year after taking office and now people in the United States believe they aren’t getting the full picture from their own media. When I would tell them what I was seeing on the news here they became certain they weren’t getting the full picture.

So I started a thing.

I AM NOT A JOURNALIST. But I am a massive nerd with some tech skills and a MacBook Pro. So I asked Claude.

Claude said yes and The Rest of the World Report was born.

How it works is really straightforward; every day shortly after noon Paris time I start with a query about news regarding the war in Iran. At first, I keep the search limited to the most recent 12 hours. Then I circle back to previous days searches in case of important updates. I verify my sources, let Claude summarize, then put it all together. Often times I start with a story I am already following. Often I start with a rumor I see online and get verification or debunking.

ALWAYS I make it a point to prompt Claude to NOT editorialize. Just give me the information, ramifications (crude oil price rise leading to gas price rise), and what to keep an eye on. Then I have Claude provide links to sources which I then verify. This is the most tedious part of the endeavor, but imo the most important.

I am not a journalist. I am an aggregator. I think that is the best way to describe what I do with The Rest of the World Report. I tell you all of this because I believe in transparency.

I hope what I do helps.

Postscript – for my own mental health I am going to add a twist on Sundays. Reading and watching the news about horrible things happening in the world is emotionally exhausting so, I am going to apply these same efforts to find good things in the world. Sunday mornings are going to be a break from the ugly and focus on something good in the world.

When the war is over I will likely wind it down to once a day focused on news you likely aren’t seeing in the United States.