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I don’t have a journalism degree. Aside from fixing the printers inside the Akron Beacon Journal, I’ve never worked in a newsroom. I don’t have press credentials or a network of sources or an editor checking my work.

I did work on the school paper in the late 1900s. But I’m pretty sure that doesn’t count.

What I do have is years of research experience working in law firms and publication houses — places where getting it wrong has consequences. Where you verify, then verify again, and you don’t move until the sourcing is airtight. And then you verify one more time. That’s not a habit I developed for RotWR. I brought it with me.

I’m also a guy from the United States who has lived in Paris long enough to notice something. The news looks different from here. Not slightly different. Fundamentally different.

When Trump won, my phone started filling up with the same question from friends back home: what is the world saying about this? I’d answer, they’d go quiet for a second, and then: why aren’t we hearing that?

That second question I couldn’t quite answer.

Then the war in Iran started. The messages became a flood.

Fifteen thousand people found this in three weeks without me asking them to. I’m still not entirely sure what that means. But I think it means the question my friends were asking — why aren’t we hearing that? — isn’t just their question.

That’s why I do this. My credentials are right there in the work.

This is me answering that second question.

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.