It may be that the USA is in relative economic and political decline, but its linguistic imperialism seems as vigorous as ever.

I see from recent news reports that we must now talk of 'the Volga river', as we have already been directed to refer to 'the Jordan river', 'the Tigris river' etc. Next up, 'the Thames river', 'the Clyde river' 'the Tyne river', 'the Ravensbourne river' ...

And here's another thing. We used to distinguish between 'convincing' someone that something was the case and 'persuading' them to do something. Now, following instructions from across the Atlantic, we use 'convince' for both.' 'I convinced him to give me his wallet' (or should that be 'billfold' or 'pocketbook'?)