'Grandstanding about the existential threat climate change poses'

'"Follow the science"' leads to ruin'

Bjorn Lomborg in The Wall Street Journal

"Draconian net-zero" policies to end fossil fuel use "will have costs far greater than climate change itself," says Bjorn Lomborg. A better response to global warming is focusing on "lifting the billions of people still in poverty out of it," because that will improve their lives and "make them more resilient against extreme weather." Meanwhile, governments and companies can "invest in green-energy research and development" to make "fossil-fuel alternatives" cheaper and more reliable

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'The Kate Middleton mess should terrify brands on social media'

Beth Kowitt at Bloomberg

The British royal family is "essentially a massive global brand," says Beth Kowitt. It blundered into a "mess" trying to use a "carefully manufactured image" to stamp out a conspiracy theory about the health of Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales. Kensington Palace "learned the hard way what every big company brand should already know: If you're going to play on social media and court an engaged and active audience, you better know what you're doing."

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'What abortion rights have to do with voting rights'

Melissa Gira Grant in The New Republic

"Attacks on democracy and attacks on bodily autonomy are more closely connected than some might imagine," says Melissa Gira Grant. They're both part of what a new report from the Movement Advancement Project calls a wave of attacks on education, health care access, recognition of people's identities, freedom of speech and other rights with the common goals of "mainstreaming exclusion and undermining democracy." To defend democracy, you have to start by defending people.

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'Trump's TikTok flip raises concerns over billionaire clout'

Brendan Bordelon in Politico

Donald Trump's flip on TikTok was "part of a pattern," says Brendan Bordelon. During his presidency, Trump tried to ban the Chinese-owned short-video social media app over concerns Beijing could use it to threaten U.S. national security. But, as he has done before, Trump changed course after lobbying by a GOP donor, this time one with a huge stake in TikTok's owner, ByteDance. This shows Trump supports "whatever policy will best serve his billionaire backers."

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