'The friendship paradox'
Olga Khazan at The Atlantic
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'Bad movies prove profit can be a force for good in film'
Stephen Bush at the Financial Times
Many "directors, writers and actors are led astray by corporate greed," says Stephen Bush. The "excessive spending and poor scripts on their various projects are downstream of well-aired difficulties at the top." Movies and TV shows "made these days badly miss the voice of someone trying to keep costs low," but the "age of costly film and TV also has lessons for the rest of the corporate world" as a " parable about the lack of cost control."
'Donald Trump is deeply threatened by Kamala Harris — and desperately flailing'
Sidney Blumenthal at The Guardian
Donald Trump's "narcissism is his grand strategy," and "both Kamala Harris and his advisers constrain and threaten him," says Sidney Blumenthal. The emergence of Harris has "left Trump on the stage in a play." Against a "candidate of change (a woman), his resistance to change (attacking the woman) is his only way to cling to his authenticity." It is an "impossible task to pry him away from his impulses, especially when it's a survival instinct."
'The cartel takeover in Colorado is a dispatch from the future'
Collin Pruett at The American Conservative
The "chaos previously limited to the border is spreading across the mainland United States," says Collin Pruett. Conflicting reports of a Venezuelan gang in Aurora, Colorado, have "pierced through the 'boiling frog' syndrome that often prevents U.S. media from accurately conveying" border crises. As "American attitudes and political trends increasingly mirror those of Latin America, the type of warfare seen there becomes a more likely consequence," but "American leadership still has time to close Pandora's box."
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Australia’s teens brace for social media banIn The Spotlight Under-16s will be banned from having accounts on major platforms
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Labour’s dilemma on workers’ rightsThe Explainer TUC says Employment Rights Bill is ‘essential to better quality, more secure jobs’ but critics warn of impact on economic growth
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Coaches’ salary buyouts are generating questions for collegesUnder the Radar ‘The math doesn’t seem to math,’ one expert said
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The military: When is an order illegal?Feature Trump is making the military’s ‘most senior leaders complicit in his unlawful acts’
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Ukraine and Rubio rewrite Russia’s peace planFeature The only explanation for this confusing series of events is that ‘rival factions’ within the White House fought over the peace plan ‘and made a mess of it’
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The powerful names in the Epstein emailsIn Depth People from a former Harvard president to a noted linguist were mentioned
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‘The choice isn’t between domestic and foreign talent; the nation was built on both’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
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Honduras votes amid Trump push, pardon vowspeed read President Trump said he will pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who is serving 45 years for drug trafficking
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Congress seeks answers in ‘kill everybody’ strike reportSpeed Read Lawmakers suggest the Trump administration’s follow-up boat strike may be a war crime
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Andriy Yermak: how weak is Zelenskyy without his right-hand man?Today's Big Question Resignation of Ukrainian president’s closest ally marks his ‘most politically perilous moment yet’
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The US-Saudi relationship: too big to fail?Talking Point With the Saudis investing $1 trillion into the US, and Trump granting them ‘major non-Nato ally’ status, for now the two countries need each other
