'A good deal is one in which everyone walks away happy or everyone walks away mad'

'Israel never defined its goals'

Graeme Wood at The Atlantic

The "deal between Israel and Hamas is good but not great: Both groups are relishing what they are getting, and choking a bit on what they have given up," says Graeme Wood. There "will be scenes of jubilation and triumph from Gazans and Israelis," but for Israel and Gaza, the "past 15 months have been a miserable failure, and from the perspective of negotiation, the only good news is that both sides taste some of the bitterness."

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'Thought UnitedHealthcare couldn't get more awful? They've gone villain mode.'

Arwa Mahdawi at The Guardian

Lawmakers have "made it clear to their corporate overlords that their No. 1 priority is ensuring the safety of their donor base," says Arwa Mahdawi. But insurers "seem to have gone into full-on villain mode; just when you think you can't hear anything worse about the insurance industry, a new horror story comes out." This is a "reminder of just how frustrated everyone — from doctors to patients — is with the profit-driven health insurance industry."

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'Trump's tariffs may not do what he thinks'

Matthew C. Klein at Politico

President-elect Donald Trump "needs to think harder about the tools he wants to use," says Matthew C. Klein. Several "policies Trump and his advisers have floated — primarily universal tariffs — risk making things worse, or, at best, will do nothing to revive American manufacturing or improve the lives of its workers." Prosperity is "not zero-sum, and just because we inflict pain on trading partners doesn't mean we'll benefit. More likely, punitive measures will backfire."

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'How England's legal system favors grooming gangsters over outspoken citizens'

Abigail Anthony at the National Review

The United Kingdom "has justice all backwards," says Abigail Anthony. Recent "outrage about the 'grooming gangs,' more accurately dubbed 'child-prostitution rings,' has brought attention to the stunning lack of prosecution." People "cared more about preserving the optics of multiculturalism than penalizing the pimps or aiding the young victims who have been mentally, physically, and emotionally abused." But "equally infuriating is the suspiciously low jail time that is given in the rare cases that sentencing actually occurs."

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