   
CEO Picks - The best that international journalism has to offer!
 S63Ransom or realism? A closer look at Biden's prisoner swap deal with Iran   The Biden administration’s agreement with Iran for a planned swap of prisoners could be seen as a simple business transaction to free five Iranians from imprisonment in the U.S. and five Americans, some with dual citizenship, from detention in Iran. But the agreement has broader implications for U.S.-Iranian relations, the future of Iran’s nuclear program and for the tense relationship between Iran and Israel, which is largely defined by the status of Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
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S56Hip-hop's rise to the top of fashion  In February it was announced that Pharrell Williams would be the new men's creative director of Louis Vuitton – a role that became vacant after the unexpected death of the US fashion designer Virgil Abloh in November 2021. Four months later, the revered musician and producer showcased his first collection at Paris Fashion Week. It included vibrant faux-fur jackets, the brand's logo in bright colours across garments, and various camouflage pieces created by modifying Louis Vuitton's signature Damier print. While this is not Williams's first foray into the fashion world – he has collaborated with Louis Vuitton twice before, and with Chanel, Moncler and Adidas Originals – his role at Vuitton is his most significant fashion moment yet. And, with it, Pharrell joins a line of famous black musicians who have dived head-first into the fashion industry, including Rihanna with the luxury brand Fenty and the lingerie brand Savage X Fenty; Kanye West with Yeezy; Beyonce with Ivy Park; and Tyler the Creator's Golf le Fleur. Williams also continues a 50-year-long tradition of hip hop significantly influencing the fashion world.
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S48Scientists Have Spent 40 Years Trying to Understand Salt  We’ve all heard of the five tastes our tongues can detect: sweet, sour, bitter, savory-umami, and salty. But the real number is actually six, because we have two separate salt-taste systems. One of them detects the attractive, relatively low levels of salt that make potato chips taste delicious. The other registers high levels of salt—enough to make overly salted food taste offensive.Exactly how our taste buds sense the two kinds of saltiness is a mystery that’s taken some 40 years of scientific inquiry to unravel, and researchers haven’t deciphered all of the details yet. In fact, the more they look at salt sensation, the weirder it gets.
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S65US autoworkers launch historic strike: 3 questions answered  The United Auto Workers union, or UAW, has told workers at three factories to go on strike after failing to agree on new contracts with each of Detroit’s major automakers. The contracts expired at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 14, 2023. By midnight, the union posted a strike declaration on its website. The strike will force General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – the global company that builds Chrysler, Jeep, Ram and Dodge vehicles in North America – to halt some of their operations. “Tonight for the first time in our history we will strike all three of the Big Three at once,” UAW President Shawn Fain announced about two hours before the negotiation deadline passed without a contract. The union is seeking higher pay, better benefits and assurances that large numbers of its members will work in the automakers’ growing number of electric-vehicle factories.
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S29Many People Think Cannabis Smoke Is Harmless -- Here's What The Evidence Shows  Though tobacco use is declining among adults in the U.S., cannabis use is increasing. Laws and policies regulating the use of tobacco and cannabis are also moving in different directions.Tobacco policies are becoming more restrictive, with bans on smoking in public places and limits on sales, such as statewide bans on flavored products. In contrast, more states are legalizing cannabis for medical or recreational use, and there are efforts to allow exceptions for cannabis in smoke-free laws.
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S64Alzheimer's disease is partly genetic -  Steven T. DeKosky consults for Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics and Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals; is the Editor for Dementia for Up-To-Date, a point of care electronic textbook of medicine and is Associate Editor of Neurotherapeutics-The Journal of the American Society for Experimental Therapeutics (ASENT); chairs Drug Monitoring Safety Boards for Biogen, Prevail Pharmaceuticals, and Vaccinex Pharmaceuticals; and chairs Scientific Advisory Boards for Acumen Pharmaceuticals and Cognition Therapeutics.Diseases that run in families usually have genetic causes. Some are genetic mutations that directly cause the disease if inherited. Others are risk genes that affect the body in a way that increases the chance someone will develop the disease. In Alzheimer’s disease, genetic mutations in any of three specific genes can cause the disease, and other risk genes either increase or decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
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S62S57Hear stunning music recorded inside Mississippi's infamous Parchman prison  "Oh listen you men, I don't mean no harm / Oh listen you men, I don't mean no harm / If you wanna do good, you better stay off ol' Parchman farm." – Bukka White, Parchman Farm BluesOn the morning of 5 February 2023, Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan arrived at the gates of the notorious Mississippi State Penitentiary, better known as Parchman Farm. He had come to record the prison's most gifted singers at a specially convened chapel service, and had taken two flights and driven a further three hours to get there. Yet Brennan had no idea who or what he was about to hear.
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S55Sancocho: A Panamanian chicken and vegetable soup  Sancocho may be ubiquitous across Latin America, but no two recipes are the same. That's because the primary ingredients of this hearty soup – meat, vegetables and tubers – are as broad and as varied as Latin America itself.Perhaps that's why the name of the dish is so generic; sancocho is derived from the Spanish verb sancochar, meaning to cook in liquid. Nevertheless, when you look at the different countries where the dish is made, you'll find sancocho recipes vary based on regional ingredients, seasoned to comfort local palates.
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S60Anxiety can often be a drag on creativity, upending the trope of the tortured artist  In the U.S., anxiety disorders affect about one-third of the population. So it’s no surprise that a good number of artists and writers also suffer from anxiety and depression.But whereas some critics see Vincent Van Gogh’s striking paintings and Sylvia Plath’s confessional poetry as the direct result of their psychosis and depression, I tend to be less romantic about this subject. I see their brilliant output as having happened in spite of – rather than because of – their mental anguish.
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S50The Republicans Threatening to Shut Down the Government  House GOP infighting reached new heights this week as Trump-aligned House Republicans threatened to shut down the government.House Speaker Kevin McCarthy opened an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden based on no evidence this week in an effort to appease his far-right party members. But the move doesn’t appear to have satisfied them. If their demands aren’t met, they plan to challenge McCarthy’s speakership and vote against funding the government. With no agreement in sight, McCarthy dared his detractors to bring a vote to oust him from his leadership post.
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S69S49How Siblings Shape Who We Are  This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.For those of us who have siblings, these relationships will likely be the longest of our life. That fact is a basic statistical one, but it’s also an emotional one. These are human beings who will see us at many more stages of growth than most others will: the awkward braces years, the sullen teenage years, and whatever happens after that.
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S59S53Employees Are Losing Patience with Change Initiatives  In 2022, the average employee experienced 10 planned enterprise changes — such as a restructure to achieve efficiencies, a culture transformation to unlock new ways of working, or the replacement of a legacy tech system — up from two in 2016. While more change is coming, the workforce has hit a wall: A Gartner survey revealed that employees’ willingness to support enterprise change collapsed to just 43% in 2022, compared to 74% in 2016. Navigating the pandemic asked a lot of employees — and while they delivered, it came at a cost. Relentless sprinting means many employees are running on fumes. To create more sustainable change efforts, leaders must prioritize change initiatives, showing employees where to invest their energies. They also must manage change fatigue by building in periods of proactive rest, involving employees in change plans, and challenging managers to help build team resilience.
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S43The Undoing of a Great American Band  Sly and the Family Stone suggested new possibilities in music and life—until it all fell apart.Is there a way to look at Sly Stone—a musical genius and, for a couple of years, an avatar of spiritual freedom—that isn’t dualistic, split-brained, one thing in opposition to another? That isn’t about light versus darkness, up versus down, Logos versus Chaos, good drugs versus bad drugs, having it all versus losing it all, and on and on? “Without contraries is no progression,” William Blake said, but still—I find myself groping for another plane of understanding. I want to see him as the angels do. We might need to evolve a little bit to get a handle on this man.
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S2440 Years Later, 'Ahsoka' Confirms the Meaning of a Pivotal Lightsaber Battle  Anakin Skywalker’s appearance in Ahsoka Episode 5 wasn’t a shock — Hayden Christensen’s involvement had already been announced — but what he did in the episode sure was. After bringing Ahsoka back to the past, he confronts her about how she’s turned her back on the Jedi legacy... and his legacy. Built into that confrontation is an important lesson that proves just how powerful Anakin’s legacy is, and how Ahsoka can continue it. Star Wars podcast Beyond the Dune Sea recently discussed the coolest part of Episode 5: the moment Ahsoka hucks Anakin’s lightsaber into the void.
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S58How grisly thriller Dead Man's Shoes captured British small-town violence  With its seething menace and bleak realism, punctuated by the occasional dose of the surreal, Shane Meadows' Dead Man's Shoes (2004) is a uniquely British story of small-town cruelty and revenge. Made on a shoestring budget with a cast of actors who would later go on to major work in Hollywood, the film, now just shy of 20 years old, has long been difficult to see, and is mercifully receiving a restoration and UK theatrical re-release today.Meadows' film is narratively straightforward: it stars Paddy Considine as Richard, a soldier returning to his small Derbyshire town after seven years' absence, who wants to confront the sleazy thugs that viciously bullied his learning-disabled brother Anthony, played by Toby Kebbell.
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S70Libya floods: why cash is the best way to help get humanitarian aid to people affected by disasters  The heavy rainfall that hit Libya during Storm Daniel caused two dams and four bridges to collapse in the coastal city of Derna, submerging most of the city in floodwater and claiming thousands of lives. As you watch the disturbing scenes of this disaster on the news, you might wonder about the best way to help. Sending that blanket in the closet you have never used or those painkillers in the cabinet you overbought last time you had a headache might seem helpful.
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S39The psychology behind why identical twins inspire fascination--and fear  The twins in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining were never supposed to be identical. In Stephen King’s 1977 book, the Grady sisters are just sisters, eight and 10, and “cute as a button,” at least until spirits and isolation turned their father murderous (you know, just a regular Thursday at the Overlook Hotel). Soon after the book’s rise to the bestseller lists, Kubrick began production on the film, and auditioned numerous young actors to play the sisters. But when identical twins Lisa and Louise Burns waltzed in, they won the part. One of cinema’s greatest auteurs decided there was just something scarier about twins, the twins themselves told the Daily Mail in an interview.The Burns twins’ turn as the Grady sisters is an iconic moment in a film full of them: “Come play with us, Danny.” Whether he considered it or not, Kubrick was playing with a stereotype that goes back centuries and continues to be a staple of the horror genre today. But what is it about identical twins that make them a subject of both fascination, fear, and oh so many stereotypes? Maybe a better question is what is it about the rest of us that makes this the case?
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S54Are businesses ready for another wave of Covid-19 cases?  As students return to school and employers call their workers back to offices, Covid-19 cases are once again rising globally. Two new variants of note – BA.2.86 (Pirola) and EG.5 (Eris) – have already shown up around the world, including in the US and UK.Even as we head into cool-weather months, experts aren't yet predicting new lockdowns. Still, the rise in cases reopens the question: what happens if we're once again faced with an overwhelming global health crisis?
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S66S67An X-Files expert on the show's enduring appeal - 30 years on  On September 10 1993 the pilot episode of The X-Files aired. Thirty years later to the day, I was at a convention centre in Minneapolis with 500 other fans and the show’s creator, Chris Carter, celebrating its legacy. Ostensibly a show about aliens, The X-Files swiftly became part of the cultural lexicon and remains there to this day. In part its success was down to the chemistry of its two leads – David Duchovny, who played FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson, who played FBI Special Agent Dana Scully. After all, it was the X-Files fandom that invented the term “shipping” (rooting for characters to get together romantically).
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S47The Biden Impeachment Is Benghazi All Over Again  Both inquiries are based far more on vibes and political machinations than they are on hard evidence.Once upon a time, presidential impeachment was a rare event. But with four of the five inquiries in U.S. history coming in the past 25 years, people seeking to understand and explain the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, launched Tuesday, have looked to the 2019 impeachment of President Donald Trump as an analogy. Both center on allegations of using elected office for personal gain, and both have been divided sharply along partisan lines.
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S52Understanding Leadership  The would-be analyst of leadership usually studies popularity, power, showmanship, or wisdom in long-range planning. But none of these qualities is the essence of leadership. Leadership is the accomplishment of a goal through the direction of human assistants—a human and social achievement that stems from the leader’s understanding of his or her fellow workers and the relationship of their individual goals to the group’s aim.
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S46Nobody Should Care About a Woman's 'Body Count'  Popular internet personalities are peddling repressive, misogynistic ideas to their young male fans.Ever since Elon Musk’s lackeys began fiddling with the algorithms of X (formerly Twitter), I have noticed a distinct shift in the content that is pushed onto users. My “For you” tab is now a nest of tradwives, shoplifting videos, and that guy who has strong opinions on trouser creases. It is also home to the kind of old-fashioned misogyny that I once thought was on the decline.
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S68Scotland's legal go-ahead for safer drug consumption rooms is a gamechanger  On the basis of the information I have been provided, I would be prepared to publish a prosecution policy that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute drug users for simple possession offences committed within a pilot safer drugs consumption facility.Scotland’s most senior law officer, the Lord Advocate, has released a statement that would enable NHS Glasgow and Clyde to open a safer drug consumption facility (SDCF) in the city.
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S37A Global Surge in Cholera Outbreaks May Be Fueled by Climate Change  In early 2022, nearly 200,000 Malawians were displaced after two tropical storms struck the southeastern part of Africa barely a month apart. Sixty-four people died. Amid an already heavy rainy season, the storms Ana and Gombe caused tremendous devastation to homes, crops, and infrastructure across southern Malawi.“That March, we started to see cholera, which is usually endemic in Malawi, becoming an outbreak,” said Gerrit Maritz, a deputy representative for health programs in Malawi for the United Nations Children’s Fund. Cholera typically affects the country during the rainy season, from December to March, during which time it remains contained around Lake Malawi in the south and results in about 100 deaths each year.
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S25You Need to Play 2023's Best Retro-Inspired RPG on Xbox Game Pass ASAP  Roger Ebert once said that “criticism is a destructive activity.” In many ways, this is true, as we have more fun reading (and writing) bad reviews than we do glowing ones. There’s a kind of existential schadenfreude to trashing something. It makes those of us who don’t create feel better about our lack of contribution to the arts and endeavors we enjoy. Critics also have the power to elevate. To shine a light in a crowded field and direct our attention to something we may have otherwise overlooked. For Xbox fans, this means turning our gaze away from the gargantuan hype around Starfield to another game that, as far as the critics are concerned, is a superior title.
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S38The Best Projectors (and 2 Great Screens)  If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIREDThere's nothing like watching your favorite films in a dark room on a massive screen. For that authentic movie theater experience at home, you’ll need a projector (and a popcorn maker).
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S20S35Did Australia's boomerangs pave the way for flight?  The aircraft is one of the most significant developments of modern society, enabling people, goods and ideas to fly around the world far more efficiently than ever before. The first successful piloted flight took off in 1903 in North Carolina, but a 10,000-year-old hunting tool likely developed by Aboriginal Australians may have held the key to its lift-off. As early aviators discovered, the secret to flight is balancing the flow of air. Therefore, an aircraft's wings, tail or propeller blades are often shaped in a specially designed, curved manner called an aerofoil that lifts the plane up and allows it to drag or turn to the side as it moves through the air.
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S45Ukraine Isn't the Reason the U.S. Is Unprepared for War  A lack of defense production has created an alarming gap between America’s strategy and its capabilities.Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the United States has provided Kyiv with more than $43 billion worth of security assistance. Opponents of aid to Ukraine have argued that the United States is drawing down inventories of systems and ammunition that are already in short supply for its own forces, and which would be needed in any high-intensity conflict.
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S19S2640 Years Ago, a Wild Sci-Fi Movie Predicted a Life-Changing Scientific Invention  Playing fast and loose with its reductive portrayal of the brain, the film’s mind-sharing technology is far from reality. Douglas Trumbull is best known as Hollywood’s special effects guru. From 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and 1982’s Blade Runner, he brought the fantastical visions of other writers and directors life. But in 1983, Trumbull tried making a movie of his own — and stumbled upon a bizarre branch of science that’s just now coming to fruition.
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S51Neuromarketing: What You Need to Know  The field of neuromarketing, sometimes known as consumer neuroscience, studies the brain to predict and potentially even manipulate consumer behavior and decision making. Over the past five years several groundbreaking studies have demonstrated its potential to create value for marketers. But those interested in using its tools must still determine whether that’s worth the investment and how to do it well.“Neuromarketing” loosely refers to the measurement of physiological and neural signals to gain insight into customers’ motivations, preferences, and decisions. Its most common methods are brain scanning, which measures neural activity, and physiological tracking, which measures eye movement and other proxies for that activity.This article explores some of the research into those methods and discusses their benefits and drawbacks.
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S30Do You Still Need To Test For Covid-19? There's One Easy Answer  A cough here, a sneeze there, some congestion, and a little brain fog. Might as well assume it’s Covid-19, right? After all, we’ve known for weeks now that hospitalizations from the infection are ramping up again, and tests aren’t free anymore. It’s all the same if you’re going to stay home from work, anyway. (You are staying home from work, right? If there’s any single thing we got from 2020, let it be that you should stay home when you’re sick if you can.)Though it still feels like high summer in some parts of the U.S., autumn temperatures are actually coming in. Flu season — and soup mode — are nigh. And flu season isn’t just the flu anymore. It’s influenza, Covid-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a common illness that causes cold-like symptoms. These three viruses share symptoms to a degree, but how important is it to confirm which one you have? Is it safest to simply assume you have Covid-19 and treat it as such?
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S23You Need to Watch Edgar Wright's Best Movie Ever for Free on Amazon ASAP  This comedy mainstay managed to be a mystery, an action movie, and a buddy cop movie all at once. The phrase “instant classic” is bandied about often, but the criteria seem to be incredibly nebulous. An instant classic is something so groundbreaking, so masterfully pulled off, that it’s immediately clear it will age well and cement itself in history. These movies are rare in all genres, but especially in comedy, which is an incredibly timely medium that often ages like milk.
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S44The Mysterious Return of a Soviet Statue in Russia  A monument to Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Bolsheviks’ feared secret police, has been quietly rehabilitated. Why?The thunder of war in Ukraine drowns out a lot of other news from Russia. A few days ago, however, the Russian foreign intelligence service quietly did something rather odd. Sergei Naryshkin, the director of the Sluzhba Vneshnei Razvedki, or SVR (the Russian version of the CIA), unveiled a statue of Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet secret police.
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