Why Xi Jinping sounds friendlier to America - The Economist   

When invited to sum up the state of China’s relations with America, a close observer in Beijing drops a surprising literary reference, comparing the countries to damned souls sent to Hell in “Huis Clos” (“No Exit”), a play by Jean-Paul Sartre. In the gloomy Frenchman’s masterwork, Hell turns out to be an antique-filled sitting room peopled by unlikeable strangers. These wretches come to realise that they must endure each other’s company, and mutual contempt, for all eternity. The afterlife needs no red-hot pokers to be a torment, gasps one of Sartre’s sinners: “Hell is—other people!” The reference to existential angst by the observer in Beijing is more than startling. It is meant to be encouraging.

The case for optimism runs as follows. For two years Sino-American relations were dangerously dysfunctional. To protest, successively, against a visit to Taiwan by the then-speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and America’s shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon, China suspended high-level contacts for months. Both governments now accept that they are doomed to manage differences responsibly, as the world’s greatest economic and military powers, largest emitters of greenhouse gases and interdependent trading partners. That duty to co-exist is dictated by the judgment of history and by the expectations of other countries—even if leaders in Beijing and Washington have come to believe that their core value systems, and many of their most cherished ambitions, are incompatible.

Evidence to support optimism comes from a recent summit between the two countries’ presidents, Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, in an antique-filled mansion near San Francisco. At that meeting Mr Xi notably softened his tone towards America. The party chief has spent years declaring that the East is rising and the West is declining. In March of this year, Mr Xi told a meeting in Beijing that “Western countries led by the United States have contained and suppressed us in an all-round way.” In California he came close to conceding, for the first time, that China is engaged in an economic, technological and geopolitical contest with America, and has an obligation to agree on a set of rules and guardrails that might prevent that competition from veering into disaster. An official Chinese readout talks of the two powers “co-operating in areas of shared interest, and responsibly managing competitive aspects of the relationship”. That may seem arcane, but it is quite a concession. After all, Chinese envoys have spent the past few years declaring it illegitimate and intolerable for America to cast bilateral relations as a competition.

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French Bee CEO Reveals Her Formula To Thrive In The Airline Business. - Forbes   

Its flight attendants wear jeans and you won’t get fed unless you pay for it, but French bee is winning fans because of its focus on price. With fares now starting at $161 each way from Newark to Paris, or $465 from Newark to Tahiti, the French discount airline can be a boon for budget travelers. (San Francisco passengers could fly to Tahiti and back for $460.)

French bee CEO Christine Ourmières-Widener says demand is coming from business customers and not just bargain-hunting tourists. Specifically, she says, the airline is proving to be a hit with French entrepreneurs who want affordable access to the U.S. market. “With the pressure on some budgets now, it’s especially important,” she says. “This may be a segment of the population that is not about status but efficiency.”

Of course, it’s easier to offer cheap fares on a new fleet of Airbus 350 XWB (extra wide body) aircraft that have 488 seats and low maintenance costs. The aviation industry is rich with tales of budget carriers that started strong and faltered when rising costs crushed razor-thin margins. Leisure travel is a seasonal business that can be tough to sustain with a few long-haul routes. It’s not just the need for volume and scale: a no-frills fare on a one-hour flight can be more appealing than cheap seats on a flight that lasts all day.

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The Untold Story of Vienna’s Global Influence - Foreign Policy   

Review: The Untold Story of Vienna’s Global Influence

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5 Mental Mistakes That Kill Your Productivity - Harvard Business Review   

Research indicates that only 26% of people often leave the office having accomplished the tasks they set out to. A good first step is to understand the mental mistakes that typically prevent us from focusing on and finishing meaningful work.  Five common ones include underestimating the time you have for focused work, overlooking simple productivity hacks, thinking about change in an all-or-nothing way, forgetting how to do infrequent but recurring tasks, and underestimating the costs of small time or energy leaks. Recognizing these common traps is the first step in regaining productivity.

If you’re sometimes frustrated about how little you accomplish during your work day, you’re not alone. Research indicates that only 26% of people often leave the office having accomplished the tasks they set out to do. It’s common to feel as if you’ve been busy but haven’t done anything important. Of course, life isn’t about being a productivity robot in which every second is optimized. But most of us do want to feel well-organized and efficient in pursuing key goals and solving critical problems. A good first step is to understand the mental mistakes that typically prevent us from focusing on and finishing meaningful work.  Here are five common ones:

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