Abe's master plan "(Japan's prime minister) Mr Abe is electrifying a nation that had lost faith in its political class. Since he was elected, the stockmarket has risen by 55%. Consumer spending pushed up growth in the first quarter to an annualised 3.5%. Mr Abe has an approval rating of over 70% (compared with around 30% at the end of his first term). "
The contradictions of Tory politics (Waleed Aly) "Modern conservative politics came to be built on a contradiction: a pact between the opposing forces of free market liberalism and social conservatism. For a time, that contradiction has been obscured. Good economic conditions certainly helped. But now the pact is beginning to fray. The world is different now." (Also: But the Australian is Elitist Too – Richard Cooke)
Slaves to the algorithm "Suppose you are in a self-driving car going across a narrow bridge, and a school bus full of children hurtles out of control towards you. There is no room for the vehicles to pass each other. Should the self-driving car take the decision to drive off the bridge and kill you in order to save the children?"
A forum on likeability "This critical double standard — that tormented, foul-mouthed, or perverse male characters are celebrated, while their female counterparts are primly dismissed as unlikeable — has been pointed out many times before. But Messud’s comments seemed an occasion to examine the question again." (Features responses by Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Franzen)
