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How Hollywood’s biggest stars lost their clout

HOLLYWOOD LABOUR disputes have a certain theatrical flair. When Scarlett Johansson sued Disney in July, claiming she had been underpaid for her role in “Black Widow”, the studio launched an Oscar-worthy broadside...

Pricing power is highly prized on Wall Street

MCDONALD’S HAS employed a “barbell” pricing strategy for decades, luring customers with low-cost items in the hope that they will then splurge on pricier fare. This balancing act is now at risk....

American basketball’s tricky relations with China

ENES KANTER’S campaign against China’s Communist Party has been unrelenting. The basketball star has recently walked into professional games sporting custom shoes that read “Free Tibet”, a slogan that has long raised...

Soaring newsprint costs make life even harder for newspapers

“IT’S LIKE TASERING an elderly person who’s already on a pacemaker,” says a British newspaper boss of the newsprint market, where prices have risen by over 50% in a matter of months....

A big German union fights to preserve national pay standards

FOR EIGHT CONSECUTIVE years ver.di, Germany’s second-biggest trade union, has called a strike during the pre-holiday season at Amazon’s fulfilment centres, the vast warehouses where packages are prepared for delivery. This year...

Why executives like the office

AN OFFICE IS meant to bring people together. Instead, it has become a source of division. For some, the post-pandemic return to the workplace is an opportunity to re-establish boundaries between home...

The supermajors have an LNG problem

BARROW ISLAND, off the coast of Western Australia, is an unlikely place to find what will with luck become the high-water mark of the hubris of the West’s international oil companies (IOCs)....

An effective new drug to treat covid-19 emerges from Merck

THOR, THE Norse thunder-god, was reputed to carry a hammer known as Mjollnir—a tool for destroying enemies and blessing friends. The hammer has provided suitable inspiration for the name of a powerful...

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