The New Zealand Herald is bringing back some of the best stories of 2020 from our premium syndicators, including The New York Times, Financial Times and The Times of London.
Today we look at if we're drinking too much, James Murdoch's split from the family business, the companies that have prospered during Covid-19, Matthew McConaughey's new memoir and Russia's secret undersea agenda.
How much should we really drink?
Researchers have identified sharp declines in drinking by young people in Europe,North America and Australia. In the UK, for instance, only 48 per cent of males aged 16 to 24 now drink at least once a week, down 16 percentage points since 2005, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
A century after Prohibition began in the US, the question is whether the rest of us should go dry too. A landmark study published in the medical journal The Lancet in 2018, covering 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2016, suggested that "The level of alcohol consumption that minimised harm across health outcomes was zero." Even one drink a day raised the risk of dying.
Are "teen-totallers" right? Should even moderate drinkers stop? Photo / 123RF
The departed son: Why James Murdoch left his father's dynasty
Increasingly uncomfortable with News Corp's politics and profit motives, Rupert Murdoch's younger son James chose chickens and sheep over Fox, and insists he doesn't watch Succession.
James Murdoch in the Georgetown neighbourhood of Washington. Photo / Jared Soares, The New York Times
Prospering in the pandemic: The top 100 companies - Part 1
In a dismal year for most companies, a minority have shone: pharmaceutical groups boosted by their hunt for a Covid-19 vaccine; technology giants buoyed by the trend for working from home; and retailers offering lockdown necessities online.
In a dismal year for most companies, some have shone. Photo / NZME
Matthew McConaughey on his past, his future and that naked arrest
He's the Oscar winner who lived in a trailer park, turned down roles for years and refused to play by Tinseltown's rules. Now he's gone rogue again – the actor has written a brilliant memoir that lays bare everything from his eccentric family to his run-in with the law.
Matthew McConaughey has written a memoir laying bare his life. Photo / Getty Images
A deep-diving sub. A deadly fire. And Russia's secret undersea agenda
There could hardly have been a more terrifying place to fight a fire than in the belly of the Losharik, a mysterious, deep-diving Russian submarine.
Something, it appears, had gone terribly wrong in the battery compartment as the sub made its way through Russian waters 400km north of the Arctic Circle on July 1.
A fire on any submarine may be a mariner's worst nightmare, but a fire on the Losharik was a threat of another order altogether. The vessel is able to dive far deeper than almost any other sub, but the feats of engineering that allow it to do so may have helped seal the fate of the 14 sailors killed in the disaster.
The only thing more mysterious than what exactly went wrong that day is what the sub was doing in 300 metres of water just 110km east of Norway in the first place.
