Dan Bilzerian and guests at a night club opening in Las Vegas. Bilzerian, who boasts close to 30 million Instagram followers, won't date anyone his own age. Photo / Getty Images
Dan Bilzerian and guests at a night club opening in Las Vegas. Bilzerian, who boasts close to 30 million Instagram followers, won't date anyone his own age. Photo / Getty Images
Welcome to the weekend.
The All Blacks have dominated the news for much of the week as Kiwis up and down the country try not to freak out ahead of this weekend's crucial clash against Australia.
Guns, girls, gambling: Meet the multimillionaire king of Instagram
He possibly made a fortune from poker, he definitely won't date anyone his own age and he's known as the King of Instagram with 27.9 million followers.
But as a multimillionaire why does he even bother with Instagram?
"Initially," he says, "it was to get laid with less effort."
Dan Bilzerian admits that he's a "bit of a sex addict". Photo / Getty Images
The day Epstein told me he had dirt on powerful people
The overriding impression I took away from our roughly 90-minute conversation was that Epstein knew an astonishing number of rich, famous and powerful people, and had photos to prove it.
One of my first thoughts on hearing of Epstein's suicide was that many prominent men and at least a few women must be breathing sighs of relief that whatever Epstein knew, he has taken it with him."
Jeffrey Epstein's home on East 71st Street. Photo / Kirsten Luce, The New York Times
A boom time for the bunker business and doomsday capitalists
Americans have, for generations, prepared themselves for society's collapse. But in recent years, personalised disaster prep has grown into a multimillion-dollar business, fueled by a seemingly endless stream of new and revamped threats, from climate change to terrorism, cyberattacks and civil unrest.
Survival homes now dot America's interior, pulling in clients who are part of a larger movement of people who are choosing to retreat from society, or at least ready themselves for escape.
Bunker clients say they are united not by ideology — liberals, conservatives and political agnostics exist side by side in this world — but by a belief that global forces have left societies increasingly vulnerable to large-scale disaster.
The Survival Condo is a former nuclear missile vault in Kansas that has been converted into high-end residences. Photo / Chet Strange, The New York Times
The Caribbean resort, the investment banker and the dead handyman
Sunset is as much a part of the package at the Malliouhana resort hotel as the warm face towels at check-in and morning yoga on the beach.
But a violent death at the resort has rattled its tranquil rhythms and brought unwanted scrutiny to the resort, specifically to the door marked 49 and the bathroom within.
What happened April 13 has riled the small island's population and has raised uncomfortable questions about class, privilege and the deference shown to tourists, who drive the local economy.
The Malliouhana resort hotel, where a maintenance employee died after a vicious brawl with a guest, in Anguilla. Photo / Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo, The New York Times
Premier League transfers: The rational thinking behind the big spending
When Manchester United agreed a $149m deal to sign Harry Maguire from Leicester City last week, many football fans and pundits winced at the enormous price — a world-record fee for a defender.
The signing kicked off a frenzied final few days of dealmaking among English Premier League clubs before its summer transfer window.
Manchester United agreed an £80m ($149m) deal to sign Harry Maguire from Leicester City. Photo / AP
Australian suburb levelled to save penguins
The story of the transformation of the Summerland Peninsula from a coastal suburb into a wildlife habitat and world-class tourist spot is one of unusual government foresight.
In 1985, the Victoria state government took an extraordinary step: It decided to buy every piece of property on the peninsula and return the land to the penguins. The process was completed in 2010.
Rachel Lowry, chief conservation officer of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature-Australia tells the New York Times: "It is an incredible example of allowing scientific modelling to motivate and inform a decision that has gone on to benefit both people and nature in the long term."
The "penguin parade" each day on Phillip Island in Australia has been a major attraction since the 1920s. Photo / Asanka Brendon Ratnayake, The New York Times
Forget hot yoga and meditation – breathing is the hip new wellness trend
"Breath work" is the latest fashionable therapy and treatment of choice for young metropolitans and stressed executives in 2019.
Stuart Sandeman, a former banker from Edinburgh, has become the poster boy of this deep exhale. His clients include Google, Nike and burnt-out executives.
Stuart Sandeman has become the poster boy of the deep exhale. Photo / Getty Images
Family terrorised by 'The Watcher' sells home at a loss
It sounded as if it could be a script for a horror movie: A family began receiving ominous notes just days after they closed on their dream home. But for Derek and Maria Broaddus, the tension surrounding their house has been real.
The note writer — whose identity the couple said they never learned — appeared to be spying on the family from somewhere nearby.
"Was your old house too small for the growing family? Or was it greed to bring me your children? Once I know their names I will call to them and draw them too [sic] me."
The house attracted a lot of attention after the new owners began getting anonymous notes from someone claiming to be "The Watcher". Photo / AP
Finding Amelia Earhart's plane seemed impossible. Then came a startling clue
Robert Ballard is the finder of important lost things.
In 1985, he discovered the Titanic scattered beneath the Atlantic Ocean. He and his team also located the giant Nazi battleship Bismarck and, more recently, 18 shipwrecks in the Black Sea.
Ballard has always wanted to find the remains of the plane Amelia Earhart was flying when she disappeared in 1937. But he feared the hunt would be yet another in a long line of futile searches.
A photo provided by Nasa shows Amelia Earhart near her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra in 1936. Photo / Nasa via The New York Times.
How one billionaire could keep three countries hooked on coal for decades
The vast, untapped coal reserve in northeastern Australia had for years been the object of desire for Indian industrial giant Adani.
In June, when Australian authorities granted the company approval to extract coal from the reserve, they weren't just rewarding its lobbying and politicking, they were also opening the door for Adani to realise its grand plan for a coal supply chain that stretches across three countries.
Coal from the Australian operation would be transported to India, where the company is building a new power plant to produce electricity. That power would be sold next door in Bangladesh.
Adani's victory in Australia helped to ensure that coal will remain woven into the economy and lives of those three countries. This, despite warnings by scientists that reducing coal burning is key to staving off the most disastrous effects of climate change.
The Mundra Thermal Power Station in Gujarat State on India's western coast. Like the nearby port, it is controlled by the Adani Group. Photo / Rebecca Conway, The New York Times
What happens when the world cannot rely on the US?
The watchword of the American security establishment since the cold war has been "credibility". The idea is that if America is to maintain its status as a superpower and a world policeman, then its international commitments must be clear and believable. Anything less, it is argued, would leave America's friends and foes confused. And confusion could lead to miscalculation, raising the risk of conflict.
That prediction may now be coming true, as a number of regional conflicts flare up around the world — against a background of an incoherent and unpredictable US foreign policy led by Donald Trump.
