Weekend reads: 11 of the best international premium pieces

President Trump has exploited social media like no other US president, using it as a springboard to change policy, as a cudgel against critics and an outlet for self-affirmation. Photo / Al Drago, NYT

Welcome to the weekend. It's been a big week of news so now the weekend is here you can kick back and catch up on some of the best journalism from our international premium syndicators.

How Trump reshaped the presidency in over 11,000 tweets

On the morning of Inauguration Day 2017, Donald J. Trump tweeted an opening message to the United States. What has followed is a barrage of personal attacks, outrage and boasting, in a near-constant stream of more than 11,000 tweets over 33 months.

At the beginning of his presidency, Trump tweeted about nine times a day. In the past three months, President Trump's tweets have spilled out at triple the rate he set in 2017.

Trump's Twitter habits were so concerning that early on his top aides wanted to restrain him, even considering asking the company to impose a 15-minute delay on his messages.

In a major investigation The New York Times reviewed every tweet and retweet sent by President Trump from January 20, 2017, through to October 15,2019.

Trump uses Twitter on his smartphone in his office at Trump Tower in New York on September 29, 2015. Photo / Josh Haner, The New York Times

These machines can put you in jail. Don't trust them

A million Americans a year are arrested for drink-driving, and most stops begin the same way: flashing blue lights in the rearview mirror, then a battery of tests that might include standing on one foot or reciting the alphabet.

What matters most, though, happens next. By the side of the road or at the police station, drivers blow into a miniature science lab that estimates the concentration of alcohol in their blood. If the level is 0.08 or higher, they are all but certain to be convicted of a crime.

But those tests — a bedrock of the criminal justice system — are often unreliable, a New York Times investigation found.

The Dräger Alcotest 9510 and similar devices from other manufacturers are found in police stations across the US. Photo / Cooper Neill, The New York Times

The 100 Best CEOs in the World, for 2019

Harvard Business Review this week published its annual list of the top 100 CEOs globally.

The rankings are based on financial performance as well as environmental, social, and governance measures.

See the full list here

Robert Iger, Marc Benioff, Lisa Su and Shantanu Narayen were all named in the best-performing CEOS in the world for 2019. Photo / AP

London Underground: The dirtiest place in the city

In total 4.8m passengers use the London Underground every day, you might think you are escaping the pollution dangers from road travel, with its exhaust fumes and soot.

The reality is very different. Although its health risks have been little studied and little publicised, other than a handful of recent scientific papers, the Tube is by far the most polluted part of the city. Fine particles of dust, metal, skin and clothing fibre have built up in the tunnels over a century of use, leaving a toxic miasma that is stirred up by passing trains and inhaled by passengers.

An Financial Times Investigation shows that air pollution on the Tube is as much as 10 times above health guidelines.

The London Underground is by far the most polluted part of the city. Photo / Getty Images

Can Taika Waititi handle Hollywood's elite awards season?

In an Oscar season dominated by American masters like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, Kiwi Taika Waititi is poised to crash their party with Jojo Rabbit, a World War II comedy about a German boy named Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) whose imaginary best friend is Adolf Hitler.

The film doesn't contain the elements that traditional Oscar contenders are made of. And yet, that reality has come to pass: At the Toronto International Film Festival, Jojo Rabbit took the People's Choice Award that has previously gone to best-picture winners.

The New York Times looks at how the irreverent director will fare amid Hollywood's sacred rituals.

Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit is an unlikely Oscar contender. Photo / AP

So you've been 'cancelled'. What happens now?

The term for people who have been thrust out of social or professional circles for unpopular views or behaviour — either online, in the real world, or sometimes both — is "cancelled".

There are varying degrees of cancellation. Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, Harvey Weinstein and others have been cancelled for serial sexual assault or harassment; non-famous abusers and predatory media executives have been cancelled as well.

On YouTube, vloggers cancel each other and even themselves with startling regularity, often for petty or invented grievances.

John McDermott of the New York Times reports.

Katie Herzog was 'cancelled' after publishing an article about trans people who halt or reverse transitions. Photo / Jenny Riffle, The New York Times

The senior citizens running for US president

Can we talk about Joe Biden's face? And Bernie Sanders' heart attack? And Elizabeth Warren's honey blonde hair? And Donald Trump's unnaturally orange hue?

Can we talk about the senior citizens running for president?

Trump and three leading Democratic challengers are all septuagenarians, and there's not enough hair dye or spray tan in the world to cover up that fact. They may be smart; they may be experienced but - sorry, boomers - 70 is not the new 50.

The Washington Post looks at how the senior citizens running for US president are trying to look younger.

Sworn into office at the age of 70, Trump is the oldest person to become US president. Photo / A

Why didn't she get Alzheimer's? Answer could hold key to fighting disease

The woman's genetic profile showed she would develop Alzheimer's by the time she turned 50.

A member of the world's largest family to suffer from Alzheimer's, she, like generations of her relatives, was born with a gene mutation that causes people to begin having memory and thinking problems in their 40s and deteriorate rapidly toward death around age 60.

But remarkably, she experienced no cognitive decline at all until her 70s, nearly three decades later than expected.

The New York Times reports on the woman with a rare genetic mutation that's protected her from dementia.

Francisco Lopera has been painstakingly collecting brains, birth and death records from one sprawling Colombian family to study Alzheimer's. Photo / Federico Rios Escobar, The New York Times

Comment | It's time to take down the Mona Lisa

The Louvre houses the greatest collection of art anywhere in Europe, within a palace that is a masterpiece in its own right. It is, by some distance, the most popular museum in the world.

Yet the Louvre is being held hostage by the Kim Kardashian of 16th-century Italian portraiture: the handsome but only moderately interesting Lisa Gherardini, better known (after her husband) as La Gioconda, whose renown so eclipses her importance that no one can even remember how she got famous in the first place.

Leonardo's painting is a security hazard, an educational obstacle and not even a satisfying bucket-list item.

Jason Farago of The New York Times explains why it's time the Louvre moved it out of the way.

Visitors to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa on October 24. Each day, 30,000 people pass through the gallery where Leonardo's painting hangs. Photo / Elliott Verdier, The New York Times

Matthew Rhys: 'Incredibly nerve-racking' working with Tom Hanks

Matthew Rhys won an Emmy last year for playing an undercover KGB agent in Season 6 of The Americans but he still doesn't know why.

"I look back at 6 and go, 'How did I get an Emmy for that?' " Rhys said in a recent chat.

Clearly he wasn't that bad as he was cast to star opposite Tom Hanks in the forthcoming A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, a film about a sceptical journalist who profiles children's television host Fred Rogers.

The casting of Hanks as Mister Rogers was almost too perfect; America's dad playing America's dad. The casting Rhys as the journalist was more of a gamble.

Cara Buckley from The New York Times spoke to Rhys about what it was like working alongside Hanks.

Matthew Rhys found videos of Fred Rogers confounding: "Who is this person?" he remembers thinking. Photo / Erik Carter, The New York Times

The money farmers: How oligarchs and populists milk the EU for millions

Under Communism, farmers laboured in the fields that stretch for miles around this town west of Budapest, reaping wheat and corn for a government that had stolen their land.

Today, their children toil for new overlords, a group of oligarchs and political patrons who have annexed the land through opaque deals with the Hungarian government. They have created a modern twist on a feudal system, giving jobs and aid to the compliant and punishing the mutinous.

These land barons, as it turns out, are financed and emboldened by the European Union.

The European Union spends US$65 billion a year subsidising agriculture. But as The New York Times reports a chunk of that money emboldens strongmen, enriches politicians and finances corrupt dealing.

Fields near Csakvar, Hungary. The EU spends US$65 billion a year subsidising agriculture. But a chunk of that enriches politicians and finances corrupt dealing. Photo / Akos Stiler, The New York Times