Weekend reads: 11 of the best international premium pieces

Tristan Harris says "attention capitalism" is making us nastier, stupider and much less likely to find common ground with others. Photo / 123RF

Welcome to the weekend. For a lot of people around the country this week would have been the first week back at work after the holiday break.

The back-to-work blues are a thing so this weekend pick a spot in the sun, relax and pretend you're still on holiday while you read some of the best pieces of content from our international syndicators.

The Silicon Valley insider who says turn off your phone

Reporting can be a scary job. I have had nervous moments with warlords, gangsters and neo-Nazis. I have been shot at and threatened. But if Tristan Harris is right about what he is telling me, then the presentation playing now on his phone is the most frightening thing I've seen in my life.

Industry whizzkid Tristan Harris talks to Ben Hoyle of The Times about how our lives are now ruled by algorithms and apps.

Tristan Harris, former design ethicist at Google and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology. Photo / AP

'Megxit' is the new Brexit in a Britain split by age and politics

It started with the catchword "Megxit," a tabloid editor's clever play on Brexit, published soon after Prince Harry and Meghan announced their plans to leave Britain and live in North America part of the year.

It continued with corny jokes that Buckingham Palace is seeking a "Super Canada-plus" agreement for the Canada-bound couple.

And now, as the Royal family races to hammer out an agreement with the couple to put the unpleasant affair behind it, commentators are comparing the couple's impending breakup with Britain to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's election-year promise to "Get Brexit done."

Mark Landler of The New York Times looks at how like the Brexit debate, young liberals favour the couple while older conservatives are backing the queen.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced their plans to step back as senior members of the royal family. Photo / AP

Reducing fire, and cutting carbon emissions, the Aboriginal way

At a time when vast tracts of Australia are burning, Violet Lawson is never far from a match.

In the woodlands surrounding her home in the far north of the country, she lights hundreds of small fires a year — literally fighting fire with fire.

Over the past decade, fire prevention programs, mainly on aboriginal lands in northern Australia, have cut destructive wildfires in half.

Thomas Fuller of The New York Times looks at how, as blazes rage in southern Australia, indigenous fire-prevention techniques that have sharply cut destructive bushfires in the north are drawing new attention.

A patch of fire ignited by Violet Lawson, a landowner near Cooinda, Northern Territory. Photo / Matthew Abbott, The New York Times

Gillian Anderson on mid-life, menopause and single motherhood

Gillian Anderson, who is most recognised for her role as Scully in The X-Files, is twice divorced and has three children, Piper, 25, Oscar, 13, Felix, 11, whom she co-parents with their father. Her partner of three years is the playwright, screenwriter and creator of The Crown, Peter Morgan, himself a father of five.

In person Anderson is chatty and witty, aloof and friendly at the same time, a peculiarly feline trait often encountered in driven, confident women who have reached mid-life.

The Golden Globe winner makes mid-life look easy – and now she is reprising her role as the outrageous sex therapist Jean in Sex Education.

Lorraine Candy of The Times meets a woman in her prime.

Gillian Anderson. Photo / Getty Images

Donald Trump's impeachment trial: what happens next

When the House voted this week to send articles of impeachment against President Trump to the Senate, it set off a series of choreographed steps — some well-defined, others up for debate — that will shape the Senate trial.

This paved the way for what is only the third impeachment trial of a president in American history.

The Republican-led Senate is all but certain to vote eventually to acquit Trump. But the path forward remains murky, with few historical precedents and scant constitutional guidance to light the way.

The New York times explains how things are expected to play out on Capitol Hill in the coming days and weeks.

While decades-old congressional rules will be dusted off as the Senate impeachment trial begins, other major decisions will be made on the fly. Photo / Al Drago, The New York Times

What schizophrenia does to families

Alissa Dumsch flips through her high school yearbook, pausing on a photo of a hulking young man with sandy hair and a chiselled jaw. "There's Aaron," she says, pointing to her brother. "He was so good-looking."

We're sitting in her home in Scarsdale, New York, along with her parents, Anita and Pat, and her sister, Amanda.

Aaron is the only one missing. He knows we're here though. His parents told him. And he knows about this article; he gave me permission to write it the first time we spoke by phone, in the fall of 2018, when I explained what it would mean to share the story of his struggle with mental illness.

Abigail Jones of the Washington Post shares the story of a mother, a son, an unravelling mind - and a mental health system that can't keep up.

Anita and Aaron embrace during a visit. Photo / Mary F. Calvert, The Washington Post

Angela Merkel warns EU: 'Brexit is a wake-up call'

Former physicist Angela Merkel faces an uncompromising world where liberal principles have been shoved aside by the law of the jungle.

Her solution? Double down on Europe, Germany's anchor. "I see the European Union as our life insurance," she says. "Germany is far too small to exert geopolitical influence on its own, and that's why we need to make use of all the benefits of the single market."

Lionel Barber and Guy Chazan of The Financial Times sit down with Germany's chancellor in this exclusive interview.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses a New Year reception in her constituency of Stralsund, northern Germany. Photo / AP

Seven days in January: How US and Iran approached the brink of war

President Trump's decision to ratchet up decades of simmering conflict with Iran set off an extraordinary worldwide drama, much of which played out behind the scenes.

In capitals from Europe to the Middle East, leaders and diplomats sought to head off a full-fledged new war, while at the White House and Pentagon, the president and his advisers ordered more troops to the region.

The New York Times looks at the secret planning in the months preceding Trump's decision and how it ranks as the most perilous chapter so far in his three years in office.

President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the White House on the ballistic missile strike that Iran launched against Iraqi air bases housing US troops. Photo / AP

How Tiffany moved 114,000 gems without getting robbed

Tiffany & Co. had millions of dollars' worth of shining, sparkling jewellery in its famous Fifth Avenue store Sunday: $6000 rings that spell the world "love" in small diamonds, $250,000 diamond necklaces, and even a $3.742 million engagement ring that weighs as much as a bullet.

Those things had to leave, along with hundreds of other rings, necklaces and brooches.

It was moving day.

The New York Times looks at how it took dozens of security officers, hundreds of cameras and a vow of secrecy for the storied jeweller to move to temporary quarters as it renovates its flagship store on Fifth Avenue.

Police officers were on hand to ensure the security of the expensive jewellery that was moved a short distance into a temporary space. Photo / Stephen Speranza, The New York Times

She was a star of New York real estate. Her life story was a lie

Wrapped in furs, dripping with diamonds and with her blonde hair perfectly coiffed, Faith Hope Consolo cut a glamorous figure in the flashy, late 20th-century world of New York City real estate.

Consolo was born into the business, benefiting from her father's legacy as a real estate executive and emboldened professionally by her mother, a child psychiatrist.

In late 2018, Consolo died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 73. As someone who had covered her for years, I wrote her obituary, which included some details confirming her place in this rarefied world.

But those details, I soon discovered, were lies.

Julie Satow of The New York Times looks at how Consolo had the entire press fooled for years.

Hope Consolo in New York on April 30, 2008. In late 2018, Consolo died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 73. Photo / Beatrice de Gea, The New York Times

Rio and me: How Kate Wright became Mrs Ferdinand

Millions saw former England captain Rio Ferdinand's heartbreaking documentary about raising his three children after his wife's death. Then he met reality TV star Kate Wright, who became their stepmother at 26.

She tells Louise France of The Times about grief, love and why she's written a book.

Kate Wright and Rio Ferdinand. Photo / Getty Images