Murdoch's dynastic power play is a warning to rein in the super rich - Will Hutton
The Guardian Weekly|August 02, 2024
We live in an era of private dynasties. America's billionaires are worth a cool $5.5tn at the last count. Three Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Tesla's Elon Musk and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg - are worth over a staggering $500bn between them. Americans dominate the global billionaire league table: Britain has none in the top hundred. But we still have enough to cause concern.
Will Hutton
Murdoch's dynastic power play is a warning to rein in the super rich - Will Hutton

Individuals who have resources on this scale change the dynamics of the societies in which they live, as the US increasingly dramatises. Their spending pulls economies out of kilter so that too much production is directed towards opulent, useless baubles, but, more dangerously, it spills over into buying political influence - directly in the political process and indirectly via media ownership. Unconstrained, the impact can only grow in the decades ahead, a phenomenon of which the dynastic founders are well aware, even if the wider public is not.

A dynastic courtroom drama to unfold next month in Reno, Nevada - hitherto secret but exposed by the New York Times last week - will further shine light on the new realities. Rupert Murdoch, the 31st richest billionaire in the US, and controller of a vast media empire that ranges from Fox News in the US, the Times and the Sun in Britain, to the Australian, is petitioning to change the terms of an irrevocable trust. It currently determines that after his death his four eldest children will have equal voting rights in the strategic and editorial control of his empire. The court hearing is his effort to change the trust and instead confer control on the child he considers most reliably rightwing, his son Lachlan.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 02, 2024 من The Guardian Weekly.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 02, 2024 من The Guardian Weekly.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY مشاهدة الكل
What Can America Expect From Trump 2.0
The Guardian Weekly

What Can America Expect From Trump 2.0

THE 45TH AND 47TH commander-in-chief will face fewer limits on his ambition when he is sworn in again in January.

time-read
5 mins  |
November 15, 2024
New World Order How Will Trump Reshape US Foreign Policy?
The Guardian Weekly

New World Order How Will Trump Reshape US Foreign Policy?

DURING THE FIRST TRUMP TERM, Richard Moore, then the political director of the UK Foreign Offi ce and now the head of MI6, has admitted that half of Britain’s diplomats woke up each morning dreading what they might read on the president’s Twitter feed.

time-read
5 mins  |
November 15, 2024
Seed drill: what can I make with tahini beyond just hummus?
The Guardian Weekly

Seed drill: what can I make with tahini beyond just hummus?

'Tahini has a beautiful versatility,\" says Fadi Kattan, chef/co-founder of Akub in London and author of Bethlehem, \"from a drizzle over your morning toast or granola, to an earthy background flavour in a sauce, to all sorts of cakes and cookies.\"

time-read
2 mins  |
November 15, 2024
Trump unleashed will be even worse than last time's dress rehearsal Jonathan Freedland
The Guardian Weekly

Trump unleashed will be even worse than last time's dress rehearsal Jonathan Freedland

Are you ready for Trump unbound? You may have thought the former and future president was already pretty unrestrained, not least because Donald Trump has never shown anything but brazen disrespect for boundaries or limits of any kind. And you would be right. But, as an earlier entertainer turned president – and Trump combines the two roles – liked to say: You ain’t seen nothing yet.

time-read
4 mins  |
November 15, 2024
Trump's return is bleak for America and the world
The Guardian Weekly

Trump's return is bleak for America and the world

This is an exceptionally bleak and frightening moment for the United States and the world. Donald Trump swept the electoral college and the popular vote -giving him not merely a victory, but a mandate. If many voters gambled on him in 2016, they doubled down this time.

time-read
2 mins  |
November 15, 2024
Flower Power
The Guardian Weekly

Flower Power

Once a modest sign of remembrance for the war dead, the poppy has increasingly been used as a prop for performative patriotism, and a tool that helps to gauge others' loyalty to an ideal of national sacrifice

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 15, 2024
When adult children cut the cord
The Guardian Weekly

When adult children cut the cord

Grownups who cut off contact with their family are often trying to break away after a traumatic childhood. But sometimes the estrangement can be totally unexpected for parents who really believe they've done their best

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 15, 2024
Battle lines Pyongyang's Russia entente is a dilemma for Xi Jinping
The Guardian Weekly

Battle lines Pyongyang's Russia entente is a dilemma for Xi Jinping

In October 1950, barely a year after the Chinese civil war ended, Mao Zedong sent the first Chinese soldiers to fight in the Korean war. Between 180,000 and 400,000 of Chairman Mao's troops would die in that conflict, including his own son. But it was important to defend North Korea then, Mao reportedly said, because \"without the lips, the teeth are cold\".

time-read
2 mins  |
November 15, 2024
The hospital on the frontline of unstoppable gang warfare
The Guardian Weekly

The hospital on the frontline of unstoppable gang warfare

It was mid-morning in central Port-au-Prince and already two shooting victims had been rushed into the hospital past a mural instructing visitors to leave machetes and rifles outside.

time-read
2 mins  |
November 15, 2024
Small wonders Unravelling the paradoxes of plankton
The Guardian Weekly

Small wonders Unravelling the paradoxes of plankton

Scientists are using technology to sequence the DNA of microscopic marine life for the first time-to help us learn more about ourselves

time-read
4 mins  |
November 15, 2024