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Weekend Fin

This Month

Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson has lunch with the AFR’s Ayesha de Kretser at the Airbus factory in Hamburg, Germany.

Why Vanessa Hudson’s kids didn’t want her to be Qantas CEO

The airline boss opens up about career timing, why it’s OK to be wrong, and why the timetable for fleet renewal is fine, thank you very much.

The Scots have a new whisky competitor - England.

The English whisky distilleries ruffling Scottish feathers

These 20-year-old upstarts are taking on centuries of northern tradition in a war of the whiskies – and even have conflicting views on what makes a single malt.

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones: would a chat with ChatGPT set him straight?

Conspiracy theorist in your life? Sit them down with ChatGPT

New research has shown that generative AI is better than a human interlocutor at getting somebody to change their mind.

Reddit made its Wall St debut last year, and its daily users have since surged over 100 million.

How Reddit became the nicest place on the internet

Once an outpost of revenge porn and racism, the 20-year-old site’s daily usership has surged as its humanity stands out from the AI-driven competition.

Tom Gleisner takes a different sort of look at aged care in his musical Bloom, which opens in Sydney next week.

An aged care musical? Straight to the pool room, said Tom Gleisner

The creator behind The Castle and Utopia spent many hours visiting nursing homes, and emerged not depressed, but inspired to write songs.

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McCartney and Lennon had the kind of intimate male friendship which society “still has trouble thinking about”, according to Ian Leslie’s new book.

Inside the friendship that made The Beatles

A new book uses John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s songs to tell the story of their epoch-making, yet intimate bond.

The famous “that’s not a knife, that’s a knife” scene from Crocodile Dundee.

How Crocodile Dundee became an icon, especially for its investors

A new documentary on Australia’s highest-grossing film lacks bite, but boasts interesting detail about the investors it enriched – including late wicketkeeper Rod Marsh.

Donald Trump’s deep cuts to the US public service have created a Reddit boom.

Forget Truth Social, Trump is making people flock to Reddit

The erstwhile ‘front page of the internet’ has, at 20 years old, regained relevance as public servants threatened with the sack use it to share information.

Ashton Bingham and Art Kulik have earned a huge followership by ‘scamming’ online scammers.

Inside the world of vigilante scam-baiters

They claim to fight for victims of online scammers, but are they really just trying to go viral?

Former US Treasury secretary and former Chair of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen at Icebergs, Bondi.

If Musk aims to save trillions, he’s doing it wrong: Yellen

America’s former Treasury secretary Janet Yellen speaks candidly about Trump, getting DOGED, choosing economics and why she’s an inveterate planner.

Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler in Disney’s Snow White.

Disney’s Snow White is not too woke – and it’s better than Wicked

This flashpoint of the culture wars avoids being the disaster many feared (or hoped for).

Bobby Fox, Angelina Thomson, Annie Aitken, Cody Simpson and that giant taxi star in Guys & Dolls for the 2025 edition of Handa Opera On Sydney Harbour.

How to direct a musical on a ‘football field’

There’s a lot riding on Opera Australia’s annual outdoor production but Shaun Rennie is more worried about actors getting to their marks, and nothing getting blown into Sydney Harbour.

President Donald Trump’s policy agenda, and the threat of a US recession, are now weighing on Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ federal budget.

Trump Anxiety Disorder is real, says this shrink

Pyschologist Peter Quarry is not alone among his colleagues in noticing more clients want to process their feelings about the 47th president.

The clock room’s feature wall.

Hidden under Central Station lies a clock collector’s paradise

A secure chamber in the catacombs of the Sydney rail hub holds a decade-old collection of timepieces. It’s worth thousands – but rail bosses are unsure what to do with it.

You can’t unsee this terrifying ‘man-suit’ android

The inventors of the Protoclone hope it can be a skin for future AI applications. In the meantime, it is hanging around looking scary.

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A doctor works at a Johns Hopkins outpatient centre in Baltimore.

Johns Hopkins to cut more than 2000 workers in Trump era

The university, a leader in scientific research, has been hard hit by the Trump administration’s cuts, which will slash at least $US800 million from its budget.

Aron D’Souza, founder of the controversial Enhanced Games, whose backers include Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jnr. Hulk Hogan was the proxy for the Gawker case financed by Thiel but organised by Aron.

The Melburnian and MAGA favourite behind the ‘Doping Olympics’

Aron D’Souza, the Melburnian founder of the controversial Enhanced Games, is backed by Peter Thiel and Donald Trump jnr, and has big plans for the future.

Pianist Simon Tedeschi at his Sydney home, ahead of concerts with Muslim-Israeli violinist Yamen Saadi and his 1734 Stradivari next week.

He was David Helfgott’s hands. Now he must have fingers in many pies

Sharing the stage with a $16 million violin and donning a powdered wig to become Mozart – pianist Simon Tedeschi on the eclectic lot of a classical musician.

 Ex-F1 racing driver Jacky Ickx, in Chopard’s “basement,” which also serves as a display area for the mens watches.

He walked to his car as others sprinted. Then he won Le Mans

On the eve of the Australian F1 grand prix, we talk to Jacky Ickx, who struck a blow for safety in motorsport’s most dangerous era – and won several big races.

Heather Mitchell, at Cafe Cressida.

This actor has the legal profession flocking to see her show

Heather Mitchell is reviving the crowning role of her long career, playing the US Supreme Court judge in RBG: Of Many, One.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/weekend-fin-1mub