‘TikTok is on decline’
Nitish Pahwa at slate
“Tiktok is not anywhere near death or dying,” says Nitish Pahwa, but the short video app has seen a “sharp slowdown in user growth in the past year.” People get annoyed by “its ad-heavy push into e-commerce via the ‘Tiktok store'” and “its endless river of AI-generated spam and error information.” And Universal Music Group drew its “big catalog”, including Taylor Swift. It may be time to “start wondering what in the earth might come for us next.”
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“The problem with Democrats boasting the economy”
Perry Bacon Jr. in the Washington Post
President Joe Biden should talk less about the strength of the economy and more about how he will do better for those who remain in the cold, says Perry Bacon Jr. We have low unemployment and shrinking payrolls between white and black Americans. But 44 million “is still struggling to afford food.” Biden has the advantage compared to Donald Trump because the Democrats’ values, “adapting to trade unions,” families and environmental activists, can help him “to make the economy great – not because it is already.”
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‘How Russians and West failed Navalny’
Garry Kasparov in the Wall Street Journal
Russian President Vladimir Putin killed the imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, “but there is enough sign to walk around,” says Garry Kasparov. Joe Biden once threatened “devastating” consequences if something happened to Navalny, and the US president is now facing an “incredible test.” But we, Navalny’s colleagues, “failed to match” his courage in challenging Putin’s “dictatorship and war.” Navalny may still be alive “if we had been as brave as the Ukrainians were” when Putin came to them.
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“Women don’t show up to vote. It can lead to disaster 2024 elections. ‘
Sarah Chamberlain in the United States today
There are “worrying signs” that “women are losing the habit of voting in larger numbers than men,” says Sarah Chamberlain. Only 44% of voters at the Iowa Republican Caucus and 48% in the New Hampshire GOP primary were women. It is surprising now that “politics that directly affect women are decided in a post-ro country.” It can also drive further polarization by letting the candidates focus on the party “brand building” instead of subjects such as health care, education and childcare.
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