The New Zealand Herald is bringing back some of the best stories of 2019 from our premium international syndicators, including The New York Times, Financial Times, The Times of London and Harvard Business Review.
This afternoon we look at the King of Instagram, the woman who fell in love with a Nazi, saving the Amazon, signs of a recession and the 70-year-old man who won a 1000km horse race.
Guns, girls, gambling: Meet the multimillionaire king of Instagram
He possibly made a fortune from poker. He definitely won't date anyone his own age. He's known as the King of Instagram (nearly 30 million followers).
Nazis killed her father. Then she fell in love with one
After her father was murdered by Hitler's forces, she had an unspeakable affair with a Nazi industrialist.
Their billionaire descendants, who control iconic brand like Krispy Kreme and Stumptown, have only just learned the awful truth.
ALSO READ:
• The Holocaust survivor who deciphered Nazi doublespeak
Saving the Amazon: Fighting fires and illegal loggers
Swathes of the Amazon rainforest have been burning at a rate not seen in a decade.
The struggle to protect the world's largest tropical rainforest seems at times like a war against well-organised jungle insurgents, who strike and then vanish into the emerald wilderness.
ALSO READ:
• Amid outrage over rainforest fires, many in the Amazon remain defiant
• The Amazon, Siberia, Indonesia: A world of fire
• In the Amazon, fires steal breath, but smoke smells of money
A recession is coming (eventually), and here's where you'll see it first
Economists often say that "expansions don't die of old age." That is, recessions are like coin flips — just because you get heads five times in a row doesn't mean your next flip is more likely to come up tails.
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• A recession hasn't arrived (yet). Here's where you'll see it first
70-year-old man wins 1000 kilometre horse race in Mongolia
Bob Long, 70, just became the oldest person to finish what Guinness World Records calls the longest multi-horse race in the world. He also came in first.
"Preparation trumps youth," said Long, who "hated" to think that he couldn't complete the Mongol Derby, a gruelling contest across the steppes of Mongolia.