The football coach and the advertising man- what the papers in Australia and abroad reckon 22 April 2018

Wenger and Sorrell show the costs and prizes of leadership longevity - Financial Times of London

“If you eat caviar every day,” said Arsène Wenger, “it is difficult to return to sausages.” The Alsatian’s knack for aphorisms in his third language disarmed critics of his once-formidable work as Arsenal coach. Still, the club’s demotion from the high table of European football has told in the end. He leaves after 22 years, a mere sojourn next to the 33 that Martin Sorrell served atop the advertising firm WPP before his recent retirement. Spring in London has felled these old leaders, leaving others to ponder the risks of longevity. Both Mr Wenger and Sir Martin innovated to great success. Both infused their organisations with their personalities. Both had the chance to leave while at or near their peak. Having decided against, both now depart with reputations that are impressive, if frayed around the edges.

Mr. Comey’s telling memos - Washington Post

They add detail to the picture of a president dismissive of democratic norms and distracted by his obsessions.

Bank checks - Sunday Telegraph, Sydney

EVERYONE knew the royal commission into the banks would be ugly. We were all familiar with the stories of brutal foreclosures and crashing insensitivity to the personal hardships of farmers and battlers.
But nobody expected what we have seen this week: the exposure of unethical, unjustifiable and possibly criminal activity at the heart of these powerful financial institutions.
The great shame of this conduct is not just the seriously damaged reputations of the banks, but the personal blow to the many thousands of decent, hardworking, ethical people who show up every day for work in branches and call centres, doing their best to solve problems for customers, to finance dream homes and to facilitate small businesses to get up and running. The banks, and those they employ, are the cornerstones of our economy. We need them to be profitable. But most of all, we need them to have integrity, in every sense of the word.

May’s ‘hostile environment’ must be dismantled - The Observer, London

History will judge Theresa May harshly. In recent weeks, the appalling stories about the impact of the government’s “hostile environment” policy reported by our sister paper, the Guardian, have continued to grow in number. They paint a shocking picture of a Kafkaesque state that has denied people who came to the UK from the Commonwealth as children their rightful entitlement to work, to housing and to healthcare. May has maintained these are people who have been wrongly caught up in her 2013 decision as home secretary to create a “really hostile environment” for people living in Britain illegally. But their tragic stories are the direct consequence of a policy so punitive that it would inevitably make life intolerable for legal British residents.

Let the Bull Be - New York Post 

It looks like Wall Street’s two opposing statuary icons, “Charging Bull” and “Fearless Girl,” are going to remain a matched pair at a new location — simply because Mayor de Blasio wants it that way. And never mind the rights of one of the artists, who rightly charges that City Hall has blatantly misrepresented the meaning of his work. 

The juxtaposition of Fearless Girl and Charging Bull upset some observers, including sculptor Arturo Di Modica, who installed Charging Bull in 1989

The city disclosed this week that “Fearless Girl,” the marketing stunt installed last year by a Boston financial firm (with its own sexism woes), is being moved in front of the New York Stock Exchange. That would allow the 50-inch-tall girl, hands defiantly on hips, to keep confronting corporate sexism, which is why she originally was placed opposite the statue that has become a symbol of Wall Street.

No compromise on the customs union - Sunday Telegraph, London

It is very simple: Britain must leave the customs union. Theresa May has consistently said this, and has offered the European Union interesting solutions for handling the technical problems that would arise from a hard border with Ireland. The EU rejected them out of hand in the same week that peers voted against the Government on the EU Withdrawal Bill. The goal of both is the same – to force the UK to give up and stay in the customs union. This would be totally unacceptable and a betrayal of Brexit. ... Mrs May has already made plenty of concessions and should make no more. The hour is being reached where points of reasonable compromise have been exhausted.

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