‘Executives face a choice’

‘The return-to-the-office trend backfires’

Gleb Tsipursky at The HillMany “business leaders think that a stricter return-to-office policy will cause a surge in productivity. But in reality, the data tells a different story,” says Gleb Tsipursky. Companies that “commit to highly flexible models, including remote-first, report strong output, healthier engagement and faster growth than mandate-driven peers.” These are “not isolated anecdotes; they are economy-wide patterns.” If “flexibility supports performance and expands talent, what do return-to-office mandates do? A growing body of research answers bluntly: not what its champions promise.”Read more

‘From medals to the Capitol: When women are elected, everyone wins.’

Lauri Hennessey and Kiana Scott at The Seattle TimesMany of the “barriers that kept women, especially women of color, from full participation in elected leadership are still in place today, and are present in and beyond politics,” say Lauri Hennessey and Kiana Scott. While men “share the weight of family care more than they once did, the scales are still deeply unbalanced, forcing many women and families to make choices.” Women are “still fighting, in many ways, for equality. That’s part of why electing women matters.”Read more

‘Latinos are turning away from Trump’s GOP. That doesn’t mean Democrats are entitled to their votes.’

Luis F. Carrasco at The Philadelphia InquirerIn 2024, Donald Trump “could rightfully point with pride to how he performed with Hispanic voters in Texas,” but last week Latinos “turned out in massive numbers for the Democrats,” says Luis F. Carrasco. This is “good news for Democrats, but here’s the caveat: they cannot draw the lesson that this is Hispanic voters coming home. Instead, both parties must understand they cannot take Latinos for granted.” Some Latinos have a “sense that Democrats are not properly focused.”Read more

‘The war with Iran is reaching places you might not expect’

Grigor Hovhannisyan at NewsweekThe world’s “attention in the confrontation with Iran has focused on the obvious places,” says Grigor Hovhannisyan. But wars “rarely respect the neat geography of news coverage,” and airlines have “begun funneling through a narrow band of sky over three countries that rarely occupy the center of American strategic thinking: Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.” The “sudden congestion overhead is less a commercial opportunity than a reminder of geography. When great powers collide, smaller states nearby tend to absorb the pressure.”Read more