All posts tagged: soft

Former Harvard president Larry Summers’ soft landing after Epstein revelations sends damning message

Former Harvard president Larry Summers’ soft landing after Epstein revelations sends damning message

Published by Sam Flores

Economist Larry Summers will resign from his tenured job as a professor at Harvard University, the school announced on Feb. 25, 2026, following heightened scrutiny of his ties with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Summers will leave at the end of the 2025-26 academic year, with a new title: president emeritus. It’s a soft landing for his fall from grace. In November 2025, Harvard launched an investigation of Summers, a former U.S. treasury secretary who previously served as Harvard’s president. The probe looked into whether Summers and other members of Harvard’s faculty and administration had interactions with Epstein that violated its guidelines on accepting gifts and should be subject to disciplinary action. Summers’ resignation is connected with this ongoing investigation, a Harvard spokesperson told The Hill. Despite repeated calls by students for Harvard to revoke Summers’ tenure, he held onto his teaching and academic appointments at Harvard until he chose to retire. Students and staff also called for his resignation in 2005 following his disparaging comments about women in science. “Free of formal …

From the Queen’s Tweeds to Kate Middleton’s Zara, Justine Picardie Reveals the Soft Power of Royal Dressing

From the Queen’s Tweeds to Kate Middleton’s Zara, Justine Picardie Reveals the Soft Power of Royal Dressing

Published by Sam Flores

In a wide-ranging interview, Picardie discusses everything from the glamour of Queen Mary to the ways Kate Middleton is continuing sartorial royal traditions established for over 100 years. Vanity Fair: What inspired you to write Fashioning the Crown? Justine Picardie: When I met Queen Elizabeth II, it really was the most extraordinary experience, because she really was the most famous person in the world. And yet there was something so modest about her. I was also fascinated, aside from that, by the story of Hardy Amies. When I was working for Vogue in the late ’90s and early noughties, I’d met Sir Hardy Amies as he was by then, and he was incredibly discreet and didn’t really talk about his wartime experiences, but I did know that he’d worked in espionage during the Second World War. So, I would say it was the combination of those two encounters. So first, with Hardy Amies before his death. And then when I met the queen and asked her about Hardy Amies. She kind of gave you an …

Zelenskyy Speaks Out Against Trump’s Soft Spot For Putin

Zelenskyy Speaks Out Against Trump’s Soft Spot For Putin

Published by Sam Flores

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spoken out against Donald Trump’s “very, very painful” attitude towards Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainian president was speaking after his delegates met with their Russian and US counterparts in Geneva for their third attempt at trilateral talks. The White House is desperate to get a peace deal over the line as soon as possible, even if that means rewarding Russia for being an aggressor. Putin currently holds a fifth of Ukraine’s sovereign land but wants to control the whole of the Donbas, which is only 90% occupied by Russian troops at the moment. While Ukraine has made it clear that giving up any more territory would be a red line, Trump has repeatedly blamed Zelenskyy – not Putin – for the slow progress in the talks. The Ukrainian president said it is “painful” when Trump’s attitude to the Russian president is better “than Putin deserves”. Speaking to Piers Morgan Uncensored on YouTube, Zelenskyy said: “I trust him [Trump]… he really wants to end this war… and I trust that he really can end …

Burnt Hair and Soft Power: A Night Out With Evie Magazine

Burnt Hair and Soft Power: A Night Out With Evie Magazine

Published by skeptic

Just after 8:00 pm on Sunday night, Evie Magazine’s first live event was finally getting started. The women’s magazine, which was founded in 2019 and once described itself as a “conservative Cosmo,” welcomed eager fans to celebrate the publication, generally, and its new issue, specifically, during New York Fashion Week at the Standard Hotel’s Boom in Chelsea. Guests lined up outside, hugging fur coats around formal dresses, as hosts scanned a list for their names. One blonde woman begged for access to the VIP section; an event planner ran downstairs to tell her coworkers that someone’s hair had caught on fire. Upstairs, women crowded the entrance for the chance to be photographed against a larger-than-life plastic Evie Magazine cover that declared, “Welcome to the Romantic Era.” (The other cover lines: “‘Your secret feminine power,” “12 ways to make him swoon,” and “Feminine fashion we love: corsets, dresses, & drama.”) The party was hosted by Brittany Hugoboom, the editor in chief, and her cofounder and husband Gabriel Hugoboom. The invitation billed it as a “celebration of …

‘By sacrificing American soft power, Trump is exacerbating his country’s unpopularity and prompting Europeans to exercise their own’

‘By sacrificing American soft power, Trump is exacerbating his country’s unpopularity and prompting Europeans to exercise their own’

Published by Sam Flores

Discomfort among MAGA (Make America Great Again) supporters, Donald Trump’s declining popularity, poor polling ahead of the midterm elections… All those oscillating between dismay, anxiety and outrage at the daily damage inflicted by the American president on global affairs cling to every setback of the White House’s king. “As Trump’s behavior becomes more and more indefensible (…) a genuine backlash is finally underway,” writes Gideon Rachman, a columnist at the Financial Times, hoping that his rule will go down as a “grotesque aberration – rather than a lasting shift.” While a solid core of 40% of voters continues to trust him and the midterms in the fall could resemble elections in an authoritarian country where an autocrat cannot imagine losing, no one truly knows what the United States will look like in 2028, at the end of the presidential term. However, a stark reality is becoming clear, especially to Europeans. Whatever the future may hold for Trumpism, the US is no longer the great, stable superpower and ally, whose values were criticized but also often …

Boomers Seriously Judge Millennials Who Parent Their Kids In These 11 Soft Ways

Boomers Seriously Judge Millennials Who Parent Their Kids In These 11 Soft Ways

Published by Jenni Sidey

A parent is the most influential person in a child’s life. It’s no surprise that they mold them into the people they want them to be. The boomer generation grew up with more hands-off parents. The Greatest Generation was more stoic than other generations. As a result, they were less affectionate to the boomers. Boomers took what they learned from their parents and brought it into their own parenting style. They were also stoic and raised Gen X often as latchkey kids. They spent time alone at home while their parents worked. They believed in children taking accountability for themselves. Now, they’re watching millennials step in as parents and are seriously judging them. Boomers believe these parents are too soft on their kids and need to enforce stricter boundaries, similar to the ones they set for their own children. Boomers seriously judge millennials who parent their kids in these 11 soft ways 1. They believe millennial parents shouldn’t put their kids’ feelings first blackCAT from Getty Images Signature via Canva Gen X struggled to feel heard …

What’s Soft Cardio? Experts Explain Everyone’s Latest Fitness Obsession

What’s Soft Cardio? Experts Explain Everyone’s Latest Fitness Obsession

Published by Jenni Sidey

Every now and then, fitness TikTok digs up something that’s been around forever and calls it a “trend.” Earlier this year, the honors went to zone 2 cardio, a relatively low-effort form of fat-burning cardio that spares you enough bronchial bandwidth during your workout to have a conversation, or record a sanctimonious Instagram reel. More recently, you may have noticed another, even lower-effort form of cardio all up in your algorithm: soft cardio. Also known as “cozy cardio,” soft cardio is simply regular cardio done at a slow, relaxed pace so as to spare your body from repetitive impact—hence the name. “I know ‘soft cardio’ has been trending recently, but it’s really just a casual term for low-intensity exercise,” says Irvin Sulapas, MD, sports medicine physician and associate professor at UTHealth Houston. “Basically, it keeps your heart rate slightly elevated without putting much stress on your joints or muscles.” Soft cardio can take the form of anything from a slow outdoor stroll to a leisurely bop on the exercise bike. And while it may not …

Bone Temple Soft at the Box Office

Bone Temple Soft at the Box Office

Published by Daniella Wilson

The 28 Years Later franchise is back at cinemas, just seven months after the previous installment brought the zombie movie series back to life. Now it is battling headwinds as it struggles against holdover Avatar: Fire and Ash at the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend box office despite strong reviews and audience reactions. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple scored $5.6 million on Friday, and is looking to notch around $15 million during the four-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. That’s far behind the first 28 Years, which opened to a $30 million three-day number in June, and behind the $20 million initially projected for Bone Temple going into the weekend. Avatar 3, now in its fifth weekend, brought in $3.2 million on Friday, and could end up with $17 million to win the four-day weekend. So far, the film has collected $353.4 million domestically and more than $1.23 billion globally. The 28 Years Later franchise hails from director Boyle and writer Alex Garland, who brought the film series to Sony after a …

I tried 75 low- and no-alcohol drinks: here are my favourite beers, wines and spirits | Soft drinks

I tried 75 low- and no-alcohol drinks: here are my favourite beers, wines and spirits | Soft drinks

Published by Sam Flores

Was your Christmas a little too merry? Maybe you’re giving Dry January a go; maybe you fancy trying more zebra striping (alternating alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks) this year; or maybe you want to steer clear of alcohol for a while for health reasons. Whatever the motivation, many of us will use the new year as a chance to re-evaluate our relationship with booze and look for alternatives to the hard stuff. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Luckily, the low- and no-alcohol category is increasingly better; these days there’s no excuse to serve you a sad lemonade just because you’re the designated driver. The world of low-alcohol beer is particularly excellent, with loads of brilliantly brewed lagers, pilsners, stouts and ales that are just as exciting and tasty as their alcoholic counterparts. Spirits are good, too, with delicious agave-based liquids and dozens of gin-adjacent spirits I’d be happy to drink in a 0% G&T. Wines can be more challenging, I find, but …