What the world is reading

When Lance Armstrong,winner of seven Tour de France titles,was accused of doping,he reacted by opting out of the US Anti-Doping Agency’s arbitration process,saying he is “finished with this nonsense”. Josh Levin says his reaction is in line with his “default mode for a decade: angry,defensive,paranoid,self-aggrandizing,and messianic…When nobody thought he would endure testicular cancer,Armstrong got healthy and became the greatest bike racer ever. The world’s most famous cancer survivor then stared down drug accusations the same way that he did disease. His accusers were doubters,and doubters were poisonous.” Levin further writes,“USADA may—if the International Cycling Union agrees—be able to strip the ex-champ of his closet full of yellow jerseys,but they won’t be able to take away Armstrong’s most prized possession: his righteous indignation.”

The Independent

The empire strikes back

Last week,Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun became the first British newspaper to publish leaked photos of a naked Prince Harry in a Las Vegas hotel room in the company of several young women. The Independent’s Jane Merrick and Matthew Bell say this is the Murdoch empire striking back at the Press Complaints Commission,the Leveson Commission (formed after the News Of The World scandal) and Prime Minister David Cameron. “Not only was The Sun showing Prince Harry’s bottom,but Mr Murdoch was,figuratively speaking,mooning the British establishment,including Lord Justice Leveson. This was also a veiled attack on Mr Cameron,whom Mr Murdoch,it is said,blames for the looming threat of statutory regulation by setting up the Leveson inquiry in the first place.” The story also talks about the liberating effect publishing the photos had on the morale of the employees. They quote one staffer as saying,“It is good to feel that we are working for a paper that gets noticed again.”

The New Yorker

Teen titan

“Justin Bieber (pic) was born with the Superman powers. He could sing,he could dance,he could play instruments. I wasn’t born with those gifts,so I had to become a different kind of superhero.” These are the words of Scooter Braun,the man credited with pulling pop sensation Justin Beiber off YouTube and onto concert stages where he ended up singing to thousands of swooning teenaged girls. In a profile in the latest issue of The New Yorker,Lizzie Widdcombe says that the tremendous success of his client has made Braun,A college dropout and former party promoter,seem like a lottery winner. Braun tells Widdcombe,“I don’t think you’re selling out by allowing the masses to love your art…The only curse is that,when you get so big,sometimes people forget to look at the music.”

New Zealand Herald

NZ’s golden girl

While the cricket team was squarely beaten by India in the first test at Hyderabad,the New Zealand Herald has found a ready distraction in the country’s brightest medal hope at the Paralympic Games that begin this Thursday. Profiling 19-year-old Sophie Pascoe,a below-the-knee amputee swimmer who will compete in six events,sports writer Daniel Richardson expects her to improve on her Beijing haul of three golds and one silver. He writes: “Since Beijing,Pascoe has spent hours upon hours in the gym and the pool that has resulted in her further development into an athlete primed for first-rate competition.” New Zealand,which has won a medal at every Paralympics since 1972,has sent a 23-strong team to London this year and will look on them to build on the 13 medals won at the recently concluded Olympics.