First Look Cellphone at 50: Its inventor reflects on mobile advances and risks Cellphone inventor Martin Cooper, who placed the first mobile call on April 3, 1973, remains hopeful the technology can transform lives, but he’s also concerned about its impact. “We don’t have any privacy anymore,” Mr. Cooper said at a trade show in Spain.…
What we learned from Donald Trump’s tax return
What we learned from Donald Trump’s tax return The return is a case study for why the Alternative Minimum Tax, for all its flaws, serves a useful purpose. But it’s mostly strong evidence that the basic law desperately needs fixing. | View caption Hide caption It turns out that Donald Trump and I are members…
Russian exiled leader: Post-Putin era may be ‘months’ away
Monitor Breakfast Russian exiled leader: Post-Putin era may be ‘months’ away | View caption Hide caption Mr. Ponomarev was also a key founder of something called the Congress of People’s Deputies – a kind of Russian parliament-in-exile composed of opposition leaders and other former Duma members. The 93-member body held its first meeting last November…
Hunt for pervert priest who fled to Italy with teen ‘grooming’ victim
A priest once hailed for his good looks online is now a wanted criminal. Father Alex Crow of Mobile, Alabama, is wanted by the authorities for allegedly fleeing to Italy with a high school student. The student, whose identity has not been released, was once his congregant, and they met when she was his parishioner. …
Lebanon shootout: Army deploys to village after 2 killed in gunfight
Lebanese army troops deployed on Thursday in a Christian village following a deadly shootout there the previous evening between residents and members of the Shiite group Hezbollah. A Hezbollah member and a Christian resident were killed in Wednesday’s exchange of fire in the village of Kahaleh, near Beirut, in an incident that began when a…
Threads: Meta’s Twitter clone gains a foothold
The smartest insight and analysis, from all perspectives, rounded up from around the web: Twitter’s constant crises have now put it “at imminent risk of losing its status as the watercooler of the internet,” said Dave Lee in Bloomberg. Meta last week took direct aim at Twitter with its Threads app, gaining 100 million users…
Federal judge temporarily blocks Arkansas law targeting librarians
A federal judge in Arkansas temporarily blocked a law on Saturday that would implement new censorship measures against books and libraries throughout the state. The law, Arkansas Act 372, had a temporary injunction placed on it by U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks, who wrote that the law was “likely to result in the abridgment…
Spain to vote in national election that could move the country right
Spain headed to the polls Sunday in a national election that could result in seismic changes for both Spanish citizens and the greater European Union. The conservative Popular Party (PP), led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, appears likely to oust Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) from power. Up-to-date polling shows the PP leading over…
10 things you need to know today: August 6, 2023
1 Shelling kills at least 3 across Ukraine during overnight airstrikes Overnight shelling throughout Ukraine killed at least three people on Sunday, officials said. Two of these people were killed and four more injured following a Russian airstrike in the Kharkiv region. One of the attacks, via a Russian-led guided bomb, had landed on a…
The Week contest: Snail movie
This week’s question: Florida has been invaded by the giant African land snail, a banana-sized gastropod that devours foliage, gnaws on buildings, and transmits diseases and parasites in its trail of slime. Come up with the title of a creature-feature horror film about this slow-moving menace. Click here to see the results of last week’s contest:…