What's on Your Mind?

Twenty years ago, Jack Dorsey changed the world. He opened his phone and sent a message to a new platform he had created: “just setting up my twttr”. That post carries the ID 20. (A post he shared last week has the ID 2032161152470565367—a small detail that captures how dramatically the platform has scaled in the intervening decades.) just setting up my twttr — jack (@jack) March 21, 2006 Following that first message, Dorsey’s short-form social network quickly cemented its role in our digital lives. In 2009, as a plane landed on the Hudson River in New York, users followed events in real time as people posted from the scene. In 2011, Sohaib Athar, then living in …

Closing arguments are set to kick off Tuesday in a trial pitting Elon Musk against Twitter shareholders who say the world’s richest man engaged in a pattern of deceptive behavior that misled investors as he attempted to back out of his $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform in 2022. The civil trial in San Francisco centers on a class-action lawsuit filed just before Musk took control of Twitter, which he later renamed X, in October 2022, six months after agreeing to buy the embattled company for $44 billion, or $54.20 per share. The price represents a sliver of the Tesla CEO’s fortune, now estimated at $839 billion. Much of the trial focused on Musk’s claims …

Twitter/X has a unique problem. After the departure of users following Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media site (and again following his short stint with the The President administration), the site has a surplus of unused user names. Now it’s looking to capitalize on that. The company has opened a waitlist for what it’s calling the “handle marketplace,” where it will sell abandoned and inactive usernames. But there’s a slight catch: To make a bid for one, you’ll likely need to be a Premium+ or Premium Business subscriber to the site. Some handles will be effectively free, included in the cost of the subscription. But for “rare” handles, X is warning users…

A dispute between a pair of pro athletes who both use the number 8 has been resolved, thanks to a change in font. Former NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Friday his NASCAR team, JR Motorsports, had secured the rights to a stylized 8 mark through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The announcement came after attorneys for quarterback Lamar Jackson, who wears the No. 8 jersey for the Baltimore Ravens, filed a notice of opposition with the USPTO over JR Motorsports’s trademark claim to the mark, arguing it “falsely suggests a connection” with Jackson. pic.twitter.com/uZWk8kPlcW — Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) April 4, 2025 Earnhardt and his team ha…

Two papal tailors and no conclave orders. The conclave that begins next Wednesday to elect a successor for Pope Francis is the first in 46 ½ years for which the Vatican hasn’t ordered a set of cassocks for the new head of the Catholic Church — at least from the two best-known papal tailors. That isn’t stopping Ranieri Mancinelli, who opened his ecclesiastical tailoring shop near the Vatican in the 1960s, from making three simple white cassocks just in case: the traditional small, medium and large sizes to cover all possible heights and girths. “I’m doing this on my own to be able to present these cassocks for the next pope, without knowing who he will be,” Man…

“Do you want to know the biggest career hack I’ve learned in 25 years of recruiting?” That’s the opening of one TikTok video. The answer, the creator Elite Recruiter says, is “skill stacking”: combining complementary skills to give you an advantage in job applications. “You’re not just a teacher—you’re a teacher who understands UX,” she gives as an example. That emphasis on skills over experience matches a growing chorus online that’s singing the praises of self-taught skills in the job market. “3 courses to take for early career success,” another creator suggests. “Skill stacking is the new degree flex,” a comment read on another recent TikTok video. Rat…

Few moments in Pope Francis‘ papacy better exemplify his understanding of climate change and the need to address it than the rain-soaked Mass he celebrated in Tacloban, Philippines, in 2015. Wearing one of the cheap plastic yellow ponchos that were handed out to the faithful, Francis experienced first-hand the type of freak, extreme storms that scientists blame on global warming and are increasingly striking vulnerable, low-lying islands. He had traveled to Tacloban, on the island of Leyte, to comfort survivors of one of the strongest recorded tropical cyclones, Typhoon Haiyan. The 2013 storm killed more than 7,300 people, flattened villages and displaced about 5 …

Tyson Foods has agreed to stop making claims about reaching “net zero” or selling “climate-smart” beef for at least five years, part of a settlement from a lawsuit brought against it by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG). EWG sued Tyson in 2024 over “false or misleading” marketing claims. The lawsuit, filed in D.C. Superior Court, alleged that Tyson misled customers through materials that said the company’s industrial meat production operations will reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and also claims that it produces “climate-smart” beef. Beef is one of the worst climate offenders when it comes to proteins. It is responsible for eight to …

A startling message came over the radio from an air traffic control tower near Los Angeles less than a week into the federal government shutdown: “The tower is closed due to staffing.” Without enough air traffic controllers to guide planes into and out of Hollywood Burbank Airport, the tower went dark for almost six hours on Oct. 6, leaving pilots to coordinate their movements among themselves. Flight delays averaged two-and-a-half hours in one of the first visible signs that the shutdown was already taking a toll on the nation’s aviation system. Since the shutdown began Oct. 1, the Federal Aviation Administration has reported controller shortages in cities across the U…

U.S. officials rejected a push to establish a global AI governance framework at this week’s United Nations General Assembly, despite the plan enjoying broad support from many world nations, including China. At a Security Council debate on Wednesday, Michael Kratsios, the director of the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, said that Washington “totally” rejected all efforts by international organizations to “assert centralized control and global governance of AI.” The meeting marked the first time that all 193 UN member states have been able to weigh in on AI governance. It comes after an August 2025 UN resolution—which members unanimously endorsed—urgin…