Opinion

A federal district court has refused to order Amazon Web Services (AWS) to restore service to Parler, the right-wing Twitter alternative that the web hosting service took down on January 10, in the aftermath of the storming of the US Capitol. The decision highlights the very limited legal options available to social media platforms if the major web hosting services ...

Google’s threat to disable its search engine in Australia is a misguided attempt to protect $17 billion in annual revenue. It merely exposes the online advertising giant to far more severe repercussions. The Alphabet Inc unit’s warning was a response to legislative efforts to force it to pay Australian news organisations for their stories. But regulators and lawmakers around the ...

Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny understands Vladimir Putin’s fundamental weakness. Flouting the rule of law denies Russia’s president the legitimacy he claims and the strength legitimacy could provide. But it’s also what helps keep him in office. As the two engage in battle, this weakness is on full display. It will continue to plague Putin regardless of the outcome. In ...

On his way out the door, ex-President Donald Trump issued an executive order expanding on his earlier call for the creation of a “Garden of American Heroes.” The context is that recent events have supposedly shown that the US no longer believes in its own greatness and has mocked its own history and heritage, and so this new tonic is ...

Becoming an iPhone supplier these days isn’t quite the blessing it once was. Stagnating smartphone sales mean companies can’t just hitch themselves to Apple’s mast and hang on for the ride. So it’s fair enough that Lumentum Holdings Inc, a maker of laser components used in the 3-D sensors of Apple Inc’s Face ID, is seeking alternative ways to grow. ...

For the past year and a half, European Union leaders must have hoped that Italy’s political troubles were only a distant memory. The ongoing showdown between Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and former premier Matteo Renzi shows that the lack of a stable and effective government in Rome remains one of Europe’s biggest challenges. Conte only managed to scrape through a ...

For anyone who thought Brexit was done in 2020, the early signs are that it will, once virus woes settle, become Boris Johnson’s biggest headache. Again. It’s not a great sign when a formerly pro-Brexit lobby is suddenly furious about a part of the deal that was billed as a triumph. “The key is we’ve got our fish back and ...

Watching the images of riot police at a crowded Moscow airport, Alexey Navalny’s supporters being dragged away, and, finally, the wobbly footage of the Kremlin critic’s own detention, the catchphrase made famous by former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin decades ago comes to mind: We wanted better, but it turned out like always. Nearly five months after being airlifted to ...

Just days after Canada’s Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc said it was in talks with French grocer Carrefour SA on a potential deal, the two sides have walked away. The tie-up seems to have been sunk by French politics. The about-face deprives Carrefour’s shareholders, including France’s richest man Bernard Arnault, of an ideal exit from what has long been a difficult situation. ...

Hand it to human beings. We have repeatedly defied predictions that we will buckle under the extreme pressure of adverse events. Time and again, whether it was during the eight-month blitz in World War II, or after 9/11, people have proved remarkably resilient in the face of adversity. Will it be the same with this pandemic? On aggregate, probably yes. ...