This week’s new entertainment releases include Taylor Swift's “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” a glossy look at opioid addiction with the movie “Pain Hustlers” starring Emily Blunt, Chris Evans and Andy Garcia, and the streaming horror flick “Five Nights at Freddy’s.”

China’s deepening property rout is pushing the nation’s central bank toward a style of policy it has long

The cost of expat pay packages in Singapore climbed 4% last year, while those for foreign workers in

By Arriana McLymore NEW YORK Amazon said on Tuesday it had begun selling users of mobile games related

JAKARTA The Miss Universe Organization said it was cutting ties with its Indonesian franchisee and cancelling this year's

KAWASAKI, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 17, 2023--

By Robert Harvey LONDON (Reuters) -Oil prices fell by more than $1 on Wednesday ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's

U.S. companies borrowed 1% more in May compared to a year earlier to finance equipment investments, industry body

The European Central Bank may have to continue raising borrowing costs beyond the summer, according to Governing Council

Elon Musk’s plan to build an “everything app” is underway. After rebranding Twitter to X, the tech billionaire encouraged users to rethink the “whole concept” of what the platform is. Before he even purchased Twitter in October 2022, Mr Musk said that buying the site was an “accelerant” to creating a super app akin to China’s WeChat, India’s PayTM and Indonesia’s GoJek. These apps offer users the ability to not just make posts, but also send and receive payments, watch and listen to content, and even access services like booking taxis or ordering food deliveries. Earlier this month, Mr Musk reportedly secured money-transmitting licenses in three US states, suggesting it is already preparing to become a payments business. Linda Yaccarino, who took over as the chief executive of Twitter last month, gave more details about what the new X app will become, tweeting on Sunday that the rebranding was part of the company’s goal to “transform the global town square” beyond a social network. “X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centred in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine,” she tweeted. “For years, fans and critics alike have pushed Twitter to dream bigger, to innovate faster, and to fulfil our great potential. X will do that and more. We’ve already started to see X take shape over the past 8 months through our rapid feature launches, but we’re just getting started.” X did not respond to a request for further information from The Independent about when such changes might take place. Shortly before his takeover of Twitter was complete, Mr Musk tweeted: “Twitter probably accelerates X by three to five years, but I could be wrong.” Mr Musk has had access to the X.com domain since 2000, during which time he was working on PayPal. Before rebranding Twitter, the website simply showed the letter ‘X’, but now redirects to Twitter.com. Earlier this year, Twitter changed its business name to X Corp to align with Mr Musk’s “everything app” vision, but social media experts have questioned whether such a concept could ever work outside of Asia. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” industry commentator Matt Navarra said at the time of Mr Musk’s takeover. “Super apps, as they are known in the industry, are not a new thing. They’ve been hugely successful in Asia, but have not really caught on elsewhere. Could Twitter form part of a super app that lets you buy goods, chat to friends, get news updates, book a taxi etc.? Sure. Can Elon Musk make it work? Possibly. Will Elon actually do it? Who knows. He seems to have commitment issues.” Others have raised concerns about whether ditching the Twitter brand and associated bird logo could further damage the platform’s reputation, which has been under heavy scrutiny since Mr Musk’s takeover last year. “By changing Twitter’s app name, Elon Musk will have single handedly wiped out over fifteen years of a brand name that has secured its place in our cultural lexicon,” Mike Proulx, a research director at advisory firm Forrester, told The Independent. “This is an extremely risky move because with ‘X,’ Musk is essentially starting over while its competition is afoot.” Read More Twitter rebrands to X as part of Elon Musk’s plan to create an ‘everything app’ Twitter no longer exists as a company What is Elon Musk’s ‘everything app’ X? Elon Musk’s ‘X’ is already trademarked by Mark Zuckerberg Elon Musk red-faced as police halt Twitter sign removal leaving firm called ‘ER’

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Dutch competition watchdog ACM on Monday said it had rejected objections by Apple against fines of 50 million

A prediction about when society is most likely to collapse, made by scientists in the 1970s, has resurfaced – and it looks pretty bleak. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used a computer to model patterns like population, natural resources and energy usage. The study, published by Club of Rome, picked out when these factors could hit “limits to growth”, which they said could lead to the downfall of modern life as we know it. They think we’ve got fewer than two decades left, with collapse due in 2040. Gulp. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter At the time, the report wasn’t given much credence. But a similar study was carried out in 2009, and came up with similar results. Published by American Scientist, the more recent study found that the model’s results were “almost exactly on course”. "It is important to recognise that its predictions have not been invalidated and in fact seem quite on target. We are not aware of any model made by economists that is as accurate over such a long time span," the study said. And to make matters worse, Dutch sustainability researcher Gaya Herrington concurred with the prediction in 2021. Speaking to The Guardian, Herrington said: “From a research perspective, I felt a data check of a decades-old model against empirical observations would be an interesting exercise.” Herrington found that data aligned with the predictions made back in 1972, which had a worse case scenario of economic growth coming to halt at the end of this decade, and collapse around 10 years later. Thankfully, there was a reason to be cheerful too. She added: “The key finding of my study is that we still have a choice to align with a scenario that does not end in collapse. "With innovation in business, along with new developments by governments and civil society, continuing to update the model provides another perspective on the challenges and opportunities we have to create a more sustainable world.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.