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West Australian
19-05-2025
- West Australian
Kate Emery: Forget about Apple, put your money in dumbphones
Mark Zuckerberg does it. Zoe Foster-Blake does it. A Melbourne private school wants its parents to do it. And, if you have young kids, you probably want to do it too. The wisdom of withholding smartphones from kids is a conversation that started when Apple's Steve Jobs and his black turtleneck stood onstage and claimed to have reinvented the phone. (Silicon Valley has more hot air than Marble Bar but Jobs was right.) In 2007 — a simpler time when Microsoft had just released Windows Vista, Serbia's Marija Serifovic had just won Eurovision and Donald Trump's worst crime was assumed to be his cameo in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York — the effect of smartphones on young brains was not known. Nearly 20 years later, smartphones and kids is a subject so fraught with judgment, fear and guilt that bringing it up with other parents is akin to trying to discuss peace in the Middle East with your supermarket checkout operator. At a certain point, you have to mutter some version of 'it's all very complicated isn't it?' and move onto something less controversial, like footy teams or religion. If you bought a lot of Apple shares in 2007 you're not reading this: The West Australian doesn't deliver to your private island. But if journalism was a career that delivered riches, in 2025 I'd be investing mine in dumbphone technology. Maybe this is why I'm no longer this paper's stockmarket reporter. But maybe it's also because the trend of withholding smartphones from children is going mainstream, particularly as generation Z — our first digital natives — become parents themselves. (My sincere apologies if that last sentence caused you to spontaneously age like that nazi at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.) There's a reason tech titans like Zuckerburg, Bill Gates and Jobs — graduates of the same Do As I Say Not As I Do school that is a proud alma mater to so many of Australia's political class — restricted their kids' access to smartphones. They were the first to figure out a crackpipe might be the safer option. The rest of us are just catching up. Last week a Melbourne private school rolled out a new program to convince parents to withhold smartphones until at least Year 7. More countries are banning smartphones during school hours, as Australian public schools largely already do. The market for dumbphones — phones without internet access — is tipped by Statista to be worth $16 billion this year. School bans are helpful but no panacea. In news to disappoint every mum or dad hoping to outsource their parenting, research suggests school phone bans alone do not correlate with better student mental health or grades. The study's authors suggested kids attending schools with bans may simply make up for lost time. In other words — and academics are advised to look away as I attempt to condense a 15-page study into one sentence — banning smartphones from schools does bugger all if students are greeted at the school gates by the loving embrace of their iPhone. That's where parents come in and people like Foster-Blake, arguably best-known to women for her beauty empire and to men for her equally famous husband, Hamish Blake, are being increasingly public about their decision not to give their kids smartphones. The struggle is real, as I was reminded in a very minor way at a recent birthday party. Having played party games for hours, my eight-year-old and her friends were flopped in the grass listening to music (courtesy of some parents' phones). When my daughter asked to borrow mine, I was conflicted: the optics bugged me but it seemed harmless. Then she sealed her fate by adding: 'Everyone else has one!' With those four words, my personal Rubicon appeared and I saw a glimpse of her tween and teen years: hand over the phone now and she'd surely be on Only Fans by age 14. 'Not today,' I said. Later, as I mentally awarded myself the 2025 Tough Love Mother of The Year Trophy, I looked across the park at my daughter. Happily ensconced with her mates she had her father's smartphone in one hand and was having, it must be said, a blast.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump diplomats to Turkey, UK confirmed as Houston Rockets owner awaits late Senate vote
Two of President Donald Trump's diplomatic nominees were confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday, as a prominent NBA team owner awaited a late evening vote on his own confirmation. Investors Tom Barrack and Warren Stephens were up for ambassadorship posts to Turkey, and the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland respectively. Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets and CEO of Landry's Restaurants group will face a confirmation vote later in the evening in the upper chamber to be President Donald Trump's ambassador to Italy and San Marino. Barrack's nomination passed by 60-36. Stephens was confirmed 59-39. Houston Rockets Owner: 'Our Great Capitalism Will Come To An End' If Dems Pass Unrealized Gains Tax Fertitta is a GOP donor and has spoken fondly of Trump's business sense. Read On The Fox News App During Trump's first term, Fertitta told CNBC the president was doing "a fantastic job for the economy." "Businesses are booming, unemployment is low. He understands what drives this country," Fertitta said in 2018. Fertitta's praise of Trump often steers more toward business-focused than overtly-political, as in the CNBC interview. Trump's choice of Barrack played into two different aspects of the investor's history. Before he was a friend of the future president's, Barrack served as an undersecretary in the Reagan Interior Department, focusing on energy policy including Middle East oil. David Perdue Confirmed As Trump's Top China Diplomat After Key Senate Vote Barrack, who is fluent in Arabic, would therefore fit well with a Turkish ambassadorship. Later in that decade, Barrack helped Trump secure financing for his short-lived ownership of the Plaza Hotel – during which time the future president famously told a lost Kevin McCallister its lobby was "Down the hall, and to the left" in 1992's Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The two real estate moguls remained friends in the years after Trump ultimately gave up the Midtown landmark. Barrack was a strong supporter of Trump's first presidential campaign and raised millions for his first inauguration's events. Stephens' family bank has a footprint in London, and he is a noted fan of the Tottenham Hotspurs Premier League soccer team, which draw parallels to his ambassadorship nomination. The billionaire will be the eyes and ears for Trump in London, where the president has a cordial relationship, albeit one wherein lies a politically contrasting view of global politics, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the Labour Party. Stephens has a history of donations to Republican causes and many Arkansas candidates, per OpenSecrets. Recipients have included former Sens. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Bob Dole, R-Kan., ex-Arkansas Govs. Asa Hutchinson and Mike Huckabee, and media executive Steve Forbes' presidential run in article source: Trump diplomats to Turkey, UK confirmed as Houston Rockets owner awaits late Senate vote
Fox News
29-04-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Trump diplomats to Turkey, UK confirmed as Houston Rockets owner awaits late Senate vote
Two of President Donald Trump's diplomatic nominees were confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday, as a prominent NBA team owner awaited a late evening vote on his own confirmation. Investors Tom Barrack and Warren Stephens were up for ambassadorship posts to Turkey, and the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland respectively. Tilman Fertitta, owner of the Houston Rockets and CEO of Landry's Restaurants group will face a confirmation vote later in the evening in the upper chamber to be President Donald Trump's ambassador to Italy and San Marino. Barrack's nomination passed by 60-36. Stephens was confirmed 59-39. Fertitta is a GOP donor and has spoken fondly of Trump's business sense. During Trump's first term, Fertitta told CNBC the president was doing "a fantastic job for the economy." "Businesses are booming, unemployment is low. He understands what drives this country," Fertitta said in 2018. Fertitta's praise of Trump often steers more toward business-focused than overtly-political, as in the CNBC interview. Trump's choice of Barrack played into two different aspects of the investor's history. Before he was a friend of the future president's, Barrack served as an undersecretary in the Reagan Interior Department, focusing on energy policy including Middle East oil. Barrack, who is fluent in Arabic, would therefore fit well with a Turkish ambassadorship. Later in that decade, Barrack helped Trump secure financing for his short-lived ownership of the Plaza Hotel – during which time the future president famously told a lost Kevin McCallister its lobby was "Down the hall, and to the left" in 1992's Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The two real estate moguls remained friends in the years after Trump ultimately gave up the Midtown landmark. Barrack was a strong supporter of Trump's first presidential campaign and raised millions for his first inauguration's events. Stephens' family bank has a footprint in London, and he is a noted fan of the Tottenham Hotspurs Premier League soccer team, which draw parallels to his ambassadorship nomination. The billionaire will be the eyes and ears for Trump in London, where the president has a cordial relationship, albeit one wherein lies a politically contrasting view of global politics, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the Labour Party. Stephens has a history of donations to Republican causes and many Arkansas candidates, per OpenSecrets. Recipients have included former Sens. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Bob Dole, R-Kan., ex-Arkansas Govs. Asa Hutchinson and Mike Huckabee, and media executive Steve Forbes' presidential run in 1995.
Fox News
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
'Home Alone 2' director calls Trump cameo a 'curse,' jokes he'd be deported if he cuts it
"Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" director Chris Columbus now considers President Donald Trump's famous cameo in the film a "curse" and "albatross" around his neck. The 1992 film featured a brief cameo by the then-real estate mogul as himself giving directions to the movie's main character, Kevin McCallister, played by Macaulay Culkin, at New York's Plaza Hotel, which he owned at the time. Though the appearance is considered an iconic moment in the film, Columbus told the San Francisco Chronicle on Monday that he now wishes it was gone. "Years later, it's become this curse," Columbus said. "It's become this thing that I wish it was not there." Columbus told Business Insider in 2020 that Trump "bull[ied] his way" into the film by saying, "The only way you can use the Plaza is if I'm in the movie." In 2023, however, Trump claimed in a social media post that the filmmaker begged for his cameo, which Columbus now disputes. "What's going through this guy's mind? He said I was lying. I'm not lying. He said I begged him to be in the movie, but there's no world I would ever beg a non-actor to be in a movie," Columbus SF Chronicle. "But we were desperate to get the Plaza Hotel." He continued, "But it's [the cameo] there. It's become an albatross for me. I just wish it was gone." Columbus said he was surprised at how popular the cameo was, particularly during one of the film's early screenings. "We screened the film in Chicago, and when that moment came onscreen the audience went crazy," Columbus said. "They cheered and they cheered and they thought it was hilarious. I think I know a lot about comedy, but I don't, obviously, because I never thought that was going to be considered hilarious." Columbus jokingly added that he can't cut the cameo now out of fear of being deported, despite being an American citizen. "I can't cut it," Columbus said. "If I cut it, I'll probably be sent out of the country. I'll be considered sort of not fit to live in the United States, so I'll have to go back to Italy or something." Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Chris Columbus Wants to Cut Trump Cameo in ‘Home Alone 2' but Worries He'll Be Deported: ‘It's Become This Curse'
Chris Columbus regrets including a seven-second cameo by Donald Trump in 'Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.' Thirty-three years (and two Trump administrations) after the 1992 movie was released, director Columbus is explaining why he would hope for a recut… without political ramifications. Columbus told the San Francisco Chronicle that he might be deported to Italy by the Trump administration if he removes the scene starring the current president. The sequence in question has Macaulay Culkin's Kevin McCallister asking Trump for directions to the Plaza Hotel lobby. 'Down the hall and to the left,' Trump says in the brief onscreen appearance. More from IndieWire 'The Bullet Train Explosion' Review: A Glossy Netflix Remake of the Japanese Thriller That Inspired 'Speed' Sundance 2025 Films Sold So Far: Josh O'Connor Drama 'Rebuilding' Sells to Bleecker Street However, that scene has haunted Columbus for years. 'It's become this curse. It's become this thing that I wish it was not there,' Columbus said. 'It's become an albatross for me. I just wish it was gone.' He added that he 'can't cut it,' though, saying, 'If I cut it, I'll probably be sent out of the country. I'll be considered sort of not fit to live in the United States, so I'll have to go back to Italy or something.' And while Trump has contested whether or not he was courted for the cameo, Columbus is setting the record straight: 'He said I begged him to be in the movie, but there's no world I would ever beg a non-actor to be in a movie. But we were desperate to get the Plaza Hotel.' Columbus previously told Business Insider in 2023 that Trump allowed them to film in The Plaza Hotel in exchange for an appearance in the movie. 'Like most locations in New York City, you just pay a fee and you are allowed to shoot in that location,' Columbus said. 'We approached The Plaza Hotel, which Trump owned at the time, because we wanted to shoot in the lobby. We couldn't rebuild The Plaza on a soundstage. Trump said OK. We paid the fee, but he also said, 'The only way you can use the Plaza is if I'm in the movie.' So we agreed to put him in the movie, and when we screened it for the first time the oddest thing happened: People cheered when Trump showed up onscreen. So I said to my editor, 'Leave him in the movie. It's a moment for the audience.' But he did bully his way into the movie.' Trump later retaliated, saying on social media, 'Nothing could be further from the truth. That cameo helped make the movie a success. But if they felt bullied, or didn't want me, why did they put me in, and keep me there for over 30 years?' Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie The 55 Best LGBTQ Movies and TV Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now
