Daily Briefing
Deep buzz for the content-deprived
Every weekday, while you get showered and dressed, we pluck these dewy- fresh, breaking stories from the info-clogged byways of the datasphere. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and stoke up on everything you need to know, or at least enough to fake it.
The Nielsen Company, which has long provided such information about the traditional media, is seeking to become a go-to source of data for new media, too...
Credible terror threats put New York and Washington on highest alert the day before 9/11's tenth anniversary. Exclusive interviews show how the FBI bungled its final opportunity to prevent tragedy the first time...
“No memorial, no ceremony, no words will ever fill the void left in your hearts by their loss,” Mr. Biden said...
Just as Sept. 11 was unthinkable, Sunday was inevitable: the 10th anniversary of a day that stands alone. In history. In memory...
A senior Egyptian official says at least three people died and more than 1,000 were hurt during street clashes with police and army troops after an angry mob attacked the embassy building...
It seems almost impossible to imagine in today’s overheated, hyperpartisan environment. But there was a brief time in the weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 , 2001, when congressional leaders of the two parties regarded one another not only as trustworthy allies but also as indispensable partners...
Nobody wanted to tell this story. Images from Afghanistan are always related to military action. But if you want to understand what went wrong in Afghanistan, you have to be a little more focused on the Afghan people. I wanted to show that life goes on every day — that people have hope and dreams like everywhere else...
To understand America’s current standing in the Arab world 10 years after 9/11, it’s instructive to visit Obros, a coffeehouse-cum-nightclub in Beirut. The place is a tribute to Kennedy-era “American kitsch,” and its 35-year-old proprietor Joulan El Aschkar displays a sophisticated touch, from Pierre Cardin–period wallpaper to Mad Men–worthy vintage furniture and electronics to 100 gigabytes of forgotten '60s hits like B. J. Thomas’s “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” rotating with fully intended irony...
In one of the more curious moments in the Republican debate on Wednesday night, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas invoked 17th-century science in discussing his doubts about climate change. He cited the astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei — often called the father of modern science — in suggesting that the current thinking that climate change is a result of human activity could be overturned. “Galileo got outvoted for a spell,” he said...
New descriptions of Australopithecus sediba fossils have added to debates about the species' place in the human lineage. Five papers published today in Science describe the skull, pelvis, hands and feet of the ancient hominin unearthed three years ago in South Africa.
The papers reveal a curious mix of traits, some found in apes and earlier Australopithecus fossils, and others thought to be unique to Homo erectus--the tall, thin-boned hominin that emerged around 2 million years ago in eastern Africa and colonized Europe and Asia--and its descendants, including modern humans...
