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Mobile games giant Scopely will pay $3.5 billion to acquire Niantic’s game unit including the studio behind Pokemon Go, the companies announced on Wednesday.The purchase will add Pokemon Go, Pikmin Bloom, and Monster Hunter Now teams to a Scopely stable that includes popular mobile title Monopoly Go.”We are extremely inspired by what the team has built over the last decade, delivering innovative experiences that captivate a vast, enduring global audience and get people out in the real world,” Scopely chief revenue officer Tim O’Brien said of Niantic.”We look forward to further accelerating the team’s creativity through our partnership.”San Francisco-based Niantic plans to spin off its geospatial artificial intelligence business into a new company led by founder and chief executive John Hanke.Niantic is known for mobile games that combine real-world mapping and exploration with play by synching challenges or accomplishments with locations detected by smartphones.More than 100 million people play Niantic games, according to the company.”We spun out as a small team from Google with a bold vision: to use technology to overlay the world with rich digital experiences,” Niantic said of separating from the internet giant in late 2015.”Our goal: to inspire people to explore their surroundings and foster real-world connections, especially at a time when relationships were becoming increasingly digital.”Niantic sees the rapid advance of AI as an opportunity to put its geospatial technology to work in consumer and business applications along with games.The new company, called Niantic Spatial, is developing a model to enable people and machines to understand and navigate the real world.It will keep some of its augmented reality games including Ingress Prime, and Scopely will be an investor in the enterprise, according to Niantic.Scopely games include Monopoly Go, Marvel Strike Force, and Star Trek Fleet Command.Scopely said the deal, valued at $3.5 billion, will bring it Niantic’s entire team of game makers.

A leader of US student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza slated for removal has been denied legal advice, a judge heard Wednesday, after US President Donald Trump vowed to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student demonstrators.Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, one of the most prominent faces of the protest movement that erupted in response to Israel’s conduct of the war, was arrested and taken to Louisiana over the weekend, sparking protests.The government has not accused Khalil of breaking any laws, suggesting instead that his permanent residency was being revoked over his involvement in the protests.His arrest has triggered outrage from critics of the Trump administration as well as free speech advocates, including some on the political right, who say such a move has a chilling effect on freedom of expression.Khalil had only spoken to lawyers on a monitored phone line from Louisiana and had not yet had a privileged conversation with them, his attorney Ramzi Kaseem told a federal court in New York Wednesday.He was “taken at night as he walked home with his wife and taken 1,000 miles away to Louisiana,” Kaseem told the court, noting Khalil’s wife, a US citizen, is eight months pregnant with their first child.Khalil was “detained and processed for deportation… because he was in advocacy of Palestinian rights.””Help us gain more regular access — we have not been able to confer — our access to our client is severely limited.”Judge Jesse Furman ordered that Khalil receive a daily call protected by client-attorney privilege, meaning the authorities cannot monitor its content. – ‘Prohibiting anti-Semitism’ –  There was no immediate decision on deportation, or on the legal question of where the case should be heard, with the government arguing it should be either New Jersey, where Khalil was processed, or Louisiana.Judge Furman set a deadline of Friday for the government to submit arguments to the court with a decision due on Monday.Outside the hearing, hundreds protested in support of Khalil, flying Palestinian flags and holding up banners, while actress Susan Sarandon was at court to back the detained man.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied Wednesday that the arrest was an attack on free speech.”Once you’re in this country on such a (student) visa, we will revoke it” for alleged support of Hamas, he said in Ireland on the way to a G7 meeting of foreign ministers. “And if you end up having a green card, not citizenship, but a green card as a result of that visa, while you’re here (doing) those activities, we’re going to kick you out. It’s as simple as that,” he said.The Department of Homeland Security, in announcing Khalil’s arrest, said it had acted “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State.”On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said authorities had supplied a list of other Columbia students that officers were seeking to deport over their alleged participation in protests.The university — which has already seen $400 million in federal funding cut over accusations of not sufficiently addressing anti-Semitism — was not cooperating, she added.Campuses across the country were rocked last year by student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, with some resulting in violent clashes involving police and pro-Israel counter-protesters.Trump and other Republicans have broadly accused the protesters of supporting Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group whose deadly attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel sparked the war.

US consumer inflation inched lower in February according to government data Wednesday, in the first full month of Donald Trump’s White House return — but concerns remain over stubborn price growth as jitters flare over the president’s trade policies.The consumer price index (CPI) came in at 2.8 percent last month from a year ago, down from 3.0 percent in January, said the Department of Labor. This was slightly better than a consensus forecast of analysts predicted.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the report showed “the economy is moving in the right direction under President Trump,” pointing to his plans for “massive deregulation and energy dominance” to push down costs.While easing inflation is a relief for policymakers, the latest reading is just the lowest since late-2024, signaling a longer road ahead to bringing price increases back to officials’ two percent target.The world’s biggest economy is also grappling with fears of a downturn — and near-term inflation — sparked by Trump’s expanding slate of tariffs.On Wednesday, Trump’s latest salvo of 25 percent levies on steel and aluminum imports kicked in, sparking vows of firm responses from the European Union and China.The European Commission said it would impose countermeasures from April 1 to counter Washington’s “unjustified trade restrictions.”Between January and February, the CPI picked up 0.2 percent, Labor Department data showed, also a cooldown from January’s 0.5 percent figure.Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, the index was up 3.1 percent from a year prior, an improvement from before as well.Last month, a pick-up in shelter costs was partially offset by declines for airline fares and gasoline prices. The index for food also picked up for the month.The index for eggs jumped 10.4 percent, the report said.Egg prices — a hot political issue — have surged recently as the country contended with an avian flu outbreak.- Tariff impact coming? -Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China since taking office, providing only a partial rollback for the United States’ immediate neighbors.But the added 10 percent tariffs on China “don’t appear to have had a discernible impact” last month including for apparel, furniture and electronic prices, said Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics.The US president has since doubled the additional rate targeting the world’s second biggest economy to 20 percent.”Odds are that these tariffs and others that the Trump administration recently implemented will begin to lift US consumer prices over the next few months,” Sweet said.Samuel Tombs, chief US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics added that recent manufacturing surveys pointed to “an imminent upturn in CPI core goods inflation.”- Fed on sideline -Sweet said the smaller-than-anticipated inflation hike is unlikely to change the Federal Reserve’s calculus.The central bank “will remain on the sideline until there is more clarity on tariffs, fiscal policy, and how the Trump administration’s immigration policies affect inflation and the economy,” he said.”I expect to see more risks going forward, particularly with the tariffs and the uncertainty around them,” said economist Dan North of Allianz Trade North America.”This level of uncertainty is, you might say, trailblazing,” he told AFP.Even though inflation came in a touch below a consensus forecast by analysts, North pointed out that downward progress remains sluggish.”We still have spending even though it’s slowing down, we still have a strong labor market,” North noted. “From the aspect of stimulating the economy, there’s no need for a cut.”Fed policymakers will be gathering next Tuesday and Wednesday to mull further adjustments to the benchmark lending rate, after chair Jerome Powell maintained last week that the bank need not rush toward changes.

An American dog owner was shot by his pet after it jumped on his bed and set off a loaded gun, police said Wednesday.The man, from Memphis, Tennessee, was asleep beside his female partner when he was shot early Monday morning, escaping with a graze to his left thigh that was treated in hospital.The dog — a year-old pit bull named Oreo — “got his paw stuck in the trigger guard and ended up hitting the trigger,” a police incident report said.It did not specify the type of weapon fired, and recorded the incident as “accidental injury.”While gun violence is prolific in the United States, cases of animals shooting humans are rare.Two years ago, a German shepherd dog shot and killed a 30-year-old man in Kansas after it stepped on a hunting rifle.In 2018, a 51-year-old man from Iowa was shot in the leg by his pit bull-Labrador mix. Local news station Fox 13 Memphis cited the Tennessee victim’s girlfriend, who was not named, as saying she was sleeping when the gun went off.”The dog is a playful dog, and he likes to jump around and stuff like that, and it just went off,” she reportedly said. Her lesson from the incident: “Keep the safety on or use a trigger lock.”

The arrest of a pro-Palestinian activist does not contradict the US administration’s stance on defending free speech, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.”This is not about free speech,” Rubio said when asked if the weekend arrest of Mahmoud Khalil clashed with President Donald Trump’s championing of the right to express opinions in the United States and in Europe.”This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with,” Rubio told reporters at Ireland’s Shannon Airport during a refuelling stop after a trip to Saudi Arabia.Khalil, a recent graduate of Columbia and one of the most prominent faces of the university’s high-profile protests, was arrested by US immigration officials even though the university’s student union and his lawyer said he held a Green Card allowing permanent residency. Protesters in New York and rights groups have expressed outrage after Khalil, a leader of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the city’s Columbia University, was arrested over the weekend.Trump has said Khalil’s arrest is the first “of many to come”, accusing students across the country of being engaged in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity” that his administration “will not tolerate”.”No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a Green Card, by the way,” said Rubio. “When you come to the United States as a visitor, which is what a visa is, which is how this individual entered this country -— on a visitor’s visa -— you are here as a visitor,” he said. “We can deny you that if you tell us when you apply, ‘Hi, I’m trying to get into the United States on a student visa, I am a big supporter of Hamas,'” he added. The US Department of Homeland Security, confirming Khalil’s arrest, claimed that he had “led activities aligned to Hamas” and that the DHS action was taken “in coordination with the Department of State”.The protests at Columbia, launched last year in opposition to Israel’s devastating war in Gaza, brought widespread media attention as tensions mounted on the campus and spread to other universities around the country.Some protests turned violent and saw campus buildings occupied, while students protesting Israel’s conduct were frequently pitted against pro-Israel campaigners, many of whom were Jewish.Trump and other Republicans have broadly accused the protesters of supporting Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group whose deadly attack on October 7, 2023 against Israel sparked the war.

China and the EU vowed Wednesday to strike back and defend their economic interests against sweeping new US steel and aluminium tariffs, moving Washington closer to an all-out trade war with two major partners.The levies took effect just after midnight on Wednesday “with no exceptions or exemptions”, as promised by the White House — despite countries’ efforts to avert them.The European Commission said it would impose “a series of countermeasures” from April 1 in response to the “unjustified trade restrictions” from the United States.”We deeply regret this measure,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement, adding that “the countermeasures we take today are strong but proportionate”.”As the US are applying tariffs worth $28 billion, we are responding with countermeasures worth” the equivalent in euros, she said.And China, the world’s leading steel manufacturer — though not a major exporter of the product to the United States — vowed “all necessary measures” in response.”There are no winners in trade wars,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.Washington’s tariffs would “seriously damage the rules-based multilateral trading system”, she warned.US President Donald Trump’s 25 percent duties on both metals will likely add to the cost of producing various goods from home appliances to automobiles and cans used for drinks, threatening to raise consumer prices down the road, experts say.”It wouldn’t surprise me to see the tariffs pretty quickly show up in prices,” Cato Institute research fellow Clark Packard told AFP.He added that auto manufacturing and construction — spanning both residential and commercial buildings — are among the biggest users of steel in the country.- Trade turmoil -Trump has imposed steep tariffs on major US trading partners Canada, Mexico and China since returning to office, allowing only a partial rollback for his country’s neighbours while vowing fresh levies from April 2.The latest duties will again impact Canada heavily, with the country supplying about half of US aluminium imports and 20 percent of its steel imports, according to a recent note by EY chief economist Gregory Daco.Besides Canada, Brazil and Mexico are also key US suppliers of steel, while the United Arab Emirates and South Korea are among the major providers of aluminium.Wednesday’s levies stack atop earlier ones. This means some Canada and Mexico steel and aluminium products likely face a 50 percent tariff rate unless they are compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).Uncertainty over Trump’s trade plans and worries that they could tip the world’s biggest economy into a recession have roiled financial markets, with Wall Street indexes tumbling for a second straight day on Tuesday.Markets in Asia followed suit Wednesday, with Hong Kong and Shanghai both down.- ‘Massive uncertainty’ -Washington has framed the tariff moves as a bid to protect US steel and American workers as the sector declines and faces fierce overseas competition, especially from Asia.And it’s not the first time Trump has slapped tariffs on the metals.During his first presidency, he imposed duties on steel and aluminium exports in 2018 — forcing the EU to respond with its own higher duties that are frozen until the end of March.As part of the EU’s two-pronged approach to Trump’s actions, von der Leyen said Brussels will also allow those previous higher levies to be reinstated.The EU’s countermeasures would be fully in place by mid-April unless Trump reverses course.Even before the latest US tariffs took effect, manufacturers moved to find cost-effective domestic suppliers.The mere threat of protectionism, said the Cato Institute’s Packard, has allowed US steel and aluminium firms to raise their prices.”It’s creating massive amounts of uncertainty,” he added.Some US manufacturers using American steel consider the tariffs a positive development as these have boosted their business.But others warn that tariffs merely add to the cost of imports while allowing US-made goods to become equally expensive.Daco of EY also noted that the new steel and aluminium levies go further than measures Trump imposed in 2018 — covering a range of finished products atop of raw steel and aluminium.There is also a higher rate on aluminium imports this time and with duties layering onto existing restrictions this is “likely to make foreign sourcing more expensive across multiple industries”.The lack of exemptions Wednesday also comes despite US partners like Australia and Japan visiting Washington in recent days to push for exclusions.Top Japanese government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said Wednesday it was “regrettable” that it had not succeeded.And Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the tariffs were “entirely unjustified” but that his country would not retaliate.The UK government called the new US tariffs “disappointing”, but stopped short of retaliating as it seeks a wider economic agreement with Washington.burs-oho/sco

The United States broadened its slate of tariffs Wednesday as sweeping levies on steel and aluminum imports took effect “with no exceptions or exemptions” as promised by the White House — despite countries’ efforts to avert them.President Donald Trump’s 25 percent duties on both metals will likely add to the cost of producing various goods from home appliances to automobiles and cans used for drinks, threatening to raise consumer prices down the road.”It wouldn’t surprise me to see the tariffs pretty quickly show up in prices,” Cato Institute research fellow Clark Packard told AFP.He added that auto manufacturing and construction — spanning both residential and commercial buildings — are among the biggest users of steel in the country.The European Commission said Wednesday it would impose “a series of countermeasures” from April 1 in response to the “unjustified trade restrictions” from the United States.”We deeply regret this measure,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement, adding: “As the US are applying tariffs worth $28 billion, we are responding with countermeasures worth” the equivalent in euros.Trump has imposed steep tariffs on major US trading partners Canada, Mexico and China since returning to office, allowing only a partial rollback for his country’s neighbors while vowing fresh levies from April 2.The latest duties will again impact Canada heavily, with the country supplying about half of US aluminum imports and 20 percent of its steel imports, according to a recent note by EY chief economist Gregory Daco.Besides Canada, Brazil and Mexico are also key US suppliers of steel, while the United Arab Emirates and South Korea are among the major providers of aluminum.Wednesday’s levies stack atop earlier ones. This means some Canada and Mexico steel and aluminum products likely face a 50 percent tariff rate unless they are compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).Uncertainty over Trump’s trade plans and worries that they could tip the world’s biggest economy into a recession have roiled financial markets, with Wall Street indexes tumbling for a second straight day on Tuesday.But Trump has played down fears over his handling of the economy, saying Tuesday he does not see a downturn coming while dismissing losses on Wall Street.- ‘Bumpy’ transition -Trump’s trade decisions have come with volatility, with the president threatening to double the tariff rate on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50 percent less than a day before the levies were due to kick in.Canada’s Ontario province had decided to impose an electricity surcharge on three American states in retaliation for earlier US levies, prompting Trump’s furious response.Washington and Ottawa swapped angry tariff warnings throughout the day as trade tensions surged, and Trump doubled down on provocative plans to annex his country’s northern neighbor.But Ontario halted the surcharge after talks with Washington.White House spokesman Kush Desai said Trump “used the leverage of the American economy” in order to “deliver a win for the American people.”Ontario Premier Doug Ford, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer are set to meet in Washington on Thursday “to discuss a renewed USMCA ahead of the April 2 reciprocal tariff deadline,” according to a US-Canada joint statement.Asked about Trump’s oscillation on tariffs, White House senior counselor Peter Navarro told reporters that the process was “a negotiation.””It is a transition,” he added. “It’s going to be at times, perhaps a little bumpy.”- Massive uncertainty -Even before the latest tariffs took effect, manufacturers have scrambled to find cost-effective domestic suppliers.The mere threat of protectionism, said the Cato Institute’s Packard, has allowed US steel and aluminum firms to raise their prices.”It’s creating massive amounts of uncertainty,” he added.Some US manufacturers using American steel consider the tariffs a positive development as these have boosted their business.But others warn that tariffs merely add to the cost of imports while allowing US-made goods to become equally expensive.Daco of EY also noted that the new steel and aluminum levies go further than measures Trump imposed in 2018 — covering a range of finished products atop of raw steel and aluminum.There is also a higher rate on aluminum imports this time and with duties layering onto existing restrictions this is “likely to make foreign sourcing more expensive across multiple industries.”The lack of exemptions Wednesday also comes despite US partners like Australia and Japan visiting Washington in recent days to push for exclusions.Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Wednesday the tariffs were “entirely unjustified” but that his country would not retaliate.It is unclear if Trump will, as he did in his first administration, eventually grant relief to some countries and cut deals with others.Looking ahead, Trump has vowed separate reciprocal levies as soon as April 2 to remedy trade practices Washington deems unfair, raising the potential for more products and trading partners to be specifically targeted.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio headed Wednesday to Canada on the highest-level visit by the administration of President Donald Trump, who has unleashed a trade war described by the United States’ neighbour as an existential challenge.Rubio is attending Group of Seven talks of foreign ministers in Charlevoix, Quebec, where he plans to press the club of industrial democracies — unified in backing Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion — to support Trump’s approach of pushing both Moscow and Kyiv to make concessions.Rubio was taking an unusually circuitous route, departing early Wednesday from the Saudi port city of Jeddah, where a day earlier he met top Ukrainian officials to discuss an initial ceasefire plan.In most US administrations, presidents and senior officials make Canada a first destination and the visits attract little attention, with the friendly neighbours focusing on reaffirming their longstanding ties.But since returning to power Trump has taken a sledgehammer to Canada, mocking the less populous country by saying it should become the “51st state” of the United States and hitting it with tariffs.Rubio arrives the same day that Canada, along with other US trading partners, is being hit by a blanket 25 percent levy on all steel and aluminium imports.Trump on Tuesday threatened to double the tariff rate on Canada but backed down after Ontario, the most populous province, agreed to stand down on a surcharge on electricity to three US states.Rubio acknowledged that he would likely discuss trade tensions when he meets Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly but said the two countries still had “common interests”, including in the G7.”Our obligation is to try, to the extent possible, to not allow the things we work on together to be impacted negatively by the things we disagree on right now,” Rubio told reporters on his way to Saudi Arabia.Canada’s outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned Sunday that the country faced “an existential challenge” from its southern neighbour.Mark Carney, who will soon succeed Trudeau, warned that “the Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country”.The New York Times recently reported that Trudeau’s sense of alarm grew when Trump told him he wants to revise a treaty dating from 1908 that sets the countries’ border.Rubio said he did not know if Trump raised the border treaty but that he did not expect the issue to come up at the G7 talks.

From its first edition 100 years ago through the atomic bombs dropped on Japan, to the attacks of September 11, 2001 and on to the present day, New Yorker covers have won both artistic and journalistic acclaim.Here are some of the magazine’s most memorable covers:- Dandy turned mascot -The publication’s first edition came out on February 21, 1925 priced at 15 cents, emblazoned with a caricature of a fictional dandy, inspired by the Count d’Orsay, looking at a butterfly through a monocle. Created by the artist Rea Irvin, the fictional character dubbed Eustace Tilley has become the mascot of the journal, reappearing year after year in a humorous way, depicted variously as a hipster, wearing an anti-Covid mask — and with a smartphone in place of a monocle.- Hiroshima -In 1946, the New Yorker devoted an entire issue to John Hersey’s report on the consequences of the US atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The cover features a bucolic landscape, drawn by Charles E. Martin. At the time, “the images had to be almost a way to console ourselves over the world’s trauma,” said the New Yorker’s artistic director, Francoise Mouly. The disparity is such that it necessitated the inclusion of banner on the cover — “this entire issue is devoted to the story of how an atomic bomb destroyed a city.”- September 11, 2001 attacks -The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center adorn the front cover, shrouded in darkness so black and opaque that they are barely distinguishable. “It responds to what I experienced that day,” said Mouly, who was near the towers with her husband, the famous cartoonist Art Spiegelman, and her daughter when the two skyscrapers collapsed. The couple co-signed the cover. “I really felt that there was no possible reaction,” Mouly said.- Controversial Obama issue -One cover of note published when the 2008 presidential campaign was in full swing, as hardline conservatives had brought a lawsuit against Barack Obama, questioning his “American-ness” and falsely insinuating that he was not born in the United States, or that he was Muslim. The New Yorker responded to the kerfuffle with satire, a drawing titled “The Politics of Fear” by Barry Blitt, depicting the Democratic candidate in a djellaba, and his wife Michelle dressed as an armed militant in the Oval Office. The illustration shows a portrait of Osama bin Laden hanging on the wall and an American flag burning in the fireplace. The caricature “raised an outcry,” said Mouly.

The New Yorker magazine, a staple of American literary and cultural life defined by its distinctive covers, long-form journalism, witty cartoons and particular grammar, is celebrating 100 years on newsstands.To mark the publication’s centenary milestone, four commemorative issues are being released, while its namesake city will host seven exhibitions ahead of a Netflix documentary on the title known for its artistic cover creations.Despite its storied history, the New Yorker often puts a mirror up to current events. Three founding fathers were shown on a recent cover design being marched out of office, carrying their effects in cardboard boxes in a satirical commentary on US President Donald Trump’s assault on the status quo.Francoise Mouly, the magazine’s artistic director, said the New Yorker was not immune from the crisis plaguing the media.”But I’m stubborn and I see the future with a lot of confidence and hope,” she said.Mouly has been one of the conductors of the New Yorker orchestra since 1993, selecting the cover that week after week lends the magazine its unique identity.”There are some printed products that will never be replaced by digital — children’s books, comics, and the New Yorker,” she told AFP at a recent exhibition showcasing the magazine’s art, held at New York’s Alliance Francaise cultural center.One example of cover art on display depicts a rush-hour subway scene in which all the passengers are animals, while another by Mouly’s husband Art Spiegelman shows a Black woman kissing a Hasidic man.That 1993 design, which followed clashes between the two communities in a Brooklyn neighborhood, stirred controversy at the time and remains one of the title’s most discussed covers.With more than 5,000 editions over the past century, the magazine has published literary greats like Truman Capote’s 1965 “In Cold Blood”, while also giving James Baldwin space to write about race relations.- ‘Incredibly successful’ -Ernest Hemingway, Susan Sontag and JD Salinger are among the authors to have graced the pages of the magazine which combines current affairs, analysis, fiction, reviews, criticism, poetry, and of course its legendary cartoons.Published weekly, the magazine has reported global scoops like the fullest account of the US atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, with the entirety of the August 31, 1946 edition given over to John Hersey’s article.In 1961 Hannah Arendt covered the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in the reporting of which she coined the phrase “the banality of evil.”In recent years the magazine won a Pulitzer Prize for Ronan Farrow’s reporting of predatory film mogul Harvey Weinstein, fuelling the “MeToo” movement.”These were all remarkable, long-form stories that really changed the course of American history, not just American journalism,” said Julie Golia, curator of an exhibition on the magazine at The New York Public Library.Founded on February 21, 1925, the New Yorker did not always have such lofty ambitions.At the height of the Jazz Age, amid post-war and pre-depression euphoria, husband and wife founders Harold Ross and Jane Grant set out to create “a magazine of wit and cosmopolitanism, an urbane magazine, but not one that took itself too seriously.”One hundred years on, it boasts 1.3 million subscribers, most of whom subscribe in both print and digital formats. It is a jewel in the crown of media group Conde Nast, which also publishes Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ, having bought the New Yorker in 1985.Despite its highbrow image, the magazine has adapted to the digital age emphasizing subscriptions over advertising, editor-in-chief since 1998 David Remnick said in a recent radio interview.”The New Yorker is much more than those pages that people get in the mail,” said Golia.”It’s a website, it’s podcasts, it’s a festival, and it’s a brand (and) as a brand, it’s incredibly successful.”