Good morrow, cousin. Welcome to this Monday’s edition of The Monitor, WIRED’s pop culture news roundup. What’s happening in the news today? For starters, Disney might have finally learned how to mint money. Also, Fortnite debuted some exclusive Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker footage this weekend. Here we go.Fortnite Debuted an Exclusive Star Wars:…

The new flu season is up and running—and so far, it's off to a weird start.Influenza activity has been elevated since the start of November and is only expected to continue climbing, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports in its latest flu update. That's a few weeks earlier than in past years.ARS TECHNICAThis…

Last June, a California college student named Matty Roberts created a Facebook event called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us.” It called for people to converge on the secretive Air Force test facility in Nevada on September 20. “Let’s see them aliens,” Roberts wrote. The event quickly went viral; within days, hundreds…

Over the last month, Telegram messenger launched an account-removal campaign against its most notorious user base: ISIS. The company’s newly found initiative was profoundly wide-reaching and effective, shaking a long-settled snow globe and scattering ISIS users across scores of different platforms.WIRED OPINIONABOUTRita Katz (@Rita_Katz) is the executive director and founder of the SITE Intelligence Group,…

If your budget is tight and you want the most bang for your buck, or you just want to keep something out of the landfill, the used laptop market it worth considering. I'm not going to link to or endorse any specific vendors, but I've had great luck buying used laptops on eBay from all…

Wally Kankowski owns a pool repair business in Florida and likes 12 creams in his McDonald’s coffee each morning. What he doesn’t like is the way the company is pushing him to place his order via a touchscreen kiosk instead of talking with counter staff, some of whom he has known for years. “The thing…

It really wasn't much of an exchange. Jared Johns had met a young woman on a dating site, swapped messages, and sent her a photo of himself in a baseball cap. She'd responded with one of herself, lying down in a lacy bra. Jared grinned as he typed out a message on his iPhone's scuffed…

African cross-border fintech startup Chipper Cash has raised a $6 million seed-round led by Deciens Capital. The San Francisco-based company offers mobile-based, no fee, P2P payment services in six countries:…

Singapore’s fashion startup Zilingo has acquired Sri Lanka’s SaaS startup nCinga in a $15.5 cash and stock deal, the two said today. nCinga, founded in 2014, offers an IoT platform…

Third-party vendors were told by Amazon over the weekend that they are barred from using FedEx’s ground delivery services for Prime shipments. The Wall Street Journal reports that a message…