• Peter Thiel said Apple hasn't innovated since the iPhone.
• Thiel said Tim Cook hasn't taken the company in new directions.
• The billionaire venture capitalist said eccentric CEOs like Elon Musk "are way better for society."

Peter Thiel, evidently, isn't a fan of the iPhone Duo.

In fact, the billionaire PayPal cofounder and tech investor said he hasn't been very impressed with much of anything that Apple has done since its eccentric founder, Steve Jobs, died of cancer in 2011.

"In my telling, it did nothing new after Jobs," Thiel said of the iPhone maker in a September interview with author Walter Isaacson for the "Builder's Podcast," which was released on Thursday.

"It turned out, yeah, the mobile phone was this giant invention — there was not that much more to do," he said. "Then it was just scaling and branding and building it out over 15 years or whatever."

Indeed, Apple has faced criticism for failing to innovate beyond the mobile phone and tablet, especially in the age of AI, where its "Siri" product is not as advanced as rivals from ChatGPT or Anthropic.

Jobs unveiled the first iPhone back in 2007 at a conference in San Francisco. Nearly 20 years later, Apple released the 18th iteration this week, with one slight caveat: This one folds.

That said, MacBooks are the de facto laptops for many an AI-nerd and normie alike. iPhones are ubiquitous, and the sleek AirPods design took hold when they were released in 2016.

Though Thiel told Maureen Dowd of The New York Times in 2017 that Apple's era was over, the company's stock price has grown steadily since then.

Thiel didn't pooh-pooh Apple entirely. He called it a "pure, well-run value stock," but lamented what he described as the loss of vision after Jobs' death.

"I would still say somehow Elon or Steve Jobs are way better for society than Tim Cook," he said.

Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent on Saturday.

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that speed restrictions on Ukraine's Starlink connection have been lifted.
• His comments marked the end of a chaotic 10-day period where connection speeds were throttled.
• Ukraine uses Starlink to fly its drones and interceptors.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that his military's access to a network of Elon Musk's satellites, which it relies on for defense, had been restored.

Zelenskyy's comment, made in an X post, came after a chaotic 10 days that began when an advisor to the Ukrainian president said that drones and other projectiles were losing access to the Starshield network.

Starshield is the military application of Musk's Starlink satellite network. In the no-man's-land of war-torn eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military relies on Starshield satellites to give it control of fast-flying, exploding drones and interceptors.

"I thank all Americans and all our partners who took this seriously and truly helped — members of Congress, senators, all the media, the State Department, and the President," Zelenskyy said in a video he posted to X on Saturday.

Though Musk, as the CEO of SpaceX, to some degree owns the network of satellites, he said in an X post that "any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS."

In an X post on Saturday, Musk differentiated between Starlink, which is used for commercial purposes, and Starshield, which is "controlled by the US government," he said.

"Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people," Musk said. "That loophole was closed last week."

The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk himself had ordered the slowdown. Earlier this month, after Ukraine targeted Russian oil facilities, both Musk and President Donald Trump made statements disparaging Zelenskyy. Trump has tried to ease high gas prices — which spiked after the US attacked Iran in February — by loosening sanctions on Russian energy.

"Zelensky has gone too far," Musk said in an X post on October 10.

For his part, Trump told reporters that he didn't know who ordered the slowdown. "I don't know who it was, but I'd like to find out," he said on October 19.

As Russia attempts to bombard Kyiv into submission ahead of what is widely expected to be one of the most brutal winters of the nearly seven-year-long war, a Starlink connection allows Ukraine to intercept some of Russia's slower-paced drones.

The throttling of Starlink prompted a rare outburst from Ukraine's leader, who has sought to control his demeanor after a disastrous Oval Office meeting last year, when Trump berated Zelenskyy for not adequately appreciating US support.

In an interview with Piers Morgan on his YouTube channel on October 14, Zelenskyy called the Starlink slowdown "a big mistake."

"This decision will bring a lot of human losses," he said.

SpaceX and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent on Saturday.

• France and other countries across Europe are weathering another weekend of protests.
• In Paris, major tourist landmarks and storefronts shuttered for the day.
• The French interior ministry upped its police presence and deployed 70,000 personnel to the streets.

As France grapples with another weekend of cost-of-living protests, some of its most famous streets and landmarks are boarded up.

On Saturday, protesters took to the streets in major cities across France, including Paris and Marseille.

Though police in riot gear deployed tear gas and water cannons to disperse the demonstrations, the looting and rioting seen during last week's protests did not materialize.

In a statement, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said that as of 7:30 p.m. local time, authorities had made about 1,000 arrests.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in France on Saturday.

Last weekend, student-led cost-of-living protests devolved in some places into violent riots and looting.

This weekend, the interior ministry increased its police presence, deploying some 70,000 officers across the country on Saturday. The protests drew support from various groups and organizations, including the gilets jaunes, or yellow vests.

On Saturday morning, military officers and a multipurpose intervention vehicle could be seen positioned outside Paris' National Assembly building.

Police deploy water cannons, tear gas in Marseille

In Marseille, police deployed tear gas and water cannons to break up protests. Videos from the scene showed lines of police charging protesters.

Paris gets violent

In the French capital on Saturday, thousands of officers largely prevented looting by keeping protesters to a predetermined parade route.

Videos showed demonstrations descending into melees as officers attempted to disperse crowds with tear gas and batons.

Shops on Paris' iconic Champs-Élysées were boarded up.

Luxury stores including Dior, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and Moncler all have stores on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.

Some 1,500 businesses were targeted in last weekend's vandalism, said Alexandre Bompard, the CEO of Carrefour, one of France's largest supermarket chains.

French business leaders widely condemned the looting that happened on October 17.

Business leaders, including Thierry Guibert, CEO of Lacoste, and Nicolas Houzé, executive chairman of Galeries Lafayette, all spoke out in the aftermath of last weekend's damage.

"We cannot allow violence to destroy what generations have put so much energy into building," Guibert wrote on X.

In central Paris, some shop owners boarded up their businesses as a precautionary measure.

Among the areas targeted in last weekend's violence in Paris were the Marais shopping district and the Place de la République.

Speaking to Business Insider's correspondent, Nathan Rennolds, last weekend, one shopkeeper in Paris said looters had "taken everything."

Major Paris tourist attractions, including the Louvre, have closed.

In a notice on its website, the Louvre says the museum would be closed on Saturday and all reservations would be reimbursed. The Louvre closed its doors earlier this week after student protests blocked the entrances.

The Grand Palais and Musée d'Orsay are also closed for the day.

In an update issued on Thursday, the US Embassy in France warned Americans to avoid demonstrations and said curfews across the country, including in some Paris neighborhoods, might continue. It also advised Americans in Paris for the NFL game on Sunday, October 25, to exercise caution.

Protests turned out across Europe on Saturday.

Protests are also expected in countries including Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Albania. Police in Tirana, Albania's capital, deployed tear gas against anti-government student protesters on Saturday.