Twitter said it has shut down 32,242 accounts peddling false information linked to the governments of Russia, China and Turkey.
“Every account and piece of content associated†with “three distinct operations … attributed to the People’s Republic of China, Russia and Turkey†have been “permanently removed from the service,†the social media company said in a statement on Thursday.
Twitter and other social media companies were harshly criticized in the wake of the 2016 presidential election for failing to police propaganda, especially from accounts launched by the Kremlin in a bid to sway the election in Donald Trump’s favor.
Twitter on Thursday reemphasized the company’s vow to provide more vigorous and transparent action to weed out false conversations being peddled to manipulate a nation’s politics.
“Ultimately our goal is to serve the public conversation, remove bad faith actors, and to advance public understanding of these critical topics,†Twitter said.Â
We’re disclosing new state-linked information operations to our public archive — the only one of its kind in the industry. Originating from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Russia, and Turkey, all associated accounts and content have been removed. https://t.co/obRqr96iYm
Twitter provided few details about specific content campaigns, and most of the affected accounts appeared to be aimed at manipulating citizens inside the three nations.
Twitter removed 1,152 accounts (which tweeted 3.4 million times) associated with Current Policy, a “media website engaging in state-backed political propaganda within Russia,†including activities “promoting the United Russia party and attacking political dissidents,†according to the company.
The accounts, which also disseminated “anti-Western content,†violated Twitter policy because they engaged in “cross-posting and amplifying content in an inauthentic, coordinated manner for political ends,†the company said.Â
The 7,340 “fake and compromised accounts†in Turkey (which tweeted 36.9 million times) were linked to the youth wing of the ruling Justice and Development Party, and were used primarily to “amplify political narratives favorable†to the ruling party and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to Twitter.
The 23,750 accounts (tweeted 348,608 times) linked to the Chinese government were tweeting mostly in Chinese languages and “spreading geopolitical narratives favorable to the Communist Party of China, while continuing to push deceptive narratives about the political dynamics in Hong Kong,†Twitter said. Tweets also praised China’s response to COVID-19, especially compared with how the U.S. or Taiwan addressed the pandemic.
With calls for police reforms across the U.S., instructors, researchers and lawmakers say officers lack sufficient training on how and when to use force, leaving them unprepared to handle tense situations. (June 12)
British Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove | Isabel Infantes/AFP via Getty Images
EU takes UK decision ‘as a definite conclusion of this discussion.’
The U.K. Friday formally confirmed it will not seek an extension of the Brexit transition period beyond December 31, British Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said.
Gove spoke with European Commission Vice President MaroÅ¡ Å efÄoviÄ and EU negotiator Michel Barnier at the second meeting of the EU-U.K. Joint Committee on implementing the Withdrawal Agreement earlier today, where he reiterated Downing Street’s refusal.
The Joint Committee had to decide by the end of the month on whether to extend the status quo transition. However, there are no more meetings of the commitee planned until September, meaning the EU takes the U.K.’s decision “as a definite conclusion of this discussion,” Å efÄoviÄ told journalists after the meeting.
“I have taken note of the position of the U.K. on this issue and have stated, as President Ursula von der Leyen did earlier, that the EU remains open to such an extension,” Å efÄoviÄ said. However, he added: “We take this decision as a definitive one.”
“In this context, we both agreed on accelerating the implementation of Withdrawal Agreement and to accelerate our work,” the EU vice president said.
While today’s meeting took place in a “very good atmosphere,” Å efÄoviÄ warned there is still lots of work to do on implementing the different aspects of the Withdrawal Agreement, especially the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland. He added that the U.K. has not provided sufficient detail on how the protocol will work in practice.
“We need to move from aspiration to operation, and fast.”
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Apparently, the hack only works on desktop browsers and is due to larger websites using different hosting domains for ads and content. Adding the extra symbol fools the site into loading the content but none of the connected stuff – like cookies or adverts.
‘It’s a commonly forgotten edge case, websites forget to normalize the hostname, the content is still served, but there’s no hostname match on the browser so no cookies and broken CORS – and lots of bigger sites use a different domain to serve ads/media with a whitelist that doesn’t contain the extra dot.’
YouTube ads are how creators make money, though (Credits: Getty Images)
Some of the paywall-blocked sites the hack also works on include the New York Times, The Washington Post and The Atlantic.
Now, while it’s obviously great to browse YouTube and news sites sans adverts, keep in mind this is how many creators and companies make their living. So it’s up to you to use this new power responsibly.
Leftovers is our look at a few of the product ideas popping up everywhere. Some are intriguing, some sound amazing and some are the kinds of ideas we would never dream of. We can’t write about everything that we get pitched, so here are some leftovers pulled from our inboxes.
Pringles cans Wendy’s Baconator
If you’re craving a Baconator while shopping in the grocery store, Pringles has a solution.Â
The Kellogg-owned brand partnered with Wendy’s to launch Baconator Pringles. The companies said that each bite of these potato crisps packs in all the flavors of the burger, including beef, American cheese, smoked bacon, ketchup and mayo.
Pringles Baconator is available for a limited time in snack aisles nationwide starting this month. Each can also comes with a code that can be used to get a free Wendy’s Baconator, Son of Baconator or Breakfast Baconator when ordering through the chain’s app.
For this launch, the company is working with Wendy’s, which could be beneficial for both brands. There are already bacon-flavored chips on the market from brands like Kettle Chips and PigOut, but having the Baconator branding could make these new Pringles stand out.Â
The Baconator has been one of Wendy’s most popular items through the years. Carl Loredo, Wendy’s U.S. chief marketing officer, said in the release that its “fanatics will be in for quite a treat.â€
Brands are increasingly working on limited-edition partnerships and product promotions to drum up more consumer interest. Pringles also recently partnered with animated series “Rick and Morty†for a limited-edition Pickle Rick flavor-inspired can of chips around the Super Bowl.Â
Just in time for summer, Hormel has improved the chili dog, no beans about it.
The canned chili king is launching two new varieties that are designed for pouring over a hot dog. They’re thicker, bean-free and formulated to accentuate the taste and feeling of hot dogs. The new varieties exemplify Hormel’s “Pour On†ad campaign from the start of the year, which shows how pouring on a bit of Hormel chili makes everything more exciting.
“Consumers love chili dogs,” Sarah Johnson, Hormel Chili brand manager, said in a press release. “While usage spikes in the summer, we know consumers enjoy chili dogs year-round. Our new pour over chilis provide consumers a convenient, exciting and great tasting option to upgrade their daily meal routine.”
The cans on both varieties proclaim, “Perfect for chili dogs†and feature a photo of one, but there’s no chili dog-specific branding. The Chili Cheese variety is made with American cheese, while the Coney Island variety has mustard and onions.
If any food personifies the United States, it’s the chili dog. Born out of the melding of immigrant traditions and comfort foods, chili dogs are enjoyed by millions of people from sea to shining sea. And even without chili on top, hot dogs are an all-American favorite. According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, between Memorial Day and Labor Day last year, Americans ate 7 billion hot dogs — the equivalent of 818 per second.
With its new chili, Hormel is making a small shift to an already successful product to create a summertime essential. And not only is the nation clamoring for chili dogs, but this summer, everyone is hungry for comfort food. Hormel is working to deliver.
— Megan Poinski
Optional Caption
Permission granted by Kevin McCann
Â
Vending machine meat
If you can’t get your favorite sirloin or ground beef at the grocery store, a butcher in upstate New York has a solution.
Kevin McCann, the owner and head butcher at McCann’s Local Meats, told Fox News the “24-hour meat machine†at the front of his store in Rochester has been hugely popular with consumers who can purchase his products with minimal person-to-person contact. The meat machine is located in an area of the shop that has been cordoned off.
“The response has been unbelievable,†McCann told the news outlet. “On Saturday, I was cutting and restocking the machine four or five times.â€
McCann said he got the idea from a friend in New York who has been using a refrigerated meat vending machine. In addition to social distancing, he said the concept helps local healthcare workers who have unpredictable hours and may not have a lot of time to go grocery shopping.
Vending machines have been around for decades offering candy, soda, crackers, prepared sandwiches, mini-pizzas and a host of other products. But as consumers have changed their consumption habits, so have these convenient machines.
A Hong Kong-based food entrepreneur created vending machines that offer a variety of healthy, ready-to-eat boxed meals under 550 calories each. Another company in California sells caviar and truffles from vending machines. And Farmer’s Fridge focuses on nutritious ready-for-market meals that contain “chef-curated, restaurant quality meals†and snacks.Â
In recent weeks, meat and poultry have come under fire as coronavirus quickly spread among meat processing employees. While a meat vending machine won’t address these issues, it does respond to other concerns by giving shoppers afraid of going out to the store or hesitant to deal with another person a convenient way to buy their next T-bone or pork chop.Â
The Swiss company said it remains committed to its iconic international brands Perrier, S.Pellegrino and Acqua Panna. It will also focus on further building these brands as well as investing in functional water with health-enhancing ingredients.
“The creation of a more focused business enables us to more aggressively pursue emerging consumer trends, such as functional water,†he said in the statement. “This strategy offers the best opportunity for long-term profitable growth in the category, while appealing to environmentally and health-conscious consumers.â€
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Look out below
The stock market had its worst day in months yesterday, with the S&P 500 index dropping nearly 6 percent. Or, as The Times’s Matt Phillips put it, “At least for a day, reality triumphed over hope on Wall Street.â€
Back in the red for the year: At the beginning of this week, a heady stock rally erased all of the market’s losses for the year, even as pandemic lockdowns curtailed activity and companies reported ugly quarterly earnings. Yesterday’s plunge pushed the S&P 500 back below where it began the year (and more than 10 percent off its all-time high, set in February).
• That said, futures suggest a pretty big bounce at the open, regaining about a third of yesterday’s fall.
Blip or bear market? Broadly speaking, there are two schools of thought:
📈 The steep decline during the early stages of the pandemic was a short-term, virus-induced stumble during a rally that began more than 10 years ago.
📉 The sharp rise in recent months was a momentary rally masking a bear market that could roar back if there’s a second wave of infections or long-term economic damage from the lockdowns.
Looking at history as a guide is tricky, because it’s been more than a century since investors had to reckon with a pandemic. If you plot the market from its peak versus other bear markets in recent history, the bullish case is that stocks could behave as they did in 1990 after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. That would mean another three or four months before stocks set a new high; other market downturns took a lot longer to regain lost ground.
• Bloomberg’s John Authers notes the 1990 analogy, pointing out that the market reached a new peak after Iraqi forces were expelled from Kuwait. But, he asks: “Is there any way to achieve a comparably clear victory over the coronavirus?â€
Hertz is bankrupt — and selling stock
Hertz filed for bankruptcy protection last month. But as investors improbably piled into its shares this week, the car rental pioneer is trying to take advantage of this unexpected turn of events.
The company wants to sell up to $1 billion in new stock. “The recent market prices of and the trading volumes in Hertz’s common stock potentially present a unique opportunity,†lawyers for the company said in a bankruptcy court hearing yesterday.
• Even after falling to $2.06 yesterday, the company’s shares are still way above the 56 cents they traded at after the Chapter 11 filing.
• Some company insiders took advantage of the rally by unloading their shares this week.
The move is exceedingly rare for a bankrupt company, since most Chapter 11 restructurings result in stockholders — who are last in line to recover financial assets — being wiped out.
It’s possible that stockholders could get some money after Hertz restructures. After all, the hedge fund mogul Bill Ackman made a fortune from owning stock in the bankrupt real-estate business General Growth Properties nearly a decade ago. But in a sign of Hertz’s dire financial straits, the company has asked for permission to end leases for more than 144,000 vehicles that it says it can no longer afford.
Companies’ pledges on racial justice
Amid the protests set off by the police killing of George Floyd, corporate America is making more promises to combat racism and discrimination.
Some of the latest moves:
• Apple and YouTube each pledged $100 million for race initiatives. Apple will donate money toward education and criminal justice reform, though it gave few details about what that will entail. YouTube will create a fund to highlight black creators on its platform, and in some cases directly fund black-focused content.
• A founder of The Wing, Audrey Gelman, resigned as C.E.O. of the women-focused co-working company. She faced criticism for what current and former workers said was mistreatment of minority workers.
• Hasbro removed cards from “Magic: The Gathering,†a popular fantasy card game, that featured offensive characters.
But the gap remains wide. The Financial Times notes that management teams and corporate boards still have few black and other minority members, despite years of companies’ pledging to improve diversity.
• Kemi Role, a top official at the National Employment Law Project, told The Wall Street Journal that improvements need to be made throughout companies: “How are their cafeteria workers being treated? How are their people in factories being treated?â€
• Ultimately, companies will be judged on their results, Stephanie Creary of the Wharton business school notes in a list of tips for making meaningful corporate statements: “If you do nothing after saying something, your words will not matter.â€
Here’s what else is happening
The European Union is preparing an antitrust case against Amazon. Regulators plan to argue that the e-commerce giant has unfairly used third-party merchant data to promote its own products, The Times’s Adam Satariano reports.
Goldman Sachs wants to settle the 1MDB scandal without admitting guilt, The Times’s Matt Goldstein reports. The Wall Street firm is pushing back against federal prosecutors who want the bank to pay over $2 billion in fines and plead guilty to a felony.
Who are Joe Biden’s economic advisers?It’s unclear who has the ear of the Democratic presidential candidate, and a recently formed economic policy committee urged participants to stay silent on what is discussed. That said, here’s Mr. Biden’s plan for reopening the economy, released yesterday.
It’s good to talk
Yesterday we highlighted a study about positive effects of small talk in the office, which the researchers called “uplifting yet distracting.†With so many offices and other workplaces now closed, there are fewer opportunities for superficial chitchat, which could be a good thing for efficiency. But judging by readers’ response, you (mostly) miss it:
• Everhard: “Small talk is an essential part of the informal organization, and without any informal organization a company will never work efficiently.â€
• Karen: “Personally, I probably abused the time talking to fellow employees about non-work subjects and gossiping, but it was wonderful to be able to converse about things going on in the world outside. I give it a 70 percent good use of time.â€
• Larry: “Asking somebody how their weekend was, or how the kid’s baseball game or school play went, is all part of how an organization grows.â€
• Jasmin: “I have enjoyed my solitude during this season of confinement. I have maintained contact with some of my favorite colleagues and continue to run away from the chatterbox always trying to initiate a conversation.â€
• Alan: “Companies can’t force those kinds of interactions with Zoom happy hours.â€
The speed read
Deals
• The food delivery service DoorDash is reportedly near a deal to raise money from investors including T. Rowe Price and Fidelity at a $15 billion valuation. (WSJ)
• Palantir, the data consultancy, reportedly plans to file for a public market listing within weeks, with an eye to begin trading in the fall. (Bloomberg)
• The private equity giant KKR is said to have asked outside advisers to cut their fees at least 15 percent to “share in the economic pain†of the pandemic. (FT)
Politics and policy
• The Trump administration abandoned an earlier commitment to disclosing which companies received federal coronavirus rescue loans. (WaPo)
• Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Harriet Tubman would not replace Andrew Jackson as the face of the $20 bill until at least 2030. (NYT)
Tech
• Chris Cox, who quit as Facebook’s chief product officer last year amid a disagreement with Mark Zuckerberg, will return to that position. Separately, the company plans to create a new fund to invest in start-ups. (NYT, Axios)
• Zoom apologized for following a Chinese government request to take down the account of a U.S.-based humanitarian group that commemorated the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. (CNBC)
• An ad tech company secretly used facial-recognition software on 30,000 people who attended this year’s Rose Bowl. (OneZero)
Best of the rest
• The economics of harvesting frozen water on the Moon. (Quartz)
• Nintendo’s “Animal Crossing: New Horizons†looks increasingly like a pixelated Wall Street. (WaPo)
We’d love your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com.
Seth Meyers turned into a history teacher for President Donald Trump on Thursday’s broadcast of “Late Night,†the 1,000th episode of the NBC show.
“Since when do we name military bases after people who lost wars against America?†Meyers asked. “Is there a naval base named after King George III? Would you make American soldiers train at Fort Il Duce?â€
“Not only were Confederate leaders slavers, traitors and white supremacists, they were also dipshits,†he said, noting the “notoriously bad temper†of General Braxton Bragg.
“No wonder Trump likes him,†Meyers added. “He was a racist psycho who liked to fight with people. They didn’t have Twitter back then, but I’m guessing Bragg’s telegrams would have been right up Trump’s alley.â€
Watch Meyers’ monologue above and the celebration of his landmark episode below:
CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh reports from Rio de Janeiro where coronavirus is overwhelming the hospitals and healthcare workers as Brazil nears the peak of its curve.
An unsavoury altercation unfolded at the Garden Route Mall in George, Western Cape on Thursday 11 June when a couple being ejected from the premises because they weren’t wearing face masks allegedly assaulted an assisting security guard.Â
Accusations have emerged that the incident was racially motivated.Â
The incident was captured on camera, and one woman can be seen kicking the security guard, who was engaged in a shouting match with the supposedly aggrieved couple before a man launched himself at the guard with a spear tackle.Â
Watch: Security guard tackled by customer:Â
A security guard was assaulted by a member of the public at the #GardenRouteMall yesterday. It is believed the guard was escorting a customer (who was in contravention of COVID-19 regulations by not wearing a mask) out of the mall when he was spear-tackled
The security guard can be seen being pushed and shoved with a crowd forming around him and those accused of the assault.Â
He is understood to have been trying to escort the couple out of the mall when the fracas ensued.Â
The South African has reached out to the South African Police Service (SAPS) for comment and will update this story when it lands.Â
Second incident in a month at Garden Route MallÂ
Garden Route Mall issued a statement on Twitter on Thursday 12 June in which they said that the security guard had faced no repercussion and in fact would be filing a case of assault against the couple.Â
“We are aware of the incident that took place on the 11th of June 2020,†they wrote.Â
“Kindly note that the security guard was not fired and charges were laid earlier this morning by our security firm and himself.â€
“The police will conduct their investigation as per the case.â€
They said that another incident involving a customer who was unhappy about being denied entry due to the fact that he was not wearing a mask had occurred in May too.Â
“Approximately a month ago where a member of the public was arrested for assault and being in contravention of the COVID-19 Act, for not wearing a mask,†they said.Â
There have been a number of incidents involving people who refuse to wear masks in public spaces, with a man arrested in Richards Bay after starting a fight with a security guard at a Tops outlet earlier in June.
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