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☆ Airbnb to make prices clearer after user complaints of hidden fees
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Some users have previously complained the fees were only visible near the end of the booking process. Airbnb also plans to prioritize total price over the nightly price when ranking search results, according to a company blog post. “I’ve heard you loud and clear—you feel like prices aren’t transparent,” CEO Brain Chesky tweeted Monday. Airbnb announced a review of its fee system in May 2021 in response to customer criticism on social media. Customers have faced additional fees for not completing lists of asks assigned by hosts at the end of their stays.

☆ Former MoviePass executives face fraud charges
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The men each face one count of securities fraud and three counts of wire fraud with a maximum of 20 years in prison. Farnsworth had a first appearance in DC District Court Friday after he voluntarily turned himself in. But MoviePass’ business model was at best unsustainable — and at worst nonexistent. Spikes helped found MoviePass before being pushed out in 2018 after selling the company to HMNY. Details remain scarce, but the company says the new MoviePass will have three pricing tiers that will cost $10, $20 or $30, depending on the market.

☆ Twitter delays $8 ‘blue check’ verification plan until after the midterms
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN Business —Twitter is delaying the rollout of account verifications for its paid Twitter Blue subscription plan until after the midterm elections, a source with knowledge of the decision confirmed to CNN. A fresh Twitter account created by CNN that opted for the paid feature did not show the checkmark on its public profile. The decision to delay the rollout comes as the entire decision to charge users for verification has faced wide public backlash. Television actress Valerie Bertinelli similarly changed her account name to the Twitter CEO’s, tweeting Friday that “[t]he blue checkmark simply meant your identity was verified. Musk has also said he will limit the company’s content restrictions and require the paid subscription for account verification.

☆ Elon Musk wants Twitter users to pay to be verified. It could create a new set of headaches for the company
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The check indicated that Twitter had verified the accounts of artists, athletes, government officials and agencies and other public figures. Musk confirmed this week he’s working to launch an updated version of the company’s Twitter Blue subscription service in which any user can pay $8 per month to get or remain verified. But the move could disincentivize certain prominent accounts from being verified, making it harder for users to determine which are authentic. And many regular Twitter users who aren’t worried about being impersonated and don’t care about Twitter “clout” may also simply not care to shell out for a blue check. “I actually told him … that I think that $8 a month is highly problematic.”The proposed subscription update has been panned by several high-profile Twitter users, including author Stephen King and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.

☆ Miller Lite is selling a Christmas tree stand that doubles as a beer keg
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

New York CNN Business —Miller Lite has quite a gift waiting under the tree for beer lovers this year: a new Christmas Tree Keg Stand. The tree stand – basically a small table used to support the tree – can fit around a quarter-barrel keg beneath it. The design “makes it seem as if beer is being poured from the tree,” Sarah Showak, associate marketing manager at Miller Lite, said in a company blog post Wednesday. The holiday line is meant to target consumers during a season that traditionally boosts liquor sales in general, at the expense of beer, according to the blog post. Miller Lite is a unit of Molson Coors (TAP), a beverage giant that also owns brands that include Coors Lite and Blue Moon.

☆ Musk suggests charging $8 a month for Twitter verification after criticism for $19.99 plan
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN Business —After facing criticism for his plan to charge Twitter users $19.99 a month to get or keep a verified account, Elon Musk has a counteroffer: maybe $8? Under Musk, Twitter is working to update its existing subscription product known as “Twitter Blue,” which currently costs $4.99 a month, to include the verification feature, CNN previously reported. The news quickly prompted outrage and disbelief among some longtime Twitter users, including author Stephen King, who has nearly seven million followers on the platform. Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion, an amount that he admitted is “obviously overpaying” for the company. On Sunday, Musk tweeted: “The whole verification process is being revamped right now.”Even before the deal was completed, Musk suggested the possibility of tying verification to a paid subscription service.

It’s also unclear if some verified users may be exempt from paying the fee; many international organizations and charities, for example are verified on Twitter. The changes would update an existing paid Twitter feature known as “Twitter Blue, which currently costs $4.99 a month and is available in four countries including the United States, to include the verification feature. “The whole verification process is being revamped right now,” Musk tweeted on Sunday. “Interesting,” Musk tweeted in response to the poll. Even before the deal was completed, Musk suggested the possibility of tying verification to a paid subscription service.

☆ Anxious Twitter users find few alternatives to platform after Musk deal closes
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

But with few obvious alternatives, Twitter users may be left with nowhere else to go. Other platforms, like Mastodon, have promised a more decentralized social media experience. “Excited to see what you accomplish here,” retired basketball star Shaquille O’Neill tweeted at Musk on Wednesday ahead of the deal closing. Musk has said he would restore Trump’s Twitter account, though Trump has previously said he would remain on Truth Social. By unbanning users and unwinding content moderation efforts, Musk could make Twitter less palatable for its most vulnerable users, typically women, members of the LGBTQ community, and people of color, according to safety experts.

☆ Conservative policies linked to higher mortality, except regarding marijuana
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Aria Bendix | Aria Bendix Is The Breaking Health Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Conservative state policies regarding the environment, gun safety, labor, taxes and tobacco have been associated with higher mortality rates among working-age people relative to liberal policies, new research found. Conservative policies did the opposite. The link between liberal marijuana policies — such as legalization and access to medical cannabis — and higher mortality was also unexpected, Montez said. By contrast, if all had adopted the most conservative policies, nearly 218,000 more working-age people might have died. Warraich's own research has shown that death rates in counties that voted for Democrats in presidential elections fell 22% between 2001 and 2019, while death rates in Republican-voting counties declined by just 11%.

☆ A Meta exec quit after 11 years to join Web3 at the peak of its hype. Here's why she's staying through a crypto winter.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Ex-Meta marketing exec Jennifer Kattula quit after 11 years to "take the leap" into Web3. The call piqued her interest and she began to research crypto and Web3 — both still nascent industries. Former Meta marketing executive Jennifer Kattula, now senior vice president of marketing at Polygon. Interest in Web3 and crypto was peaking, with bullish investors pouring a record $30 billion into crypto ventures that year. But Kattula's first foray into crypto did not go smoothly, and she left Celsius after less than six months in April 2022.

The anthology show is created by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and features eight tales of horror. Along with creating and executive producing the series, del Toro co-wrote two episodes and serves as the show's on-screen presenter. How to watch 'Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities'You can watch "Cabinet of Curiosities" exclusively on Netflix. How many episodes are in 'Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities'? Is 'Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities' worth watching?

☆ Amazon to let customers pay with Venmo at checkout
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

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In her opening statement, Spacey attorney Jennifer Keller squarely targeted the #MeToo movement: “One of the cardinal rules of the so-called MeToo movement [is] that you have to believe the victim. It was cleverly set up by Mr. Rapp.”And while testifying in trial, Spacey denied any wrongdoing and blamed his Twitter response for being the product of misguided “crisis” management against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement. He reiterated his embrace of the #MeToo movement after losing the trial. There was no reason to allow the trial to demonize a movement that encourages reporting sex crimes and discourages sexual abuse. How the trial was conducted matters to people other than Rapp and Spacey.

☆ Rep. Elaine Luria faces off against Republican Jen Kiggans in Virginia's 2nd Congressional District election
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria faces off against Republican Jen Kiggans in Virginia's 2nd Congressional District. Kiggans, a state senator, is running in a redrawn district that is more favorable to Republicans. Virginia 2nd Congressional District candidatesLuria, a Navy veteran, is the prototype candidate Democrats ran in 2018 to harness anti-Trump outrage. Voting history for Virginia's 2nd Congressional DistrictKiggans is running in a coastal Virginia district that should favor conservatives more than in the past. Her opponent, Kiggans, has raised $2.7 million, spent $2.3 million, and has $436,622 remaining, as of September 30.

☆ Facebook and TikTok are approving ads with ‘blatant’ misinformation about voting in midterms, researchers say
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

In an experiment, the researchers submitted 20 ads with inaccurate claims to Facebook, TikTok and YouTube. TikTok approved 90% of ads that contained blatantly false or misleading information, the researchers found. The researchers withdrew the ads after going through the approval process, if they were approved, so the ads containing misinformation were not shown to users. Last month, TikTok took additional steps to safeguard the veracity of political content ahead of the midterms. Google also took steps in September to protect against election misinformation, elevating trustworthy information and displaying it more prominently across services including search and YouTube.

The jury in Kevin Spacey's sexual abuse trial found that the Oscar-winning actor is not liable for battery against “Star Trek: Discovery star” Anthony Rapp. Rapp alleged that Spacey climbed on top of him at a party in New York City in 1986, when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. “I didn’t ask for him to do that,” he told jurors, referring to Spacey’s alleged sexual advance. Rapp alleged that sometime after that evening, Spacey invited him to a party at his apartment. Rapp testified that he did not recognize anyone at the party, so he went into a bedroom to watch television.

Rapp, watching Spacey accept his prize, threw a pencil at the screen, he testified this week. Spacey’s lawyers have tried to convince the jury of six men and six women that Rapp fabricated his claim in large part because he was bitterly envious of their client's success. Rapp, they contend, desperately wanted Spacey’s career: the hit films, the plum roles, the two Oscars. But through the first five days of the trial in downtown Manhattan, Rapp’s alleged jealousy has been a recurring and striking theme. “I wanted my career.”Warrington Parker, a San Francisco trial attorney, and Danny Cevallos, an NBC News legal analyst, both described the jealousy argument as a high-risk bet for Spacey’s lawyers.

Rocchio testified that Rapp "did suffer emotional distress, assuming this occurred." She told jurors that Rapp experienced feelings of "shame, guilt and self-blame" as an adolescent. Rapp testified on Wednesday that the alleged encounter with Spacey was "the most traumatic single event of my life" and caused "lingering impacts." Rocchio recalled that Rapp told her he was having trouble remembering his lines of dialogue at some point in 2019. "One of the ways he tried to avoid thinking about things was to throw himself into his work," Rocchio testified.

☆ Kevin Spacey’s attorney tests positive for Covid-19 during trial
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Sonia Moghe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Jennifer Keller, a lead attorney representing Kevin Spacey in the sexual misconduct lawsuit filed by Anthony Rapp, has tested positive for Covid-19. Keller tested positive Thursday morning and is symptomatic, US District a judge Lewis Kaplan told the court. Clinical and forensic psychologist Lisa Rocchio is on direct examination by Rapp’s legal team and is expected to be their final witness. Spacey’s attorneys have attempted to poke holes in Rapp’s claims, among them, that Lupita Nyong’o’s New York Times op-ed is what inspired him to come forward with his allegations to Buzzfeed in 2017. Spacey’s legal team has also pointed to discrepancies between Rapp’s claims, including dates he ran into Spacey at industry events.

"Star Trek: Discovery" actor Anthony Rapp testified Wednesday that the moment Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey allegedly climbed on top of him at a New York City party in 1986 was "the most traumatic single event of my life" and caused "lingering impacts." Rapp was 14 at the time of the alleged encounter and Spacey was 26. Rapp testified that at some point, an apparently drunk Spacey entered the room, lifted him up, placed him on a bed and rested his body on top of him. "I never wanted Kevin Spacey's career," Rapp told jurors. Rapp testified that he has shared his Spacey allegation with friends over the years, but he does not know "the number" of people he has told.

Spacey then came in and invited Rapp and Barrowman to dinner at a casual restaurant nearby, Rapp testified. Rapp testified Tuesday that he has no recollection of that visit. Rapp testified that he went on to see six other Spacey movies, including "The Usual Suspects," "L.A. Rapp testified that he shared his allegations privately with at least five friends over the years, including Barrowman. Rapp testified that he was not involved in the publication process and did not see a draft of the article before it was published.

Actor Kevin Spacey walks outside the Manhattan Federal Court during his sex abuse trial in New York, U.S., October 6, 2022. During cross-examination on Tuesday, Spacey's lawyer Jennifer Keller questioned Rapp about his account of the encounter, which Rapp said took place in a bedroom at Spacey's Manhattan apartment during a party. Keller said in her opening statement last week in Manhattan federal court that Spacey, then 26, lived in a studio without a separate bedroom. She has implied the scene resembles what Rapp accuses Spacey of doing to him. Spacey faces a criminal trial in London next year after pleading not guilty to five sex offense charges over alleged assaults between 2005 and 2013.

☆ Binance-linked blockchain hit by $570 million crypto theft
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-07 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

A Binance-linked blockchain was involved in a $570 million hack late Thursday, a company spokesperson confirmed to CNN Business on Friday. Binance temporarily suspended its blockchain network, BNB Smart Chain, “due to irregular activity,” the company tweeted Thursday. The company said Friday that hackers had stolen two million BNB cryptocurrency tokens – which are issued by Binance – worth about $570 million at the time. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao initially tweeted that an estimated $100 million worth of crypto had been stolen. This latest attack put the BNB blockchain offline for about nine hours.

Tulsa police arrested the daughter of District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler on Tuesday after she allegedly stabbed her father — lead prosecutor in Oklahoma's second biggest county, authorities said. Police were called to Kunzweiler's home at about 2 p.m. CDT "in reference to a disturbance and an assault related to his daughter," Tulsa police Capt. Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler in Tulsa, Okla., on April 17, 2018. Tulsa PD Chief Wendell Franklin identified the suspect as the DA's daughter, Jennifer Kunzweiler. I am most appreciative of the response from the Tulsa Fire Department, EMSA, the Tulsa Police Department and the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.

☆ Alice, the first all-electric passenger airplane, takes flight
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN Business —The world’s first all-electric passenger aircraft has successfully taken to the sky. Israeli company Eviation Aircraft successfully launched the Alice on Tuesday morning from Washington’s Grant County International Airport. The zero-emission plane traveled at an altitude of 3,500 feet for its eight-minute inaugural flight. Three different versions of the Alice are in protoype stages: a “commuter” variant, an executive version, and one specialized for cargo. The executive design has six passenger seats for a more spacious flight, and the cargo plane holds 450 cubic feet of volume.

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