DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

[1/2] A man types into a keyboard during the Def Con hacker convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. on July 29, 2017. In an interview this week, Canadian Centre for Cyber Security Head Sami Khoury said that his agency had seen AI being used "in phishing emails, or crafting emails in a more focused way, in malicious code (and) in misinformation and disinformation." The same month, Britain's National Cyber Security Centre said in a blog post that there was a risk that criminals "might use LLMs to help with cyber attacks beyond their current capabilities." The LLM responded with a three paragraph email asking its target for help with an urgent invoice. Reporting by Raphael Satter in Washington; editing by Chris Sanders and Josie KaoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Steve Marcus WASHINGTON, Sami Khoury, Khoury, cybercriminals, Europol, ChatGPT, Raphael Satter, Chris Sanders, Josie Kao Organizations: Def Con, REUTERS, Reuters, cybercriminals, Centre for Cyber Security, European, Cyber Security, Thomson Locations: Las Vegas , Nevada, U.S, Washington

The plots to steal the weaponry and equipment were disrupted by Ukraine’s intelligence services and it was ultimately recovered, according to the report, titled “DoD’s Accountability of Equipment Provided to Ukraine.” CNN obtained the report via a Freedom of Information Act request. In late October, the US resumed on-site inspections of Ukrainian weapons depots as a way to better track where the equipment was going. The personnel did not provide the IG with corroborating paperwork by the time the investigation concluded, however, the report notes. Ukraine’s intelligence service disrupted the plot, according to the report. The Pentagon inspector general wrote that some larger items like missiles and helicopters were easier to track through intelligence mechanisms.

Persons: CNN —, ”, Military.com, Kyiv “, Colin Kahl, Biden, Kevin McCarthy, Ron DeSantis, Defense Department “ Organizations: CNN, Defense, ” CNN, Arms, Control, of Defense Cooperation, Kyiv, DoD, US, Republicans, Republican, Florida Gov, Command, Pentagon, Defense Department Locations: Ukraine, United States

☆ Donald Trump loses bid for new trial in E. Jean Carroll abuse case
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Trump appealed the decision, adding it to his earlier appeal of the jury verdict. She amended it after Trump disparaged her in a CNN town hall one day after the $5 million verdict, calling her account "fake" and her a "whack job." Carroll wants to dismiss that claim, saying her statement was "substantially true" and reflected her thoughts as the verdict was read. The case is Carroll v. Trump, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. Carroll's original lawsuit is Carroll v Trump in the same court, No.

Persons: Donald Trump's, Jean Carroll, District Judge Lewis Kaplan, Kaplan, Carroll, Trump, Goodman, Roberta Kaplan, TRUMP, Jonathan Stempel, Chizu Nomiyama, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: YORK, District, Trump, House, Elle, CNN, U.S, Court, Southern District of, Carroll, Thomson Locations: Manhattan, New York, Southern District, Southern District of New York

☆ Trump Hush Money Case Will Remain in New York State Court, Judge Rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Jonah E. Bromwich | More About Jonah E. Bromwich | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Judge Hellerstein wrote that the evidence overwhelmingly suggested that the matter involved something personal to the president: “a cover-up of an embarrassing event.”“Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president’s official acts,” he concluded in the order. “It does not reflect in any way the color of the president’s official duties.”A lawyer for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Trump’s effort to move the case was considered a long shot. Still, the order represents a significant victory for Mr. Bragg, who secured an indictment of the former president in March and whose case against him is scheduled for trial in March 2024. Judge Hellerstein seemed impressed by the strength of the evidence of the case, writing that Mr. Bragg’s prosecutors had strongly supported “their allegations that the money paid to Cohen was reimbursement for a hush money payment.”Mr. Trump, who is once again the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, was also indicted last month in federal court in Miami for mishandling classified documents and obstructing the government’s investigation into his conduct.

Persons: Hellerstein, ”, Trump, Mr, Bragg, Judge Hellerstein, Cohen Organizations: Republican Locations: Miami

☆ Farage makes fresh allegations against UK's Coutts over account closures
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Reuters previously reported that Coutts was closing Farage's accounts mainly for commercial reasons, citing a source familiar with the matter. The BBC previously reported Farage had fallen below the financial threshold required to be a customer of the private bank - something Farage said he had had no knowledge of. A Coutts spokesperson told Reuters that its ability to respond to Farage's fresh claims were restricted by obligations to protect client confidentiality. Farage told Reuters the issue "raises very broad questions about our banks and how deeply political they have become." Farage previously said he believed it was because he was deemed a "politically exposed person" (PEP), meaning banks have to apply additional scrutiny to accounts.

Persons: Nigel Farage, Coutts, Farage, Donald Trump, Iain Withers, Sinead Cruise, David Evans Organizations: Brexit Party, NatWest Group, Twitter, Reuters, BBC, Farage, Britain's Daily Telegraph, Thomson Locations: Russia

☆ Microsoft stock pops after it announces $30 per month A.I. subscription for Microsoft 365
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Microsoft shares rose as much as 5.8% Tuesday after the company announced a new artificial intelligence subscription service for Microsoft 365. The company will charge users an additional $30 per month for the use of generative AI with tools such as Teams, Excel and Word. Adding on the subscription to Copilot, a generative AI assistant that works across Microsoft 365 programs, could increase monthly prices for enterprise customers as much as 83%. The updates come as the race to offer consumer-driven generative AI tools heats up among tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, IBM and more. The company also announced a significant update to Bing Chat, its AI chatbot, on Tuesday: visual search.

Persons: It's, Bing Organizations: Microsoft, Google, IBM, Goodyear, General Motors

☆ Trump says Jack Smith has given him 4 days to appear in front of the January 6 grand jury
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Special counsel Jack Smith has been looking into the lead up before the Capitol riot. The former president said he has been given less than a week to appear before Smith's grand jury. "Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden's DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6 Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment." When Smith sent a target letter to Trump about his alleged mishandling of classified evidence, the former president declined to appear before the grand jury.

Persons: Trump, Jack Smith, Donald Trump, HUNT, Joe Biden's, Smith, Mike Pence, Mark Meadows, Pence Organizations: Service, Trump, Joe Biden's DOJ, White House, Republican Locations: Wall, Silicon, Florida

The employee, whom the person declined to name, received the letter in the past few weeks after appearing in May before a federal grand jury in Washington. Footage from the cameras at Mar-a-Lago has been at the center of the case against Mr. Trump and was an instrumental part of the evidence used to obtain a warrant to search Mar-a-Lago last August. hauled away a trove of more than 100 classified documents that Mr. Trump had taken with him from the White House and kept even after receiving a subpoena demanding their return. The surveillance footage was also key to the indictment that Mr. Smith’s office brought last month against Mr. Trump and his personal aide, Walt Nauta, in the Southern District of Florida. The indictment charges both men with conspiring to obstruct the government’s efforts to reclaim dozens of highly classified documents and Mr. Trump alone of illegally holding onto the documents after he left office.

Persons: Jack Smith, Donald J, Trump’s, Lago, Trump, Walt Nauta Organizations: Trump Organization, Prosecutors, Lago, White, Mr, Southern District of Locations: Washington, Mar, Florida, Southern District, Southern District of Florida

The National Archives and Records Administration is devoted to preserving the priceless records of the United States, including the handwritten parchment from President George Washington’s era to 20th-century typewritten documents and modern electronic files. More than a million schoolchildren and adults each year come to the National Archives to view the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, while historians and other academics visit its reading rooms to pore over its broader holdings, including an estimated 13.5 billion pieces of paper, 40 million photographs and enough film to circle the earth more than three times. A quiet agency, the National Archives drew unusual attention over its monthslong effort to retrieve public records that former President Donald J. Trump was keeping at his Florida estate and club, which led to criminal charges against him. By law, government records from his White House belong to the agency.

Persons: George Washington’s, Donald J, Trump Organizations: National Archives, Records Administration, Independence Locations: United States, Florida

[1/2] The logo of Credit Suisse is pictured in front of the Swiss Parliament Building, in Bern, Switzerland, March 19, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse//File PhotoBERN, July 13 (Reuters) - A Swiss parliamentary investigation into the role played by state institutions in the collapse and emergency rescue of Switzerland's second biggest lender Credit Suisse will take 12 to 14 months to complete, its president said on Thursday. The investigation committee is Swiss lawmakers' most powerful tool and this is only the fifth time such a parliamentary probe has been launched. It will also examine the role played by financial regulator FINMA as well as the Swiss National Bank. UBS (UBSG.S) agreed to buy Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.48 billion) in March after panicked customers withdrew cash from their accounts at the stricken lender.

Persons: Denis Balibouse, Isabelle Chassot, Noele Illien, John Revill, David Evans, Alexandra Hudson Organizations: Credit Suisse, Swiss, REUTERS, Suisse, Swiss National Bank, UBS, Alexandra Hudson Our, Thomson Locations: Bern, Switzerland, BERN, Swiss, Die Mitte, Zurich

"U.S.-China competition is on the same starting line," Chipuller chairman Yang Meng said about chiplet technology in an interview with Reuters. "They can still develop 3D stacking or other chiplet technology to work around those restrictions. Beijing is rapidly exploiting chiplet technology in applications as diverse as artificial intelligence to self-driving cars, with entities from tech giant Huawei Technologies to military institutions exploring its use. About a quarter of the global chip packaging and testing market sits in China, according to Dongguan Securities. Huawei, China’s tech and chip design giant that has been put on the U.S.'s most restricted list, has been actively filing chiplet patents.

Persons: Yang Meng, Charles Shi, Needham, Yang, Needham's Shi, Chipuller, Laura Black, Melissa Mannino, Perry Bechky, Rowe, Mike Gallagher, Biden, ”, Chipuller's Yang, zGlue, CFIUS, Shayne Phillips, MIIT, Jane Lanhee Lee, Eduardo Baptista, Echo Wang, Stephen Nellis, Kenneth Li, Brenda Goh, Lincoln Organizations: Chipuller, Industry, Reuters, Huawei Technologies, Intel, Dongguan Securities, People’s Liberation Army, PLA, Acclaim, British, Islands, Sea Investment Co, Foreign Investment, Treasury, Akin's Trade, Berliner Corcoran, Department of Commerce, Huawei, U.S, TongFu Microelectronics, JCET, Beijing ESWIN Technology Group, China’s Ministry of Industry, Information Technology, Thomson Locations: Shenzhen, China, U.S, United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Beijing, Dongguan, BakerHostetler, People's Republic of China

☆ XRP soars 61% after a judge says the cryptocurrency is not a security in a big win over the SEC
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

XRP soared as much as 61% on Thursday after a US judge said certain aspects of the sale of the token did not break federal securities laws. The SEC had sued Ripple for the sale of its XRP token in 2020 for the failure to register XRP as a security. US District Judge for the Southern District of New York Analisa Torres said the XRP token is "not necessarily a security on its face." But there are multiple facets of the ruling and it gets complicated depending on the type of sale of XRP. A motion for summary judgement filed by the SEC in its "aiding and abetting" allegations against Garlinghouse and Larsen was denied.

Persons: Brad Garlinghouse, Christian Larsen, of New York Analisa Torres, Torres, Garlinghouse, Larsen, bitcoin Organizations: SEC, Service, US, Southern, of, of New York, Twitter Locations: Wall, Silicon, of New

(Reuters) - Two Georgia election workers suing Rudy Giuliani for defamation asked a U.S. judge on Tuesday to decide the lawsuit in their favor, arguing that the former New York mayor and personal lawyer for Donald Trump forfeited the case by allegedly failing to preserve important evidence. Lawyers for the pair asked a Washington, D.C. federal judge to levy “severe” sanctions against Giuliani, including a default judgment finding Giuliani liable for defamation. Attorneys for Giuliani and the election workers did not immediately return requests for comment. Ted Goodman, a political adviser to Giuliani, said the evidence requests were “deliberately overly burdensome” and sought information aimed at embarrassing and intimidating Giuliani. Lawyers for the election workers said in a court filing that those efforts collapsed after Giuliani did not agree.

Persons: Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, Moss, Ruby Freeman, Giuliani, Ted Goodman, Freeman, Beryl Howell, Andrew Goudsward Organizations: Reuters, New, U.S, District, Moss, Thomson Locations: Georgia, New York, Washington

☆ FBI chief Wray defends against US House Republicans' accusations
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Sarah N. Lynch | Thomson Reuters | Sarah N. Lynch Is The Lead Reporter For Reuters Covering The U.S. Justice Department Out Of Washington | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Wray appeared before the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee panel for the first time since former President Donald Trump was indicted for retaining highly classified documents and obstructing justice. Republicans have repeatedly accused the FBI and other federal agencies of "weaponizing" their law enforcement and regulatory powers to silence critics on the right, target political enemies and protect political allies. House Republicans have claimed without evidence that the documents case against Trump is politically motivated. "Absolutely not," replied Wray, a fellow Republican who has increasingly become the target of Republicans' wrath. "The idea that I am biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background," Wray said.

Persons: Chris Way, Hunter Biden, Wray, Donald Trump, Joe Biden's, Hunter, General Merrick Garland, Christopher Wray, Jonathan Ernst, Matt Gaetz, Trump, Terry Doughty, Biden, Sarah N, Lynch, Scott Malone, Susan Heavey Organizations: Republicans, Republican, House, FBI, House Republicans, Trump, U.S, Federal Bureau of, Capitol, REUTERS, District, Wednesday, Thomson Locations: Washington , U.S, Louisiana, Missouri, U.S

☆ Google's ChatGPT rival is trained by workers who are under pressure to audit AI answers in as little as 3 minutes, documents show
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Google's Bard is trained by contractors who are expected to rapidly review answers, per Bloomberg. Instruction documents showed the contractors were given deadlines as short as three minutes. They work under pressure and are given minimal training, Bloomberg added. Google's Bard is reportedly trained by thousands of contractors under pressure to review answers generated by the AI chatbot in as little as three minutes. However, the workload of humans reviewing responses for Bard has become increasingly larger and more complex, Bloomberg reported, citing internal documents and six contractors.

Persons: Bard, ChatGPT Organizations: Bloomberg, Accenture, Google, Microsoft

☆ Microsoft can close its Activision merger, federal judge rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —A federal judge will not block Microsoft (MSFT) from closing its $69 billion deal to acquire video game giant Activision Blizzard, a defeat for US regulators who had asked for a temporary injunction while legal challenges to the merger unfold. Microsoft could potentially finalize the deal with Activision in a matter of days, ahead of a July 18 contractual deadline, or the parties could mutually seek to extend that timeframe. During a five-day hearing last month in federal court, Microsoft executives including CEO Satya Nadella testified that properties such as “Call of Duty” would not be restricted from competitors following the deal’s close. UK officials also previously moved to block the Activision merger in April, citing some of the same concerns the FTC raised in its case and triggering an appeal from Microsoft. “Microsoft and Activision have agreed with the CMA that a stay of the litigation in the UK would be in the public interest and the parties have made a joint submission … to this effect.”

Persons: ”, “, Jacqueline Scott Corley, Corley, Satya Nadella, Tuesday’s, Microsoft’s, “ We’re, Brad Smith, we’ve, Bobby Kotick, Meta’s, ” Douglas Farrar, we’ll, ” Smith Organizations: CNN, Microsoft, Activision, US, Court, Northern, Northern District of, Sony PlayStation, Federal Trade Commission, FTC, Regulators, Nvidia, Nintendo, “, PlayStation, Appeals, Ninth Circuit, Markets, CMA Locations: Northern District, Northern District of California, ”, San Francisco

☆ How Trump will fight the classified documents charges he's facing
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Trump and Nauta have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include obstruction-related allegations in addition to the accusations that Trump illegally retained national defense information. Did the special counsel have the authority to bring the charges? Trump has claimed at times that he declassified the documents in question, though his lawyers have stopped short of making such assertions in legal filings. The charges Smith brought, however, do not necessarily turn on whether the materials were classified. Trump and Nauta say they won’t know how much of a dispute over these procedures there will be until they have a chance to review the classified discovery.

Persons: Donald Trump, Walt Nauta, Jack Smith, Aileen Cannon, Trump, ”, Nauta, –, Robert Mueller, Smith Organizations: CNN, Trump, Records, Presidential Locations: United States, Russia

☆ Microsoft-Activision ruling highlights Lina Khan's struggles to fight tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Khan first emerged in antitrust circles for her critiques of how antitrust enforcement overlooked potential abuses by Amazon . The ruling means the parties are closer to being able to complete their merger by their July 18 deadline. "In the coming days we'll be announcing our next step to continue our fight to preserve competition and protect consumers." It's not the first time a judge has looked dubiously on the FTC's antitrust enforcement theories under Khan. WATCH: Judge denies FTC request for preliminary injunction to stop Microsoft-Activision deal

Persons: Lina Khan, Lina Khan's, Khan, Joe Biden, Jacqueline Scott Corley, Corley, Microsoft's, we'll, It's, Matt Stoller, Stoller, –, Microsoft — Organizations: Energy, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade, Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, FTC, Activision, PlayStation, Nintendo, U.K, Competition, American Economic Liberties, Twitter, Biden, CNBC, YouTube Locations: Rayburn

☆ Behind ‘Oppenheimer,’ a Prizewinning Biography 25 Years in the Making
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Andy Kifer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Outgoing, funny, and athletic, he is described by those who knew him as the opposite of neurotic. Sherwin, a history professor and the author of one previous book, had agreed to write a full-scale biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer two decades earlier. He’d done plenty of research — an extraordinary amount, actually, amassing some 50,000 pages of interviews, transcripts, letters, diaries, declassified documents and F.B.I. But Cameron, who had published Sherwin’s first book at Knopf — and who, like Oppenheimer, had been a victim of McCarthyism — insisted. So on March 13, 1980, Sherwin signed a $70,000 contract with Knopf for the project.

Persons: Martin Sherwin, Sherwin, J, Robert Oppenheimer, he’d, Angus Cameron, Oppenheimer, Cameron, Knopf —, — Organizations: Knopf

☆ How the hit podcast 'Scamanda' could become a TV show, according to a leading exec in Lionsgate's audio arm
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Marta Biino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

She discussed how her team plans to turn podcasts into TV shows, and how "Scamanda" could be a doc. The show was produced by Lionsgate Sound, the Hollywood giant's new audio division that launched last year. Lionsgate is one of several television companies to start its own audio arm — like Netflix and HBO, which produce audio companions to their TV shows. Pilgrim is a Lionsgate-owned production company that specializes in unscripted TV, and also a minority owner in Lionsgate Sound. Conversely, the podcast division can also leverage the success of existing TV shows and programs by producing companion audio works for them.

Persons: Gretchen Stockdale, you've, Amanda C, Riley, swindling, Pilgrim, Stockdale, Elizabeth Holmes, Jussie Organizations: Lionsgate, Apple, Lionsgate Sound, Hollywood, Netflix, HBO, Pilgrim Media Group, Hulu, ABC, Bloomberg, Fox Nation

☆ Heineken, Unilever and Oreo maker Mondelez accused of breaking promises to leave Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

It’s shameful and unethical.”Sonnenfeld, who has testified before Congress about companies leaving Russia, is not accusing these corporations of breaking the law. ‘Implied endorsement of the Putin regime’The “poster child” for this problem is the popular Dutch brewing giant Heineken, Sonnenfeld said. In March 2022, just one month after the invasion of Ukraine, Heineken won praise for promising to leave Russia. “We expect a significant financial loss to the Heineken company. The Yale research said Mondelez shows “no tangible signs of progress towards exiting” and continues to do business in Russia.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Jeff Sonnenfeld, Philip Morris, ” Sonnenfeld, “, ”, ‘, Putin, Sonnenfeld, Steven Tian, ExxonMobil –, ” Heineken, ” Mondelez, Mondelez, That’s, Lipton, Mark Dixon, Nestle, Kit Kat, Purina, Sbarro, Carl’s Jr, Carl’s, Yale, Tim Calkins, Calkins Organizations: New York CNN Business, Yale, Heineken, Unilever, CNN, ”, Institute . Yale, BP, ExxonMobil, Nabisco, Kyiv School of Economics, Agency, Nestle, WeWork, Mondelez, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Restaurants Holdings, CKE, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, Russian, ”, American, South Africa

A recently discovered letter written by President Abraham Lincoln that offers a glimpse into his thinking during the early part of the Civil War sold this week in Pennsylvania for $85,000, according to an autograph dealer. “Discovering unpublished, unknown letters of Abraham Lincoln is increasingly rare,” Mr. Raab said in a statement about the document on the Pennsylvania collection’s website. The letter, which measures 5 by 8 inches, was sold to a private collector in the southeastern United States on Wednesday, Mr. Raab said. Dated Aug. 19, 1861, the short letter is addressed to Charles Ellet Jr., an American civil engineer and Union Army colonel, who had met the president and lobbied him for the creation of a civil engineering corps. Colonel Ellet had insisted that immediate action be taken to understand the South’s infrastructure because he felt that Washington was vulnerable.

Persons: Abraham Lincoln, Nathan Raab, Raab, Mr, Charles Ellet Jr, Ellet Organizations: Pennsylvania, Union Army Locations: Pennsylvania, United States, American, Washington

☆ Elon Musk fired most of Twitter's staff and said their talents will be of 'great use elsewhere.' Twitter's now threatening to sue Meta, accusing the company of hiring former employees to create a 'cop
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meta launched a text-based app called Threads that competes with platforms like Twitter. The letter accuses Meta of hiring "dozens" of ex-Twitter employees and using them to create Threads. Less than 24 hours since Meta launched Threads, Musk's attorney Alex Spiro sent a cease-and-desist letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, accusing the company of hiring "dozens of former Twitter employees" to create a "copycat" app. Since the Tesla founder took over Twitter, Musk said in a BBC interview that he had laid off about 80%, or 6,500 Twitter employees, whittling the company down to fewer than 600 engineers. Meta employees have seen the chaos at Twitter as an opportunity to create a rival app for months, The New York Times previously reported.

Persons: Meta, Elon Musk's, Elon Musk, Musk, Alex Spiro, Mark Zuckerberg, Andy Stone, — that's, Spiro, Zuckerberg Organizations: Twitter, Meta, New York Times

☆ Insight: Catholic clergy report surveillance, beatings amid Nicaragua's crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( David Alire Garcia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's five-year campaign against the Catholic church has intensified since February, according to interviews with five priests inside and outside the country. This week's brief release of Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Alvarez raised hopes for a turning point. The priests describe heavy surveillance of church services by police or civilian members of government-sponsored community councils, especially since Easter. His latest restrictions seem aimed at silencing priests, Erick Diaz, 33, a Nicaraguan priest in exile in Chicago, said. Nine church leaders inside and outside Nicaragua did not respond to interview requests for this story.

Persons: Daniel Ortega's, Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Alvarez, Mexican Bishop Ramon Castro, Pope Francis, Nicaragua's, Ortega, Rosario Murillo, Bishop Alvarez, Alvarez, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Brenes, Martha Patricia Molina, Molina, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Erick Diaz, David Alire Garcia, Philip Pullella, Ismael Lopez, Suzanne Goldenberg Organizations: MEXICO CITY, Sunday, Nicaraguan, Catholic, Vatican, Reuters, Organization of American, Thomson Locations: MEXICO, Nicaraguan, Managua, Nicaragua, Mexican, Eastern Europe, Matagalpa, Texas, Leon, Vatican, Chicago, Rome, San Jose

☆ Twitter threatens to sue Meta after rival app Threads gains traction
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Twitter is threatening Meta with a lawsuit after the blockbuster launch of Meta’s new Twitter rival, Threads — in perhaps the clearest sign yet that Twitter views the app as a competitive threat. On Wednesday, an attorney representing Twitter sent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter that accused the company of trade secret theft through the hiring of former Twitter employees. “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing,” he said on Threads. Unlike some Twitter rivals, Threads has experienced rapid growth, with Zuckerberg reporting 30 million user sign-ups in the app’s first day. As of Thursday afternoon, Threads was the number-one free app on the iOS App Store.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Alex Spiro, Elon Musk, Meta, Musk, Meta “, ” Spiro, ”, Andy Stone, “, — that’s, Jack Dorsey, Zuckerberg, Carl Tobias, ” Tobias Organizations: CNN, Twitter, Semafor, University of Richmond, Meta

Search resuls for: "documents and"

25 mentions found