Tag: flee
Lawyers for Elizabeth Holmes Call Claims She Tried to Flee to Mexico ‘Baseless’
Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes filed a motion to strike on Monday, claiming the government made false claims against her. The motion is in response to allegations that Holmes had plans to flee the country by purchasing a one-way ticket to Mexico just weeks before she was convicted on several fraud charges.
Twitter is reportedly struggling to break even as advertisers continue to flee
Twitter’s ad business is reeling, with its daily revenue reportedly falling by 40 percent from a year ago. According to The Information, over 500 of the company’s top advertisers have paused spending on the platform since Elon Musk’s October takeover. Despite that, Twitter is still attracting and retaining media deals because it’s too lucrative for them to give it up.
Although Musk plans to diversify Twitter away from advertising, the company will likely struggle to break even this year. Since Twitter generated $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2022, running 40 percent below that would mean it’s bringing in around $8 million daily (and about $720 million for the quarter). Getting in the black this year will depend on the company’s ability to generate $3 billion in revenue while paying $1.5 billion in annual interest from the debt Musk raised for the purchase.
The ad troubles could lead to more cost-cutting. Some big advertisers are reportedly unhappy with Musk’s approach to contact moderation, including reinstating Donald Trump and firing executives in charge of curbing hate speech. Twitter’s workforce has already shrunk by about 75 percent since Musk’s takeover, and it’s easy to imagine more layoffs on the horizon if the bleeding doesn’t stop.
However, Twitter can take some consolation in its ability to attract and retain media partners. According to Axios, the platform still has deals with over three dozen media companies, news outlets (including the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Conde Nast and USA Today) and sports leagues (including the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, NASCAR and PGA Tour) in the first half of this year. They find Twitter too profitable to quit in an uncertain economy — even while balking at embracing it publicly.
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Advertisers continue to flee Twitter as civil rights groups call for a boycott
As Elon Musk looks for new ways to make money from Twitter’s he’s facing a much more urgent problem: advertisers are fleeing the platform. Musk said Friday that “Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue” due to advertisers’ concerns about content moderation and other issues raised by activists.
A number of major companies have paused ads in recent days, including GM, Audi, Pfizer, General Mills, Volkswagen and other big names who are wary of potential changes to Twitter’s policies as well as the departure of top executives. Industry groups have also expressed concern about brand safety under Musk, and The New York Times reported this week that “IPG, one of the world’s largest advertising companies, issued a recommendation … for clients to temporarily pause their spending on Twitter.”
On Friday, the NAACP joined other civil rights groups in calling for an advertiser boycott of the platform. “It is immoral, dangerous, and highly destructive to our democracy for any advertiser to fund a platform that fuels hate speech, election denialism and conspiracy theories,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.
It is immoral, dangerous, and highly destructive to our democracy for any advertiser to fund a platform that fuels hate speech, election denialism and conspiracy theories. Until actions are taken to make this a safe space, we call on companies to pause all advertising on Twitter.
— Derrick Johnson (@DerrickNAACP) November 4, 2022
Advertisers’ pullback amid calls for an ad boycott show just how quickly Twitter’s ad business has deteriorated under Musk. It also comes barely a week after Musk tried to reassure the industry he didn’t want to turn the platform into a “free-for-all hellscape.” Twitter saw a significant spike in hate speech and racial slurs immediately following the news of Musk’s take over of the company. Twitter’s head of safety later blamed the activity on a coordinated trolling campaign. But the activity further fueled the concerns of civil rights groups, prompting Musk to meet with civil rights leaders this week.
On Friday he seemed to blame the drop in ad revenue on many of the same activists. “Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,” he tweeted.
Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.
Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022
But a coalition of civil rights groups and activists rejected Musk’s characterization. During a call with reporters on Friday, they said that Musk’s mass layoffs of Twitter staff, including people who work in moderation and safety, undermine the commitments he made following their meeting.
“When you lay off almost 50% of your staff, including teams that are in charge of actually tracking, monitoring and enforcing content moderation rules, that necessarily means that content moderation has changed,” said Jessica González, co-CEO of Free Press.
The group also raised concerns about Musk’s amplification of far-right conspiracies regarding the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband; it also cited reports the now-CEO could chip away at current Twitter rules protecting trans users. “If Twitter does not take immediate concrete actions that illustrate a true commitment to maintaining best practices that protect users that companies then companies will not support with ad dollars and we’re seeing it happen in real time,” said GLAAD CEO Sarah Ellis.
Lion escape Taronga Zoo: Roar and Snore family ordered to run from tent after animals flee enclosure
Shocking moment Russian missiles erupt into massive fireball on Ukrainian street as desperate residents flee
TERRIFIED residents were forced to flee as Russian missiles pummeled a street in Ukraine.
Shocking footage shows a huge fireball erupt and massive plumes of smoke billowing into the sky as two blasts rocked Dnipro.
Footage shows traffic grinding to a halt as a Russian missile struck Dnipro[/caption]
A second blast then hit as smoke billowed into the sky[/caption]
Terrified residents could be seen fleeing[/caption]
At least four people were killed in the city and a further 20 injured – while dozens of missiles blitzed multiple regions across Ukraine on Monday.
The dramatic clip shows traffic grinding to a halt as the first explosion went off – sending thick black smoke into the sky.
As a car races away from the scene and horrified pedestrians flee, a second blast hits the street.
Emine Dzheppar, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, said 20 missiles hit the region on Monday.
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She tweeted: “Ukrainian defenders managed to shoot down one quarter of the missiles.
“Enemy targeted Dnipro’s critical infrastructure, leaving thousands of people without electricity.”
The strikes in Dnipro came as Moscow unleashed a deadly barrage of missiles across Ukraine on Monday – blasting playgrounds, bridges and civilians.
Russia‘s former president Dmitry Medvedev has warned the attack was only the “first episode” of the retaliation for the explosion of the Crimean bridge.
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In the capital Kyiv at least six people were killed amid burnt-out cars and shattered buildings.
At least 14 people were killed and 97 injured with explosions in Lviv, Ternopil and Zhytomyr, Kremenchuk Zaporizhzhia Kharkiv and Kropyvnytskyi also reported.
The brutal revenge blitz followed the daring blast that destroyed a strategically vital bridge linking Crimea with mainland Russia on Saturday.
In a televised speech, Putin said Moscow had launched long-range missile attacks against Ukraine’s energy, military and communications infrastructure on Monday in retaliation for the attack on the Crimean bridge.
He said: “The Kyiv regime, with its actions, has put itself on the same level as international terrorist organisations.
“It is obvious that the Ukrainian secret services ordered, organised and carried out the terrorist attack aimed at destroying Russia’s critical civilian infrastructure.”
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“If attempts to carry out terrorist attacks on our territory continue, Russia’s responses will be harsh and, in terms of their scale, will correspond to the level of threats posed by the Russian Federation.
“Nobody should have any doubts about this.”
Explosions were heard across the city shortly after 8am local time[/caption]
The blasts came after Putin’s prized bridge was targeted on Saturday[/caption]
Advertisers Flee Twitter After Ads Appear Near Accounts Promoting Child Sex Abuse Content
Reports have shown Twitter has struggled to deal with a rash of accounts peddling child sex abuse material on its platform, and now advertisers have declared they don’t want their ads to associate with a platform that can’t police itself for non-consensual sexual material.