Techflier

Surprise! Elon Musk’s tenure at Twitter is already shaping up to be confusing and contradictory. Whether this dynamic ends up being more self-defeating for him and his new company than harmful for the rest of humanity and human civilization remains tbc. On the one hand, a fresh report today suggests Musk is preparing major staff cuts: 25%, per the Washington Post . (He denied an earlier report by the same newspaper, last week — suggesting he’d told investors he planned to slash costs by liquidating a full 75% of staff — so how radical a haircut he’s planning is still unclear, even as reports of fired staffers are trickling onto Twitter.) But, also today, Reuters reported that Twitter’s new CEO — the self-styled “Chief Twit” — reached out to the European Union last week to assure local lawmakers that the platform will comply with an incoming flagship reboot of the bloc’s rules on digital governance around illegal content. A move that will, self-evidently, demand a beefed up leg...

Former Republican Gov. Sarah Palin, left, faces Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, right, and three other candidates. LM Otero/AP Photo; Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP Photo; Insider Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola is running against three others — including Sarah Palin — in Alaska's at-large congressional district.  Alaska has only one congressional district and therefore does not go through a redistricting process.  After Peltola's special election win, The Cook Political Report shifted its forecast of the race from "likely Republican" to "toss-up."  Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska faces off against three challengers in Alaska's at-large congressional district general election. Alaska's at-large congressional district candidates Peltola, who won the at-large seat for Alaska in the US House special election, is the first Alaskan Native to be elected to the House of Representatives. Her victory also established Peltola as the first woman to eve...

Netflix has acquired Spry Fox, a Seattle-based independent gaming studio focused on cozy games, the streaming giant announced on Monday. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Spry Fox is now Netflix’s sixth in-house games studio. Amir Rahimi, the vice president of game studios at Netflix, said in a blog post that the acquisition will help Netflix accelerate its creative development in another popular genre. “Our games journey has only just begun, but I’m proud of the foundational work we’ve been doing to build out our in-house creative capacity so that we can deliver the best possible games experience — including no ads and no in-app purchases — to our members as part of their membership,” Rahimi said in the blog post. Spry Fox was founded in 2010 by David Edery and Daniel Cook. The games studio is known for popular titles like “Triple Town,” “Alphabear” and “Cozy Grove.” “When David and I founded Spry Fox twelve years ago, our goal was to create a place where ki...

Elon Musk is now lord of the manor over at Twitter after the board of directors was dissolved as part of the merger agreement. While the state of affairs likely isn’t permanent, it does mean that as owner, director, and “Chief Twit,” he has what amounts to ultimate power to hire, fire, and change the social media platform. In an SEC filing , the company detailed some of the many changes having to do with the controversial purchase of the platform by Musk: [A]s a result of the consummation of the Merger, Mr. Musk became the sole director of Twitter. In accordance with the terms of the Merger Agreement, effective as of the effective time of the Merger, the following persons, who were directors of Twitter prior to the effective time of the Merger, are no longer directors of Twitter: Bret Taylor, Parag Agrawal, Omid Kordestani, David Rosenblatt, Martha Lane Fox, Patrick Pichette, Egon Durban, Fei-Fei Li and Mimi Alemayehou. You may recognize some or all of those names, and certainly t...

News that Elon Musk’s interim Twitter leadership is considering charging users for verification on its platform has caused no end of consternation among current holders of the service’s well-known blue check marks. Complaints have arisen about price (potentially too high) and value offered (potentially too low), among other concerns. It’s also fair to note that before the Musk deal was completed, Twitter had already begun to experiment with subscription-based services targeting its most active users. I am well aware of those efforts as a Twitter addict; I signed up for Twitter Blue and continue to pay for it. (Though it appears to be only a modest revenue driver to date.) The calculus of my support of Twitter, however, has changed. Before the Musk transaction, Twitter’s product cadence had picked up pace . Therefore, buying a cheap pass to beta features, which supported the company where I have long made my digital home, seemed reasonable. Sure, simping for a public company is abo...

There are signs of a small but growing Twitter exodus underway following Elon Musk’s closure of the deal to buy the social media platform last Thursday. While many Twitter users are taking a wait-and-see approach and may not have fully deleted their accounts at this time, a sizable number of people are currently checking out Twitter alternatives. One of those alternatives is Mastodon , a decentralized social network that gained over 70,000 new sign-ups on Friday, the day after the Musk Twitter takeover completed. And this weekend, the official Mastodon mobile app saw a record number of downloads as more people fleeing Twitter began to seek out a new online home. Mastodon , to be clear, is not a new platform. The free and open-source microblogging service debuted in March 2016 , offering a different approach to online social networking. Similar to Twitter, you can follow other users and create posts that can be liked and retweeted (or “tooted,” in Mastodon lingo), use hashtags, share ...

Donald Trump at a rally in Minden, Nevada, on October 8, 2022. Newly released footage shows Trump complaining about his popularity with American Jews. José Luis Villegas/AP Former President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Monday to keep his taxes secret after lower federal courts ordered him to turn the records over.  Trump filed an emergency application asking the nation's highest court to block the House Committee on Ways & Means of obtaining his tax records. In the filing, the former president accused lawmakers of trying to "expose" his tax information to the public "for the sake of exposure." "The Committee's purpose in requesting President Trump's tax returns has nothing to do with funding or staffing issues at the IRS and everything to do with releasing the President's tax information to the public," the filing said.  This story is developing. Please check back for updates. Read the original article on Business I...

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel. AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson Ronna McDaniel said it was "unfair" to link GOP messaging to the attack on Paul Pelosi on Sunday. On "Fox News Sunday," McDaniel rejected any notion that Republican rhetoric had been overheated. Nancy Pelosi, who has led House Democrats since 2003, has long been a political foil for the GOP. Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel said it was "unfair" to suggest that GOP messaging contributed to the violent assault on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband at the family's San Francisco home last week. During an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," host Shannon Bream presented McDaniel with a recently-published  Washington Post article that detailed the party's yearslong drive to demonize the veteran California Democrat, who in 2007 became the first female House speaker in United States history. McDaniel pushed back against any allegations that GOP messaging was pro...

Firefighters work on a building in Kyiv after a drone strike on October 17. AP Photo/Roman Hrytsyna Russia's use of Iranian drones in Ukraine has been framed as Iran trying to test out its hardware. But Russia has so far been using those drones in a manner different than Iran would likely use them. That disparity means the implications for military dynamics in the Middle East also remain clear. The news that Russia has begun to employ Iranian military equipment, particularly kamikaze attack drones, in its war against Ukraine has led some observers to frame that conflict as a proving ground for Iran's military technology. While the impact of these weapons on the trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine War will be subject to extensive debate, the implications for military dynamics in the Middle East are also far from clear, as Russia has so far employed its Iranian drones in a manner that Iran itself may not. To understand the implications of these developments for Iran's...

Rishi Sunak is the richest person to become British prime minister. Reuters UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is worth about $850 million according to the Sunday Times Rich List. With wealth that rivals King Charles III, the former finance minister is the richest UK leader ever. Sunak's fortune has left him open to criticism about being out of touch with working people. After the most turbulent period in British politics in recent memory, Rishi Sunak became the UK's new prime minister last week. The 42-year-old former chancellor (finance minister) has a net worth of £730 million ($847 million) according to the Sunday Times Rich List, and was ranked 222nd in May. Sunak is by far the richest person to enter No. 10 Downing Street, Reuters reported. He and wife Akshata Murthy's net worth even rivals that of royals such as King Charles. Queen Elizabeth II was estimated to be worth about $440 million before her death , according to the Sunday Times. But Sunak's enor...

Over the last two and a half years, remote and hybrid working has become the norm — a majority of employed Americans have the option of working from home for all or part of the week, and 87% of workers who were offered remote work embraced the opportunity heartily. While some companies are pushing for a return to the office, today’s strapped labor market is giving employees more power to push back for remote, or at least flexible, jobs. This isn’t just a pandemic response anymore — it’s a way of life, and it has the potential to make some businesses better. People who work from home have been reporting an uptick in their productivity levels without the distractions that come with an office — Oh, it’s Beth’s birthday. Cupcakes in the kitchen!  But both employers and employees have reported some downsides to remote work. Isolation can make people feel lonely and disconnected, leading to mental health issues. Learning and collaboration have taken a hit without the human element of ...

Linda Zhang led the team behind Ford's first all-electric version of its best-selling F-150 truck. Ford Linda Zhang led the team that made Ford's first electric truck. The F-150 Lightning has had 200,000 orders and helped create a new generation of truckers. Zhang said beating 'range anxiety' and demonstrating the truck's towing strength were crucial. Ford's F-150 has been the best-selling truck in the US for 45 consecutive years , and the most popular vehicle overall for no less than four decades.  While getting drivers of passenger cars to go electric has been reasonably simple, convincing buyers that an electric truck can match their gas-powered equivalents in range, payload, towing capacity, durability, and reliability is much more of a challenge, the AAA's Greg Brannon told Insider. The woman rising to that challenge for Ford is Linda Zhang, the chief engineer of Ford's electric version of the F-150 called the Lightning. There have been ...

Ann Matica/Insider Macy's is on track to launch more than 400 Toys 'R' Us locations in its US department stores.  The partnership is the revival the toy retailer has desperately needed since going bankrupt in 2017. The store was the perfect mix of nostalgic and up-to-date, and it made me want to be a kid again.  This holiday season, Macy's launched over 400 in-store Toys 'R' Us shops in select locations across the country in an effort to expand the toy portion of its business. AP Photo/David Zalubowski Source: Insider For Toys ‘R’ Us, the newly formed partnership is a second chance at a comeback. After failing to refinance its mounting debt in 2017, the company was forced to shutter its over 700 locations for good. Getty/Spencer Platt Source: Insider I decided to check out the revival store to see if the collaboration has what it takes for Toys 'R' Us to be able to reclaim its toy-store throne. Ann Matica/Insider To get the...