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Twitter Staff Told Layoffs Necessary to Prevent Bankruptcy
Elon Musk stated in his first address to Twitter employees since purchasing the company that the layoffs were necessary to keep the social media platform from going bankrupt.
Two executives (Yoel Roth and Robin Wheeler) who had emerged as members of Elon Musk’s new leadership team have allegedly resigned.
When Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter last month, firing the majority of the social network’s top executives.
Roth had taken over all of Twitter’s Trust and Safety efforts, while Wheeler stepped up to oversee relationships with concerned advertisers.
The social network is saddled with significant debt due to the acquisition, and some advertisers have backed off due to Musk’s plans for content moderation.
The Information and Platformer first reported Musk’s bankruptcy announcement.
According to Bloomberg, Elon Musk told staff that the days of free food and other perks at Twitter’s offices are over.
In discussing Twitter’s finances and future, Musk stated that the company needed to move quickly to make the new $8 subscription product, Twitter Blue, something users would want to pay for, given the impact of advertisers’ pullback on revenue.
Elon Musk warned employees in an email late Wednesday of difficult financial times with “no way to sugarcoat the message about the company’s economic outlook.
He prohibited employees from working remotely unless he personally approved it.
The billionaire recently laid off half of Twitter’s workforce and significantly changed the company’s subscription policies.
The changes resulted in multiple major advertisers being impersonated by newly paid accounts with blue check marks.
Twitter’s information security chief, privacy chief, and chief compliance all left Twitter earlier this week.
Their departure has raised concerns with leftists over the company’s ability to keep the platform secure and in compliance with the government’s regulatory rules on data.
Twitter is bound by the Federal Trade Commission, which governs how the company handles user data, and violations may result in fines.
According to a company document obtained by The Verge, Twitter’s daily user growth reached “all-time highs” during Elon Musk’s first full week as owner.
According to an internal FAQ obtained by The Verge and shared with Twitter’s sales team to use in conversations with advertisers, monetizable daily user (mDAU) growth has accelerated to more than 20% since Musk’s dramatic takeover.
According to the FAQ, Twitter’s largest US market is growing quickly. Twitter added more than 15 million mDAUs since the end of the second quarter when it stopped reporting financials as a public company.
If those figures are consistent with how Twitter reported metrics when it was publicly available, they suggest that the service has not seen a mass exodus under Musk’s ownership.
He tweeted on Sunday that “user numbers have increased significantly around the world” since his deal to buy Twitter was announced.
Twitter reported 237.8 million mDAUs and a 16.6 percent year-over-year growth rate in the second quarter.
“Hate speech levels remain within historical norms.”
While users are not abandoning Twitter in droves, advertisers are. Musk said in another tweet on Friday that the company has seen a “massive drop in revenue” due to “activist groups pressuring advertisers.”
Reports of a sharp increase in racist and hateful tweets after his takeover alarmed advertisers, but Twitter later explained that the influx resulted from coordinated “trolling campaigns.”
According to the FAQ for advertisers published on Monday, “levels of hate speech remain within historical norms, accounting for 0.25% to 0.45% of tweets per day among hundreds of millions.”
Meanwhile, Musk’s destabilization of Twitter’s leadership, combined with the resignation of the company’s top advertising executive, Sarah Personette, has left advertisers trying to figure out who to approach with their concerns.
Alex Josephson, a 10-year company vet currently VP of Twitter Next, a team that has helped brands create campaigns on the social network since 2019, shared the FAQ on Monday.
His post to the sales team notes that Musk’s mass layoffs on Friday affected 25% of the organization and that “the decision to scale back our presence in select geographies contributed significantly to the sales reductions.”
Another source of concern for advertisers has been Musk’s tweeting, particularly a now-deleted tweet that amplified a bogus conspiracy theory about the violent attack on Paul Pelosi.
“Do the same rules apply to Elon as to everyone else on Twitter?” one section of the Twitter advertiser FAQ asks.
“Yes,” is the simple answer.
It also reiterates Musk’s claim that Twitter will not change its content moderation policies until a “content moderation council of widely diverse viewpoints” is formed and convened. It needs to be clarified whether Musk knows that Twitter already has a Trust and Safety Council comprised of outside experts.
Another section of the FAQ emphasizes how quickly things are changing on Twitter right now, stating that the upcoming redesign of the Twitter Blue subscription, which will include paid verification, “will not affect existing verified accounts at this time” and that “large brand advertisers who are already verified will now have an additional ‘Official’ label beneath their name upon Twitter Blue’s relaunch this week.”
Source: Bloomberg, The Verg, VOR News
The new head of the Army has stated that Britain must be prepared to fight a war within three years.
Gen Sir Roland Walker has issued a warning about a variety of risks in what he calls a “increasingly volatile” environment.
However, he stated that war was not inevitable and that the Army had “just enough time” to prepare to prevent conflict.
He stated that the Army’s fighting capacity would be doubled by 2027 and tripled by the end of the decade.
Gen Walker warned that the Britain was under threat from a “axis of upheaval” in his first speech as Prime Minister on Tuesday.
Among the primary concerns confronting the Britain in the next years, as noted by the general in a briefing, is an enraged Russia, which may seek vengeance on the West for helping Ukraine, regardless of who wins the war.
He stated: “It doesn’t matter how it finishes. I believe Russia will emerge from it weaker objectively – or completely – but still very, very dangerous and seeking some form of retaliation for what we have done to assist Ukraine.”
Britain’s Government Defence Review and Military Challenges
He also warned that China was determined to retake Taiwan, and Iran was likely to seek nuclear weapons.
He stated that the threats they posed may become particularly acute in the next three years, and that these countries had formed a “mutual transactional relationship” since the war in Ukraine, sharing weaponry and technology.
However, he stated that the path to conflict was not “inexorable” if the UK re-established credible land troops to assist its deterrent strategy for avoiding war.
In his speech, he described his force of slightly over 70,000 regular troops as a “medium-sized army” and made no direct call for additional resources or men.
However, he pushed the British Army to adapt swiftly, focussing on technology such as artificial intelligence and weaponry rather than numbers.
His ultimate goal is for the Army to be capable of destroying an opponent three times its size.
This would entail firing quicker and farther, he said, aided by lessons learnt from the Ukraine war.
The general’s speech at the Royal United Services Institute land warfare conference comes only one week after the government began a “root and branch” defence review to “take a fresh look” at the challenges facing the armed services.
Defence Secretary John Healey launched the assessment, describing the existing status of the armed forces as “hollowed-out” and stating that “procurement waste and neglected morale cannot continue”.
According to the most recent Ministry of Defence (MoD) numbers from April 2024, the Britain’s regular Army forces total 75,325 troops (excluding Gurkhas and volunteers).
That figure has been declining in recent years, as recruiting has failed to match retention. The previous Conservative administration lowered the planned headcount from 82,000 to 72,500 by 2025.
Members of the NATO military alliance have agreed to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence by 2024, but several countries are unlikely to fulfil this goal.
The Britain presently spends 2.3% of its GDP on defence. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously stated that the defence review will include a “roadmap” for increasing this to 2.5%, however he has yet to provide a date for this promise.
Source: BBC
News
Katie Ledecky Hopes For Clean Races At Paris Olympics In The Aftermath Of The Chinese Doping Scandal
PARIS — Katie Ledecky is looking for clean Olympic races. On Wednesday, Hope had pretty much reached her limit.
The American swimmer hopes to add to her six gold medals as she competes in the 400, 800, and 1,500 meters at the Paris Games. Her program starts with the heavy 400 on Saturday, featuring Ariarne Titmus and Summer McIntosh.
Katie Ledecky | ESPN Image
Katie Ledecky Hopes For Clean Races At Paris Olympics In The Aftermath Of The Chinese Doping Scandal
The 27-year-old Katie is competing in her fourth Summer Olympics, but the first since a doping scandal involving almost two dozen Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned chemical before the Tokyo Games — yet were permitted to compete with no consequences. The controversy has raised serious worries regarding the effectiveness of anti-doping initiatives.
Katie Ledecky | Vogue Image
“I hope everyone here is going to be competing clean this week,” Ledecky claimed. “But what truly counts is, were they training cleanly? Hopefully this has been the case. Hopefully, there has been worldwide testing.”
The International Olympic Committee has expressed concern over the ongoing US investigation into possible doping by Chinese swimmers. While awarding the 2034 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City on Wednesday, the IOC urged Utah officials to do whatever they could to stop the FBI investigation.
“I think everyone’s heard what the athletes think,” Katie added. “They seek transparency. They want more answers to the remaining questions. At this point, we are here to race. We are going to race whoever is in the lane next to us.
“We are not paid to conduct the tests, so we trust those who follow their regulations. That applies both today and in the future.
Katie Ledecky | ESPN Image
Katie Ledecky Hopes For Clean Races At Paris Olympics In The Aftermath Of The Chinese Doping Scandal
SOURCE | AP
As the summer holidays begin, London may experience an official heatwave with temperatures reaching up to 29 degrees Celsius.
The Met Office predicts a long period of sunny and dry weather for London after a soggy spring and summer.
After a cloudy day on Saturday, temperatures are expected to reach 27C on Sunday, with lots of sunlight.
On Monday and Tuesday, temperatures are forecast to peak at 29 degrees Celsius. Monday is forecast to offer more sunlight, while Tuesday may see some gloomy weather.
Temperatures are expected to remain in the high 20s next week, with lows of approximately 18C.
According to the Met Office, a heatwave is “an extended period of hot weather relative to the expected conditions of the area at that time of year, which may be accompanied by high humidity.”
In the United Kingdom, a heatwave is proclaimed when daily temperatures meet or surpass a certain level for at least three consecutive days.
In London, the heatwave threshold is 28 degrees Celsius.
The Met Office reported that the UK is experiencing hotter and wetter weather on average due to climate change.
The UK experienced its warmest May and April on record this year, despite damp and dismal conditions in many areas.
According to the Met Office’s State Of The UK Climate 2023 report published on Thursday, the UK experienced historic levels of extreme weather last year.
In the United Kingdom, 2023 was the second warmest year on record, bringing storms, flooding, strong heatwaves, and rising sea levels; only 2022 was warmer.
It was 0.8°C higher than the average from 1991 to 2020, and 1.66°C higher than the 1961 to 1990 average.
However, 2023 will be a “cool year” in comparison to 2100, based on the planet’s warming trajectory.
The government’s plan to adapt to the hazards presented by climate change is currently being challenged in the High Court by campaigners who allege the Tory administration’s July 2023 National Adaptation Programme (NAP) fails to adequately address 61 concerns.
Source: The Standard
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