Tag: Michael

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World News

Twitter bans Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell and different QAnon accounts

Twitter bans Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell and other QAnon accounts

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, testifies via videoconference in this screenshot from a video taken during a Senate Judicial Committee hearing titled “Breaking the News: Censorship, Suppression, and the 2020 Election” on Facebook and Twitter regarding the Moderation of content was created on Capitol Hill in Washington, USA, November 17, 2020.

Reuters

Twitter announced on Friday that it was permanently banning accounts for sharing content related to the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory.

As part of this purge, the company suspended the accounts of Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell, supporters of President Donald Trump.

“The accounts have been blocked under our coordinated malicious activity policy,” the company said in a statement to NBC News. “We knew we were going to take strong enforcement measures against behavior that could lead to offline harm, and given the renewed potential for violence associated with this type of behavior in the coming days, we will only permanently lock accounts.” dedicated to sharing QAnon content. “

Former US National Security Advisor Michael Flynn shows as a supporter of US President Donald Trump’s rally to protest election results in front of the Supreme Court building in Washington, USA, on December 12, 2020.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Flynn, a retired Army Lieutenant General and former national security adviser to Trump, was pardoned by Trump in November. He pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the United States before Trump was inaugurated four years ago this month. Powell, a lawyer, assisted Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani in rejecting the presidential election results. She made a number of allegations of alleged election fraud, none of which have been recognized as legitimate by a court.

Both Flynn and Powell are active in the QAnon community. Twitter has also banned the account of Ron Watkins, who is the administrator of the 8kun website, formerly known as 8chan.

Attorney Sidney Powell speaks at a press conference on election results in Alpharetta, Georgia, the United States, on Dec. 2, 2020.

Elijah Nouvelage | Reuters

The suspensions come after the riot at the US Capitol on Wednesday.

Twitter’s coordinated malicious activity policy doesn’t allow groups to engage in activities that cause harm on Twitter or in the real world.

Twitter had previously taken action against thousands of QAnon-related accounts in July 2020. Though some accounts involved in the QAnon movement are hard to find, Flynn was a prominent player in the political arena and took an oath to QAnon in July on a publicly available video.

– CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.

Categories
Entertainment

Michael Apted, Versatile Director Identified for ‘Up’ Sequence, Dies at 79

Michael Apted, Versatile Director Known for ‘Up’ Series, Dies at 79

“The biggest social revolution in my life growing up in England was changing the role of women in society,” he said. “We didn’t have civil rights and Vietnam in England, but I think that one particular social revolution is the biggest thing and I missed it because I didn’t have enough women. And because I didn’t have enough women, I didn’t have enough choice about what options women had, who had careers, had families, and all those things. “

He continued, “If you look at everything from ‘Agatha’ to ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’, from ‘Nell’ and ‘Continental Divide’, they all have to do with the role of women in society and what women need to do to be a role in society or the choices women must make in order to stay in society or have a voice in society, both in simple and eccentric ways. I always care. And that, I think, comes from feeling like I missed something. “

Michael David Apted was born on February 10, 1941 in Aylesbury, Central England and grew up near London. His father, Ronald, worked for an insurance company, and his mother, Frances, was “some kind of die-hard socialist” who instilled a liberal attitude, as he told The Progressive in 2013.

From the age of ten he attended the renowned City of London School, commuted to the city by underground and then studied history and law at the University of Cambridge. His friends included fellow student John Cleese, who later joined the Monty Python Troupe, and he worked on theater productions with Trevor Nunn, Mike Newell and Stephen Frears, all of whom had prominent directorial careers. He took part in a trainee program in Granada and was soon working on “Seven Up!”.

When this film aired in May 1964, the reaction terrified him.

“The first,” he told The Times in 2019, “was extremely successful.” It was the truth of the class system from the mouths of babes, and the whole country was shocked – people were just blown away by the cracks in English society on celluloid. “

Categories
Politics

Trump loyalist Michael Pack blasted by Radio Free Europe leaders

Trump loyalist Michael Pack blasted by Radio Free Europe leaders

Michael Pack

Source: U.S. Senate

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty leaders blew up the Trump-appointed CEO of the US Federal Media Agency.

In a letter received from CNBC, those in charge of the network criticized Michael Pack, the head of the US agency for global media. Radio-Free Europe / Radio Liberty is considered a non-federal broadcasting network, but is affiliated with the USAGM.

He has disrupted the ranks of the agency and the leadership of its networks, placing other loyalists to President Donald Trump in key roles.

The letter contains criticism of the board members of Pack, who later approved Ted Lipien as CEO of Radio Free Europe.

“Despite many years of practice, you have appointed a body of inexperienced partisans who have neither industry nor regional expertise – a body that you yourself have described as a placeholder body and that you apparently want to consolidate for two or more years.” The letter reads.

“They used this forum to round-up Ted Lipien, an untested, untested candidate with a history of often one-page writing about RFE / RL and other US international broadcasters,” it said.

The Associated Press reported that Lipien, a former Voice of America official, recently published a blog post promoting the views of employees who object to what they call alleged liberal bias and a lack of conservative views view their programming. Voice of America falls under USAGM’s purview.

The letter was signed by members of the news and editorial team of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, including the editor-in-chief and the heads of digital strategy. The letter is dated Wednesday and was also sent to congressional officials such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Pack pushed the letter back to CNBC in a statement.

“Mrs. Sindelar’s letter is full of inaccuracies. There have been no attempts to compromise it [networks’] Freedom from political influence. “On the contrary, all of the actions I have taken were based on my congressional responsibility and commitment to fulfilling the USAGM’s mission,” said Pack.

The letter notes that Pack is unlikely to keep his job after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in. Still, the letter suggests that the editorial managers believe that Pack is still bringing in new leaders anyway.

“We consider these measures an eleventh hour to secure RFE / RL for a single US political party at a time when your tenure as CEO of US Outbound Broadcasting is likely to end with the transition between administrations in Washington.” The news leaders wrote.

Pack, who has been at the helm of USAGM since June, has been criticized after repeated purges of longstanding executives in various networks of the agency.

Shortly after approval by the U.S. Senate, Pack ousted agency heads and board members to appoint those directly linked to Trump.

USAGM and Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty representatives have not returned requests for comment.

Categories
Business

Transport delays have harm vacation gross sales, says Fanatics’ Michael Rubin

Shipping delays have hurt holiday sales, says Fanatics' Michael Rubin

Michael Rubin, chairman of the board of directors of online sportswear giant Fanatics, told CNBC on Wednesday that retail sales this holiday season were negatively impacted by shipping problems.

“There was so much pressure on the various shipping networks to deliver, I think there was even more demand that could have been had,” Rubin said on Squawk Box. “As good as the business is, it could have been better.”

Overall, e-commerce sales rose 22% to $ 9 billion on Black Friday alone as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Adobe Analytics. However, this growth comes at a price that puts a strain on warehouse and logistics networks. For example, on Cyber ​​Monday, UPS asked its drivers to stop picking up packages from some major retailers after those companies reached their capacity allocations.

The rollout of the coronavirus vaccine, which began this month after the Food and Drug Administration approved the emergency use of Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, kicked off millions of additional doses being distributed in the U.S.

UPS spokesman Dan McMackin said vaccine shipments were “the top priority for delivery on the UPS network,” but he said it did not affect vacation package deliveries.

“UPS has carefully planned the main holiday season with our customers. We have also worked with Operation Warp Speed, vaccine manufacturers and other partners to carefully plan for many months what vaccine delivery requirements need to be made,” he said.

Rubin, a partner with the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, said the pandemic had generally sped up e-commerce adoption by two or three years.

“I think e-commerce you will see 30% plus [growth] across the border. We had a great year, “said Rubin, whose fanatics were worth $ 6.2 billion during a Series E funding round in August.” Most interesting, however, was that the demand could have been even better if the shipping networks only had more capacity. But with Corona delivering vaccines for the first time, there is so much pressure on the shipping networks this year. “

Earlier this week, Fanatics announced that it has partnered with Barnes & Noble Education to run the e-commerce operation for sporting goods sold in bookstores on campus. The partnership includes Lids, with the companies making a $ 15 million equity investment in Barnes & Noble Education.

“I think somehow the company was misunderstood, and from our perspective we looked at it and said, ‘We really believe we can work together to strengthen this offering,'” said Rubin of Barnes & Noble Education. “We’re going to leverage all of Fanatics’ e-commerce capabilities and place them behind the 775 universities to give them the best deal – better technology, better mobility, wider range.”

Barnes & Noble Education stocks rose 1.7% on Wednesday. The partnership with Fanatics was announced ahead of Monday’s opening, and the stock is up about 12% this week.