Day: July 15, 2020

Hackers hijacked the Twitter accounts of some of America’s wealthiest people, prominent politicians, and well-established brands in an extraordinary security lapse on Wednesday.

Twitter accounts belonging to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk sent out messages promising bitcoin payments as part of a scam that unfolded on Wednesday afternoon. The breadth of the hack seemed to multiply by the minute, with more and more business leaders and companies known for their security measures, including Apple, sharing similar messages to their millions of followers.

All told, the messages raised serious …

Two months ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was confident — probably a little too much — in Israel’s management of the coronavirus crisis.

The numbers of new Covid-19 cases had plummeted to the low double digits per day in May — a far cry from late March, when hundreds of new cases were being reported every day. In the midst of Israel’s success, Netanyahu announced on May 26 that Israel would finally begin to reopen.

“We want to make your lives easier, to allow you to go out and get some air, to go back to routine as much …

During a Monday press briefing, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked whether the administration would consider lifting the transgender military ban that President Donald Trump first tweeted about three years ago this month.

But instead of answering the question directly, McEnany deferred, saying the administration is “proud” of its LGBTQ record and listed off several White House initiatives for gay rights, namely a pledge to decriminalize homosexuality globally, a change to the ban on gay men donating blood, and a pledge to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030.

None of those policies have anything to do with the …

As the US faces a renewed reckoning on racial justice, Facebook has faced unprecedented pressure over the past few weeks to stop the spread of hate speech on its platform.

One of the main people responsible for ratcheting up that pressure is Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. Greenblatt, along with leaders of several other civil rights groups, has organized a historic advertiser boycott of Facebook that has so far prompted more than 1,000 companies, including Starbucks and Unilever, to stop advertising on the social media giant until it makes certain changes. The campaign, called Stop Hate for Profit, …

Why’d You Push That Button? is back for a special episode all about virtual dating in 2020. The pandemic has forced many people to stay at home, which means dating has had to move online. For this episode, Kaitlyn Tiffany and I talk to online daters and Bumble’s VP of strategy about how they’re adapting to virtual-only dating. They try to figure out what, if any, features and behaviors will stick around after social distancing and the pandemic end.

Dating apps have leaned into virtual dates over the past few months. Tinder is launching video calls and added a feature …

Air Force veteran Mary Jennings “MJ” Hegar will officially face Sen. John Cornyn in November after winning out against state Sen. Royce West in Texas’s Democratic primary runoff on Tuesday.

Hegar secured the endorsement not just from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee but also from major national groups including EMILY’s List, Everytown for Gun Safety, and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. She has long been the anointed candidate to take on Cornyn, and she was the top vote-getter in Texas’s Super Tuesday primary in March.

On Tuesday, she again defeated West, a progressive fixture of Democratic politics in Texas. In …

Former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville defeated former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in Alabama’s Republican primary runoff election on Tuesday, setting up a November match against current Democratic Sen. Doug Jones, who became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the state since 1992 when he defeated Roy Moore, who has been accused of child molestation, in a 2017 special election.

In a state Donald Trump won handily in 2016, Tuberville is favored to win in November.

Tuberville has never served in elected office (and moved to Alabama only two years ago), and his campaign against Sessions …