World News

>Six eBay executives and employees have been charged with cyberstalking a middle-aged couple by sending them “disturbing” packages and threats after they published critical reviews of the e-commerce website.

>The employees allegedly sent the couple from Natick, Massachusetts, a box of live cockroaches, a funeral wreath and a bloody pig mask while attempting to make it look like they were from disgruntled eBay sellers who took offence to their newsletter.

>James Baugh, 45, of San Jose, California, eBay’s former senior director of safety and security, and David Harville, 48, of New York City, eBay’s former director of global resiliency, were arrested on Monday and charged with conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. Four employees are also charged with the same crimes.

>The victims, who were not named in the complaint, were targeted in 2019 after the executives became “enraged” about coverage on the couple’s website, according to the complaint.

>The executives lead a “systemic campaign fuelled by the resources of a Fortune 500 company to emotionally and psychologically terrorise this middle-aged couple in Natick, with the goal of deterring them from writing bad things online about eBay," US Attorney Andrew Lelling said during a press conference on the arrests.

>This included sending fly larvae, live spiders and posting pornography to the couple’s neighbours in their name. The employees are accused of setting up several social media accounts, internet and smartphone contracts, to make it appear that disgruntled eBay sellers were the source of the packages and expletive-laden messages. The deliveries were paid for using pre-paid debit cards.

>In August 2019, the eBay employees allegedly published a classified advert on digital forum Craigslist claiming to be from the couple, inviting “swingers” to their address for a party after 10pm every evening.

>Four of the employees allegedly drove to the victims' home at various times, with Mr Harville and Mr Baugh allegedly planning to break into the victims’ garage and install a GPS tracking device on their car.

>Anticipating the possibility of being stopped by the local police, the two executives allegedly carried fake documents that suggested they were investigating the couple for threatening eBay executives. The victims notified the Natick police when they became aware of the tracker.

>Stephanie Popp, 32, eBay’s former senior manager of global intelligence, Stephanie Stockwell, 26, the former manager of eBay’s global intelligence center, Veronica Zea, 26, a former eBay contractor who worked as an intelligence analyst, and Brian Gilbert, 51, a former senior manager of special operations for eBay’s global security team were the four employees arrested.

>All defendants face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

> Amazon secured naming rights to Seattle arena, but company's name won't be on building.

>Get ready for Climate Pledge Arena, an industry trendsetter:
>+NHL ice made from♻️rainwater
>+"zero waste" events (inspired by Billie Eilish)
> +100% renewable electricity

>and will feature several green initiatives.

>"I think this is going to be a transformative moment in our industry," Tim Leiweke, CEO of the Oak View Group, told ESPN.
> "We spent a lot of time trying to figure it out,
> to get through the complications to pull it off.
> It wasn't easy. But to the credit of Jeff Bezos and Amazon,
> They said, 'We'll act like a naming rights partner, but let's do this the right way.

> I don't need any more branding.
> What I need is to go save the planet.'

> Ice for hockey games will be made from recaptured rainwater. Leiweke said there will be a "massive tank hidden underground next to the building" that can collect rainwater from the roof, but the team is also figuring out a way for people in the community to bring in rainwater from their own backyards.

>“Don’t they care about their health?” a mask-clad Patrizia Antonini asked about people in the United States as she walked with friends along the banks of Lake Bracciano, north of Rome. “They need to take our precautions. ... They need a real lockdown.”

>Much of the incredulity in Europe stems from the fact that America had the benefit of time, European experience and medical know-how to treat the virus that the continent itself didn’t have when the first COVID-19 patients started filling intensive care units.

>Yet, more than four months into a sustained outbreak, the U.S. reached the 5 million mark, according to the running count kept by Johns Hopkins University. Health officials believe the actual number is perhaps 10 times higher, or closer to 50 million, given testing limitations and the fact that as many as 40% of all those who are infected have no symptoms.

>“We Italians always saw America as a model,” said Massimo Franco, a columnist with daily Corriere della Sera. “But with this virus we’ve discovered a country that is very fragile, with bad infrastructure and a public health system that is nonexistent.”

>Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza hasn’t shied away from criticizing the U.S., officially condemning as “wrong” Washington’s decision to withhold funding from the World Health Organization and expressing amazement at President Donald Trump’s virus response.

>After Trump finally donned a mask last month, Speranza told La7 television: “I’m not surprised by Trump’s behavior now; I’m profoundly surprised by his behavior before.”

>With America’s world’s-highest death toll of more than 160,000, its politicized resistance to masks and its rising caseload, European nations have barred American tourists and visitors from other countries with growing cases from freely traveling to the bloc.

>France and Germany are now imposing tests on arrival for travelers from “at risk” countries, the U.S. included.

> Took THIS LONG for someone to FINALLY make am attempt on this mans life

>NYTIMES https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/politics/pentagon-ufo-harry-reid-navy.html#click=https://t.co/gwws2HUQy7

>HuffingtonPost https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ufo-off-world-vehicles_n_5f1a5815c5b6296fbf404a07

> FOX NEWS video recap https://twitter.com/columbiabugle/status/1286513620960948234?s=21

> Public fascination with the topic of U.F.O.s has drawn in President Trump, who told his son Donald Trump Jr. in a June interview that he knew “very interesting” things about Roswell — a city in New Mexico that is central to speculation about the existence of U.F.O.s.

> The constraints on discussing classified programs — and the ambiguity of information cited in unclassified slides from the briefings — HAD put officials who have studied U.F.O.s in the position of stating their views without presenting any hard evidence.

> a classified briefing to a Defense Department agency as recently as March about retrievals from “off-world vehicles NOT MADE On This Earth.”

> It is extremely important that information about the discovery of physical materials or retrieved craft come out,”- Mr Henry Reid.

> it appeared last month in a Senate committee report outlining spending on the nation’s intelligence agencies for the coming year. The report said the program, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force, was “to standardize collection and reporting” on sightings of unexplained aerial vehicles.