Pressured by rival, Chevron walks away from Anadarko takeover fight

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Chevron Corp abandoned its pursuit of Anadarko Petroleum Corp on Thursday, outmaneuvered by a higher rival bid of $38 billion that included more than three times as much cash. The decision leaves Occidental Petroleum Corp as the likely victor in a contest that again proved the allure of U.S. shale. Anadarko’s board had considered Chevron’s $33 billion bid superior to Occidental’s initial offers, pointing to a signed agreement and joint planning meetings. Chevron’s finance chief signaled the company would be able to put more cash into its existing offer. But that did not happen. The No. 2 U.S. oil producer now stands to receive a $1 billion breakup fee.

“Winning in any environment doesn’t mean winning at any cost,” Chevron Chief Executive Officer Michael Wirth said. “Cost and capital discipline always matter, and we will not dilute our returns or erode value for our shareholders for the sake of doing a deal.”

Investors have sold off shares of oil companies that increased spending on drilling, punishing them for not using the cash to finance shareholder returns. They have pressed the industry to use capital discipline, defined as increasing production by 4 percent a year and maintaining a 4 percent dividend with flat spending. One result of that approach: the value of U.S. oil and gas mergers and acquisitions fell to a 10-year low in the first quarter, driven by investors selling off shares in companies that spent more on drilling than on buybacks and dividends.

The bidding war for Anadarko underscored the value of its prized assets in the lucrative Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico. The vast shale field holds oil and gas deposits that can produce supplies for decades using low-cost drilling techniques. Occidental has said it plans to shed most of Anadarko’s non-shale properties in a deal. The company has made a deal with French oil giant Total SA to take most of Anadarko’s international assets, including a liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique estimated to cost up to $25 billion to complete. Total agreed to pay $8.8 billion for the assets once the merger goes ahead.

Chevron declined to revise its offer after Occidental boosted the cash portion of its $76 per share bid. Chevron’s $65 per share offer comprised 75 percent stock and 25 percent cash compared with Occidental’s revised offer that had a 78/22 cash-stock split. A 7 percent decline in Chevron’s share price had reduced the value of its April 12 offer to $31 billion. Shares of Occidental fell 6 percent to $56.50 before the bell, while Anadarko shares were down 2.6 percent at $73.90. Chevron shares were up 3 percent at $121.23.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-anadarko-petrol-m-a-chevron/pressured-by-rival-chevron-walks-away-from-anadarko-takeover-fight-idUSKCN1SF1GX?il=0

Swedish prosecutor to give decision on Assange rape investigation on Monday

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden’s state prosecutor will announce next Monday whether or not she will reopen a preliminary investigation into a rape allegation against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. “At (a) press conference, the prosecutor will announce her decision, which will formally be made immediately before the press conference,” the Prosecution Authority said in a statement.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wikileaks-assange-sweden/swedish-prosecutor-to-give-decision-on-assange-rape-investigation-on-monday-idUSKCN1SF1MA?il=0

Twitter suspended 166,153 accounts for terrorism content in second half 2018

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Twitter is making headway in tackling online terrorism content on its platform as it suspended over 166,000 accounts in the second half of last year, about a fifth less than in the previous period, the social media company said on Thursday. Together with Facebook and Google, Twitter is under pressure from regulators and governments worldwide to remove extremist content more rapidly or face more heavy-handed legislation.

Announcing its latest transparency report, the company said its technical tools were producing results, with 91 percent of accounts promoting terrorism content proactively suspended by its internal technology, the majority of which happened before their first tweet because the data used to set them up raised red flags. Twitter suspended 166,153 accounts between July and December last for promoting terrorism, a 19 percent drop from the 205,156 accounts suspended in the previous six months.

“This sharp decrease is indicative of a larger trend we are now observing — year-on-year the numbers of terrorist organizations attempting to use our service is reducing,” Sinead McSweeney, Twitter’s vice president for public policy said in a statement. “This can be attributed to a robust technical approach that we’ve enhanced over many years. We are encouraged by these metrics but will remain vigilant,” she said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-security/twitter-suspended-166153-accounts-for-terrorism-content-in-second-half-2018-idUSKCN1SF1LN?il=0

U.S. charges ex-analyst for allegedly leaking classified information

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities have arrested and charged a former intelligence analyst over allegations that he illegally obtained and disclosed classified national defense information, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement on Thursday. The analyst, Daniel Everette Hale, 31, of Nashville, Tennessee, had worked at the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), and had been communicating with a reporter starting in 2013, the department said.

Classified documents were later published by the reporter’s news outlet, it alleged, without naming the publication or the journalist. Representatives for Hale could not be immediately reached for comment.

Hale, who had been enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, faces five criminal counts each carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, the Justice Department said. According to the department, Hale began communicating with the reporter while assigned to the NSA in 2013. A year later, as a defense contractor with NGA, he printed out six classified documents that were unrelated to his work with the agency and were later published by the reporter’s news outlet, it alleged.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-security-analyst/u-s-charges-ex-analyst-for-allegedly-leaking-classified-information-idUSKCN1SF1I2

Amazon accused of using Echo Dot Kids to illegally collect data on children

A coalition of 19 consumer and privacy groups plans to file a complaint Thursday alleging that Amazon’s Echo Dot Kids Edition is illegally collecting voice recordings and other identifying information on users under 13 and that the system’s parental controls are flawed. The complaint says that the Echo Dot Kids Edition – a colorful, youth-oriented version of Amazon’s popular “smart speaker” systems that allow users to ask questions, play music or control thermostats with voice commands – violates the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, known as COPPA. The 1998 law sharply limits what data companies can collect without permission from parents.

The 98-page complaint is the latest in a series by consumer and privacy groups urging the Federal Trade Commission to intensify its enforcement of how leading technology companies treat children and their personal data. The Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law Center served as counsel to the groups on the complaint. Unlike some previous cases, there is little dispute that Amazon’s device, which has a sticker price of about $70 but sometimes is offered for less, should be covered by COPPA. The sign-on procedure mentions the law and requests parental permission for collecting data from children.

But a draft of the complaint cites a number of alleged failings, including that the permissions need to be more specific and that the online portal lacks an effective system for verifying that a parent is the one providing approval for a child’s use of the device. The complaint also alleges that Amazon keeps children’s voice recordings longer than necessary and that the tools allowing parents to delete recordings do not work properly. The result, according to a draft of the complaint, is that Amazon could collect a wide range of information from children – names, birth dates, home addresses, phone numbers – without parents knowing or being able to delete it. The complaint also says that the Echo Dot Kids Edition allows outside developers, whose “skills” on the service resemble the apps familiar to users of mobile devices, to collect data in ways that lack transparency and potentially violate COPPA. Amazon spokeswoman Kinley Pearsall said the Echo Dot Kids Edition is “compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act,” but her statement did not address any of the specific issues raised in the complaint.

The FTC, which declined to comment on the planned complaint against Amazon, has settled 30 cases against companies for allegedly violating COPPA over the past two decades. The commission also updated the rules governing compliance in 2013 to impose restrictions on the collection of newer technologies, such as online voice and video clips, that could identify children under 13. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., one of the original authors of COPPA, plans to send a letter Thursday to the FTC urging action regarding the Echo Dot Kids Edition. “Children are a uniquely vulnerable population,” Markey planned to write, according to a draft of the letter. “We urge the Commission to take all necessary steps to ensure their privacy.”

https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/05/08/amazon-accused-of-using-echo-dot-kids-to-illegally-collect-data-on-children/

A friend alerted me to this video, I am not sure if it has been seen here. Here's the story:

Amazing Polly investigates Impossible Foods, company, which produces fake meat that bleeds. During her research, she does a Goog map search of the company address which reveals a windowless building in an industrial park in the middle of Silicone Valley, not the most interesting part of the story here though. What is interesting is the neighbor of this company directly across the street. It's not known if there is a connection here. I had a thought…maybe tunneling in that area?

>>6454638

Dam got interrupted while writing this post, the neighbor directly across the street is PP

>>6454687

Indeed, sickening if true!