United States

The initial public offering for Jack Ma's Ant Group will raise some $34.4 billion and value the company at more than $310 billion after retail investors placed bids for a record $3 trillion.

Xiaomeng Lu, a senior technology analyst at Eurasia Group, said that Ant is also poised to benefit from the Chinese government's latest economic development plans, which are being drawn up this week. Lu noted that Ant faces tough competition inside China from rival Tencent, while potential regulatory pressure from countries like the United States could limit opportunities abroad.

Twitter reported Thursday a net income of $29 million in the third quarter, or 4 cents per diluted share, a decline from the same period last year. The company also reported a revenue of $936 million, beating the analysts' expected revenue of $777 million.

The return of live events and previously postponed product launches helped drive the increased advertising spending, Twitter CFO Ned Segal said in a statement in the company's earnings release.

The monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) was 187 million, bellow the 195 million expected.

Twitter discussed in its letter to shareholders its efforts to combat misinformation and provide context to users, especially with the uncertainty that could surround election results in the US as mail-in ballots are expected to potentially prolong the outcome.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has warned that the United States might not return to normal until 2022. Even if a vaccine was available in the next couple of months, there's a chance a "substantial proportion of the people" won't be vaccinated until the second or third quarter of 2021, Fauci said.

"I think it will be easily by the end of 2021, and perhaps even into the next year, before we start having some semblances of normality," so Fauci.

According to SPIEGEL information, the law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein filed a lawsuit on behalf of Porsche drivers a few days ago. Porsche has alleged sold vehicles that use more petrol on the road and emit CO2 into the air than on the test bench. In order to manipulate the values, the group allegedly installed transmission parts and software in test vehicles, which reduced emissions in the laboratory.

The FBI and two other federal agencies have warned that the US healthcare system is facing an “increased and imminent” threat of cyberattacks, including data theft and extortion attempts to lock up hospital information systems, and that there is "credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to US hospitals and healthcare providers."

"We are experiencing the most significant cyber security threat we’ve ever seen in the United States,” so Charles Carmakal, chief technical officer of the cybersecurity firm Mandiant.

At his Michigan rally, President Donald Trump told attendees that he is helping women's husbands to get back to work, in a remark that was wildly called out as sexist.

"I'm also getting your husbands, they want to get back to work, right? They want to get back to work. We're getting your husbands back to work, and everybody wants it," so the president. "We're going to do great. And I love women, and I can't help it. They're the greatest. I love them much more than the men."

The United States have reported over half a million Covid-19 cases over the past week, as much as the country recorded in the first three months of the pandemic (January 21 to April 11). While many states resort to stricter Covid-19 measures, the Trump administration has released its first-term scientific accomplishments which included the line “ENDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC” written in bold, capital letters.

Keith Raniere, founder and leader of American multi-level marketing, cult-like company NXIVM, was convicted of racketeering, sex trafficking, child pornography possession and other crimes last year and has now been sentenced to 120 years in prison on October 27.

As the wildfires in Southern California spread rapidly, nearly 70,000 people have been ordered to evacuate. The Silverado Fire and Blue Ridge Fire, fueled by high winds and low humidity, have been increasing since Monday and have grown to nearly 30,000 acres combined in the past 48 hours.

Strand Bookstore, one of New York's oldest bookstores, recently asked its customers for help on social media after sales have gone down during the pandemic, writing "for the first time in The Strand’s 93 year history, we need to mobilize the community to buy from us so we can keep our doors open until there is a vaccine."

After Strand's call for help, the store received over 25,000 online orders over the weekend and made a total of $170,550 in in-store sales on Saturday and Sunday.

According to Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, there is a "very considerable" demand for its PlayStation 5 (PS5) console via pre-orders. The next-generation console will be launched on November 12.

Sony pre-sold as many PS5 consoles in the first 12 hours in the United States as in the first 12 weeks for its predecessor PlayStation 4 device, said Ryan in an interview Wednesday.

Sony, which went on to sell more than 100 million PS4 units, aims to persuade its user base to upgrade to its new device to play titles like “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales” with enhanced graphics, sound and feedback via a new controller.

President Donald Trump has falsely claimed that it's illegal to count ballots after Election day while speaking to reporters before leaving for a campaign rally.

"It would be very, very proper and very nice if a winner were declared on Nov. 3, instead of counting ballots for two weeks, which is totally inappropriate, and I don't believe that's by our laws. I don’t believe that, but we’ll see what happens, " so Trump.

The Senate has voted 52-48 to confirm President Donald Trump's nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Monday, just days before the US election on November 3.

According to a report by Bloomberg, Youtube can only actually accommodate a part of the ordered commercials for the US elections. Due to the demand the advertising prices have doubled in some cases.

Around 60 million early votes have been cast for the presidential US election, with Americans voting via mail-in ballots and queueing in line at voting sites.

At least five of Vice President Pence's aides have tested positive for Covid-19, including his chief of staff Marc Short, aide Zach Bacher and adviser Marty Obst. According to Pence's spokesman Devin O'Malley, Pence was in close contact with Short but won't quarantine as he tested negative and is considered "essential personnel."

MGM explored the possibility of selling "No Time to Die," the upcoming James Bond movie, to a streaming service on a $600 million deal. The movie was originally slated to debut last April, but was postponed initially to November and then to April 2021.

MGM took a $30 to $50 million hit as a result of the postponements, so far.

An MGM spokesperson stated: "We do not comment on rumours. The film is not for sale. The film’s release has been postponed until April 2021 in order to preserve the theatrical experience for moviegoers."

"It's critical to participate in our democracy," Rubins told AP. "We consider it an honor to be able to vote from space." A 1997 law allows astronauts to cast their vote when in "spaceflight," which is forwarded from Mission control to the space station to the county clerk.

According to court documents, investigators found evidence on Internet searches that the young man had been involved in plans to kill Joe Biden and have found several weapons, including an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a canister of explosives, during the search of his vehicle.

On a weapons tour In April, the teenager is also said to have published a memo entitled "Should I kill Joe Biden?" and he also traveled across the country to get various weapons, and searched the Internet for information about Biden's home address, U.S. federal gun laws, and night vision goggles. At one point, the 19-year-old was near Biden's home in New Hampshire. A to-do list was also found that ended with the word "execute".

According to Twitter, there are no indications that the claims of the security researcher are true that Trump's Twitter account has been compromised by using the password "maga2020".

The press office of the White House also does not want to comment on "Security procedures around the social media accounts of the president" and says that the story around the alleged hack is "Definitely not correct".