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As a flood of advertisers suspend their campaigns on Facebook over ‘hate speech’ (perhaps the convenient excuse they were looking for), the Silicon Valley social media giant announced that starting today, they’re radically altering the way people see news – prioritizing original reporting, while demoting stories from anonymous authors, according to a Tuesday announcement.

In other words, Facebook will now better control what information users are exposed to – as opposed to allowing content to organically trend, and articles written anonymously are now considered unsuitable regardless of merit.

Facebook does acknowledge that “in some areas, transparency can put journalists at risk so we are only doing this in limited markets to start, taking into account the press environment in which publishers operate,” however we’re guessing that’s simply legalese designed to cover that base. We shall see.

According to Axios, the company will use artificial intelligence to identify which original stories to promote, which means that subsequent reporting that provides missing context or alternate views on events will also be muted.

Axios also notes that Google admitted to adjusting its algorithms last year in order to boost original reporting.

Last October, Facebook rolled out a “News” tab, which includes reporting from the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and BuzzFeed – which just fired a guy for plagiarism.

We now know that Tesla’s Autopilot was to blame – yet again – for another near-fatal accident that took place last December. A Massachusetts State Police trooper had just pulled over a vehicle on the side of Route 24 in West Bridgewater when the trooper’s vehicle was slammed into by the Tesla. 

The driver who was pulled over, Maria Smith, said: “It just happened so quick. Before I knew it, my car was flying forward. I looked behind me, and my whole back windshield was blown out. There was glass in my hair.”

A man “driving” the Tesla had slammed into the State Police cruiser that, in turn, wound up slamming into the stopped SUV.  Nicholas Ciarlone, the driver is now facing a negligent driving charge, according to NBC 10.

The car was “finally stopped several hundred feet ahead” by another state trooper.

Court documents shows that when a trooper responded to the scene to help, Ciarlone said that he “must not have been paying attention.” Recall, at the time of the accident, we reported that the driver said that he had put the car in Autopilot because he was checking on his dog in the back seat. 

Smith said: “I thought that was terrifying. To think the sensors are not equipped enough to pick up a police car with its sirens and lights on the highway.”

At the time of the accident, state police took it as an opportunity to remind people that there are no vehicles yet that are fully automated. 

“Regardless of your vehicle’s capabilities, when operating a vehicle your full attention is required at all times to ensure safe driving,” state police concluded.

Even the NBC 10 article pointed out a number of other Autopilot accidents that have occurred recently, including:

• A deadly collision with a tractor trailer in Florida in 2016;

• A fatal crash into a concrete barrier on a California highway in 2018;

• A Utah driver who slammed her Tesla into a stopped fire truck at a red light;

• A collision involving a stopped Connecticut State Police vehicle last year.

Auto safety watchdog Sean Kane said about Autopilot: “We are all involved in a clinical trial that we didn’t sign up for.”

Recall, we wrote in January 2020 that Senator Ed Markey had referred to Autopilot as a “flawed system”. He said at the beginning of the year that Tesla should rebrand its driver-assist technologies and take “additional steps to ensure drivers pay attention to the road while using the system.”

Authored by Emma McSpadden via JustTheNews.com,

Several animated TV series, including long-running hits, have made a decision to no longer use white actors for the voices of characters from other ethnic backgrounds.

Fox Entertainment revealed Friday that “moving forward, The Simpsons will no longer have white actors voice non-white characters,” according to a statement.

The show has faced years of criticism over white actor Hank Azaria’s voiceover of Indian-American character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.

Azaria voiced multiple characters of color on the long-running animated hit. In addition to Apu, an Indian-American immigrant who owned a convenience store, he voiced the recurring character Carlton Carlson, Jr., an African American Buddhist and friend and co-worker to the main character Homer Simpson. He also played minor characters of color, including a black police officer named Lou and Mexican-American Bumblebee Man.

But Apu has has been voiced by Azaria for 30 years.

“We respect Hank’s journey in regard to Apu. We have granted his wish to no longer voice the character,” the executive producers of “The Simpsons” said in a statement.

Azaria isn’t the only one stepping aside as the entertainment industry has come under growing pressure to provide more opportunities for non-white performers in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests.

Here are some others:

Jenny Slate: Slate voiced Missy, a biracial character, on Netflix’s original series “Big Mouth.” She said in a statement on Instagram that she originally felt comfortable playing Missy because of the racial background of the character’s mother, who is Jewish and white. Slate, who is also Jewish and white, decided she could no longer portray Missy, who is part African-American.

“Ending my portrayal of ‘Missy’ is one step in a life-long process of uncovering the racism in my actions,” she said in the statement.

She had been voicing Missy since 2017.

Harry Shearer: Like Azaria, Shearer announced he would be stepping away from his roles playing characters of color on “The Simpsons.” He also voiced the African-American Buddhist Carlton Carlson, Jr., and played Dr. Julius Hibbert, an African-American doctor, among many other characters. He has been voice acting with the franchise since 1989.

Mike Henry: Henry for two decades voiced “Family Guy’s” Cleveland Brown, an African-American. He also voiced Cleveland as the main character on the “Family Guy’s” spinoff, “The Cleveland Show.”

“It’s been an honor to play Cleveland on ‘Family Guy’ for 20 years,” Henry stated in a statement. “I love this character, but persons of color should play characters of color. Therefore, I will be stepping down from the role.”

Kristen Bell: The star from the “Frozen” franchise debuted last month as Molly, a mixed-race character in “Central Park.” Within a month of the premiere date on May 29, Bell stepped down from the role, saying it was “time to acknowledge our acts of complicity.” 

“Playing the character of Molly on ‘Central Park’ shows a lack of awareness of my pervasive privilege,” Bell said in a statement on Instagram. “Casting a mixed race character with a white actress undermines the specificity of the mixed race and Black American experience.”

In a Senate hearing Tuesday, NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci and other top health officials are expected to finish out the second quarter by warning of a “tremendous burden” that the US health care system might face this fall if COVID-19 and the flu are circulating at the same time.

Here’s more from ABC News from the Dr.’s prepared statement:

“While it remains unclear how long the pandemic will last, COVID-19 activity will likely continue for some time,” the prepared statement said. “It is also unclear what impact the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will have on health care and public health systems during the upcoming influenza season. If there is COVID-19 and flu activity at the same time, this could place a tremendous burden on the health care system related to bed occupancy, laboratory testing needs, personal protective equipment and health care worker safety.”

Among other recommendations, the doctor is expected to recommend that decisions on school reopenings be left to local authorities.

Dr. Fauci will be joined by Dr. Robert Redfield and Dr. Stephen Hahn, as well as Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir, who has worked with the  White House task force during the appearance before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, led by Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander.

Watch live:

After a mixed picture in May (current conditions dipped but expectations rose), The Conference Board’s headline consumer confidence data was expected to rebound significantly in June, and it did – smashing expectations with a 98.1 print against 91.5 expectations and 85.9 prior).

Both current and future expectations surged…

• Present situation confidence rose to 86.2 vs 68.4 last month

• Consumer confidence expectations rose to 106.0 vs 97.6 last month

But as the chart shows, things are far from ‘normal’…

Source: Bloomberg

While the move in confidence does not look impressive, it is the biggest jump since late 2011.

Notably the biggest gainer here was ‘hope’ which is back at its Feb 2020 highs while current conditions and the headline confidence remain seriously low compared to February’s “normal”.

So hope is now higher on the year while current conditions have collapsed and barely bounced.

After what seems like weeks of “v”-shaped bounces in sentiment surveys as the euphoria of not being locked up reflects on hope for the future, Chicago’s PMI barometer gravely disappointed in June.

Against expectations of a “v”-like bounce to 45.0, Chicago PMI managed only 36.6 – barely above April’s level…

Source: Bloomberg

This is the biggest miss of expectations since Feb 2015.

• Prices paid rose at a faster pace; signaling expansion

• New orders fell at a slower pace; signaling contraction

• Employment fell at a faster pace; signaling contraction

• Inventories fell and the direction reversed; signaling contraction

• Supplier deliveries rose at a slower pace; signaling expansion

• Production fell at a slower pace; signaling contraction

• Order backlogs fell at a slower pace; signaling contraction

Somebody do something!

Confirming what has been leaked, rumored for weeks, European Union officials have confirmed this morning that the bloc will extend its travel ban for US residents.

In the same decision, the EU will lift travel restrictions for Chinese residents as of July 1, on the condition that Beijing confirms that the same applies to EU citizens.

Bloomberg reports that the EU judgment, which is non-binding on member states, recommends that visitors only be allowed into the bloc from countries where the average number of infections per 100,000 inhabitants over the past two weeks is similar or below the level of the EU and that the trend of new cases is declining.

In addition to China, residents of the following countries are set to be allowed to travel to Europe as of July 1: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.

The decision will be reviewed in two weeks.

Update (10:21ET): Apple shares rise 82bps – market widely ignores DigiTimes’ report on weaker shipment expectations for 5G iPhones.   

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A paywalled DigiTimes report said Apple shipment estimates for mmWave-enabled 5G iPhones could be significantly lower than expected. Sources familiar with Apple’s supply chain partners said suppliers ‘are less optimistic about shipments’ for the new 5G iPhone.  

Apple is expected to launch its 5G iPhone later this year, but its supply chain partners are now much less optimistic about shipments for the new devices that reportedly will support mmWave in 2020. – DigiTimes 

Apparently, sources said 2020 5G iPhone 12 shipments could be halved, from 30-40 million to just 15-20 million, as it appears the virus-induced downturn in the economy has resulted in the Cupertino-based company to believe consumers aren’t willing to splurge $1,000+ for a new phone this year.

5G iPhone shipments may be much weaker than expected in 2020, say sources: Shipments of mmWave-enabled 5G iPhones slated for launch later this year are estimated to reach only 15-20 million units in 2020 compared to a previous supply chain estimate of 30-40 million units, intensifying competition among Apple’s suppliers of FC-AiP substrates for the new phones, according to industry sources. – DigiTimes 

Consumers have been decimated by the virus-induced downtown, comes at the worst possible time for Apple – mostly because it plans to debut its first-ever 5G iPhone this fall. 

We noted days ago, a quarter of all personal income in the US comes from the government – tens of millions of Americans are out of work, many have insurmountable debts and no savings – and don’t have the ability to purchase $1,000+ iPhones this year.  

Apple shares are down about 50bps in premarket trading on Tuesday. 

To sum up, the DigiTimes report suggests Apple has placed little confidence in the broke American consumer to purchase its new 5G iPhones – perhaps, the product launch should be delayed until consumers financially recover.