Month: August 2023

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has been indicted yet again, marking the third set of criminal charges currently brought against him. Filed in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 1, the latest charges concern Trump's alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

CNBC has uploaded the entire 45-page indictment, which lists four charges against Trump: Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding, Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding, and Conspiracy Against Rights.

"Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power," reads the indictment. "So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there has been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false. But the Defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway — to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election."

Read the full document below.

Trump is also facing criminal charges in Miami for allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving office and obstructing authorities' attempts to recover them, while in New York he has been charged with falsifying business records relating to hush money payments during his 2016 presidential campaign.

If Quordle is a little too challenging today, you've come to the right place for hints. There aren't just hints here, but the whole Quordle solution. Scroll to the bottom of this page, and there it is. But are you sure you need all four answers? Maybe you just need a strategy guide. Either way, scroll down, and you'll get what you need.

What is Quordle?

Quordle is a five-letter word guessing game similar to Wordle, except each guess applies letters to four words at the same time. You get nine guesses instead of six to correctly guess all four words. It looks like playing four Wordle games at the same time, and that is essentially what it is. But it's not nearly as intimidating as it sounds.

Is Quordle harder than Wordle?

Yes, though not diabolically so.

Where did Quordle come from?

Amid the Wordle boom of late 2021 and early 2022, when everyone was learning to love free, in-browser, once-a-day word guessing games, creator Freddie Meyer says he took inspiration from one of the first big Wordle variations, Dordle — the one where you essentially play two Wordles at once. He took things up a notch, and released Quordle on January 30. Meyer's creation was covered in The Guardian six days later, and now, according to Meyer, it attracts millions of daily users. Today, Meyer earns modest revenue from Patreon, where dedicated Quordle fans can donate to keep their favorite puzzle game running. 

How is Quordle pronounced?

“Kwordle.” It should rhyme with “Wordle,” and definitely should not be pronounced exactly like "curdle.”

Is Quordle strategy different from Wordle?

Yes and no.

Your starting strategy should be the same as with Wordle. In fact, if you have a favorite Wordle opening word, there’s no reason to change that here. We suggest something rich in vowels, featuring common letters like C, R, and N. But you do you.

After your first guess, however, you’ll notice things getting out of control if you play Quordle exactly like Wordle.

What should I do in Quordle that I don’t do in Wordle?

Solving a Wordle puzzle can famously come down to a series of single letter-change variations. If you’ve narrowed it down to “-IGHT,” you could guess “MIGHT” “NIGHT” “LIGHT” and “SIGHT” and one of those will probably be the solution — though this is also a famous way to end up losing in Wordle, particularly if you play on “hard mode.” In Quordle, however, this sort of single-letter winnowing is a deadly trap, and it hints at the important strategic difference between Wordle and Quordle: In Quordle, you can't afford to waste guesses unless you're eliminating as many letters as possible at all times. 

Guessing a completely random word that you already know isn't the solution, just to eliminate three or four possible letters you haven’t tried yet, is thought of as a desperate, latch-ditch move in Wordle. In Quordle, however, it's a normal part of the player's strategic toolset.

Is there a way to get the answer faster?

In my experience Quordle can be a slow game, sometimes dragging out longer than it would take to play Wordle four times. But a sort of blunt-force guessing approach can speed things up. The following strategy also works with Wordle if you only want the solution, and don’t care about having the fewest possible guesses:

Try starting with a series of words that puts all the vowels (including Y) on the board, along with some other common letters. We've had good luck with the three words: “NOTES,” “ACRID,” and “LUMPY.” YouTuber DougMansLand suggests four words: “CANOE,” “SKIRT,” “PLUMB,” and “FUDGY.”

Most of the alphabet is now eliminated, and you’ll only have the ability to make one or two wrong guesses if you use this strategy. But in most cases you’ll have all the information you need to guess the remaining words without any wrong guesses.

If strategy isn't helping, and you're still stumped, here are some hints:

Are there any double or triple letters in today’s Quordle words?

No.

Are any rare letters being used in today’s Quordle like Q or Z?

No.

What do today’s Quordle words start with?

S, F, R, and R.

What are the answers for today’s Quordle?

Are you sure you want to know?

There’s still time to turn back.

OK, you asked for it. The answers are:

1. SLUMP

2. FLUTE

3. RUMBA

4. REACH

Hey you. Yeah you! Wanna see a rocket launch?

Tonight, millions of people on the east coast can watch NASA launch a rocket toward the International Space Station (assuming the weather cooperates). One of Northrop Grumman's Antares rockets is scheduled for Tuesday August 1 at 8:31 p.m. ET, and it's taking off from the Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. Launches like these can sometimes be viewable from backyards, rooftops, and balconies across a huge swath of the eastern U.S.

This launch is expected to be Northrop Grumman's 19th expedition, and it would supply the International Space Station with provisions, experimental materials, and other equipment.

Here's how to watch:

How to watch the launch from near the launch site

If you're near the launch site, what are you waiting for? NASA recommends heading to Wallops Visitor Center, seven miles away, with its clear view of the launchpad. Another great option would be Chincoteague Island, fifteen miles from Wallops, where NASA recommends stopping at Curtis Merritt Harbor, Robert Reed Park, or the Museum of Chincoteague Island. If you're a little further out, you can try and watch the launch from Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland. You can also check it out from the Delaware Seashore, or Virginia Beach.

How to watch the launch from elsewhere on the east coast

As NASA's helpful map (at the top of this article) shows, each concentric, color-coded ring matches a time when the rocket should be visible, based on calculations of rocket speed, direction, distance, and the curvature of the Earth. The map appears to show that some major population centers like New York City lack the required 3 degrees of elevation, and won't have line-of-sight access.

However, people in huge sections of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina will be able to see it.

How to watch the launch online

If you aren't lucky enough to be in one of the areas on the color-coded map, you can watch online. NASA's livestream of the launch is right here:

As of this writing on Tuesday afternoon, conditions were considered 80 percent favorable for launch. There's always a chance a mission can be scrubbed for one of a million reasons, but it looks like your odds of seeing a rocket streak through the sky tonight (or on your screen) are pretty good.

Meta has made good on its threat to block news via Facebook and Instagram in Canada.

Starting Tuesday, Aug. 1, Meta is ending the availability of news for Facebook and Instagram users in Canada. Meta's decision to block news-related content for Canadian users is in response to the Online News Act, which was passed by Canada's Parliament in June 2023.

Following in the footsteps of similar laws proposed in Australia and California, the Online News Act (Bill C-18) "ensures fair revenue sharing between digital platforms and news outlets." In other words, Canada's government wants tech giants like Meta and Google to pay Canadian news outlets for driving valuable traffic and profiting from posts published on their sites. Local newsrooms in particular have been greatly impacted by social media's disruption of the traditional news distribution model.

In response, Meta says, the legislation "is based on the incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms, when the reverse is true." Meta had been threatening to block news in Canada instead of engaging with Canadian lawmakers and has instead decided to comply with the law by removing access to news on its platforms altogether.

Canadian journalists and news outlets have already begun reporting on the effects of Meta's decision. Local newsrooms that were already vulnerable to the whims of Meta's publishing policies now have zero visibility on its platforms. "This fight with Meta is making that harder and harder. Our livelihoods are at stake," Tweeted Christopher Curtis, co-founder of a newsletter called The Rover. The accounts from Cult MTL and indigenous writer Anna Mary McKenzie also tweeted about their content being blocked.

Tweet may have been deleted

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UPDATE: Aug. 1, 2023, 5:07 p.m. EDT X / Twitter officially announced that it filed a legal claim against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) late Monday night.

Elon Musk's X has announced Tuesday that it had followed through on its legal threats against the Center of Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit that tracks hate speech and disinformation online.

In a post shared on its website, X alleges that the CCDH is trying to stifle it's users' free speech and pressure the company's advertisers. Musk's company also claims the CCDH improperly accessed X's data.

CCDH provided Mashable with its own response.

“Elon Musk’s latest legal threat is straight out of the authoritarian playbook – he is now showing he will stop at nothing to silence anyone who criticizes him for his own decisions and actions," said CCDH Founder and CEO Imran Ahmed. "The Center for Countering Digital Hate’s research shows that hate and disinformation is spreading like wildfire on the platform under Musk’s ownership and this lawsuit is a direct attempt to silence those efforts. People don’t want to see or be associated with hate, antisemitism, and the dangerous content that we all see proliferating on X. Musk is trying to ‘shoot the messenger’ who highlights the toxic content on his platform rather than deal with the toxic environment he’s created. The CCDH’s independent research won’t stop - Musk will not bully us into silence.”

Published Monday, July 31:

Fresh off of making legal threats to Microsoft and Meta, X (Twitter) has its sights set on a new potential lawsuit: One against a nonprofit that tracks hate speech and disinformation online.

On Monday, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) shared a letter, sent by Twitter's legal representative Alex Spiro, threatening legal action against the organization for allegedly making "a series of troubling and baseless claims that appear calculated to harm Twitter generally, and its digital advertising business specifically."

In response to the letter, as first reported by the New York Times, the CCDH's own legal counsel responded and cautioned against any further attempt from Twitter to silence the organization. Imran Ahmed, who heads the CCDH, also responded in a post on their website beside embeds of both letters.

"Elon Musk’s actions represent a brazen attempt to silence honest criticism and independent research in the desperate hope that he can stem the tide of negative stories and rebuild his relationship with advertisers," said Ahmed.

In a series of tweets on Monday, Musk also responded to the CCDH's statements.

Tweet may have been deleted

"They should save their words for the jury," Musk posted. "Let’s pull the mask off this organization and see who is really behind it."

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While the CCDH has published numerous reports researching hate speech and the spread of disinformation on Twitter, the letter from Twitter's lawyer specifically mentions one that focused on Twitter Blue, the company's $8 per month paid premium subscription service.

The CCDH report on Twitter Blue found that the company failed to act on 99 percent of Blue-subscribed accounts that were reported for hate speech. Twitter disputes CCDH's findings in the letter, saying "claims in this article are false, misleading, or both, and they are not supported by anything that could credibly be called research."

"We have reason to believe that your organization’s operations—and thus its campaign to drive advertisers off Twitter by smearing the company and its owner—are supported by funding from X Corp.’s commercial competitors, as well as government entities and their affiliates," the letter from Twitter's representative continues.

Twitter has struggled with advertisers, traditionally the company's biggest revenue driver, since Musk's takeover of the company in October of last year. Half of the social media platform's top advertisers stopped ad campaigns on the site shortly after Musk's acquisition. And recent reports have found that advertising on the platform is still way down compared to before Twitter became privately owned by Musk. In fact, Musk has admitted so himself in a tweet earlier this month.

"We’re still negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load," Musk said

As for the allegations that CCDH is "funded" by its competitors and government entities, the organization says it does “not accept any funding from tech companies, governments, or their affiliates.”

The CCDH received significant attention in early 2021 after releasing a report detailing how the majority of COVID vaccine disinformation online stemmed from just 12 anti-vaxx influencers, which the report branded as the "Disinformation Dozen." In the months following the report, platforms like YouTube and Facebook took action against these accounts.

Earlier this month, Musk even responded to a tweet that was critical of the CCDH's Disinformation Dozen report.

Tweet may have been deleted

"Who is funding this organization?" Musk tweeted. "They spread disinformation and push censorship, while claiming the opposite. Truly evil."

The specific tweet Musk responded to was referring to Facebook's own previous critiques of CCDH's research into its own platform. Facebook's parent company, of course, is Meta, which recently launched Threads, Twitter's biggest competition yet.

As previously mentioned, the platform formerly known as Twitter has also sent legal threats to Microsoft and Meta in recent months. Musk has accused Microsoft of "training illegally using Twitter data." The company has also alleged that Meta used Twitter "trade secrets" and intellectual property in building Threads, a claim which Meta denied.

YouTube's short form TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts, continues to grow beyond being just a place to find clips under 60 seconds on the most popular video platform on the internet.

According to the company, YouTube Shorts now sees 2 billion logged-in views per month. Furthermore, some creators have basically built an entire audience on the platform through nothing but short form videos. 

YouTube has managed to build a formidable competitor to TikTok, the leader in the short form video space, in YouTube Shorts. And, of course, YouTube Shorts did so by borrowing some ideas from its biggest competitor.

In an announcement on Tuesday, YouTube shared even more upcoming YouTube Shorts features to further close the gap between these two short form video platforms.

Out of the six newly announced features, perhaps the most important is that livestream discover is coming to YouTube Shorts. That's right, vertical video livestreaming is coming to YouTube's short form video platform and will be recommended to users swiping through Shorts. 

Now, yes, vertical video streaming was already possible on YouTube but they previously did not appear on the YouTube Shorts platform. It just makes sense to recommend vertical video streams on YouTube's platform that's best made for mobile video.

And the timing couldn't be better. TikTok's live video feature went viral in July as seemingly the entire rest of the internet discovered the NPC livestreamer trend that's popular on the platform. Will NPC streamers try their luck over on YouTube Shorts? Super Chats, Super Stickers, and Memberships will all be available via these streams, just like they are for regular livestreams on the YouTube platform, so it's certainly possible.

Collabs are coming to YouTube Shorts

Another new major feature coming to YouTube Shorts is the "Collab" remix option. Creators will be able to easily make collaborative videos, reacting to other users' content with a tap. Collab will give users the option to record their own video in a side-by-side split screen format with another creator's videos on either YouTube or YouTube Shorts.

YouTube says it will also soon release more effects and stickers. One example the company provided is a Q&A sticker, which will enable creators to interact with their viewers and get responses to their questions right in the comment of the video.

New features designed to make YouTube Shorts fast, easy to make

In addition to live recommendations, collaborations, and new effects and stickers, YouTube also announced three more features that will help YouTubers in the creation of their content. One new feature will allow creators to easily make videos when inspiration strikes while watching another Short. This option will bundle audio and Shorts effects from videos that a user wants to remix, so, for example, they don't have to sift through the options to find the correct sounds.

One new option already available is the ability to save Shorts to playlists so users can curate their favorite videos.

And, finally, YouTube says it will be bringing out new recomposition tools so users can continue to make Shorts out of longform YouTube content. These editors will help creators zoom into content and adjust the crop and the layout of video segments. It will also include the Shorts split screen option built-in to the tool.

YouTube says it will start rolling out these new features in the coming weeks.