Twitter suspended the accounts of several journalists and a rival social media platform, Mastodon, on Thursday without an explanation. The suspended journalists were from various publications, including CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Mashable. Elon Musk later suggested that the accounts were suspended for violating the platform's doxxing policy. More: - Twitter updated its private information policy on Wednesday, including the ban on sharing people's live locations.
- The suspensions come a day after Twitter suspended several accounts tracking the private planes of public figures, including the account tracking Musk's private plane – @ElonJet.
- The account and several others were run by 20-year-old University of Central Florida student Jack Sweeney.
- On Wednesday, Twitter suspended Sweeney's personal account.
- On Wednesday, Musk shared on Twitter that his son had been endangered when an individual followed the vehicle his son was in, believing it was Musk himself.
- Musk said he would be taking legal action against Sweeney and others.
- The Los Angeles Police Department said no police report had been filed regarding the incident.
- In a Twitter Space on Thursday evening, Musk said Twitter would suspend any account that posts the live location of people or posts links to sites with real-time location information.
- Musk noted that the policy would apply to all accounts, including journalists.
- When pressed by a banned reporter in the Twitter Space on the issue, he quickly left, and soon after, Spaces went down across the entire platform temporarily.
In related news: - The European Commission's vice president for values and transparency, Vera Jourova, threatened Twitter with sanctions after the social media company suspended the accounts of several journalists.
- Jourova referred to the suspensions as worrying, noting that the EU's Digital Services Act requires respect for media freedom and fundamental rights.
- In a series of tweets, Germany's Foreign Office stressed that press freedom should not be switched on and off on a whim.
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Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, said the Mazars Group, the French accounting firm it uses to verify its reserves, has paused all work for crypto clients. Mazars said the pause was limited to its proof-of-reserves work, noting the decision was because of concerns over how the public understands its proof-of-reserves reports. More: - Mazars noted its reports do not constitute an assurance or an audit opinion on a firm's reserves.
- Mazars has worked with various big-name crypto companies, including Binance, Crypto.com, and KuCoin.
- Binance and other firms have been trying to reassure customers that their funds are safe on their platforms following the sudden collapse of FTX.
- Binance said its platform has seen outflows of up to $6B since FTX filed for bankruptcy last month.
- Binance isn't required to disclose audited financial statements as a private company.
- The firm has not provided a comprehensive overview of its financial condition or liquidity.
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Goldman Sachs plans to lay off up to 8% of its workforce, or about 4,000 employees, in January. According to sources, the bank has instructed its top managers to identify potential cost-reduction areas. Goldman’s workforce has increased significantly in the last three years, jumping from 38,300 at the end of 2019 to 49,100. More: - Earlier this week, the FT reported that the bank plans to reduce its bonus pool by 40% or more.
- CEO David Solomon has previously expressed concerns about the state of the economy, rising interest rates, and a potential recession in the new year.
- Goldman Sachs reported a 44% decline in profits for the first nine months of the year.
- The bank’s return on equity was at 12%, below its target of 14% to 16%.
- The bank overhauled its business structure in October, merging its investment banking and trading units, among other changes.
- Goldman shares were down more than 1.6% during afternoon trading on Friday.
- The bank is down nearly 13% YTD.
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Germany is taking on the risks associated with €216B ($228.7B) of derivatives built up by energy firm Uniper. Uniper has booked billions of euros of losses on derivatives. A company spokesperson confirmed that the energy giant has derivative positions of about €216B ($228.7B) as of Sept. 30, 2022. More: - Uniper holds around €198B ($209.6B) of receivables from derivative instruments as assets.
- European utility firms have seen their derivative positions surge, driven by record-high gas and energy prices.
- These also require them to raise the value of these instruments in their accounts.
- Uniper reported a €40B ($42.4B) loss for the first nine months of this year, of which €10B ($10.6B) was from replacing Russian gas with higher-cost purchases.
- The German government is spending over €51B ($54B) to bail out and nationalize Uniper.
- Uniper shareholders are expected to approve the takeover by the German government at an extraordinary general meeting scheduled for Dec. 19.
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The U.S. Senate passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Thursday, authorizing a record $858B in annual defense spending. The Senate also rescinded the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The bill was passed in an 83 to 11 bipartisan vote. More: - The House passed the legislation last week; the bill is headed to the desk of President Biden, who is expected to sign it into law.
- The NDAA includes a 4.6% pay increase for troops, funding for purchases of weapons, ships, and aircraft, and support for Taiwan and Ukraine.
- The bill provides Ukraine with at least $800M in additional security assistance next year and Taiwan with fast-tracked weapons procurement.
- The Act also includes measures allowing Supreme Court justices and federal judges to hide their personal information from being viewed online.
- Congress has passed the NDAA every year since 1961.
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Starbucks employees across the U.S. are planning a three-day strike starting on Friday. According to the Starbucks Workers United labor group, more than 1,000 baristas at 100 stores are planning to walk out. The strike is expected to shut down some Starbucks locations entirely. More: - The strike will be the longest in the ongoing unionization efforts.
- This is the second major strike organized by the group in the last month.
- On Nov. 17, on Starbucks’ Red Cup Day, workers at 110 Starbucks locations held a one-day walkout.
- In the last year, more than 264 of Starbucks’ 9,000 company-run U.S. stores have voted to unionize.
- Starbucks has been campaigning against unionization efforts, saying the company works better when it works directly with employees.
- The company has closed stores that have unionized.
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- James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” generated $17M in its Thursday night preview. The sequel is expected to earn $175M in its opening weekend.
- The U.S. Energy Department said it would start buying back oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The U.S. released 180 million barrels from the reserve this year. The department plans to buy up to 3 million barrels for delivery in February.
- German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG has reached a $698M settlement with the state of Oregon to resolve claims that it polluted the environment with chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.
- Microsoft said it wouldn’t allow customers to mine cryptocurrencies on its services without prior written approval. In an update on its Azure cloud platform, Microsoft said the ban on crypto mining was part of actions needed to secure the partner ecosystem.
- Donald Trump’s NFT trading cards sold out on Friday, a day after the former U.S. President announced them. The cards were priced at $99. According to OpenSea, the card’s trading volume was about $1.08M. Its floor price is about 0.19 ETH, or about $230.
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 |  | Vanessa Omeokachie is a writer for Inside.com; she writes the daily Inside Business newsletter. Her interests include finance, technology, and entrepreneurship. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending concerts and music festivals, traveling, and exploring. Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or on LinkedIn. |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
