“The Twitter board has every interest in getting this settled quickly, and he has every interest in delay — time is money,” she said. Of Mr. Musk, she added, “He’s going to want to get as much discovery as possible and take as much time up as possible, essentially hanging the threat of the litigation itself and, as time goes on, the uncertainty associated with it to force some sort of settlement or backing down.”

In the legal filing, Mr. Musk’s lawyers reiterated many of the arguments they had made this month when the billionaire said he intended to terminate the deal.

Twitter did not conduct a rigorous count of fake accounts and stymied Mr. Musk’s efforts to understand how spam was tallied, the filing said. “Musk was flabbergasted to learn just how meager Twitter’s process was,” the filing said, noting that the company used people to figure out the information rather than machine learning.

Mr. Musk tried getting more data from Twitter about fake accounts, the filing added, but the company “deliberately erected artificial roadblocks and frustrated defendants’ efforts.”

To determine how Twitter counts fake accounts, Mr. Musk needed months of discovery and dozens of depositions, his lawyers said. Mr. Musk has contended that Twitter’s public disclosures that fake accounts are around 5 percent of active users are misleading. Incorrect figures could be a “material adverse effect” under the deal’s terms and allow Mr. Musk to walk away, his lawyers said, arguing that the numbers bear “directly on Twitter’s prospective value to users and advertisers.”

Twitter has made mistakes with its user numbers before, Mr. Musk’s lawyers said. In April, the company said it had overcounted its active users from 2019 to 2021.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/15/technology/elon-musk-twitter.html

Some publications that had weighed in on the case updated their articles with the new information. Mr. Kessler of The Washington Post wrote on Twitter: “Now, a rapist has been charged and the story has been updated. Getting lots of angry emails but journalism is an accumulation of facts.”

The Wall Street Journal noted the new facts in an editorial on Thursday. But it argued that the way to help the country find a consensus on abortion is to “make sure that stories about abortion, from either side of the debate, can be readily confirmed.”

Conservative news media was less contrite, focusing on Mr. Fuentes’s status as an undocumented immigrant. Mr. Watters, the Fox News host who had raised questions about the case, said on Wednesday night that his TV program had “put on the pressure and now we are glad that justice is being served.”

Mr. Yost, the Ohio attorney general, who had suggested the story was fabricated, released a statement on Wednesday that said: “My heart aches for the pain suffered by this young child.”

Others turned the focus on Dr. Bernard. The Indiana attorney general, Todd Rokita, a Republican, said on Fox News on Wednesday night that he would investigate whether the doctor had failed to report the assault and abortion, and suggested that Dr. Bernard had failed to do so in other cases.

A document obtained by The New York Times on Thursday showed that Dr. Bernard had done the required reports. The Indianapolis Star was the first to report on the document. Kathleen DeLaney, a lawyer for Dr. Bernard, said in a statement that Dr. Bernard was considering legal action against those who had “smeared” her, including Mr. Rokita. Mr. Rokita responded: “As we stated, we are gathering evidence from multiple sources and agencies related to these allegations. Our legal review of it remains open.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/14/business/media/10-year-old-girl-ohio-rape.html

We live in an age of dumb demographic stereotypes. Millennials, we’re told, are entitled snowflakes and boomers are selfish egotists. Describing huge groups of people in a few traits is absurd, but that doesn’t mean those reductionist ideas don’t shape us. The water in which you swim matters. I was reminded of this at a birthday party for my daughter’s friend. A dad my age told me of being in a band in the ’90s that signed to a major label and how he still talks to his therapist about selling out. Back then I never identified with Generation X, but now I do. When I watch “Reality Bites” today, not only do I like it more, but I can find something to relate to in every character, too.

In movies and plays from the 1990s (“Clerks,” Eric Bogosian’s “subUrbia”), the slacker could be a goofy kind of hero. Compare that with the ethos today summed up by Bo Burnham in his special “Inside,” which features his song “Welcome to the Internet.” The refrain goes: “Apathy’s a tragedy and boredom is a crime/anything and everything all of the time.”

Garofalo’s stand-up always made apathy and boredom look cool, glamorous and, most important, sensible. About boomers, she joked: “They got married and worked hard so their kids didn’t have to, and guess what, we don’t.” There’s a performance in this, of course, since she has always worked hard, but the hustle and grind has never been her brand, to use a word she probably wouldn’t.

Garofalo isn’t that different today than she was three decades ago, less likely to skewer those who promulgate unrealistic body standards than to confess her own. Her hair is longer, more tangled, but her clothes remain darkly colored, rumpled. “I’m not ready for Eileen Fisher,” she said in characteristic deadpan. “I can’t cross that Rubicon.”

Her affect remains wry, offhanded; she walks onstage holding papers and uses references more highbrow than your typical joke slinger, but she is also often disarmingly personal and self-loathing.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/14/movies/janeane-garofalo.html

Mr. Schlossman and Mr. Harris met in 2011 when they were working at B.P.M.W., a fashion public relations company. Mr. Schlossman wrote a men’s wear blog, Sartorially Inclined, and the two started a video series, “Fashion Bros,” at Complex Media in 2014. Two years later, they debuted the podcast “Failing Upwards,” which got scooped up by the digital media company Barstool Sports. They started “Throwing Fits” soon after making their exit from Barstool.

Mr. Harris, who grew up in New York City, and Mr. Schlossman, who grew up in suburban New Jersey, arguably came into their own as podcasters in 2018, when the actor (and occasional men’s wear arbiter) Jonah Hill was a guest on “Failing Upwards.” He appeared on the new show in 2020, taking part in a long conversation that touched on self-acceptance, golf clothes and his admiration for the 1993 comedy “Surf Ninjas.”

The podcast is now at the center of a social-media constellation that includes a Reddit page and Instagram and TikTok accounts. On Discord, a platform popular with crypto enthusiasts and gamers, fans engage in discussions — spurred on by the duo — on topics that lurch from the designer Mike Amiri to whether a listener would stay loyal to the pod if Mr. Harris slept with their ex.

Ben Lankford, who became a “Throwing Fits” listener while living in Nashville, described the “Throw Gang” as “a cool community of like-minded people who have at least a tangential interest in fashion.” Last summer he bought a ticket ($69) to attend a “Throwing Fits” gathering in New York that he had heard about on Discord. “That’s where I met so many of the good friends I have in the city now,” said Mr. Lankford, who ended up moving to Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Mr. Harris said the show’s fans tended to be young men seeking advice. “Maybe they’ve moved out of their hometown and they’re looking for an older-brother-type figure to tell them what to wear, what to listen to, what to watch, what to do, where to drink, where to eat,” he said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/13/style/throwing-fits-podcast.html

When Pringle shared his concerns with colleagues, Times-affiliated lawyers and eventually the head of human resources, he helped spark an internal investigation into Maharaj and Duvoisin’s handling of the Puliafito story. Though the official findings determined neither editor commited wrongdoing, a month after the story ran, both were pushed out.

Despite his fight with Maharaj and Duvoisin, despite the still tenuous financial position of the newspaper and the might of U.S.C. — thanks to the fund-raising prowess of men like Puliafito — Pringle believes that reporters and their sources, lowly as they are, can outmaneuver even the most powerful people and institutions and bring them to heel. And when those institutions collude to protect one another, reporting may be our last best hope for accountability.

Pringle delivers his account in a torrent of sharp storytelling and righteous score-settling that might seem petty if the stakes were not so grave.

By 2016, The Los Angeles Times was a husk of its former self, thanks to Zell. As the newspaper cut staff through buyouts and layoffs, the university offered financial support to the publisher’s office in the form of advertising, and to the newsroom in the form of jobs.

“The Times’s power had always flowed principally from the robustness and incorruptibility of its journalism. Its power came from being a check on power,” Pringle writes. “It was that power that I was convinced Maharaj and his enablers had surrendered to a rising and emboldened U.S.C.”

There were terrible consequences when U.S.C. had the upper hand.

During the months that Pringle and his colleagues fought for permission to publish the Puliafito story, the doctor continued to supply drugs to Warren and others. He introduced Warren’s teenage brother to meth, and fostered an addiction that made school and work impossible. And Puliafito’s “No. 2 girl,” a nude model named Dora Yoder who also provided him with sex in order to feed her drug addiction, had a baby who died in October 2017, just 25 days old, with meth in his body.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/13/books/review/bad-city-paul-pringle.html

Still, Mr. Musk’s threat of walking away could bring Twitter back to the negotiating table, allowing the billionaire to buy the company at a discount. The two sides could also settle with Mr. Musk paying damages to Twitter. Or he could pay a $1 billion breakup fee and walk away, an option allowed only under certain circumstances, such as if Mr. Musk’s financing fell through.

If Mr. Musk successfully disentangles himself from Twitter, it could be disastrous for the company. Its stock has fallen more than 35 percent below his offer of $54.20 per share. Twitter’s business has also deteriorated in recent months. In May, Mr. Agrawal said in a memo to employees that the company had not lived up to its business and financial goals.

Now that Twitter has sued, Mr. Musk and his lawyers are expected to respond. While the timeline beyond then depends on many factors, the company and Mr. Musk will most likely be called to a hearing in Delaware and go through the discovery process, with the two sides digging up facts they believe are relevant to the case.

The case may then move to a trial, though there is a chance the judge assigned to the case will dismiss Mr. Musk’s efforts to walk away. If the suit proceeds to trial, the judge will decide whether Twitter’s disclosures were insufficient and constituted a material harm to the deal.

In the past, Delaware’s Chancery Court has prevented companies from trying to walk away from deals. In 2001, for example, when Tyson Foods tried to back out of an acquisition of the meatpacker IBP, the court ruled that Tyson had to follow through with the agreement. In situations where the court has allowed buyers to exit, it has required them to pay damages. By most readings of Twitter’s contract with Mr. Musk, damages would be capped at $1 billion.

Twitter and Mr. Musk have assembled legal teams to duke it out. Leading Twitter’s efforts in Delaware is William Savitt, a lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen Katz. Wachtell Lipton is famous for, among other things, developing legal tactics to protect companies from hostile buyers, like the so-called poison pill that Twitter originally put in place to defend itself against Mr. Musk.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/12/technology/twitter-lawsuit-musk-acquisition.html

Jean Smart, “Hacks”

Best Actor, Comedy

Donald Glover, “Atlanta”

Bill Hader, “Barry”

Nicholas Hoult, “The Great”

Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building”

Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”

Jason Sudeikis, “Ted Lasso”

Best Actress, Drama

Jodie Comer, “Killing Eve”

Laura Linney, “Ozark”

Melanie Lynskey, “Yellowjackets”

Sandra Oh, “Killing Eve”

Reese Witherspoon, “The Morning Show”

Zendaya, “Euphoria”

Best Actor, Drama

Jason Bateman, “Ozark”

Brian Cox, “Succession”

Lee Jung-jae, “Squid Game”

Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul”

Adam Scott, “Severance”

Jeremy Strong, “Succession”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/12/arts/television/emmy-nominees-list-2022.html

The chancery court is intimately familiar with disputes involving mergers and acquisitions. Over the last two decades, it has ruled in disputes such as when a dissident shareholder fought a merger of the computer companies HP and Compaq in 2002; when the chemical company Hexion sued to end its merger with another chemical company, Huntsman, in 2008; and when the luxury companies LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Tiffany Company sued each other over an acquisition in 2020.

What happens once a case lands in Chancery Court?

Most cases in the Court of Chancery typically follow the same process, similar to most civil courts in other states. Both sides may file a motion for summary judgment, which means they ask the court to rule on all or parts of the case without going to trial. If the case goes to trial, the judge determines the facts based on evidence provided through records and testimonies, then rules on the resolution.

The chancellor, Kathaleen McCormick, appoints herself or one of the six vice chancellors to preside over the case. If a chancellor has a conflict of interest — for example, having worked for Mr. Musk or Twitter in the past — he or she cannot preside. Cases are then decided by the presiding judge and not a jury, though the judge can call an advisory jury to help consult. The judge’s decision can be appealed to the State Supreme Court, whose decision is final.

Have Mr. Musk and Twitter had cases heard in Chancery Court?

Yes.

In 2016, Mr. Musk’s auto company, Tesla, announced a $2.6 billion acquisition of the solar panel energy company SolarCity. Tesla shareholders sued to prevent the deal from going forward, a case that landed in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. The shareholders accused Mr. Musk of pushing Tesla’s board to effectively bail out the struggling SolarCity, which the billionaire’s cousins had founded. The court ruled in Mr. Musk’s favor in April, a decision that has been appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.

Twitter has also dealt with the court in several cases, including a lawsuit filed in May by a police pension fund in Orlando, Fla., to delay the deal with Mr. Musk. In 2020, Twitter shareholders also sued the company in Chancery Court, accusing executives of inflating user statistics. The court approved a $38 million settlement last year.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/article/musk-twitter-delaware-court-chancery.html

Jean Smart, “Hacks”

Best Actor, Comedy

Donald Glover, “Atlanta”

Bill Hader, “Barry”

Nicholas Hoult, “The Great”

Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building”

Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”

Jason Sudeikis, “Ted Lasso”

Best Actress, Drama

Jodie Comer, “Killing Eve”

Laura Linney, “Ozark”

Melanie Lynskey, “Yellowjackets”

Sandra Oh, “Killing Eve”

Reese Witherspoon, “The Morning Show”

Zendaya, “Euphoria”

Best Actor, Drama

Jason Bateman, “Ozark”

Brian Cox, “Succession”

Lee Jung-jae, “Squid Game”

Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul”

Adam Scott, “Severance”

Jeremy Strong, “Succession”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/12/arts/television/emmy-nominees-list-2022.html

Mr. Musk emphasized Twitter’s rudderless financial direction in a letter filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. The company’s “declining business prospects and financial outlook” had given him pause, his lawyers wrote, especially considering Twitter’s recent “financial performance and revised outlook” on the fiscal year ahead.

Mr. Musk, who has more than 100 million followers on Twitter, has also jackhammered the product, saying it is not as attractive as other apps. He has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that Twitter is overrun with more inauthentic accounts than it has disclosed; such accounts can be automated to pump out toxic or false content. (The company has said fewer than 5 percent of the accounts on its platform are fake.)

His barbs about fake accounts have weakened trust in Twitter, just as the company prepares to moderate heated political discussions about an upcoming election in Brazil and the midterm elections this fall in the United States, misinformation experts said.

In another criticism of Twitter and the way it supervises content, Mr. Musk vowed to unwind the company’s moderation policies in the name of free speech. In May, he said he would “reverse the permanent ban” of former President Donald J. Trump from Twitter, allowing Mr. Trump back on the social network. That riled up right-wing users, who have long accused the company of censoring them, and renewed questions about how Twitter should handle debates over the limits of free speech.

Inside the company, employee morale has been battered, leading to infighting and attrition, according to six current and former employees.

Some of those who remain said they were relieved that Mr. Musk seemed to have decided against owning the company. Others shared nihilistic memes on the company’s Slack or openly criticized Twitter’s board and executives for entertaining Mr. Musk’s offer in the first place, according to internal messages viewed by The New York Times. The mood among executives was one of grim determination, two people with knowledge of their thinking said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/11/technology/elon-musk-twitter-damaged.html