What we’re reading: Powerball reaches new high, Twitter asking former employees to return

AP

A man buys lottery tickets ahead of the Powerball jackpot drawing at the Bluebird Liquor store in Hawthorne, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

By Zion Trammell
Published Nov 6, 2022

Powerball jackpot reaches $1.9 billion for Monday’s drawing 

After no one claimed the winning ticket for the powerball jackpot on Saturday, the winning ticket has now risen to $1.9 billion ahead of Monday’s drawing. According to ABC News, Monday’s drawing has a case option of $929.1 million. 

Drew Svitko is the Powerball product group chair and Pennsylvania Lottery executive director, told ABC News, “Like the rest of America and the world, I think we’re all eager to find out when this historic jackpot will eventually be won.”

The last jackpot was won in Pennsylvania on Aug. 3. Since then, there have been 40 drawings.

Twitter is now asking former employees to return to work 

Following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, more than half of the staff at Twitter has been laid off. Bloomberg News reports that the company is reaching out to several employees to return. 

FILE – The Twitter logo is seen on the awning of the building that houses the Twitter office in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022. While amount of chaos is expected after a corporate takeover, as are layoffs and firings, Elon Musk’s murky plans for Twitter — especially its content moderation, misinformation and hate speech policies — are raising alarms about where one of the world’s most high-profile information ecosystems is headed. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File) (AP)

Reportedly, employees were laid off  initially by mistake. Bloomberg News reports their expertise may be needed to help build the features that Musk plans to implement. Employees let go were part of the trust and safety team, communications, content curation, human rights and machine learning ethics. 

In Musk’s biggest change to the platform, Twitter updated their app to begin charging $8 a month for long sought-after blue verification marks. 

Apple fears that COVID-19 restrictions in China are hurting iPhone production 

Apple said in a statement on Sunday that they will reduce iPhone 14 production because of COVID-19 restrictions in Zhengzhou, China. 

The factory is owned by Foxconn and is operating at “significantly reduced capacity,” according to Apple. China is operating under a zero COVID-19 policy, meaning employees must isolate themselves and work in factories separated from the outside world.

The demand is high for the next iPhone and are currently starting at $999 and $1099. If the phone is ordered through the Apple website, customers can expect to receive it in approximately 31 days. 

Iranian lawmakers pushing for protestors to be sentenced to death

People continue to protest in Iran over the death of 22-year old Mahsa Amini. She passed on September 16, 2022, following her arrest in the capital, Tehran, for allegedly violating Iran’s hijab law. 

Now, a group of 227 parliament members in Iran have called on the judiciary to sentence protestors that are arrested to death. The parliament, which was elected in February 2020, is filled with hardliners and Revolutionary guard officers. They also compared the protestors to members of ISIS. 

Demonstrators chant slogans as one of them holds up a poster of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a demonstration in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Nov. 4, 2022. Iran on Friday marked the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran as its theocracy faces nationwide protests after the death of a 22-year-old woman earlier arrested by the country’s morality police. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) (AP)

Authorities have claimed that “separatists and instigators are behind the efforts to overthrow the government and break Iran into areas controlled by ethnic groups,” according to Iran International.

The protests have been ongoing for six weeks and there does not seem to be an end in sight.