The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged past 25,000 in Thursday morning trading, the first time that threshold has ever been crossed. A sunny outlook for global growth and surprisingly strong U.S. economic data powered the bull market to yet another record after a historic 2017. While many investors see no sign of the market turning bearish, others are less sanguine; MarketWatch reported Thursday that some analysts are warning that the skyrocketing market is due for a "melt-up." Read more at MarketWatch and Bloomberg. Nico Lauricella
A new report prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee, the first to study millions of posts from the 2016 presidential campaign provided by Facebook, Twitter, and Google, says that Russians working at the Internet Research Agency posted on every major social media platform photos, videos, and messages to help get President Trump elected, and continued the effort to support him once in office, The Washington Post reports.
The Post obtained a draft of the report, compiled by Oxford University's Computational Propaganda Project. Researchers found that at certain points, like during presidential debates, disinformation campaigns ramped up, with different groups receiving targeted messages: for example, conservatives saw posts about gun rights, while black voters saw false information about how to vote.
"What is clear is that all of the messaging clearly sought to benefit the Republican Party — and specifically Donald Trump," the report says. "Trump is mentioned most in campaigns targeting conservatives and right-wing voters, where the messaging encouraged those groups to support his campaign. The main groups that could challenge Trump were then provided messaging that sought to confuse, distract, and ultimately discourage members from voting."
The tech companies were all extremely slow to realize what was going on, the report says, even though the Russians slipped up several times, like paying for ads with rubles. Social media, the report states, went from a "natural infrastructure for sharing collective grievances and coordinating civic engagement to being a computational tool for social control, manipulated by canny political consultants and available to politicians in democracies and dictatorships alike." Read more about the report at The Washington Post. Catherine Garcia
More than 40 people, including several children, were injured on Sunday evening when an explosion destroyed a restaurant in Sapporo, Japan.
The blast caused a fire to break out in the restaurant, and shattered the windows in a nearby apartment building. Debris also fell on several cars parked on the street.
Police said the cause of the explosion, which took place in the Hiragishi district, is under investigation. One witness told NHK he smelled gas after hearing the explosion. Catherine Garcia
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday pushed back on calls for a second referendum on Brexit, the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union.
May particularly condemned remarks from former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said this week a new vote should be considered if "none of the other options work." May accused Blair of "seek[ing] to undermine our negotiations by advocating for a second referendum," arguing "Parliament has a democratic duty to deliver what the British people voted for."
May's proposed Brexit deal with the EU has stalled, lacking support to pass a House of Commons vote. Bonnie Kristian
