Starbucks red holiday cups return for 25th year, plus peppermint mocha and new pastries

Courtesy of Starbucks

(NEW YORK) — Starbucks is officially in holiday mode with the return of its iconic red cups and special holiday menu.

Starting Thursday, Nov. 3, Starbucks will celebrate the return of holiday beverages and festive food, as well as 25 years of the holiday cups.

The coffee chain first rolled out the cups, initially designed by Sandy Nelson in 1997, to signify the arrival of the holiday season. This year, the classic red and Starbucks green colors have accents of mint and sparkles as a nod to the Peppermint Mocha, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Additional fan favorites back on the holiday menu include the Caramel Brulée Latte, Chestnut Praline Latte, Toasted White Chocolate Mocha, Irish Cream Cold Brew, and returning for the second year, the nondairy Iced Sugar Cookie Almondmilk Latte.

The pastry case is also getting the festive treatment for the season with a brand new Chocolate Pistachio Swirl and the return of Reindeer Cake Pops, Sugar Plum Cheese Danish, Cranberry Bliss Bars and Snowman Cookies.

Starbucks is also debuting its annual limited-edition holiday merch lineup, which features an array of colorful cold cups, tumblers, mugs and more in a variety of holiday designs.

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Federal Reserve approves another 0.75-point rate hike

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(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it was raising its short-term borrowing rate another 0.75% to slow key areas of the economy and tame inflation, which is at a 40-year high.

The central bank said its new target range is 3.75%-4%, the highest level since January 2008.

The aggressive move is the latest in a string of borrowing cost increases imposed by the Fed in recent months as it tries to slash price increases by cooling the economy and choking off demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the U.S. into a recession and putting millions out of work.

The fourth rate hike of 2022 also arrives less than a week before the midterm elections.

“Russia’s war against Ukraine is causing tremendous human and economic hardship. The war and related events are creating additional upward pressure on inflation and are weighing on global economic activity. The Committee is highly attentive to inflation risks,” Fed officials said in a statement. “The Committee anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2 percent over time.”

Data on consumer prices released last month showed that costs rose 0.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis in September, defying efforts to bring prices down. Consumer prices overall rose 8.2% over the 12 months ending in September, exceeding economists’ predictions.

The Federal Reserve is expected to raise the benchmark interest rate by 0.75%, repeating the same hike it imposed at each of the last three meetings, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. Prior to this year, the Fed last matched a hike of this magnitude in 1994.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on several occasions has reiterated the central bank’s commitment to bring inflation down to a target rate of 2%, saying in September the Fed expects to put forward “ongoing increases” to its benchmark interest rate.

The personal consumption expenditures price index – the inflation measure preferred by the Fed – stands at a year-over-year growth rate of 5.1%, government data showed last week.

“Powell has been very clear that inflation is unacceptably high and we have to stay the course to get it down,” Anne Villamil, an economist at Iowa University, told ABC News. “Markets have been a little hopeful that we could have a pause – I don’t see that happening.”

Despite persistent inflation, growing evidence suggests that the Fed’s moves have put the brakes on some economic activity.

Mortgage rates reached a 20-year high last week, as the U.S. faces an ongoing slowdown in home sales and housing construction.

Job growth has persisted at a strong rate but has shown signs of moderating.

U.S. employers added 263,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 3.5% from 3.7%, exceeding expectations and demonstrating the continued strength of the labor market.

But the total came in well below the typical jobs added over a given month in 2022. Monthly job growth has averaged 420,000 so far this year versus 562,000 per month in 2021, according to the Department of Labor.

Meanwhile, hires and quits fell slightly in September, suggesting that the demand for labor from employers has begun to ebb, government data released on Tuesday showed. The number of job openings, however, increased in September, a sign that the need for workers remains robust.

While some data points to an economic slowdown, a government report released last month showed significant economic growth over three months ending in September. U.S. gross domestic product grew 2.6% over that period; by contrast, economic activity shrank a combined 2.2% over the first six months of the year.

“We’re getting these very conflicting signals,” Villamil said. “That’s why the Fed has a tough job.”

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CBS, Les Moonves to pay $30M in deal with NY attorney general over sexual misconduct claims

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(NEW YORK) — CBS and its senior leadership knew about multiple allegations of sexual assault against former chief executive Les Moonves but intentionally concealed them from shareholders, regulators and the public, according to an investigation by the New York attorney general’s office that alleged insider trading and violations of consumer protection law that are now part of a $30 million settlement.

A senior CBS executive who knew about the allegations, former chief communications officer Gil Schwartz, sold millions of dollars in company stock in the weeks before the allegations became public, the attorney general’s office said.

The network fired Moonves in December 2018 after two law firms conducted an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations. That triggered a lawsuit by shareholders who alleged CBS and some of its current and former executives made false statements or failed to disclose material information about how the company handles sexual harassment complaints in the workplace.

The attorney general’s investigation also accused a captain of the Los Angeles Police Department of “direct and repeated interference” and violating confidentiality rules when the captain informed CBS about one complaint against Moonves and worked with network executives to prevent the complaint from becoming public.

“Hopefully we can kill media from PD. Then figure [sic] what [Complainant #1] wants,” the attorney general’s office quoted a text message from Moonves as saying.

The New York attorney general’s office said it has referred the matter involving the LAPD captain to the California attorney general.

The LAPD released a statement Wednesday acknowledging the New York attorney general’s investigation “involving the actions of a former command officer of the Department while assigned as a Captain to Hollywood Division.”

“We are fully cooperating with the New York and California Attorney General offices and have also initiated an internal investigation regarding the conduct of the retired command officer as well as to identify any other member(s) of the organization that may have been involved,” the statement said.

LAPD Police Chief Michel Moore added, “What is most appalling is the alleged breach of trust of a victim of sexual assault, who is among the most vulnerable, by a member of the LAPD. This erodes the public trust and is not reflective of our values as an organization.”

According to the attorney general’s office, the same day an individual filed a confidential criminal sexual assault complaint against Moonves at an LAPD station in Hollywood, the former LAPD captain informed a CBS executive of the confidential complaint. The LAPD captain shared an unredacted police report with the executive, who shared it with Mr. Moonves and other executives at CBS, the AG’s investigation found.

The settlement requires Moonves and CBS to pay $30.5 million to shareholders. CBS must reform its human resources practices around sexual harassment and provide biannual reports to the attorney general’s office.

“CBS and Leslie Moonves’ attempts to silence victims, lie to the public, and mislead investors can only be described as reprehensible,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James. “As a publicly traded company, CBS failed its most basic duty to be honest and transparent with the public and investors. After trying to bury the truth to protect their fortunes, today CBS and Leslie Moonves are paying millions of dollars for their wrongdoing.”

As CBS tried to hide these allegations, the company authorized its former chief communications officer, Schwartz, who was one of the few people with information about the allegations and the LAPD police report, to sell his shares, the attorney general’s office said. Schwartz died in May 2020.

Six weeks before the first article about the allegations became public, Schwartz sold 160,709 shares of CBS stock at an average weighted price of $55.08 for a total of $8,851,852. The stock dropped 10.9% from the day before the news broke to the trading day after, according to the attorney general’s office.

“We have reached an agreement in principle to resolve the matter with the Investor Protection Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s Office,” Paramount Global, CBS’s parent company, said in filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday. “The resolution includes no admission of liability or wrongdoing by the Company.

Moonves agreed to pay $2.5 million, and CBS will pay the rest of the settlement, according to a letter filed Wednesday with the federal judge in Manhattan handling the case.

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CVS agrees to $5 billion opioid settlement

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(NEW YORK) — CVS Health on Wednesday said it had agreed to a $5 billion settlement designed to “substantially resolve” opioid lawsuits against the pharmacy chain.

“We are pleased to resolve these longstanding claims and putting them behind us is in the best interest of all parties, as well as our customers, colleagues and shareholders,” said Thomas Moriarty, CVS’s chief policy officer and general counsel, in a statement. “We are committed to working with states, municipalities and tribes, and will continue our own important initiatives to help reduce the illegitimate use of prescription opioids.”

The national settlement, which has been agreed to in principle, would resolve lawsuits brought by states and other governments, the company said. Some of those claims date back a decade or more. The settlement isn’t an “an admission of any liability or wrongdoing,” the company said.

CVS Health shares ticked up about 2.4% in premarket trading on Wednesday, as it released third-quarter results alongside the settlement announcement.

The settlement payments would be spread over a 10-year period beginning in 2023, depending on the number of governmental entities that agree to join the settlement. The parties are still determining the “non-monetary” terms to be included in the settlement, CVS said.

The payments would include about $4.9 billion to be paid to states, cities, counties and other political plaintiffs, CVS said. About $130 million would be paid to tribes, according to Wednesday’s statement.

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Fed expected to impose another major rate hike, intensifying inflation fight

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(WASHINGTON) — Economists expect another jumbo-sized increase in borrowing costs when the Federal Reserve announces its interest rate decision on Wednesday. Mounting evidence suggests that previous rate hikes have slowed key areas of the economy but inflation remains highly elevated.

The move would mark the latest in a string of borrowing cost increases imposed by the Fed in recent months as it tries to slash price increases by cooling the economy and choking off demand. But the approach risks tipping the U.S. into a recession and putting millions out of work.

Arriving less than a week before the midterm elections, the rate hike would indicate that the central bank considers inflation a continued threat to the U.S. economy.

Data on consumer prices released last month showed that costs rose 0.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis in September, defying efforts to bring prices down. Consumer prices overall rose 8.2% over the 12 months ending in September, exceeding economists’ predictions.

The Federal Reserve is expected to raise the benchmark interest rate by 0.75%, repeating the same hike it imposed at each of the last three meetings, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists. Prior to this year, the Fed last matched a hike of this magnitude in 1994. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on several occasions has reiterated the central bank’s commitment to bring inflation down to a target rate of 2%, saying in September the Fed expects to put forward “ongoing increases” to its benchmark interest rate.

The personal consumption expenditures price index — the inflation measure preferred by the Fed — stands at a year-over-year growth rate of 5.1%, government data showed last week.

“Powell has been very clear that inflation is unacceptably high and we have to stay the course to get it down,” Anne Villamil, an economist at Iowa University, told ABC News. “Markets have been a little hopeful that we could have a pause — I don’t see that happening.”

Despite persistent inflation, growing evidence suggests that the Fed’s moves have put the brakes on some economic activity.

Mortgage rates reached a 20-year high last week, as the U.S. faces an ongoing slowdown in home sales and housing construction.

Job growth has persisted at a strong rate but has shown signs of moderating.

U.S. employers added 263,000 jobs in September and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 3.5% from 3.7%, exceeding expectations and demonstrating the continued strength of the labor market.

But the total came in well below the typical jobs added over a given month in 2022. Monthly job growth has averaged 420,000 so far this year versus 562,000 per month in 2021, according to the Department of Labor.

Meanwhile, hires and quits fell slightly in September, suggesting that the demand for labor from employers has begun to ebb, government data released on Tuesday showed. The number of job openings, however, increased in September, a sign that the need for workers remains robust.

While some data points to an economic slowdown, a government report released last month showed significant economic growth over three months ending in September. U.S. gross domestic product grew 2.6% over that period; by contrast, economic activity shrank a combined 2.2% over the first six months of the year.

“We’re getting these very conflicting signals,” Villamil said. “That’s why the Fed has a tough job.”

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Hate speech increased on Twitter after Elon Musk takeover, study finds

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(NEW YORK) — A new study from Montclair State University showed a dramatic increase in hate speech on Twitter immediately following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social media platform.

Musk, who describes himself as a free speech absolutist, closed the deal on the platform on Thursday, Oct. 27. He said he promised to reduce Twitter’s content restrictions to promote free speech, yet no official changes have been made since the acquisition aside from the announcement of a to-be-formed “content moderation council” that will review company policies.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in a statement when the deal was announced.

Some online have expressed concerns about what they see as a rise in misinformation and hate speech on one of the most popular social media sites.

Despite the lack of changes to content restrictions, some researchers say that a number users seemed to take Musk’s leadership as an open invitation to spread hate online.

Montclair State University researchers who studied how often certain homophobic, antisemitic and racial hate terms were used found no more than 84 tweets featuring hate terms were posted per hour when looking at the seven-day average before Musk acquired Twitter. This totals to just over 1,000 tweets in 12 hours.

On Oct. 28, in the first 12 hours following Musk’s acquisition, hate speech was tweeted an estimated 4,778 times, according to the report.

“The character of what Twitter will look like with Musk as the head remains speculative, despite his stated intentions,” the report reads. “What is not speculative, however, is the extent to which his date of formal acquisition was celebrated by racist and extremist users on the platform.”

The Montclair State researchers found that the potential number of times a term posted in Twitter could have been viewed was more than 3 million.

In similar research by the cyber research organization National Contagion Research Institute, the use of the N-word racial epithet skyrocketed by over 500% on the website on Oct. 28.

 

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FCC commissioner says US should ban TikTok: Report

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(WASHINGTON) — A commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday called on the U.S. government to ban social media platform TikTok over concerns about how the China-owned app handles the data of American users.

The remarks, made in an interview with Axios, come as the fast-growing app holds ongoing negotiations with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, about whether it can continue business in the U.S. if it is sold from Chinese parent company ByteDance to an American company.

Brendan Carr, one of five commissioners of the FCC, called on CFIUS to ban TikTok, citing the company’s alleged inability to secure the data of U.S.-based users.

There is not “a world in which you could come up with sufficient protection on the data that you could have sufficient confidence that it’s not finding its way back into the hands of the [Chinese Communist Party],” Carr told Axios.

The company told ABC News in a statement that Carr is not involved in negotiations with the U.S. government regarding the app.

“Commissioner Carr has no role in the confidential discussions with the U.S. government related to TikTok and appears to be expressing views independent of his role as an FCC commissioner,” said Brooke Oberwetter, a TikTok spokesperson.

“We are confident that we are on a path to reaching an agreement with the U.S. Government that will satisfy all reasonable national security concerns,” Oberwetter added.

The FCC did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on Carr’s statements.

The Biden administration and TikTok wrote up a preliminary agreement to address national security concerns posed by the app but obstacles remain in the negotiations, the New York Times reported in September.

TikTok says that it stores the data of U.S. users outside of China, and has never removed U.S. posts from the platform at the request of the Chinese government.

Recent news stories have called into question the security of user data.

Buzzfeed reported in June that TikTok engineers based in China gained access to intimate information on U.S. users, such as phone numbers. Forbes reported last month that ByteDance intended to use the app to access information on some users.

The Trump administration tried to ban TikTok in 2020, eventually calling on ByteDance to sell the app to a U.S. company. However, the sale never took place.

The remarks from Carr arrive less than a week before the midterm elections, after which a new Congress may take further steps to ban or limit the app.

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Gas prices could decide the midterms. Here’s why.

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(NEW YORK) — Midterm election results may come down to the price of a gallon of gas.

Roughly half of Americans say either the economy or inflation is the most important issue in their vote for Congress, making bread-and-butter financial issues by far the most dominant in the lead-up to the midterm elections, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released on Sunday.

Meanwhile, research has established a relationship between gas prices and presidential approval ratings that reaches back decades, despite the limited control that presidents exert over fuel costs, experts told ABC News. Presidential approval ratings, in turn, mark a key indicator of midterm success or failure for the party in control of the White House, they said.

After reaching a summer peak, gas prices declined for about 100 consecutive days, buoying Biden’s approval rating. But a price spike in early October weighed on his approval.

Over the last few weeks, prices have returned to a steady decline – though they remain elevated – leaving an open question about whether consumers will recognize the trend and reward the Democrats or punish them for too little, too late.

“Swing voters will be deciding as they’re literally walking into the voting booth,” Colin McAuliffe, co-founder of left-leaning research firm Data for Progress, told ABC News.

The ubiquity of gas prices emblazoned on towering roadside signs can affect the financial attitude of those who do not even purchase gas. For those who do, filling up the tank offers a few minutes of repose with little to do but watch the price slowly add up, the experts said.

“People know their grocery bill has gone up but they can’t say necessarily how much the price of meat versus milk versus cereal has changed,” Laurel Harbridge-Yong, a professor of political science at Northwestern University who has studied the political implications of gas prices, told ABC News. “Gas is a very visible item and an item you buy one at a time, without bundling it with others.”

In 2016, a study in the academic journal Political Psychology examined the relationship between gas prices and presidential approval rating between the mid-1970s and mid-2000s, finding that elevated gas prices drove a president’s approval downward. To be exact, each 10-cent increase in the gas price was associated with more than half a percentage point decline in presidential approval, the research showed.

Further, the researchers studied press coverage of the gas prices, finding that the effect on presidential approval occurred regardless of how much attention the prices got. On that score, gas prices contrast with other economic indicators, like the unemployment rate or overall inflation, which typically require media coverage that gives voters a sense of the trend, said Harbridge-Yong, one of the researchers who conducted the study.

McAuliffe, of Data for Progress, has established more recent findings, demonstrating a correlation between gas prices and presidential approval during Biden’s time in office stretching to as recently as August. “The correlation has held up pretty strongly,” he said.

The continued salience of gas prices amid inflation under Biden comes as no surprise to ​​Jon Krosnick, a professor of political science at Stanford University who co-authored the 2016 study. “When we see gas prices go up as much as they have gone up, clearly there are implications,” he said.

Despite the relationship between gas prices and presidential approval rating, presidents exert little control over fuel costs, leaving them largely powerless to address perceptions of their performance in this area, experts said.

The U.S. is set to produce an average of 11.8 million barrels oil per day in 2022, which stands 500,000 barrels short of a record set in 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. But oil prices are set on a global market, where supply shortages caused by the Russia-Ukraine War and OPEC+ output cuts cannot be offset by a comparable short-term increase in U.S. oil output.

Typically, gas prices drop ahead of midterm elections, since the Fall brings a decline in demand as Americans scale back from summer travel, said Patrick De Haan, an oil and gas analyst for GasBuddy. In recent weeks, the drop has also stemmed from the repair of damage at a string of oil refineries, which brought them back online and increased overall output, he added.

“It’s normal for prices to go down this time of year,” De haan told ABC News. “It’s not political.”

The price relief may have arrived too late for voters to notice, said Krosnick, of Stanford University.

“There’s not a lot of time between now and election day,” he said. “Obviously any change in gasoline prices has to take place and be detected by the public.”

Biden highlighted the issue on Monday, threatening oil and gas companies with higher taxes if they do not relieve a supply shortage with increased output. Many of the major oil producers have reported recorded profits in recent quarters.

On election day, gas prices will play an unmistakable role in the outcome, Krosnick said.

“People bring to the table a mix of issues. You can think of it as making a complicated soup with lots of ingredients that play a part,” he said. “Gas prices clearly are a part of the soup.”

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What Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition means for the midterm elections

Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency

(NEW YORK) — Elon Musk, who spent months alternately courting and criticizing Twitter, ultimately acquired one of the world’s largest social media platforms days before the U.S. midterm elections.

The acquisition, meanwhile, has sent the company into flux. Musk removed top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, and announced the formation of a “content moderation council” that will review company policies, including the status of suspended users like former President Donald Trump.

Policy changes at Twitter — or the mere presence of Musk atop the company — could adversely affect election integrity and fuel a rise of hate speech and misinformation, a number of experts told ABC News. The leadership shift will also draw heightened attention to comments on the platform made by Musk, who has shown a willingness to post inflammatory or misleading content, they added.

With such a short stretch of time before the election on Nov. 8, some experts downplayed the possibility of an impact that could swing outcomes or meaningfully impact the election process.

“A lot of people have this quaint idea that the digital town square is all these individuals talking to each other,” Eddie Perez, a former product director for civic integrity at Twitter, told ABC News.

“People need to realize that this is effectively an information warfare battlefield where there are coordinated groups trying to take specific intentional actions to distort the information environment,” he added.

Neither Elon Musk nor a spokesperson for Twitter immediately responded to a request for comment.

Here’s what Elon Musk’s takeover could mean for Twitter’s impact on the midterm elections:

Content moderation and high-profile account reinstatement

Musk, an avowed proponent of free speech, spoke in recent months of a desire to permit nearly all legal forms of speech and allow the return of suspended users like Trump. Such moves could dramatically alter the discourse on Twitter, experts previously told ABC News.

Lately, however, Musk has walked back some of those comments. In a public letter to Twitter advertisers last week, Musk said the platform “must be warm and welcoming to all.” Soon after the acquisition, Musk announced that no major decisions on policing of the site would be made until the formation of a content moderation council.

Still, the use of some derogatory language on the platform spiked after Musk took the helm. Over a 12-hour period after the acquisition, use of the n-word increased nearly 500% from the previous average, according to the Network Contagion Research Institute.

“There wasn’t an official change of policy when Musk signed papers that made him owner but there was a discernible increase in extreme expression on the platform,” Paul Barrett, a professor at New York University Law School and deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, told ABC News.

Perez, the former Twitter employee and a board member at the OSET Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on election security and integrity, echoed that sentiment: “It doesn’t take changing the rules literally to result in adverse impact,” he said.

In the final days of a political race, harmful posts may include false information about election logistics, such as deadlines for returning ballots or where to vote, Perez added.

“Historically, there have been areas where people can sew misinformation and that can have a suppressive effect on the vote,” he said.

Major personnel changes

Election integrity and content policing at the platform could also weaken due to the potential loss of some employees charged with monitoring those issues, experts said.

After Musk acquired Twitter, some of the company’s top executives were fired, including Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde and general counsel Sam Edgett.

Close allies of Musk spent the weekend drawing up plans to impose widespread layoffs at the company, The Washington Post reported. Those cuts could eventually impact as much as 75% of company staff, a previous Post report said. Recently, Musk said he will not lay off 75% of staff, Bloomberg reported.

The urgency owes in part to a deadline on Tuesday, when employees will receive extra compensation tied to stock grants.

While details of the potential layoffs remain limited, the move could compromise the platform’s capacity to police false or harmful content, with ramifications that extend to social issues like election integrity, experts told ABC News.

“If he lays off half the employees, that’s going to obviously affect the operation of the company,” said Barrett. “If he’s laying off a lot of those people in the trust and security area, that’s going to be a big problem.”

Dam Hee Kim, a professor of communication at University of Arizona who studies social media platforms, said the firing of executives and employees could expose the lack of experience in the industry for Musk, who currently runs Tesla and SpaceX.

“It is a bit concerning considering that it is his very first time running a social media service,” Kim told ABC News.

Heightened focus on Elon Musk’s tweets

Another source of impact on the midterms stems from posts made by Musk, which will garner additional attention after the acquisition and could set a tone for droves of users, experts said.

“There will be intense focus and attention directed toward what he says and does in the coming weeks and months,” Barrett said. “There’s little doubt about that.”

Musk, who boasts more than 112 million Twitter followers, often posts multiple times per day on subjects that span business, politics and personal hobbies. Sometimes, the posts pertain to highly charged political topics such as the Ukraine-Russia war and Taiwan’s sovereignty.

On Sunday, Musk posted a tweet that pushed false claims about the recent attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The tweet from Musk came in response to a post from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who sharply criticized Republicans for forwarding “hate and deranged conspiracy theories” that she said leads to violent attacks like the one on Paul Pelosi.

In response to Clinton’s tweet, Musk said, “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye” and included a link to an article in the Santa Monica Observer that featured false theories about the attack.

Hours later, the tweet from Musk was deleted.

Before its removal, the inflammatory tweet from Musk had stoked conspiracy theories, Perez said.

“Musk is the leader of the social media platform,” Perez said. “We saw him personally spreading misinformation about the attack at Nancy Pelosi’s household, which is pretty dramatic.”

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Expert insights to save time and money on Thanksgiving, Christmas travel

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(NEW YORK) — With less than a month until Thanksgiving and just under 60 days until Christmas, ’tis officially the season for holiday travel planning.

Whether consumers are booking flights and hotels or need insight to save time and alleviate stress at the airport, travel experts shared their top tips and data with ABC News’ Good Morning America to help guide them toward the path of least resistance.

Top tips before you book your holiday flight

While some may not want to hear it, Scott Keyes, founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights and author of Take More Vacations, told GMA that “the best time to have booked holiday flights was in June.”

“I know that’s small comfort now, but think of it as a reminder for next year,” he continued, adding that “if you’re hoping to travel this upcoming summer — you’re actually starting to see some really cheap flights on those opposite season flights now.”

Last minute tips to book a flight for Thanksgiving

Keyes said the second-best time to book if you missed the off-season deals is right now, because flights are almost certainly going to get more expensive the longer people wait.

“You want to try to book it sooner rather than later because fares tend to move in one direction in the last few weeks and it’s not down,” he said.

Keyes suggests following the 21-day rule, which means backtiming when to book based on your departure date to align with an airline’s “advanced purchase requirement” found in the fine print of the fare terms and conditions.

“That usually states ‘this fare is only available if you book it at least 21 days before travel,’ ” Keyes said. “On day 20 that fare is no longer available, it’s expired, and at that point, the new cheapest fare is going to be $100 or $200 more expensive.”

“Twenty-one days before you travel is the sort of drop-dead deadline to book that flight,” he continued, adding that “if you’re hoping to travel on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, which would be Nov. 23, you’re actually going to want to try to get that flight booked by Nov. 2 at the latest.”

After that, the price will continue to go up incrementally.

The best flight departure time to book and why

“The most important thing to remember is that the earliest flight of the day has a 25% point higher on-time performance rate than the last flights of the day,” Keyes shared. “Get those morning flights cause they’re far more likely to get you there on time.”

In addition to better weather and fewer thunderstorms in the morning, Keyes explained that booking the first flight out helps mitigate risks of delays or cancellations due to any issues with an in-bound aircraft, since yours will have been parked overnight and ready at the gate.

Alternative destinations for Thanksgiving travel deals

“Thanksgiving is the best week of the entire year for international travel,” Keyes said, sharing an example in real-time that it would cost someone $118 more to fly from New York City to Omaha, Nebraska than New York City to Portugal over the week of Thanksgiving.

Plus, he said it’s a slower season than summer, with fewer crowds and lower prices, and some areas around Europe will be starting their seasonal holiday markets.

Tips to save time, money and mitigate stress at the airport over the holidays

Keyes offered a couple of his top ideas to “help keep your cool at the airport” during the chaotic holiday season.

“If you can avoid it, try not to check a bag,” he said. “It will actually really help improve your odds for many situations.”

“You’re not having to take the extra time to stand in line when you get to the airport and risk if the lines are too long or potentially missing flight. You’re not standing at carousel wondering if your bag is going to arrive,” he said. “If something happens to your flight, like a missed connection or cancellation, it is far easier to get reaccommodated if the airline doesn’t have to go find your bag in the belly of a plane and switch it to some other plane.”

Another way to reduce stress is to enroll in TSA Precheck or Global Entry, which Keyes said is particularly easy “if you have a credit card that is going to cover the cost of those applications.”

“That will let you whiz through a much shorter security line, you don’t have to take your shoes off — if you skip checking a bag and have TSA precheck, when you get through the doors of the airport to the time at your gate, it’s often about five minutes,” he explained.

But even if the TSA precheck line looks longer than the standard security checkpoint, Keyes advised staying in your lane.

“Even if the line is longer, typically it’s going to move quite a bit faster, not only because you don’t have to take off your shoes or your laptop out of your bag, but also because the TSA line tends to have more experienced travelers who know what to do,” he said. “Nothing against less experienced travelers, but they’re just going to take more time.”

If you don’t have TSA precheck, Keyes recommended checking if the airport offers the option of “letting folks schedule a time to show up at TSA, where you can essentially log on, schedule it the day before and show up for your specific block.”

“Your downside risk of a big delay is far less if you’re in one of those scheduled slots,” he said.

Best tip to easily rebook after flight delays or cancelations

“If your flight does get canceled or you miss a connection — especially if there’s bad weather — a lot of people will be calling, so don’t just stand in line at the airport to talk to a gate agent,” Keyes said. “You want to also make sure you call the airline. But specifically call the airlines international number.”

This handy hack will bypass the main U.S. hotline, Keyes said, which most everybody else would also be calling.

“If you call American Airlines’ UK number or United’s Canada number,” he said, “you’re much more likely to get right through to an agent because those have far fewer callers and those agents who are based internationally can help your case and get you rebooked just the same as U.S. based agents.”

Hotel prices and last minute holiday destination deals

The team of experts behind the travel app Hopper found that the average hotel prices per night for Thanksgiving and Christmas have increased 14% from last year.

For hotel stays, Hopper experts advise finalizing any Thanksgiving bookings by the first week of November, and for Christmas, by the first week of December.

For travelers who can be flexible with timing and locations, Hopper said consumers can “save as much as 25% by booking last minute for the holidays for hotels, particularly in big cities.”

“Hotels lower [their] prices on remaining inventory in the month prior to the check-in date so you can often find good deals in the days leading up to the holiday,” a representative for Hopper said in a statement. “However, keep in mind that you will need to be flexible with the hotel property and amenities to get a good last-minute deal.”

Best days for holiday hotel check-in

For anyone planning to stay at their destination for a few days, Hopper advised travelers to arrive on the Monday or Tuesday ahead of Thanksgiving, versus staying after the holiday.

The travel service app also found that prices for Black Friday check-ins are higher than Thanksgiving itself, with some folks looking at an additional $50 more for a post-turkey day weekend getaway.

For Christmas, Hopper found that checking in on the holiday itself could be 11% lower than checking in on Christmas Eve.

When it comes to New Year’s Eve, they noted that “hotel prices will be low until Dec. 27” but after that rates will “rise by about $30 per night.”

Overall, according to Hopper, prices will be highest the week between Christmas and New Year’s compared to the week prior.

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