Vox Sentences - Twitter's @jack is leaving the nest

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey steps down as CEO; the World Health Organization says the omicron variant is cause for “very high” global concern.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey resigns

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

• Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey is stepping down as CEO; he’ll be replaced by the company’s chief technology officer Parag Agrawal. [CNBC / Jessica Bursztynsky and Lauren Feiner]
• “I’ve decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders,” Dorsey, 45, said in a statement emphasizing that he wasn’t forced out. Dorsey will complete his term on Twitter’s board of directors; it ends in May 2022. [NPR / Shannon Bond]
• After narrowly surviving an attempt by investors to push him out last year, Dorsey — who is also CEO of digital financial services company Square — has faced pressure to choose one company to lead. [AP / Michelle Chapman and Tali Arbel]
• Dorsey has also been accused of being too hands-off. For instance, when Twitter banned President Donald Trump’s account it was actually one of Dorsey’s deputies who made the decision as Dorsey vacationed on a private island. [NYT / Kate Conger and Lauren Hirsch]
• Since returning as CEO in 2015, Dorsey helped Twitter reach profitability and grow revenue. He leaves as the company tries to attract paying users and as it faces pressure from lawmakers who want the platform to implement stricter moderation standards. [CNN / Brian Fung]
• Now that Dorsey and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have both resigned as CEOs of the companies they created, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is the only major founder-CEO left in Silicon Valley. [Washington Post / Elizabeth Dwoskin and Rachel Lerman]

The WHO says omicron is a cause for “very high” global concern

• The World Health Organization warned Monday that the omicron variant of Covid-19 first identified in South Africa will continue to spread internationally, calling it a cause for “very high” global concern as many prepare for the upcoming holiday season. [Washington Post / Annabelle Timsit]
• In a technical paper released Monday, the health agency said “considerable uncertainties” remain about the omicron variant: how transmissible the virus is, how effective current vaccines are against it, and if it causes more severe symptoms than other variants. [AP / Jamey Keaten, Raf Casert, and Mari Yamaguchi]
• While suggesting that people remain calm, President Joe Biden said the best protection against the omicron variant is getting fully vaccinated. “The variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic,” Biden said on Monday. [NPR / Brian Naylor]
• South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the omicron variant “should be a wake-up call to the world that vaccine inequality cannot be allowed to continue,” in a video statement released Sunday. “Until everyone is vaccinated, everyone will continue to be at risk,” he added, urging countries to lift travel bans on southern African countries. [SABC via Guardian]
• As of Monday, several cases of the omicron variant had been detected in Canada; officials expect it could only be a matter of days before cases are confirmed in the US. [CNN]

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The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman accused of grooming underage girls for sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, began on Monday. [Guardian / Victoria Bekiempis]

• Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is suing the Pentagon for redacting portions of his memoir about his tenure in the Trump administration. [Washington Post / John Wagner]
• The European Union created a shadow immigration system to keep out migrants from sub-Saharan Africa by detaining them in for-profit prisons. [New Yorker / Ian Urbina]
• The Supreme Court will take up a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade when it hears a Mississippi case banning most abortions after 15 weeks. [NBC / Pete Williams]

“If he’s actually stepping away from Twitter this time, Dorsey leaves behind a mixed legacy: a platform that’s useful and potent for quick communication but one that’s been exploited by a range of bad actors, including former President Donald Trump, who did his best on Twitter to undermine democracy — until Dorsey’s people finally had enough and shut him down.”

Paul Barrett, deputy director of the Stern Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University, explaining what Jack Dorsey’s departure means for Twitter

Sean Illing talks with Anne Helen Petersen and her partner Charlie Warzel about their new book, Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home. [Spotify]

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