In a surprise move that may steal some of Apple’s thunder next week, Huawei may roll out a trifold phone just hours after Apple’s big iPhone event. As cnet.com notes, up to now, there have only been bi-fold phones…either the book type, or flip phone handsets. Trifold phones have been spotted in concept materials at Samsung, and Apple has been thought to be experimenting with a trifold iPhone, but this model from Huawei would be a first by far. Huawei released its first folding phone in 2019. The Huawei event will happen just about an hour and a half after Apple’s big rollout! The trifold phone is expected to be called the Mate XT.

The FBI has seized some 32 web domains operated by the Doppelgänger Russian-linked influence operation network. According to bleepingcomputer.com, papers filed say Doppelgänger is believed to be linked to Russian companies controlled by the Russian government, which have been used to spread Russian government propaganda designed to promote pro-Russian policies and interests….including reducing international support for Ukraine, and more importantly, influencing voters in U.S. and foreign elections in Germany, Mexico, and Israel, among others. Two individuals were indicted as well…Russian nationals that worked for government controlled Russia Today who had poured $10 million into a company in Tennessee that uploaded some 2,000 videos to YouTube designed to expose Russian disinformation to US audiences. They got some 16 million views, too! The Department of Justice indicates it isn’t finished going after Russian interests trying to influence US elections at this point. More to come.

Automaker KIA has set another American sales record for August, selling the most cars in the company’s history. Demand for its 3 row EV SUV, the EV9 is still growing…and is now up 27% over last year. Electrek.co says KIA sold 75,200 vehicles in August. They have sold nearly 14,000 EV9 electric SUVs so far this year. The 3 row SUV is hot enough that Tesla has announced a 3 row Model Y is going to be produced. The KIA EV6 has a 310 mile range, and the Korean carmaker plans a freshened version by the end of the year. Hyundai, which owns KIA, just unveiled its updated IONIQ 5 this week. 

After positively gutting staffing at Twitter a couple years ago, Elon Musk’s now-X platform is trying to hire new people for moderating content and securing the platform. I’m sure this has nothing to do with it being banned in Brazil and being on the cusp of that in other countries. Techcrunch.com reports that the platform has posted around a dozen openings across its safety and cybersecurity teams. Considering that Musk chopped the headcount at the platform by around 6,000 workers the first 6 months he had it, to a skeleton crew of about 1500, it’s a drop in the bucket. X ended up cutting 80% of its trust and safety staff after Elon took over. It may be far too late to turn this ship around, but if Musk really wants to, he will need to hire thousands, not a dozen.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.