Team GO Rocket's statement
During the past few days Team GO Rocket has started appearing in Pokémon GO, hiding at a slightly discoloured Pokéstop where they are stealing the items. Upon discovering them they challenge us to battle with their Shadow Pokémon. These are Pokémon with a dark aura, which were already present in the Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness on Nintendo Gamecube in the past. With Shadow Lugia as the featured Legendary in XD Gale of Darkness.
After defeating this Team Rocket Grunt we can capture one Shadow Pokémon that they have abandoned, for me it's so far always been the first Pokémon of the three they use in battle. When it's been captured you can Purify this Shadow Pokémon for a small Stardust and Candy cost and it will go up in level a lot, its IV will also slightly increase. You can keep them as either Shadow or Purify them. These can also be evolved and require a little less Stardust and Candy to power up and evolve.
The moves Frustration and Return are now added in the game too. Frustration is a move that deals more damage the less the Pokémon loves their Trainer and Return deals more damage the more the Pokémon loves their Trainer. So based on this they have assigned the move Frustration to only available on Shadow Pokémon and Return to be available only on Purified Pokémon.
Purified Pokémon also show up in the Pokédex the same was as Lucky Pokémon do. The Shadow Pokémon have a dark aura around them and the Purified have a light aura around them. Which is also visible when they are used as Gym Defenders. I think it's possible to trade them too, but when I tried it said that I've already done a Special Trade today, which is true as I traded a Legendary. So if they can indeed be traded, then these count as a Special Trade, even if both Trainers have that same Pokémon already as Shadow or Purified.
Today Team GO Rocket has released a statement which goes as following:
"Trainers...
For three years, we have been watching. The world of Pokémon GO is rife with unlimited resources. This privilege is wasted on Trainers like you who lack the vision to exploit this vast world of resources and Pokémon.
You walk around and spin your Pokéstops like this is some kind of game. You battle in your Gyms and rejoice when they change colors. You care for Pokémon as though they're something more than tools! What a waste of potential!
We've brought our Shadow Pokémon, strengthened to unimaginable levels that you could never reach through powering up alone. We're here to take over your Pokéstops and steal from their unlimited supply of resources. Can't you see the beauty of our evil?
This is just the beginning. Your resources are our resources. Your Pokémon are our Pokémon. Your world is our world! You can't stop us. Professor Willow, Spark, Blanche, Candela, and most of all, you-stay out of our way!
We follow the villainous path of those before us-and we will succeed in finally bringing Giovanni's vision to the world!
If you insist on trying to disrupt our plans, we will make you feel a world of pain!
-Team GO Rocket"
On the Pokémon GO Twitter page, where Team GO Rocket has taken over everything, there was a message about today, from 4 pm to 5 pm local time that there will be a Team GO Rocket invasion! Which has already been demonstrated earlier this week in part of New York. So Team GO Rocket will be taking over all of the Pokéstops during that hour window for sure. And who knows what will follow later? As this might just be the beginning of them invading us. Especially as they mentioned Giovanni in their statement they released today! Let's see what happens!
As you can see in the following tweet from them, they even had a physical Team GO Rocket balloon in New York!
https://twitter.com/PokemonGoApp/status/1154822797534945281