News of 11/21/18

Bangladeshi Photographer Shahidul Alam Has Been Released From Detention

Bangladeshi Photographer Shahidul Alam Has Been Released From Detention image Bangladeshi photographer and political activist Shahidul Alam was released from prison late Tuesday after spending more than 100 days in detention in a case denounced around the world as an assault on free speech. Alam was freed late Tuesday after being granted bail by Bangladesh’s high court last week, Agence France-Presse reports. But the internationally renowned photojournalist’s release was delayed after the prosecution appealed. Alam had previously applied for bail four times,...

Internal Facebook Memo Sees Outgoing VP Of Comms Schrage Take Blame For Hiring Definers

Internal Facebook memo sees outgoing VP of comms Schrage take blame for hiring Definers image TechCrunch has attained an internal memo published by Facebook’s outgoing head of public policy Elliot Schrage in which he blames himself for hiring PR firm Definers. He admits to having the company push negative narratives about competitors, but says Facebook did not ask or pay Definers to publish fake news. COO Sheryl Sandberg left a comment on the memo, saying it was never Facebook’s intention to play into anti-semitic theories about George Soros. The memo includes a Q&A...

Zuckerberg Won’T Step Down As Facebook Chairman

In a short but amply-hyped interview with CNN, Facebook’s founder and chief executive again responded to criticism over the company’s most recent crisis . The interview, excerpted from a longer Q&A for a CNN series called “Human Code,” hit most of the main questions that critics have raised about Facebook’s failings and Zuckerberg’s unilateral control over the company. While we didn’t learn much new, we do know the company’s latest posture...

A Chinese University’S Surveillance Plan Has Sparked Public Backlash

A Chinese University’s Surveillance Plan Has Sparked Public Backlash image (BEIJING) — A Chinese university’s plan to conduct a blanket search of student and staff electronic devices has come under fire, illustrating the limits of the population’s tolerance for surveillance and raising the prospect that tactics used on Muslim minorities may be creeping into the rest of the country. The Guilin University of Electronic Technology is reconsidering a search of cellphones, computers, external hard disks and USB drives after a copy of the order leaked online and...

Utah Democrat Ben McAdams Is The Latest To Flip A GOP U.S. House Seat

Utah Democrat Ben McAdams Is the Latest to Flip a GOP U.S. House Seat image (SALT LAKE CITY) — Democrat Ben McAdams has flipped a U.S. House seat in deep-red Utah, defeating incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Mia Love by fewer than 700 votes in a race that took two weeks to settle. McAdams defeated Love by a margin barely over what would have been needed to require a recount, according to final results posted Tuesday. McAdams’ victory adds to the Democratic majority in a year when they’ve flipped more than three dozen Republican-held seats across the country...

President Trump Asked Lawyers To Look Into Prosecuting Hillary Clinton And James Comey, Report Says

President Trump Asked Lawyers to Look into Prosecuting Hillary Clinton and James Comey, Report Says image (WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump told his counsel’s office last spring that he wanted to prosecute political adversaries Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey, an idea that prompted White House lawyers to prepare a memo warning of consequences ranging up to possible impeachment, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Then-counsel Don McGahn told the president he had no authority to order such a prosecution , and he had White House lawyers prepare the memo arguing...

Donald Trump’S Resort In Ireland Has Lost Money For The Fourth Consecutive Year

Donald Trump’s Resort in Ireland Has Lost Money for the Fourth Consecutive Year image (NEW YORK) — A golf club in Ireland owned by President Donald Trump has lost money for a fourth year in a row. A year ago, Trump’s company had predicted it would turn a profit. But financial statements filed with the Irish government last month show the club overlooking the Atlan t ic Ocean posted losses of $2 million (1.8 million euros) in 2017, the latest year available. Operating results, which don’t include some non-cash charges, also showed a loss. The 2017 results follow...

Rep. Fudge, Pelosi’S Main Challenger For The Speakership, Just Gave Her Support To The Minority Leader

Rep. Fudge, Pelosi’s Main Challenger for the Speakership, Just Gave Her Support to the Minority Leader image The effort by a small group of Democratic lawmakers to keep Nancy Pelosi from reclaiming the speaker’s gavel hit another snag Tuesday evening when the one person who had emerged as a potentially challenger withdrew consideration. Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, who said last week that she was mulling a bid for speaker, announced Tuesday evening — in a statement released by Pelosi’s office — that she refrain from challenging Pelosi. Not only that, but she would also support both...

Five Years And One Pivot Later, Trueface Emerges With A Promise For Better Facial Recognition Tech

Shaun Moore and Nezare Chafni didn’t initially intend to develop a new standalone facial recognition technology, when they first got started developing the technology that would become their new company, Trueface.ai . When the two serial entrepreneurs were planning their next act five years ago, they wanted to ride the wave of smart home technologies with the development of a new smart doorbell — called Chui . That doorbell would be equipped with facial recognition software as a...

Kindred’S Robots Help Retailers Handle Fulfillment Centers — And Take On Amazon

Kindred’s robots help retailers handle fulfillment centers — and take on Amazon image Since taking the reins as chief executive of Kindred at the beginning of the year, Jim Liefer has been focused on commercializing his company’s autonomous robots. But unlike forward-projecting use-cases for robots that may (or may not) one day take over for human beings in a wide swath of functions, Kindred’s current robots are purpose-built for the floor of retail fulfillment centers. That puts Kindred in the middle of an interesting business question: Given rising consumer expectations...

Our 3 Favorite Startups From Morgan Stanley’S 2nd Multicultural Innovation Lab Demo Day 

Our 3 favorite startups from Morgan Stanley’s 2nd Multicultural Innovation Lab Demo Day  image The Morgan Stanley  Multicultural Innovation Lab , Morgan Stanley’s in-house accelerator focused on companies founded by multicultural and female entrepreneurs, hosted its second Annual Showcase and Demo Day.  The event also featured companies from accelerators HearstLab , Newark Venture Partner Labs and PS27 Ventures .  (Note: I was formerly employed by Morgan Stanley and have no financial ties.) The showcase represented the culmination of the program’s second year, which followed an...

11 Moments From The International Space Station’S First 20 Years

11 moments from the International Space Station’s first 20 years image It was November 20, 1998, when an unprecedented international coalition of astronomers, engineers and rocket scientists saw years of collaboration come to fruition with the launch of the International Space Station’s first component. Since then, the largest spacecraft ever built has hosted innumerable astronauts, experiments and other craft. Here are a few notable moments in the history of this inspiring and decades-spanning mission. 1984: Reagan proposes the ISS — without Russia The space...

Autodesk Agrees To Buy PlanGrid For $875 Million

Autodesk agrees to buy PlanGrid for $875 million image Autodesk announced plans to acquire PlanGrid  for $875 million today. The San Francisco startup helped move blueprints from paper to the iPad when it launched in 2011. This digitization of construction fits with Autodesk’s vision of digitizing design in general, and CEO Andrew Anagnost certainly recognized the transformational potential of the company he was buying. “There is a huge opportunity to streamline all aspects of construction through digitization and automation. The...

Rep. Justin Amash Slams 'Repugnant' Trump Statement On Khashoggi Killing

Rep. Justin Amash Slams 'Repugnant' Trump Statement on Khashoggi Killing image Rep. Justin Amash (R–Mich.) today had a blistering response to President Donald Trump's statement on the death of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi last month. Khashoggi, who moved to the U.S. earlier this year, disappeared during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October. The Saudi government admits he was killed but claims it was not a government-sanctioned assassination. However, The Washington Post reported Friday that it was in fact Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman...

Can Bitcoin Find Its Practical Use Case As A Currency In Latin America?

Can Bitcoin find its practical use case as a currency in Latin America? image Matthew Carpenter-Arévalo Contributor Share on Twitter Matthew Carpenter-Arévalo is a former Google and Twitter manager and current CEO of Céntrico Digital , a Latin American-based digital agency. More posts by this contributor Desperate for jobs, Venezuelan immigrants turn to ride-hailing services across Latin America Eduardo Gomez started with Bitcoin in 2012, though he didn’t quite understand what he was getting...

Stock Market Woes Worsen As Trade War Worries Grow

Stock Market Woes Worsen As Trade War Worries Grow image It was another brutal day for Wall Street, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling more than 550 points on Tuesday after losing more than 400 points on Monday. Similar sell-offs in other major indices caused the S&P 500 to drop 1.8 percent on Tuesday (following losses of 1.7 percent on Monday). Both the Dow and the S&P are now in negative territory for the year. The Nasdaq Composite, which includes mostly tech-oriented stocks, is still barely above water for the year as a whole, but...

President Trump Submits Written Answers To Mueller’S Questions In Russia Probe

President Trump Submits Written Answers to Mueller’s Questions in Russia Probe image (WASHINGTON) — Lawyers for President Donald Trump say they’ve provided the special counsel’s office with written responses to questions on Russian election interference. The answers are an important milestone in Robert Mueller’s probe, marking the first time the president is known to have described to investigators his knowledge of key moments under scrutiny by the special counsel’s office. Trump told reporters last week that he was answering the questions himself. Jay...

Piano Teams Up With True[X] To Combine Advertising And Paywalls

Piano teams up with True[x] to combine advertising and paywalls image Nearly every online publisher has launched or announced a paywall — but of course, even the ones that are successful won’t convince every reader, or even the majority of readers, to sign up. Now Piano and True[x] say they’ve found a more effective way to monetize the rest of the audience, without threatening crucial subscription revenue. Piano is a company that’s built a range of publisher tools, including paywall and subscription management. True[X], meanwhile, is an...

Apple’S Holiday Ad Is An Animated Short Film

Apple always has an interesting ad for the holiday season. This time, it’s a cute little animated short film. It feels like a hybrid between a Pixar movie and a Wes Anderson creation. Named “Share Your Gifts,” the ad focuses on a dreamy teenager who spends a lot of time on her MacBook. She regularly prints something she has created. We never know for sure if it’s a text, a drawing, some lyrics, etc. But every time she looks at her creations, she dismisses them and puts them in a green...

How A Small French Privacy Ruling Could Remake Adtech For Good

A ruling in late October against a little known French adtech firm that popped up on the national data watchdog’s website earlier this month, is causing ripples of excitement to run through privacy watchers in Europe who believe it signals the beginning of the end for creepy online ads. The excitement is palpable. Impressively so, given the dry CNIL  decision  against mobile ‘demand side platform’, Vectaury, was only published in the regulator’s native dense French...