CATEGORIES
DISNEY UNVEILS PLANS TO STREAM A GALAXY OF NEW SERIES, FILMS
The Walt Disney Co.’s streaming plans shifted into hyper speed, as the studio unveiled a galaxy’s worth of new streaming offerings including plans for 10 “Star Wars” series spinoffs and 10 Marvel series that will debut on Disney+.
HOW BAD IS THE HACK THAT TARGETED US AGENCIES?
Governments and major corporations worldwide are scrambling to see if they, too, were victims of a global cyberespionage campaign that penetrated multiple U.S. government agencies and involved a common software product used by thousands of organizations.
JAPAN SPACE AGENCY CONFIRMS ASTEROID SOIL INSIDE CAPSULE
Japan’s space agency said it has confirmed the presence of black soil samples inside a capsule that the spacecraft Hayabusa2 brought back from a distant asteroid last week.
APPLE'S APP STORES OPEN NEW PRIVACY WINDOW FOR CUSTOMERS
Apple has begun spelling out what kinds of personal information is being collected by the digital services displayed in its app stores for iPhones and other products made by the trendsetting company.
CALIFORNIA SUBPOENAS AMAZON OVER WORKER SAFETY IN PANDEMIC
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra asked this week a judge to order Amazon to comply with subpoenas his office issued nearly four months ago as part of an investigation into how the company is protecting workers from the coronavirus at its facilities.
Capsule With Asteroid Samples Arrives In Japan For Research
Japanese space agency officials were delighted by the return of a small capsule containing asteroid soil samples obtained by their Hayabusa2 spacecraft and were anxiously waiting to look inside after preparations are complete.
Airnbn, Resilient in Pandemic, Goes Forward With IPO
Airbnb proved its resilience in a year that has upended global travel. Now it needs to prove to investors that it sees more growth ahead.
HOW PHONES CAN ALERT YOU TO COVID-19 EXPOSURE
More than 8.1 million people in the U.S. have turned their iPhones and Android devices into pandemic contact-tracing tools, but it hasn’t been of much use when their neighbors, classmates and coworkers aren’t on the same system.
GOOGLE, AMAZON FINED $163 MILLION BY FRENCH PRIVACY WATCHDOG
France’s data privacy watchdog said Thursday it has fined Google 100 millions euros ($121 million) and Amazon 35 million euros ($42 million) for breaching the country’s rules on advertising cookies.
ANOTHER JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP'S TIKTOK BAN; APP STILL IN LIMBO
A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s attempts to ban TikTok, the latest legal defeat for the administration as it tries to wrest the popular app from its Chinese owners.
US GOVT, STATES SUE FACEBOOK FOR ‘PREDATORY' CONDUCT
The U.S. government and 48 states and districts sued Facebook Wednesday, accusing it of abusing its market power in social networking to crush smaller competitors and seeking remedies that could include a forced spinoff of the social network’s Instagram and WhatsApp messaging services.
LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE 2020, TAXES WILL BE LIKE NO OTHER YEAR
It’s the time of year to start thinking about taxes — but the upcoming filing season is going to be a bit trickier for many Americans due to rampant unemployment, working from home and general upheaval due to COVID-19.
REORIENTING THE CRIME DRAMA IN ‘I'M YOUR WOMAN'
When it’s at its best, “I’m Your Woman” feels like you’ve slipped through a trap door, revealing a hidden pathway in an old genre apparatus.
FEDS: FRAUDSTER DUPED INVESTORS WITH FALSE CLAIMS ABOUT NASA
The founder of a nanotechnology company was arrested Wednesday on fraud charges after authorities said he accepted over $12 million from investors who were told NASA was helping him develop a breathalyzer to detect cancer and narcotics.
Airbnb Hopes To Raise Up To $2.6B In Mid-December IPO
Airbnb hopes to raise as much as $2.6 billion in its initial public stock offering this month, betting investors will see its home-sharing model as the future of travel.
HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE TO MOVE HEADQUARTERS TO TEXAS
Tech giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise said it is moving its global headquarters to the Houston area from California, where the company’s roots go back to the founding of Silicon Valley decades ago.
DISCOVERY'S REALITY-HEAVY STREAMING SERVICE LAUNCHES IN JAN.
Discovery is joining the increasingly crowded streaming fray with its own reality-focused service Discovery Plus that will include shows from the Food Network, HGTV, TLC and its other networks. It launches Jan 4.
WAITING FOR PASSENGERS, AMERICAN PUTS BOEING MAX IN THE AIR
American Airlines is taking its long-grounded Boeing 737 Max jets out of storage, updating key flight-control software, and flying the planes in preparation for the first flights with paying passengers later this month.
SEAN PARKER OK'D TO BUY STAKE IN PETER JACKSON'S VFX STUDIO
New Zealand authorities have approved tech billionaire Sean Parker’s purchase of a onethird stake in film director Peter Jackson’s visual effects studio.
US, ESTONIA PARTNERED TO SEARCH OUT CYBER THREAT FROM RUSSIA
In a modern twist on old-fashioned war games, the U.S. military dispatched cyber fighters to Estonia this fall to help the small Baltic nation search out and block potential cyber threats from Russia.
PHISHING PLOY TARGETS COVID-19 VACCINE DISTRIBUTION EFFORT
IBM security researchers say they have detected a cyber espionage effort using targeted phishing emails to try to collect vital information on the World Health Organization’s initiative for distributing the COVID-19 vaccine to developing countries.
FOXCONN NOT EXPECT TO MEET HIRING GOALS IN NEXT 3 YEARS
Foxconn Technology Group is not expected to receive tax credits in the next three fiscal years, continuing its failure to meet goals for hiring and investing in its Wisconsin manufacturing complex, according to state officials.
DATA IS KING ON WALL STREET; 2 PROVIDERS JOIN IN $44B DEAL
The value that Wall Street places on access to billions of bytes of data, rather than old-school stock picking, became abundantly clear as two of the biggest providers of such information become one in the biggest takeover of the year.
A YEAR IN 60 SECS: TIKTOK LISTS TOP VIDEOS, CREATORS OF 2020
From skateboarding to Fleetwood Mac to learning Cardi B’s rump-shaking choreography, TikTok users got creative in a pandemic year with new songs, dances, and memes in 60 seconds or less.
A Punk Drummer's Life Upendended In 'Sound of Metal'
The film “Sound of Metal” starts with the uncomfortably loud noises of guitar feedback and ends two hours later with absolute silence. The trip through those extremes is a worthy one, if sometimes exasperating.
HOSPITALS CAN CARE FOR MEDICARE PATIENTS AT HOME IN PANDEMIC
Hospitals will be allowed to care for Medicare patients in their own homes during the pandemic under a government program announced Wednesday to help hospitals deal with the latest surge.
PENGUIN TO BUY SIMON & SCHUSTER, CREATE PUBLISHING GIANT
German media giant Bertelsmann said that its Penguin Random House division is buying rival Simon & Schuster in a megadeal that would reshape the U.S. publishing industry.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION DENIES PLANNED MINE NEAR ALASKA FISHERY
The Trump administration on Wednesday effectively killed a contentious proposed mine in Alaska, a gold and copper prospect once envisioned to be nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon and could produce enough waste to fill an NFL stadium nearly 3,900 times — all near the headwaters of the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.
THE PANDEMIC IS CHANGING HOLLYWOOD, MAYBE FOREVER
“No New ‘Movies’ Till Influenza Ends” blared a New York Times headline on Oct. 10, 1918, while the deadly second wave of the Spanish Flu was unfolding.
GOOGLE FACES UK SCRUTINY OVER NEW ADVERTISING DATA REVAMP
Google faces fresh regulatory scrutiny in Britain over plans to revamp its ad data system, after an industry lobbying group complained to the competition watchdog that the changes would cement the U.S. tech giant’s online dominance.