Thursday, January 23rd, 2020

First Mobile Voting, WhatsApp Hack & Sundance

(+ Racist Robots)

All the news you need in less than 10 min:

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Story Summaries

All the news stories mentioned in today's episode are listed with links below, so you can spend as much -- or as little -- time as you want perusing the latest happenings...

Opening Arguments: 
Opening arguments in President Trump’s impeachment trial have begun. Democrats have three days to argue their side (today is day 2) before Trump’s attorneys will have the same amount of time to defend him. Yesterday the impeachment managers went through the evidence so far and argued Trump tried to "cheat" in the 2020 election. Trump tweeted more than 140 times yesterday and said his team has a great case and Dems are "corrupt."
Read more: NYT, The Hill, NBC News, Washington Post, Politico, NPR

First Mobile Voting: 
A district in the Seattle area is the first to allow every voter the option to cast a ballot using a smartphone. More than a million registered voters will be able to use an online portal to vote in a local race. It's controversial: supporters say it’ll boost voter turnout, but critics say election security is at risk.
Read more: NPR, The Verge, WSJ

Jeff Bezos Phone Hacked: 
U.N. experts are demanding an investigation into new evidence indicating Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince hacked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s cell phone in 2018 with a WhatsApp message. Bezos ordered an investigation to find out who was behind the hack. Saudi officials say it’s not true.
Read more: The Guardian, NYT, WSJ, USA Today

China Limits Travel: 
The city of Wuhan in China is now on lockdown because of the new coronavirus that has killed 17 people and sickened more than 500 others. The 11 million residents are being asked to stay put, and officials have shut down trains, buses and outbound flights in order to try to stop it from spreading. Screenings at airports around the world continue.
Read more: USA Today, CNBC, BBC

Airlines & Service Animals: 
The U.S. Transportation Department wants to crack down on people claiming their pets are for emotional support (when they’re not). Newly proposed rules would only allow dogs to fly as service animals. For now, the proposal is open for public comment before a final decision.
Read more: Washington Post, ABC News, Reuters

Eli Manning Retires: 
New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is set to announce his retirement tomorrow after 16 seasons. He’s one of just five players in NFL history to be named the Super Bowl’s MVP twice. At 39, he holds almost every passing record in team history and is said to be NFL’s highest-paid player ever.
Read more: ESPN, Giants.com

Tesla's Milestone: 
Tesla hit a historic milestone by becoming the first publicly listed U.S. automaker to hit $100 billion in market valuation.
Read more: Reuters, Bloomberg, CNBC

Driverless Shuttle: 
General Motors is working on a driverless taxi shuttle called the Cruise Origin. The six-seater is an emissions-free mini-bus with no steering wheel or pedals. Customers will be able to ride in the vehicles through a ride-sharing app. No word yet on when the shuttles will actually be allowed on roads.
Read more: CNET, Engadget CNN

Naming Mars Rover: 
NASA is almost ready to send its next rover to Mars, but it needs a name first. Students from across the U.S. submitted more than 28,000 potential names; the list has been narrowed down to nine contenders, including Endurance, Promise, Clarity and Courage. NASA is asking for the public to vote for the winning name online. The winner will be announced in March, and the rover is expected to launch in July.
Read more: Business Insider, NASA’s ‘Name the Rover’ Poll

Sundance Film Festival: 
The Sundance Film Festival kicks off today in Park City, Utah. More than 100 films will be played at this year’s festival, including the Netflix documentary Miss Americana, which follows the transformation of Taylor Swift as she begins to share more of her own beliefs and political views. The festival lasts until February 2nd.
Read more: Deadline, Hollywood Reporter

Thing To Know Thursday

“Racist Robots”

Artificial Intelligence & Bias

READ MORE: Coded Bias, Digital Trends, TED Talk, NYT, The Hill

Guest:

Shalini Kantayya

Filmmaker Shalini Kantayya directed the season finale episode for the National Geographic television series Breakthrough, a series profiling trailblazing scientists transforming the future, Executive Produced by Ron Howard, broadcast globally in June 2017. Her debut feature film Catching the Sun, about the race for a clean energy future, premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival and was named a New York Times Critics’ Pick. Catching the Sun released globally on Netflix on Earth Day 2016 with Executive Producer Leonardo DiCaprio, and was nominated for the Environmental Media Association Award for Best Documentary. Her feature, Coded Bias, premieres in U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Kantayya finished in the top 10 out of 12,000 filmmakers on Fox’s On the Lot, a show by Steven Spielberg in search of Hollywood’s next great director. A William J. Fulbright Scholar, Kantayya is a Sundance Film Fellow, a TED Fellow, and a finalist for the ABC Disney DGA Directing Program. She has received recognition for her work from IFP Spotlight on Documentary, the Jerome Hill Centennial and is an Associate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.