theNewsWorthy: Friday, April 12th, 2019
ALL THE NEWS YOU NEED - IN ONE PLACE.
(in less than 10 minutes!)
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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...
Assange Arrested: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was arrested yesterday in London to face a charge back in the U.S. He’s accused of conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer network in 2010. Assange allegedly worked with former U.S. intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to gain access. So far, the criminal charge has to do with the cyber-crime rather than posting the information online. Assange has been hiding out in Ecuador’s embassy in Britain for years, and it may be a while before he is extradited to the U.S. to appear in court.
Read more: CBS News, AP, BBC, NYT
Transgender Troops: The Trump administration’s new regulation banning transgender troops unless they “correct those deficiencies” is set to take effect today. The American Medical Association is pushing back and says transgender people don’t have a “deficiency." For now, transgender troops who are already serving can continue, but some say they feel demoralized.
Read more: AP/Time, PBS
National Enquirer For Sale: The National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., says it’s selling The Enquirer and two other tabloids to focus on other magazines and platforms. The Enquirer has been involved in its fair share of scandals lately, including one involving President Trump and another involving Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Read more: NYT, CNN, Fox Business
NASA Twins Study: NASA studied twin astronauts to see how space affects human health. Scott Kelly went to space for a year while his brother Mark stayed on Earth. NASA says the astronaut in space had changes in his weight, eyes, immune system and even genes. NASA says the permanent changes are considered minor, and for the most part, his health went back to normal within six months.
Read more: Gizmodo, NYT, USA Today
Listening to Alexa: Thousands of Amazon workers in several countries may be listening to what users have said to smart speakers. Once you use the word "Alexa" to wake up the device, what you say is recorded, transcribed and fed back to Amazon. Each employee reviews as many as 1,000 audio clips per shift. Amazon claims it’s meant to improve Alexa and says it doesn’t keep any of the audio files. You can opt-out by going to the privacy section of the Alexa app.
Read more: CNN, Bloomberg
Uber IPO: Uber has officially filed its paperwork to go public and plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol UBER. Uber’s initial public offering will likely be much bigger than rival Lyft, and one of the largest this year. Uber is expected to go public in May.
Read more: CNBC, TechCrunch
Samsung Galaxy Fold: Samsung’s first foldable phone is coming, and today’s the day you have to reserve it. To pre-order the Galaxy Fold on Monday, you must reserve a spot in a virtual line today. The Galaxy Fold is basically a tablet that folds into a phone, and costs about $2,000.
Read more: USA Today, CNET
Disney+ Update: Disney’s new streaming service Disney+ will only cost $6.99, nearly half of Netflix’s standard $12.99 plan. It’s an aggressive move to make a big splash and try to attract subscribers. The new service launches on November 12.
Read more: Variety
Game of Thrones Premiere: The highly-anticipated final season of Game of Thrones premieres on Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO. The season will have six episodes, and most of them will be longer than an hour. CBS' 60 Minutes will have the only preview clip, which is set to air a couple hours before Season 8 starts Sunday.
Read more: Deadline, Variety
Coachella: Coachella starts today! The popular desert music festival in California is a two-weekend event. Ariana Grande, Childish Gambino and Tame Impala are headlining. During the second weekend – on Easter Sunday – Kanye West will be doing a Sunday service. If you’re not one of the 100,000 people attending each day, you can watch a live stream of dozens of the performances on Coachella’s YouTube channel.
Read more: Billboard, E News, LA Times