theNewsWorthy: Friday, June 29th, 2018
ALL THE NEWS YOU NEED - IN ONE PLACE.
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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...
NEWSPAPER SHOOTING
Today, unfortunately, we start with a shooting at a local newspaper: The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland.
Police say at least five people were killed and at least two others were hurt. Police reportedly arrived on the scene in just 60 seconds and helped stop the shooting.
NBC News reports the suspect is now in police custody. The Baltimore Sun, which owns the Capital Gazette, reports the shooter had a years-long grudge against the paper and even went to court over a story published in 2011. The paper won that lawsuit, by the way, but the harassment continued online.
USA Today has stories about the victims and the lives they lived. CNN says the Capital Gazette is still releasing its newspaper this morning -- and it honors the victims on the front page.
Read more: CNN, USA Today, NBC News, The Baltimore Sun
TRUMP, PUTIN MEETING
President Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month. It'll be the first one-on-one formal meeting between the two leaders.
The New York Times reports they’ll meet in Helsinki, Finland on July 16th. It’s pretty delicate. Remember: there’s still an investigation going on that's looking into any ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The White House said the two men plan to talk about U.S.-Russia relations and national security issues. The Wall Street Journal reports Trump may want Putin to help scale back the presence of Iran in Syria.
The week before that meeting, President Trump will be in Brussels, Belgium for a NATO meeting (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), which is 29 countries who have a political and military alliance. Trump will also stop in the UK that week.
Expect to hear much more about this trip next month.
CALIFORNIA DATA PRIVACY LAW
California just passed a new data privacy law. CNN says it’s the country’s toughest and The Wall Street Journal calls it unprecedented.
The law doesn’t go into effect for a couple years, but here are the basics: it expands the definition of “personal data” and gives consumers the option to stop tech companies from selling their data to third parties. The law will affect big guys like Facebook as well as smaller companies that collect customer data.
Technically it’ll only apply to Cali, but The Wall Street Journal says a lot of tech companies will likely have to change their policies for everyone in the country (it's too complex to separate policies for different states).
The law goes into effect in 2020.
Read more: TechCrunch, WSJ, CNN
DATA BREACHES
There are a couple of possible data breaches to tell you about. CBS News reports hackers may have gotten a hold of millions of Adidas customers’ data, including contact info, user names and encrypted passwords. They don’t think credit card numbers were part of this though. Adidas is working to tell customers who may have been affected.
Also, a security researcher told Wired magazine a marketing firm exposed a database with personal info of 340 million people and businesses. The firm is called Exactis, and it could have information about you, even if you’ve never heard of it.
Here’s the deal: there’s no report that hackers actually got a hold of the info. The report says the company just made it available to the public online if hackers knew where to look.
No comment or confirmation from Exactis yet, so we’ll see if we learn more later.
AMAZON + PILLPACK
Amazon just made another move into the healthcare industry by buying an online pharmacy called PillPack for $1 billion.
Business Insider reports stocks of the other guys, like Walgreens and CVS, went down right away. Remember: Amazon teamed up with J.P. Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway earlier this year with plans to create its own healthcare company.
More Amazon news this week: the company is encouraging entrepreneurs to invest $10,000 and start their own business delivering for Amazon. CNBC reports they’d get up to 40 Amazon delivery vans.
Amazon says it’s still using other delivery companies (think FedEx and UPS), but it needs more to scale and meet demand. This new program would also mean Amazon has more control of its own shipping costs.
CNN says the two announcements are probably related because your meds from the online pharmacy will need to be delivered -- along with anything else you buy from Amazon.
Read more: Business Insider, WSJ Amazon Delivery: CNBC, AP, CNN
TOYS R US SAYS GOODBYE
It’s officially time to say goodbye. Today, the last of the Toys ‘R’ Us stores in the U.S are closing their doors.
We knew this day was coming. Remember: Toys ‘R’ Us filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy last fall, tried to restructure for the holidays, and it still didn’t work. ABC News reports there will be an auction for the company’s name, baby shower registry, and trademarks next month.
In the meantime, Target and Walmart have already expanded their toy aisles to help fill the gap, and more than 30,000 people will now be looking for other work.
AI ROBOT IN SPACE
An AI robot named Cimon (pronounced Simon) is heading to space. The AP says it’s the first ever AI space bot. It has a large round plastic head and a screen with a face on it.
It’s heading to the International Space Station early this morning. It’s meant to help astronauts with research procedures, and, over time, it’ll get smarter and have more of a mood.
CIMON stands for Crew Interactive Mobile Companion.
INSTAGRAM MUSIC
Yes, there’s yet another new Instagram feature. Now you can add popular music right to your Instagram stories (or at least that feature is rolling out). Eventually, you’ll have a “music” option when posting stories and you can search from what Instagram says will be thousands of songs.
TechCrunch reports the artists will be compensated when their songs are used. Instagram and its owner Facebook say they made deals with the record labels and independents to make this happen.
Read more: TechCrunch
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