Ken Yeung

Technology Editor @flipboard. Former journalist @venturebeat and @thenextweb. Marketer and photographer. More info: thelettertwo.com.

Magazines

Flips

Auctions
The man on the phone: What's it like making history's highest auction bid?
CNN - Oscar Holland, CNN
(CNN) — In November 2017 at Christie's New York, Alex Rotter uttered a phrase never before heard at an art auction: "Four hundred million." His bid was in dollars, and the lot in question was the last
Google
How Google has destroyed the lives of revenge porn victims
New York Post - Carrie Goldberg
Because of a little-known 1996 law, Google is allowed to list revenge porn images and videos in its search results, ruining the lives, reputations …
Afghans voice fears that the U.S. is undercutting them in deal with the Taliban
The Washington Post - By Pamela Constable
KABUL — For months, Afghans have been waiting anxiously to see whether negotiations between U.S. officials and Taliban insurgents will lead to a lasting peace and a solid path to power-sharing or leave
Nancy Pelosi
House speaker as US emissary: Pelosi emerges as force abroad
Associated Press - By LISA MASCARO, AP Congressional Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) — There's an American leader whose words resonate on the global stage. Who draws attention in foreign capitals. Who carries a message from the United States by simply arriving. It's not
Chanel
Secretive Brother Runs Side Bets for $58 Billion Chanel Empire
Bloomberg - Sophie Alexander
Charles Heilbronn manages the Wertheimer family fortune at Mousse Partners. They typically sit a few rows back from the runway, a balding and …
SoftBank Group
SoftBank to Lend Founder and Employees Billions to Invest in Fund
The Wall Street Journal. - Liz Hoffman
Unusual setup doubly exposes the Japanese company to a startup economy that is starting to show cracks SoftBank Group is leaning on its employees, including Chief Executive Masayoshi Son, for cash as firm
Politics
White House moving forward with plan to cancel foreign aid, teeing up fight with Congress
CNN - By Jennifer Hansler and Manu Raju, CNN
(CNN) — The Trump administration has finalized and is moving forward with a plan to cancel billions of dollars in foreign aid funding, a senior administration official told CNN on Saturday, teeing up fight
Iowa State Fair
Buttigieg lags behind rivals in Iowa after big national splash
POLITICO - By ELENA SCHNEIDER
The Democratic mayor is trying to catch up with rivals who have spent more time and resources organizing in Iowa this year. TIPTON, Iowa — Pete Buttigieg burst into the 2020 presidential race by building
Customs and Border Protection computer outage leads to slowdown at international airports across the United States
The Washington Post - Maria Sacchetti and Michael Laris
Long lines formed at international airports across the United States on Friday after U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s computer system broke down and dramatically slowed the processing of thousands
Jeffrey Epstein
Director of M.I.T. Media Lab Apologizes for Ties to Jeffrey Epstein
The New York Times - By MARC TRACY and TIFFANY HSU
Joichi Ito, the director of the M.I.T. Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of The New York Times Company’s board, apologized Thursday for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the
Postmates
Postmates Workers Say They Weren't Told Their Names Would Appear in an Ad
splinternews.com - Hamilton Nolan
This week, gig economy delivery company Postmates ran a full-page ad in the LA Times—signed by more than 1,600 of its own workers—asking the governor …
At Deadspin, can the cool kids of the sports Internet become its moral authority?
The Washington Post - By Ben Strauss
Megan Greenwell, editor in chief of the website Deadspin, stood in front of a giant projection screen one night late last year and welcomed a group of nearly 100 to a documentary premiere in midtown The
Business
defeats IRS appeal in U.S. tax dispute
Reuters - Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc on Friday defeated an appeal by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in what the online retailer has called a $1.5 billion dispute over its tax treatment of transactions with a
Accenture
Trauma Counselors Were Pressured To Divulge Confidential Information About Facebook Moderators, Internal Letter Claims
The Intercept - Sam Biddle
Nearly 1,500 miles from the Menlo Park headquarters of Facebook, at a company outpost in Austin, Texas, moderators toil around the clock to screen …
Technology
Google‘s Area 120 Is Testing Fundo, a Crowdfunding Service for Creators (EXCLUSIVE)
Variety - Janko Roettgers
Google’s skunkworks lab Area 120 has been quietly testing an events-centric crowdfunding service for YouTubers, Variety has learned. Called Fundo, the …
Pacific Standard magazine is shutting down
Los Angeles Times - James F. Peltz
Pacific Standard, an online magazine that aimed to be a Western U.S.-based chronicler of global social and environmental justice and public policy, plans to shut down after a decade of publication, the
Technology
Google discloses its acquisition of mobile learning app Socratic as it relaunches on iOS
TechCrunch - Sarah Perez
Google publicly disclosed its acquisition of homework helper app Socratic in an announcement this week, detailing the added support for the company’s AI technology and its relaunch on iOS. The acquisition
Fundraising
Black teens fundraising for high school football team held at gunpoint by white woman: Police
ABC News - Ella Torres
Four black teenagers in Arkansas were forced to the ground and held at gunpoint by a white woman as they were trying to fundraise for their football …
Arizona
Appeals Court Bars Trump Asylum Restrictions for California, Arizona
The Wall Street Journal. - Brent Kendall
Ninth Circuit won’t block limits in other states, potentially causing more confusion along the southern U.S. border A federal appeals court blocked the Trump administration from imposing tough asylum on
Technology
We Asked Def Con Attendees Why People Are Still Getting Hacked
VICE - Lorenzo Franceshi-Bicchierai
This year's Def Con—the world's biggest hacking conference—was more sprawling than ever. Held annually in Las Vegas, the conference has grown over the last 27 years from a small gathering of hackers huddled
Twitter is testing a filter for potentially offensive messages
Engadget - Amrita Khalid
You won't even have to read the most abusive messages. Twitter is taking its screening of unknown direct messages a step further. The social media giant announced today that it is testing a filter for
Long-form Journalism
In Defense of The Small Social Network
medium.com - P.E. Moskowitz
Ditch Facebook. Log off Twitter. The path to a better internet is going small. A few days ago, I went on Facebook for the first time in weeks. What I …
Mobile Technology
Twitter Invested In A Social Network Accused Of Spreading Misinformation And Hate Speech
buzzfeednews.com - Pranav Dixit
Earlier this year, ShareChat took steps to clean up the platform, including removing accounts and content that violate its community …
Rep. Tlaib says she will not go to Israel after the country initially rejected her request for a visit, then reversed course
The Washington Post - Ruth Eglash and James McAuley and John Wagner
JERUSALEM — Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said Friday that she would not travel to Israel under “oppressive conditions” to see her 90-year-old grandmother after the Israeli government reversed course and
Technology
8 million Android users tricked into downloading 85 adware apps from Google Play
TechCrunch - Zack Whittaker
Dozens of Android adware apps disguised as photo editing apps and games have been caught serving ads that would take over users’ screens as part of a fraudulent money-making scheme. Security firm Trend
Amazon
Amazon Uses a Twitter Army of Employees to Fight Criticism of Warehouses
The New York Times
Some of Amazon’s warehouse employees work as “FC ambassadors.” The “FC” stands for fulfillment center, which is what the company calls it warehouses.
Indie Music
YouTube shuts down music companies’ use of manual copyright claims to steal creator revenue
TechCrunch - Sarah Perez
YouTube is making a change to its copyright enforcement policies around music used in videos, which may result in an increased number of blocked videos in the shorter term — but overall, a healthier ecosystem
Rashida Tlaib
Rep. Rashida Tlaib says she won't visit Israel after being allowed to enter on humanitarian grounds
CNN - By Oren Liebermann, Lauren Said-Moorhouse
(CNN) — Rep. Rashida Tlaib said Friday she would not visit Israel after the country granted permission for her to enter the country on humanitarian grounds to visit her family in the West Bank a day after
Tech Industry
Apple Seeks to Shut Down Corellium’s ‘Perfect Replicas’ of iOS
Bloomberg - Susan Decker
Apple Inc. accused upstart Corellium LLC of illegally selling virtual copies of the iPhone and iPad operating systems under the guise of helping …
Gamergate
How an Online Mob Created a Playbook for a Culture War
The New York Times
The powerful lesson of a 5-year-old harassment campaign: How to wage a post-truth information war.