Jan 13, 2018 - Technology

Facebook fallout

Mark Zuckerberg gives a speech at Harvard. Photo: Paul Marotta/Getty Images

Digesting Facebook's move to emphasize meaningful connections over time spent ("less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media"):

Axios CEO Jim VandeHei, quoted by Wall Street Journal's Ben Mullin: "People should chill out: Facebook is a public company that controls its own decisions and destiny ... Publishers should do the same damn thing." (Subscription)
N.Y. Times "State of the Art" columnist Farhood Manjoo: If Mark Zuckergerg "really does want to make the time we spend on Facebook count as 'time well spent,' I suspect Facebook will have to change much more radically than it is now letting on."
"It can’t just become a slightly healthier cookie company; it may have to get out of the sugar business altogether. And what, then, happens to all those billions in future profits?"
Recode's Peter Kafka: "Wall Street thinks this is not good news: Facebook ... closed down 4.5 percent to $179.37," in part because Zuckerberg was candid that the change could mean less time spent (and thus ads consumed) in the short term.
"Context: If you bought Facebook shares a week ago, that drop looks pretty scary. ... If you bought them a year ago? No problem. You’re still up more than 40 percent."

Go deeper

Dave Lawler

9 mins ago - World

Nuclear free-for-all: The arms control era may be ending

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

The mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki have remained unreplicated for 75 years in part because the U.S. and Soviet Union — after peering over the ledge into nuclear armageddon — began to negotiate.

Why it matters: The arms control era that began after the Cuban Missile Crisis may now be coming to a close. The next phase could be a nuclear free-for-all.

Go deeper (3 min. read)

Rashaan Ayesh

2 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Pelosi, Schumer demand postmaster general reverse USPS cuts ahead of election

Schumer and Pelosi. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Thursday calling for the recent Trump appointee to reverse operational changes to the U.S. Postal Service that "threaten the timely delivery of mail" ahead of the 2020 election.

Why it matters: U.S. mail and election infrastructure are facing a test like no other this November, with a record-breaking number of mail-in ballots expected as Americans attempt to vote in the midst of a pandemic.

Go deeper (1 min. read)

Alison Snyder

2 hours ago - Science

CRISPR co-discoverer on the gene editor's pandemic push

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photos: Brian Ach/Getty Images for Wired and BSIP/UIG via Getty Images

The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating the development of CRISPR-based tests for detecting disease — and highlighting how gene-editing tools might one day fight pandemics, one of its discoverers, Jennifer Doudna, tells Axios.

Why it matters: Testing shortages and backlogs underscore a need for improved mass testing for COVID-19. Diagnostic tests based on CRISPR — which Doudna and colleagues identified in 2012, ushering in the "CRISPR revolution" in genome editing — are being developed for dengue, Zika and other diseases, but a global pandemic is a proving ground for these tools that hold promise for speed and lower costs.