Jan 31, 2017

Hot in Silicon Valley: Walmart vs Amazon Prime

Walmart takes on Amazon Prime: The retail giant, which last year acquired Amazon competitor Jet.com for $3 billion, is adding free two-day delivery for orders $35 and over and without membership fees (Amazon charges $99 a year).

Competing directly with Amazon is a big challenge. Walmart will now see if consumers prefer to trade membership fees (Walmart previously charged $49 per year) for a minimum order size. In any case, free two-day shipping has become "table stakes" in the online retail wars, said Jet.com co-founder Marc Lore.

Google employees rally for immigration: On Monday, more than 2,000 Alphabet employees gathered to march and rally at various company locations worldwide in protest of Trump's recent immigration executive order. Co-founder Sergei Brin and CEO Sundar Pichai gave speeches at the company's headquarters in Mountain View., Calif.

According to former YouTube executive Hunter Walk, Alphabet employees reached the $2 million mark in donations the morning after the company announced it would match donations to a legal defense fund.

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Orion Rummler

Mass shooting in Milwaukee: What we know

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in 2012. Photo: John Gress/Corbis via Getty Images

Six people died in a shooting at the Molson Coors Brewing Company in Milwaukee on Wednesday, including the gunman, Mayor Tom Barrett told reporters at a Wednesday evening press conference with local police.

Details: All of the victims worked at the brewery complex, as did the shooter who died of "an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound," police confirmed in a statement late Wednesday.

Go deeperUpdated 1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

Axios

Coronavirus updates: South Korea case count tops 2,000

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. Note: China numbers are for the mainland only and U.S. numbers include repatriated citizens.

33 people in California have tested positive for the coronavirus, and health officials are monitoring 8,400 people who have recently returned from "points of concern," Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday.

The big picture: COVID-19 has killed more than 2,850 people and infected over 83,000 others in some 50 countries and territories. The novel coronavirus is now affecting every continent but Antarctica, and the WHO said Wednesday the number of new cases reported outside China has exceeded those inside the country for the first time.

Go deeperUpdated 2 hours ago - Health

Dave Lawler

Syria's darkest chapter

Family room without a family, in Idlib. Photo: Muhammed Said/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The worst humanitarian crisis of Syria’s brutal civil war is colliding today with what could be the war’s most dangerous geopolitical showdown, after at least 29 Turkish troops were killed in an airstrike.

The big picture: The fighting is taking place in Idlib in northwest Syria, where a ferocious Syrian and Russian offensive has displaced 1 million civilians and infuriated Turkey, which borders the region.

Go deeper4 hours ago - World