Apr 2, 2018

Cuban defends Zuck: “I wouldn't stress as much as he’s stressing”

Axios

Kristin Mackler/Axios

"You have no privacy... Your data is held by so many companies that Facebook isn’t doing something all that unusual."
— Billionaire Mark Cuban at an Axios event at Ohio State University.

Cuban said the best way to avoid privacy issues with Facebook is to avoid it. "Just don’t use Facebook and you don’t have to worry about it." At the same time, Cuban says users need to be smarter about what they're using: "We're all happy to beat up on Mark Zuckerberg. Anybody read the terms of service?"

Why this matters: The Cambridge Analytica controversy has turned into a reckoning over Facebook's data practices. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been publicly defending the company in media interviews and is expected to appear before Congress this month.

Go deeper: Facebook's new offensive

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Rashaan Ayesh

America's rundown roads add to farmers' struggles

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

American farmers are struggling to safely use the roads that cut through their fields; decades of neglect and lack of funding have made the routes dangerous.

The big picture: President Trump has long promised to invest billions in rural infrastructure, and his latest proposal would allocate $1 trillion for such projects. Rural America, where many of Trump's supporters live, would see a large chunk of that money.

Go deeperArrow54 mins ago - Economy & Business
Axios

South Korea and Italy see spikes in coronavirus cases

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.

The novel coronavirus continues to spread to more nations, and the U.S. reports a doubling of its confirmed cases to 34 — while noting those are mostly due to repatriated citizens, emphasizing there's no "community spread" yet in the U.S. South Korea's confirmed cases jumped from 204 on Friday to 433 on Saturday, while Italy's case count rose from 3 to 62 as of Saturday.

The big picture: COVID-19 has now killed at least 2,362 people and infected more than 77,000 others, mostly in mainland China. New countries to announce infections recently include Israel, Lebanon and Iran.

Go deeperArrowUpdated 1 hour ago - Health
Orion Rummler

Centrist Democrats beseech 2020 candidates: "Stand up to Bernie" or Trump wins

Bernie Sanders rallies in Las Vegas, Nevada on Feb. 21. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Center-left think tank Third Way urgently called on the Democratic front-runners of the 2020 presidential election to challenge Sen. Bernie Sanders on the South Carolina debate stage on Feb. 25, in a memo provided to Axios' Mike Allen on Saturday.

What they're saying: "At the Las Vegas debate ... you declined to really challenge Senator Sanders. If you repeat this strategy at the South Carolina debate this week, you could hand the nomination to Sanders, likely dooming the Democratic Party — and the nation — to Trump and sweeping down-ballot Republican victories in November."

Go deeperArrow4 hours ago - Politics & Policy