Jan 27, 2018 - Politics & Policy

Techlash takes over Davos

Photo: NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP / Getty Images

"Davos 2018 has emerged as a bastion for anti-Silicon Valley sentiment," writes Vanity Fair's Maya Kosoff:

Key figures: George Soros compared Google and Facebook to mining and oil companies, saying that both “earn their profits by exploiting their environment... Salesforce C.E.O. Marc Benioff said on Tuesday that Facebook should be regulated like a cigarette company. ... Theresa May ... urged them to take responsibility for 'harmful and illegal' activity online."

Zeitgeist ... "Warnings of complacency made by some as crisis memory endures," per Bloomberg:

  • "[T]he giddiness ... gave some investors pause as they warned against turning too exuberant."
  • David Rubenstein, who co-founded the Carlyle Group: “The biggest concern I have is that most people think there’s no problem of a likely recession this year or early next year ... Generally, when people are happy and confident, something wrong happens.’’

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Rashaan Ayesh
48 mins 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.

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Alison Snyder
1 hour 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.

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Axios
Updated 1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 5 p.m. ET: 18,912,947 — Total deaths: 710,318— Total recoveries — 11,403,473 — Map.
  2. U.S.: Total confirmed cases as of 5 p.m. ET: 4,867,916 — Total deaths: 159,841 — Total recoveries: 1,577,851 — Total tests: 58,920,975 — Map.
  3. Politics: Pelosi rips GOP over stimulus negotiations: "Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn" — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine tests positive.
  4. Public health: Majority of Americans say states reopened too quickly — Fauci says task force will examine aerosolized spread.
  5. Business: The health care sector imploded in Q2 — More farmers are declaring bankruptcy — July's jobs report could be an inflection point for the recovery.
  6. Sports: Where college football's biggest conferences stand on playing.
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