Techmeme: The First Step Act, which seeks to reform the federal criminal justice system, risks perpetuating racial and class disparities due to its reliance on algorithms (Bärí a. Williams/Fast Company)

Top News

Alastair Marsh / Bloomberg:

Crypto efforts of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and others are in limbo after bitcoin's months-long fall and weak demand from institutional clients — Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and many more built it. But they didn't come. — Limbo—that's where to find Wall Street when it comes to cryptocurrencies.

More: PYMNTS.com, CoinSpeaker, NullTX, CCN, Crowdfund Insider, Gizmodo, and NewsBTC

Tweets: @teddyschleifer, @profjeffjarviss, and @counternotions

Raymond Zhong / New York Times:

As Huawei comes under government scrutiny worldwide, a look at the company's aggressive culture that encouraged employees to bend the rules, up to a point — SHENZHEN, China — Earthquakes, terrorist attacks and low oxygen levels on Mount Everest could not hold them back.

More: Android Authority, Wall Street Journal, and Digital Trends

Tweets: @nytimesbusiness and @nytimesbusiness

Abrar Al-Heeti / CNET:

Despite challenges in penetrating the US market, Huawei says it has shipped over 200M smartphones in 2018 globally, up from last year's 153M units — Huawei has set a record for itself by shipping more than 200 million smartphones in 2018, the company said in a statement Sunday.

More: Huawei, Android Authority, Android Police, TechNode, Android Beat, SiliconANGLE, Android Authority, SoyaCincau.com, AnandTech, Digital Trends, Washington Post, ZDNet, Gizchina, and VentureBeat

Wolfie Zhao / CoinDesk:

Crypto mining startup Bitmain confirms layoffs, which, source says, may affect half of its total headcount, with some departments being laid off entirely — Months after it filed an application to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Beijing-based cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain …

More: CoinGeek, SiliconANGLE, CryptoGlobe, The Block, Yahoo! Finance, Cointelegraph.com News, and Bitcoinist.com

Tweets: @coindesk, @excellion, and @hernzzzzzz

Justin Lynch / Fifth Domain:

How a US shutdown affects its cybersecurity workforce: NIST among worst-hit agencies with 85% staff furloughed, DNI's analysis and operations staff cut by 60% — America's federal cybersecurity workforce will see sharp reductions if Congress fails to pass a spending bill to keep the government open …

More: USA Today, New York Post, CNBC, and CNN. Tweets: @rvawonk

Zachary Fryer-Biggs / Wired:

Sources describe DOD's plan to win “hearts and minds” in Silicon Valley, amid frustration and anger inside the Pentagon after Google pulled out of Project Maven — THE AMERICAN MILITARY is desperately trying to get a leg up in the field of artificial intelligence …

Tweets: @wired, @lizthegrey, @nxthompson, and @bentarnoff

Karen Weise / New York Times:

Rakuten: Amazon's share of US online sales can dip to ~20% around Thanksgiving only to soar to ~50% before Christmas, as users trust Amazon to deliver on time — SEATTLE — Olivia Zimmermann started her holiday shopping early this year, buying a Bluetooth speaker from Best Buy for her sister.

More: Beyond Search. Tweets: @carnage4life

Bärí a. Williams / Fast Company:

The First Step Act, which seeks to reform the federal criminal justice system, risks perpetuating racial and class disparities due to its reliance on algorithms — The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Often in a rush of excitement and eagerness to solve a problem …

Tweets: @nrookie

Nisha Chittal / Vox:

How indie bookstores are thriving by using Instagram to build communities, and creating “Instagram walls” that often lead to viral photos and free marketing — Stores like Books Are Magic and the Last Bookstore are benefiting from love on #bookstagram. — The internet is killing independent bookstores.

Tweets: @voxdotcom, @penamerican, and @michelleobama

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