Techmeme: Chinese tech companies have thrived thanks to government incentives that allowed them to grow, but government ties can also prove problematic as they go global (Mara Hvistendahl/MIT Technology Review)

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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: NullTX, CCN, CoinSpeaker, Crowdfund Insider, Gizmodo, NewsBTC, and The Block

Tweets: @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.

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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: TechNode, Android Authority, Washington Post, Digital Trends, AnandTech, 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: SiliconANGLE, Yahoo! Finance, The Block, CryptoGlobe, 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

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

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

Wall Street Journal:

As Snap's stock hovers near its all-time low, sources describe Spiegel's instinctual and imperious style that can stifle dissent and led to the redesign debacle — Snap, once seen as a viable competitor to Facebook, is struggling after the CEO ignored warnings about a redesign that proved unpopular

More: Business Insider, 9to5Mac, Silicon Valley Business …, Business Insider, iPhone Hacks, and Axios

Tweets: @moorehn, @carnage4life, @jwangark, @wsj, @eliotwb, @sajithpai, and @jposhaughnessy

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

Mara Hvistendahl / MIT Technology Review:

Chinese tech companies have thrived thanks to government incentives that allowed them to grow, but government ties can also prove problematic as they go global — Multibillion-dollar companies like Alibaba and Tencent have thrived thanks to a government that provided incentives but otherwise let them grow.

Tweets: @thealfredwong, @marahvistendahl, @baezbit, @baezbit, @billywhizz1970, and @mowindigital

Rita Liao / TechCrunch:

WeChat adds a Snapchat-like Stories feature called Time Capsule that lets users upload videos of up to 15 seconds that disappear after 24 hours — WeChat, the Chinese messaging giant with over 1 billion monthly active users around the world, just added a Snap-like ephemeral video feature as part of its biggest overhaul since 2014.

More: TechNode, Engadget, MSPoweruser, and Jing Daily

Tweets: @jonrussell and @jonrussell

Reuters:

Israel will give Intel a $185M grant for a planned $5B expansion of its production operations in the country, expects the company to hire 250 new employees — JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will give Intel Corp (INTC.O) a 700 million shekel ($185 million) grant in return for a planned $5 billion expansion …

More: SiliconANGLE, CTECH, Globes Online, and The Times of Israel

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