Techmeme: China supplies around 80% of world's rare earths, crucial elements for electronics, but this monopoly is not an effective tool to retaliate over the Huawei ban (James Vincent/The Verge)

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May 26, 2019, 9:05 PM

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David Richards / Channel News:

Report: court documents, government and industry sources detail decades of Huawei's alleged IP theft, from the science behind 5G to phone accessory designs — As Australians move to flog their Huawei smartphones due to security concerns and the fact that Google has pulled the plug …

Source: Wall Street Journal. More: Forbes

Tweets: @kate_okeeffe, @dnvolz, @jkylebass, @kate_okeeffe, @alexrblackwell, @erikholmwsj, @birdyword, @dnvolz, @esaagar, @kenweinstein, @dnvolz, @wedfglobal, @stevekopack, @mattrosoff, @kate_okeeffe, and @kimzetter

Russell Brandom / The Verge:

Trump's claims that Huawei was banned because it is a security threat and that the ban may be lifted as part of a trade deal, are incompatible and make no sense — Over the past week, the US government has taken extreme and unprecedented steps against Huawei, cutting it off from every US partner …

More: MIT Technology Review. Tweets: @artemr, @reckless, and @greengart

James Vincent / The Verge:

China supplies around 80% of world's rare earths, crucial elements for electronics, but this monopoly is not an effective tool to retaliate over the Huawei ban — Despite the name, rare earths just aren't that rare — America's trade war with China has been quietly escalating for years …

More: PR Newswire and Ars Technica

Tweets: @greenminerals, @verge, and @drpippam

Cecilia Kang / New York Times:

Small, rural carriers, dependent on Huawei's inexpensive equipment, are having to rethink expansion plans or replace existing gear due to the ban on the company

Tweets: @sangernyt, @nadabakos, @greta, @ceciliakang, @nytimes, and @bobfrankston

Wolfie Zhao / CoinDesk:

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao is taking Sequoia Capital China back to court for allegedly harming his reputation after its case against him was dismissed — Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao is taking a unit of Sequoia Capital back to court after the VC investor's case against him was dismissed.

More: Messari Crypto, Cointelegraph, Asia, The Block, NewsBTC, Coinspeaker, CryptoGlobe, and Decrypt. Tweets: @cz_binance

Christopher Dring / World Health Organization:

World Health Organisation makes “gaming disorder” a recognized illness; classification to come into effect January 1, 2022 — Classification to come into effect January 1, 2022 — The 194 members of the World Health Organisation have recognised ‘gaming disorder’ as an illness at the 72nd World Health Assembly today.

More: who.int, Kotaku, CNET, GameSpot, Variety, Fortnite INTEL, Mashable, Polygon, PC Gamer, VentureBeat, The Entertainment …, Neowin, and AppleInsider

Tweets: @minfilialol, @redisdead, @chibi_mo0n, @kinganiii, @cohhcarnage, @wykrhm, @realyungcripp, @liquidpoach, @pedanticromantc, @skillupyt, @modalsevenths, @brittanyadesso, @highimpactsex, and @who

Intel Newsroom:

Intel Computex preview: its first volume 10nm Ice Lake mobile CPU, Core i9-9900KS special edition CPU running at 5 GHz on all 8 cores, and more — Ahead of Intel's COMPUTEX Opening Keynote on May 28, the company today previewed products that deliver a significant boost in real-world workload performance …

More: Engadget, Engadget, Digital Trends, AnandTech, AnandTech, PCWorld, PCWorld, VentureBeat, and Windows Central

Tweets: @devindra, @intelnews, @iancutress, @iancutress, @intel, @iancutress, and @iancutress

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

The imaginary “race” to 5G has been foisted on us by telecom giants which want something new to sell at high prices, instead of competing to improve service — No one seems to have a good answer to this question — I have a dumb question that no one seems capable of answering directly: Why is 5G a race?

Tweets: @mattyglesias, @trengriffin, @jaspervdj, @shiraovide, @freeutopia, @robertwrighter, @renick, @backlon, @imhassan, @smgalante, @stopthecap, and @ryanlcooper

Julia Alexander / The Verge:

YouTubers are seeing an increase in aggressive copyright claims from record labels, creating frustration among creators, who believe their work is fair use — Glenn Fricker didn't run into any issues when he uploaded a video about digital music editing to YouTube in 2014.

Tweets: @loudmouthjulia, @georgepoulos_, and @dinomfx

Cecilia D'Anastasio / Kotaku:

The US esports industry seems to be in a bubble, with viewership stats that sources say are rosy-eyed at best, and inflated, unverified, or misleading at worst — The mainstream narrative of esports has been lovingly crafted by those who benefit from its success. There's big money in esports, they say.

More: Windows Central. Tweets: @kotaku, @michelemorrow, @smorriscreation, @sjeneris, and @cecianasta

Li Jin / Andreessen Horowitz:

The state of the podcasting industry in 2019, including key trends and monetization strategies of audio apps in China — In the world of podcasting, the flywheel is spinning: new technologies including AirPods, connected cars, and smart speakers have made it much easier for consumers to listen …

Tweets: @ljin18, @scottmaustin, @mwmoretti, @patricialclark, @kartvee, and @cheriehu42

Agnieszka Barteczko / Reuters:

Poland's government files a complaint with EU's top court against EU's new copyright law, which it says is “analogous to preventive censorship” — WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland has submitted a complaint to the European Union's top court against copyright rules adopted by the bloc …

More: Engadget, Geek News Central, CloudWedge, The Verge, and Boing Boing

Tweets: @premierrp_en and @annemariebridy

Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:

SEC filing: the CEO and co-founder of King is stepping down on July 1, three years after Activision Blizzard acquired the Candy Crush developer for $5.9B — Riccardo Zacconi is stepping down as chief executive of King, after more than 16 years leading the Candy Crush games developer.

More: CNET

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:05 PM ET, May 26, 2019.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Netflix and WBD say Netflix revised its WBD offer to an all-cash deal for $27.75/share, with the same $82.7B value; its original bid had $59B in debt financing

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Filings: WBD projects CNN will generate $1.8B in revenue and $600M in adjusted EBITDA for FY 2026; docs show CNN had revenue of $2.2B in 2021 and $1.8B in 2023

Ted Johnson / Deadline:

MS NOW hires Mike Nizza as VP of digital to focus on building out the network's subscription-based content

More News

Crystal Tai / South China Morning Post:

Profile of Singapore-based ecommerce company Qoo10, which raised a total of $230M, sold its Japan site to eBay for $537M in 2018, and is expanding in SE Asia

Paris Martineau / Wired:

Airbnb to give NYC data on 17K+ listings, plus data on every listing between Jan. 1, 2018 and Feb. 18, 2019 that could have potentially violated NY rental laws

More: Engadget. Tweets: @parismartineau, @wired, and @parismartineau

Eddie Kim / MEL Magazine:

The Pirate Bay, the iconic torrent site born in 2003, remains an online juggernaut despite blockages in multiple countries and millions of dollars in fines

Tweets: @eddiekimx, @liamihorne, @wearemel, and @twigpress

Reuters:

Sources: Grindr owner Beijing Kunlun's decision to give some engineers in Beijing access to users' data prompted US officials to require the firm to sell Grindr

More: Boing Boing and Engadget. Tweets: @isaacstonefish

Ruti Levy / Haaretz:

Canadian payments tech company Nuvei Corporation to buy UK-Israeli company SafeCharge for $889M, amid ongoing consolidation in the electronic payments industry

More: Reuters, Globes Online, and CTech - 24/7

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Sofar Sounds, which charges users $15-$30 to attend concerts in people's living rooms while paying bands just $100 for a 25-minute set, raises $25M Series B

More: USV Blog and AVC

Tweets: @jgage718, @joshconstine, @j_mcleodmusic, @joshconstine, @joshconstine, @joshconstine, @brokeassstuart, @father_daughter, and @joshconstine

Earlier Picks

Kate Fazzini / CNBC:

Moody's lowers Equifax's rating citing a $690M charge Equifax posted in Q1 for its breach, the first time a cyber attack was cited as the reason for a downgrade

More: Hunter Walk. Tweets: @glennsolomon and @swagitda_

Stan Higgins / CoinDesk:

Dutch authorities seize the bitcoin transaction mixer bestmixer.io, accusing it of money laundering, say it is the first such takedown

More: Security Affairs

Darren Loucaides / Wired:

EU's nationalist, far right parties, expected to make gains in the European parliament election, are generally opposed to EU's efforts to regulate Big Tech

Tweets: @chiefcovfefe, @profcarroll, @darrenloucaides, @ilvestoomas, and @ffrafaction

Beatrice Christofaro / Business Insider:

A look at Plum Island, a highly restricted island off the coast of New York City, where DARPA stages mock cyber attacks on the power grid every six months

New York Times:

The leaked NSA exploit EternalBlue is being used by hackers to paralyze American cities like Allentown, San Antonio, and most recently Baltimore