Take a look behind the scenes of 'The People's Court' to see how TV court shows really work

• Court shows have been a staple of American entertainment since the Golden Age of Radio.
• "The People's Court," which began in 1981, started a whole new era: arbitration-based reality shows.
• But are the cases we see on TV court shows real? Are the participants paid? Are these even real judges?
• Insider visited the set of "The People's Court" and spoke to Judge Marilyn Milian to find out how these shows actually work.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Narrator: One of the best things about staying home from school as a kid was watching daytime court shows. My personal favorite? "The People's Court." Judge Milian is electric, and the cases are always so ridiculous.

Judge Milian: Where was your cart? By the watermelons, with you, or where the opening is? Okay, no, no.

Narrator: But what if I told you that this is not an actual courtroom? And when a person loses a case, they don't even have to pay the settlement. So what's actually going on?

Court shows have long been a staple of American television, but they didn't start on TV. The first court shows popped up in radio's golden age. The early programs were typically reenactments of real court cases.

Radio: There's no telling what would happen to him or his life if he resists the authorities.

Narrator: But "The People's Court," which began in 1981, started a whole new era: arbitration-based reality shows. Presiding since 2001, Judge Marilyn Milian is the show's longest serving host and the first Latina judge to host a nationally syndicated court show. Before "The People's Court," Milian was an assistant state attorney in Florida and was appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to the Miami Circuit Court, working in the criminal division.

Judge Milian: I had a gubernatorial appointment, and it was a sure thing. And I had crossed every "T" and dotted every "I" to make sure that I had an upward trajectory in the judiciary. And I was giving all that up if I decided to join what many in the law see as the frivolity of television. Of course, now that it's been on the air 20 years, I'm a genius. But back then, people were worried about what it is that was gonna happen in my career.

Narrator: What you see on the show are real small claims cases. They're lifted directly out of the courthouse to be arbitrated by Judge Milian.

David Scott: If you get your case in small claims, there's one judge, and there's three or 400 cases that show up on any given day. And it's very hard, impossible, for that one judge to get through those cases, so they offer you something called binding arbitration. And that is, you can go to a lawyer, plead your case to the lawyer with the person you're suing, and that lawyer will decide the case. It's binding arbitration, there's no room for appeal, and you have agreed, and the defendant has agreed to allow this arbitrator to hear your case. And that's basically exactly what we do.

Narrator: So how do they pick the cases?

David Scott: This is like panning for gold. We go out, and we go to all these courts, and we get all of these cases, and we sift through them. We love a relationship case. We love where an ex-wife is suing their ex-husband. We love cases where there's a lot of personal kind of stuff along with the legal stuff. So it's the personalities that we're looking for. We're looking for a good argument, we're looking for a good defense. That's how we select our cases.

Judge Milian: We shoot to bring the public the juiciest cases we can get. They were juicy then, they're juicy now, and hopefully they'll continue to be juicy.

Narrator: The show covers travel expenses for the participants and will pay the settlement if the case is ruled in your favor. But for most cases, it's not really about the money.

Judge Milian: We once had a guy who paid $40 to file a case over a $5 lottery card. And it was a thing of beauty, because what it shows you is that small claims is never about the money. It's always about the principle.

Narrator: So you've got a case. How do you get the judge on your side?

Judge Milian: Absolutely the biggest mistake people make is coming unprepared. If you want a judge to rule against somebody and believe you, you have to bring evidence. You can't just show up with your flapping gums. People will just walk it in there, they're insulted that you didn't just take their word for it. It's insanity. I think people think that because they believe their story so much, all they have to do is come forward and say it, and everyone else is gonna see it their way. But when there's two sides involved, you have to prove what it is you're saying.

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source https://www.businessinsider.com/truth-behind-scenes-tv-court-show-2018-10

The Pittsburgh synagogue shooter was reportedly armed with an AR-15 — here's how it became the weapon of choice for America's mass shooters

Parkland, Florida.

Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Now, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Recent deadly mass shootings in these US cities have at least one thing in common: the AR-15.

The gunman who stormed The Tree of Life Synagogue and opened fire on Saturday, killing at least eight and wounded eight more in the suspected hate crime, was reportedly armed with the weapon.

The suspected gunman has been identified as 46-year-old Robert Bowers.

This weapon has become increasingly popular in the US, especially since the 1994 federal weapons ban expired in 2004, and has been used in many other mass shootings around the country. Not just the three listed above.

To understand how and why this has happened, we put together a historical overview of the weapon and spoke with David Chipman, a senior policy analyst at Giffords and former special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

The National Rifle Association did not respond to our request for comment.

SEE ALSO: A 15-year-old JROTC cadet sacrificed himself to save 'dozens' during the Florida shooting — and thousands of people want him buried with full military honors

The AR in AR-15 stands for Armalite Rifle — not assault rifle.

In the mid-1950s, the US Army asked a gun-manufacturing company called Armalite to develop a smaller version of the AR-10 to replace the M-1 Garand, which had been widely used in World War II and the Korean War.

The result was the AR-15.

But Armalite then sold the design to Colt, which in turn began selling the weapon to Pentagon. In 1962, the US Department of Defense changed the name of the AR-15 to the M-16.

In 1963, Colt began marketing the AR-15 to the American public as a "superb hunting partner."

While it was still legal for gun dealers to sell automatic weapons until the 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act, which banned new automatic weapons, these first Colt AR-15s were semi-automatic weapons.

An automatic continuously fires when the trigger is held down, whereas the operator must continuously pull the trigger to repeatedly fire a semi-automatic weapon.

However, to this day, civilians can still own automatic weapons that were grandfathered in before 1986.

And, even then, the AR-15 was incredibly lethal.

It shoots a .223 Caliber or 5.56 mm round at roughly 3,300 feet per second, which is about three times the muzzle velocity of a typical Glock pistol.

The AR-15's effective firing range is also more than 1,300 feet at the least, whereas a typical Glock's firing range is just over 160 feet.

Chipman, the senior policy analyst at Giffords and former ATF special agent, told Business Insider that the AR-15 is so powerful that they weren't allowed to carry it during indoor raids because the rounds travel so fast that they could penetrate a victim, then a wall, then a bystander through that room.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

source https://www.businessinsider.com/ar-15-semi-automatic-history-why-used-mass-shootings-2018-2

Facebook has discovered an Iranian influence campaign that was followed by more than 1 million people (FB)

Facebook has detected a coordinated influence campaign run out of Iran that has created pages and groups followed by more than 1 million accounts on the social network.

The social network said on Friday that it had taken down 30 pages, 33 Facebook accounts, and 3 groups on Facebook — as well as 16 accounts on Instagram — that were tied to the campaign, which it described as "inauthentic behavior." The pages posted politically divisive content targeted at users in the US and the UK in apparent attempts to sow divisions. 

"Our threat intelligence team first detected this activity one week ago. Given the elections, we took action as soon as we’d completed our initial investigation and shared the information with US and UK government officials, US law enforcement, Congress, other technology companies and the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab," Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher wrote in a blog post. "However, it’s still early days and while we have found no ties to the Iranian government, we can’t say for sure who is responsible."

The news comes after Facebook said it had disrupted an earlier Iranian influence campaign in August 2018. There is "some overlap" between the two efforts.

This story is developing...

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source https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-detects-bans-iranian-influence-campaign-2018-10

Sally Yates gave her sharpest criticism yet against Trump: 'Is all of this a momentary detour? Or has our country lost its way?'

• Former deputy attorney general Sally Yates criticized the Trump administration and urged people to vote during the midterm elections.
• "Regardless of one's prior involvement in the political world, one thing is very clear now," Yates said at a Democratic National Committee event in Los Angeles on Tuesday. "This is not a time for any of us to sit on the sidelines. There is just too much at stake."
• Yates called the Trump White House callous and discriminatory, and sided with critics who claim President Donald Trump is capitalizing on nationalist sentiment and habitually peddling falsehoods.
• The former official has typically avoided the political spotlight after she was fired for refusing to enforce the first version of Trump's controversial travel ban in January 2017.

Former deputy attorney general Sally Yates in a speech delivered her sharpest criticism of the Trump administration yet, and urged people to vote in the midterm elections.

"Regardless of one's prior involvement in the political world, one thing is very clear now," Yates said at a Democratic National Committee event in Los Angeles on Tuesday night. "This is not a time for any of us to sit on the sidelines. There is just too much at stake."

"I'm not referring to any particular policies, or issues. I'm not talking about healthcare or taxes, or even immigration policy," Yates added. "Those are important, but I think that there's something much more fundamental on the line. Because I think our country is at a crossroads."

Yates repeatedly urged voters to head to the polls for the November midterm election and beyond, a message that was echoed by Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez in the event.

"Right now, we have the fight of our lives ahead of us," Yates said. "Because right now, the fight that we're facing is really about nothing less than the soul of our country."

"We have to decide if we're going to be a country that is governed by rule of law — or are we going to allow the cornerstone of our democracy to literally crumble under the weight of a president who uses the Department of Justice as a sword to go after his enemies, or a shield to protect himself and his friends."

Yates referenced the Trump administration's controversial zero-tolerance immigration policy — which she called callous and discriminatory — and sided with critics who claim Trump is capitalizing on nationalist sentiment and peddling falsehoods.

"Are we going to weaponize the differences and use them to stoke fear and division, or are we going to be a country grounded in just basic human decency and compassion," Yates asked. "Or are we going to rip children from parents and put them in cages?"

Yates continued: "Are we going to be a country that vigorously debates the issues, but debates that are grounded in common facts in truth? Or are we going to apathetically slip into the world where our leaders just flat make it all up every day — with no accountability to the point where there are no common facts and there is no such thing as objective truth anymore?"

Yates, who served as deputy attorney general during the Obama administration and most recently as the acting attorney general, has avoided the political spotlight after she was fired for refusing to enforce the first version of President Donald Trump's travel ban in January 2017.

"At present, I am not convinced that the defense of the executive order is consistent with these responsibilities nor am I convinced that the executive order is lawful," Yates said in a letter in 2017, prior to her dismissal.

Democrats have rallied around Yates.

As a Democrat from Georgia, she was once viewed as a potential candidate to represent the 6th Congressional District, a seat that was held by former Republican Rep. Tom Price, the secretary of Health and Human Services who resigned in September 2017.

Despite the backing from fellow Democrats, Yates has not shown any indication she may run for public office. She is currently a partner at the King and Spalding law firm.

In her closing remarks Tuesday night, Yates recounted an improvised speech from President Barack Obama during a Justice Department ceremony for new US attorneys — a speech she claimed stood "in stark contrast" to the Trump administration.

"He looked at us and he said, 'I appointed you, but you don't represent me. You represent the people of the United States," Yates recounted. "'As long are you remember that, and act on that, I'm going to be proud of everything you do.'"

"Can you imagine that happening today?" Yates said.

SEE ALSO: Trump is already swimming in cash for his 2020 reelection campaign

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ICE officials met with Amazon this summer to discuss using its controversial facial recognition surveillance technology (AMZN)

• Amazon met with ICE officials in June to discuss the potential use of its real-time facial recognition surveillance technology known as "Rekognition," according to a report by The Daily Beast. 
• The meeting was held at a McKinsey & Company office in Redwood City, California, as ICE and the consulting firm had a contract that ended this summer. 
• The report suggests concerns that the technology could be used by ICE to target immigrants near "sensitive locations" like medical facilities and houses of worship. 
• ICE does not have any public contracts with Amazon today for Rekognition. 

Amazon met with officials from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this summer to discuss the potential use of its real-time facial recognition surveillance technology known as "Rekognition," according to a report by The Daily Beast and documents obtained by the Project on Government Oversight. 

The Daily Beast report raises concerns that the technology could be used by ICE to target immigrants near "sensitive locations" like medical facilities and houses of worship, which is discouraged by official policy but has been carried out under the current administration. 

The report also cites multiple studies, including one from the ACLU, that shows Amazon's Rekognition — which attempts in real-time to identify people by scanning faces in a video feed — often misidentifies individuals and does so at a disproportionate rate for people of color.

The meeting between ICE and Amazon Web Service took place at the McKinsey & Company offices in Redwood City, California this June, according to the report. ICE and McKinsey had a management contract that ended this summer, and it had been previously unreported that the consulting firm had suggested ICE adopt the cutting edge facial recognition technologies, The Daily Beast said.

One former ICE official quoted in the report voiced concerned that immigration officers could abuse the technology, relying on Rekogition to make arrests rather than what Amazon claims its intended purpose of being "the first step in identifying an individual.” 

Amazon did not immediately return Business Insider's request for comment. ICE told The Daily Beast it does not have any public contracts with Amazon today for the facial recognition technology. 

In an anonymous Medium post last week, one Amazon employee warned that the company's facial recognition tech should not be used to police, especially given that it is more likely to misidentify people with darker skin. 

Amazon has publicly refuted the ACLU's research and just last week in an interview with Wired, CEO Jeff Bezos defended his company working with government agencies, like the Department of Defence. Bezos did, however, try to distance himself from the ICE discussion by saying, "I’d let them in if it was me, I like ‘em, I want all of them in.”

SEE ALSO: This first-time CEO has a 100% approval rating on Glassdoor and her company just made its first acquisition

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NOW WATCH: Apple might introduce three new iPhones this year — here’s what we know

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Facebook is battling a tidal wave of fake news and misinformation on WhatsApp in Brazil (FB)

• Facebook is battling a wave of fake news and disinformation in Brazil.
• Business groups have been spreading hoaxes supporting the far-right candidate in the presidential election, and ones study found half of all political content being shared was false or misleading.
• It shows how Facebook still struggles to police content on its platforms, and the seismic consequences this can have around the world.

Facebook is currently battling a deluge of digital misinformation and fake news ahead of a contentious election featuring a bombastic, far-right populist candidate. It's like 2016 all over again — but this time, the misinformation is spreading on messaging app WhatsApp, which Facebook owns, and the election is in Brazil. 

Brazil is currently in the middle of its presidential election, which is pitting the far-right Jair Bolsonaro against left-wing Fernando Haddad. Bolsonaro, who came out in front in a first-round vote but failed to win outright, has espoused extreme, nationalistic views, including opposition to equal marriage, support for torture, and more lethal tactics by police. 

Unlike in the US, WhatsApp is extremely popular and widespread in Brazil as a standard communication app — but hoaxes and false information can spread like wildfire on the platform. Writing in The New York Times recently, researchers found that the majority of the most popular political content shared on the app in Brazil is either false or misleading.

There are coordinated efforts to spread falsehoods, too: Hundreds of entrepreneurs and business groups have been actively pushing pro-Bolsonaro misinformation via WhatsApp via an illegal campaign, according to a report from Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo. 

There is no easy answer for Facebook. WhatsApp's messages are end-to-end encrypted, meaning the company can't view the content and proactively moderate like it might on Facebook's newsfeed, or on Instagram or Messenger (which can encrypt messages, but doesn't by default). 

But this chaos illustrates how — even as Facebook touts improvements in security and preparedness — it still faces struggles in policing unethical behaviour on its services, and the potentially seismic impact this can have on politics around the world.

Reached for comment, a WhatsApp spokesperson pointed towards a recent column by the app's boss, Chris Daniels, and provided a statement: "WhatsApp has proactively banned hundreds of thousands of accounts during the Brazilian election period. We have best-in-class spam detection technology that spots accounts that engage in abnormal behavior so they can’t be used to spread spam or misinformation. We're also taking immediate legal action to stop companies from sending bulk messages on WhatsApp and have already banned accounts associated with those companies."

The spokesperson did not respond to Business Insider's subsequent questions and requests to talk on the record about the steps WhatsApp is taking.

In Daniels' column, he flags a "forwarding" label, new controls for group admins, and a public education campaign among the measures WhatsApp is taking to try and tackle the problem. 

Do you work at Facebook? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via Signal or WhatsApp at +1 (650) 636-6268 using a non-work phone, email at rprice@businessinsider.com, WeChat at robaeprice, or Twitter DM at @robaeprice. (PR pitches by email only, please.) You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook demands Bloomberg retract its Chinese chip hacking report — 'there is no truth in their story' (AAPL)

• Bloomberg reported in early October that Chinese spies had infiltrated U.S. companies by planting microchips in their servers.
• Apple released a statement soon after denying the allegations, but Apple's CEO Tim Cook took it a step further and asked Bloomberg to retract the story, he told Buzzfeed News.
• Cook's comments are an unusually aggressive move by the CEO with respect to the news organization.

In an interview with Buzzfeed News, Apple CEO Tim Cook has called on Bloomberg to retract a contentious news report that alleged Chinese spies used microchips to infiltrate a number of major U.S. tech companies.

Although Apple had released a statement denying what Bloomberg found soon after the investigation was published, Cook's comment to Buzzfeed is the first time the CEO has spoken publicly about the controversy and marks an unusually confrontational move by the head of the world's most valuable tech company. 

“There is no truth in their story about Apple,” Cook told BuzzFeed. "They need to do that right thing and retract it."

The Bloomberg article alleged that Chinese spies managed to implant tiny chips on computer motherboards made by Super Micro Computer, and used by several of the largest American tech companies, like Amazon and Apple. The chips were designed to provide secret access to the private data on the machines. 

Since the report was published, a series of statements from government officials and information security professionals — including some named in the stories — have cast doubt about the report's main claims.

Read more about the controversy over the Bloomberg chip hacking story:

The security community increasingly thinks a bombshell Bloomberg report on Chinese chip hacking could be bogus

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NOW WATCH: Apple took another subtle jab at Facebook during its iPhone XS event

source https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ceo-tim-cook-bloomberg-retract-story-chinese-chip-hacking-2018-10

Microsoft fired the guy overseeing its NFL partnership for allegedly scalping company Super Bowl tickets and trying to fake $1.4 million in invoices (MSFT)

• A federal grand jury has indicted Microsoft's former director of Sports Marketing and Alliances for allegedly trying to create fake invoices for up to $1.4 million, according to the DOJ.
• The indictment alleges that Jeff Tran tried to route fake invoices through two Microsoft vendors and that he scalped Super Bowl tickets Microsoft acquired through its Surface tablet partnership with the NFL.
• Tran was one of the people responsible for Microsoft's relationship with the NFL.

A federal grand jury has indicted Microsoft's former director of Sports Marketing and Alliances Jeff Tran for allegedly trying to create more than $1.4 million in fake invoices, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday.

The indictment alleges that Tran, 45, tried to submit fake invoices and that he sold Super Bowl tickets that Microsoft had paid for, pocketing the proceeds for himself.

A big part of Tran's job was to oversee Microsoft's marketing partnership with the National Football League. The most prominent part of that relationship is the NFL's use of Surface tablets on the sidelines of games. Last year, the NFL signed a renewed, five-year contract for the Surface tablets.

As part of its arrangement with the NFL, Microsoft was allowed to buy a block of Super Bowl tickets. It was Tran's job to distribute them to Microsoft employees but the indictment alleges that instead of distributing them all, he took 62 of the tickets, sold them off for $200,000 and kept the money for himself.

But what tipped Microsoft off was suspicions around some invoices, according to the Department of Justice allegations. As part of Tran's job, he was allowed to authorize payments to some vendors. The indictment alleges that he had a fake $775,000 invoice submitted through Microsoft's vendors, subverting the payment to his own bank account. He is accused of trying to submit another, $670,000 fake invoice as well, but when Microsoft's vendors grew concerned about the nature of these invoices, they alerted the company.

Microsoft reportedly confronted Tran, the DOJ says, and he returned the initial $775,000. The company fired him, a spokesperson tells Business Insider, saying, "When we learned of Mr. Tran’s conduct we investigated, terminated his employment, and then referred the matter to law enforcement."

Microsoft is known to pay its director-level employees pretty well. The job may not pay millions, but a director of marketing at Microsoft makes on average $195,000 total compensation and a more senior person makes closer to $250,000, according to self-reported salaries at Glassdoor. 

Tran will be arraigned on the charges in U.S. District Court in Seattle in the next ten days. Tran could not be reached for comment.

SEE ALSO: The extraordinary life of Microsoft's billionaire cofounder Paul Allen, who has died at the age of 65

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Facebook thinks the hackers that stole 29 million users' info were spammers not a nation state

Facebook believes that spammers, and not a nation-state, are responsible for the recent hack that stole the personal information of 29 million Facebook users, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

The report, which cites anonymous sources, says that Facebook has "tentatively" concluded the hackers were spammers who were posing as a digital marketing company. 

Facebook did not immediately return a request for comment.

Developing...

 

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source https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-thinks-spammers-responsible-hack-stole-info-from-29-million-users-2018-10

White House counsel Don McGahn is reportedly out after tumultuous tenure in the Trump administration

• White House counsel Don McGahn reportedly left the Trump administration on Wednesday.
• President Donald Trump floated the idea of replacing McGahn with attorney Pat Cipollone, a Justice Department veteran, earlier this week.
• McGahn's departure adds to a long list of exits from the Trump administration. The turnover has already broken records fewer than two years into Trump's first term.

White House counsel Don McGahn left the Trump administration on Wednesday after a tumultuous 21-month tenure, two people with knowledge of the situation said in a New York Times report published Wednesday evening.

McGahn was said to be on his way out of the White House, which was likely to happen after the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

President Donald Trump floated the idea of replacing McGahn with attorney Pat Cipollone, a Justice Department veteran, earlier this week.

Cipollone, who currently practices in a Washington, DC-based law firm, was reportedly working with Trump's legal team in recent months and has extensive experience with crisis management, consumer fraud, and constitutional issues.

Trump described Cipollone as "a very fine man, highly respected by a lot of people."

McGahn's departure adds to a long list of exits from the Trump administration. The turnover had already broken records fewer than two years into President Donald Trump's first term.

Despite playing a critical role in Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation process, McGahn's relationship with the president appeared to be fray in recent months, according to multiple news reports.

McGahn, who was frustrated with Trump's "volcanic anger" and abrupt eruptions, reportedly described the president as "King Kong" behind his back. McGahn was also viewed as a check on Trump's impulsive actions, according to The Times, and as a result, found himself attracting the president's ire.

The White House counsel's office, which typically consists of a 50 attorneys, currently has around 25, according to a Washington Post report published Saturday.

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source https://www.businessinsider.com/don-mcgahn-out-white-house-counsel-trump-administration-2018-10

This $500 device wants to make it easy for you to ditch your Google or Yahoo email account and run your own, private email server

• Helm, a $500 device with a $99 yearly subscription plan, lets you operate an email server out of your own home. 
• Your email and data is stored on the device in your home, and it's encrypted before traveling through Helm's servers. 
• Helm claims to collect very little information from its users — just the necessary payment information and device diagnostics.
• While no server is completely secure, this could provide peace of mind to people who don't trust large tech companies to protect their data. 

It's not hard to get the impression that big tech companies can't effectively keep our data safe. 

Just in the past few weeks, Google disclosed a security bug that exposed hundreds of thousands of private accounts on the Google+ social network. Facebook admitted that 29 million users had private information stolen. It's easy to decide to quit using social media sites, but nearly everyone needs or uses an email service. Email is the backbone of every internet account — you almost can't get by in life these days without an email address. 

One solution is to run your own in-house email server, as plenty of companies and tech-savvy individuals do. 

This means that a private entity is in control of the email server and all of the information stored there. There's no need to place your trust in a tech company that has proven itself to be vulnerable to security bugs or breaches. 

But if you're not an IT pro, the idea of setting  up an email server can be pretty intimidating. That's where Helm comes in.

Helm wants to make that a reality for the everyday email user — someone who probably wouldn't know how to set up an email server from scratch. Helm's $500 device is an in-home email server, meaning all of your data and emails are stored on the device right in your home. Helm doesn't collect much information about its users besides the necessary details like payment information and device diagnostics, and any communication or data are encrypted when they leave the Helm device. 

With traditional email services like Gmail or Yahoo, your data and emails are stored on a server controlled by the email provider. You don't have much control over what that company does with your data.

Helm stores your emails and data in your home, but that doesn't mean it's completely safe. Any server can be attacked, regardless of where it's located. However, you're paying for the control over your emails and the ability to be free from a tech company storing your data. Helm also says it hires hackers to try to locate vulnerabilities in the device or its software, and it plans to release improvements and boost security through future software updates. 

You can choose to store a backup of your emails on Helm's servers, but those backups are encrypted and require your security key in order to be decrypted. 

Helm features a standard 120GB of storage, but that can be increased to up to 5TB with additional hardware. The device also comes with physical encryption keys for encrypting data locally on the machine and offline for a secure backup. The device costs $500, and has a $99 subscription fee for every year after the included one-year subscription. 

For more information, or to purchase a device, visit Helm's website here. 

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source https://www.businessinsider.com/helm-home-email-server2018-10

'This is what happens when you elect a moron to the presidency': Michael Avenatti claps back at Trump's 'Horseface' tweet toward Stormy Daniels

• Attorney Michael Avenatti fired a warning shot in response to President Donald Trump's tweets in which he called Avenatti's client, adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, "Horseface."
• "I'm a father to two daughters ... how do you tell your kids to look up to the president of the United States when he behaves in this manner?," Avenatti said. "It's an absolute joke."
• Avenatti, who has hinted at a 2020 presidential run, also took a jab at what he believed to be "wishy-washy" tactics some Democratic lawmakers have used to counter Trump.
• "There's only one way to deal with a bully ... and that is when they punch you, you hit them back twice as hard," Avenatti said. "He better pack a lunch."

Attorney Michael Avenatti fired a warning shot at President Donald Trump in response to his "Horseface" insult toward adult-film actress Stormy Daniels.

"This is a disgrace," Avenatti said during a CNN interview on Tuesday evening. "Donald Trump is the president of the United States. Never in my lifetime did I think that I would witness behavior like this from the president."

"I'm a father to two daughters ... how do you tell your kids to look up to the president of the United States when he behaves in this manner," Avenatti added. "It's an absolute joke."

Asked how Daniels reacted to Trump's insult, Avenatti said she was "incredulous." 

"She couldn't believe it," Avenatti said. "She thought that his account had been hacked or that it was some joke."

"The rest of the world looks at us, they laugh at us," Avenatti added. "I don't care what your politics are. This has no place, this is a complete disrespect to the office of the presidency."

Avenatti, who has hinted that he might run as a Democrat in the 2020 presidential election, also took a jab at what he called "wishy-washy" tactics he believes some Democratic lawmakers have used to counter Trump.

"There's only one way to deal with a bully ... and that is when they punch you, you hit them back twice as hard," Avenatti said. "He better pack a lunch."

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump took a victory lap after a federal judge dismissed Avenatti and Daniels' defamation lawsuit against him on First Amendment grounds. In addition to dismissing the lawsuit, US District Judge James Otero ordered Daniels to pay Trump's legal fees.

"Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas," Trump tweeted, referring to Daniels and Avenatti. "She will confirm the letter she signed! She knows nothing about me, a total con!"

Trump appeared to be referring to a letter Daniels signed in January, in which she denied having an affair with Trump in 2006. Next week, Trump is scheduled to hold a campaign rally to support Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Daniels' home state.

Daniels immediately fired back at Trump using some sexual innuendo:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present your president," Daniels said in a tweet. "In addition to his...umm...shortcomings, he has demonstrated his incompetence, hatred of women and lack of self control on Twitter AGAIN! And perhaps a penchant for bestiality. Game on, Tiny."

Despite the ruling, Avenatti said in a statement that he would appeal the judges decision and that Daniels' lawsuits against Trump and Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney, would "proceed unaffected." Avenatti also claimed that the dismissed defamation lawsuit was only "secondary" to his original claim regarding the nondisclosure agreement between Cohen and Daniels.

"The defamation case was a secondary case to the main case, which is the case over the nondisclosure agreement," Avenatti said. "I don't think Donald Trump is smart enough to understand that."

"I mean, this is what happens when you elect a moron to the presidency of the United States, somebody that doesn't even understand basic law."

SEE ALSO: Trump scores a 'total victory' after federal judge dismisses Stormy Daniels' lawsuit and orders her to pay his legal fees

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NOW WATCH: Inside the Trump 'MAGA' hat factory

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Trump scores a 'total victory' after federal judge dismisses Stormy Daniels' lawsuit and orders her to pay his legal fees

• President Donald Trump's attorneys scored a victory in court when a federal judge dismissed adult-film actress Stormy Daniels' defamation lawsuit against Trump.
• Daniels was also ordered to pay Trump's legal fees.
• Daniels, who says she had an affair with Trump in 2006, sued him in April after he disputed her claim that she was being threatened by a unidentified man in 2011 as "a total con job."
• The unidentified man allegedly warned her not to publicize her purported sexual affair with Trump.
• Michael Avenatti, who represents Daniels, said he would appeal the decision.

President Donald Trump's attorneys scored a victory in court when a federal judge dismissed adult-film actress Stormy Daniels' defamation lawsuit against Trump on First Amendment grounds and ordered her to pay his legal fees.

"No amount of spin or commentary by Stormy Daniels or her lawyer, Mr. Avenatti, can truthfully characterize today's ruling in any way other than total victory for President Trump and total defeat for Stormy Daniels," Charles Harder, an attorney for Trump, said in a statement to Business Insider.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, sued Trump in April after he described her allegations of being threatened by a unidentified man in 2011 as a "a total con job." Daniels, who claimed she had a sexual affair with Trump in 2006, alleged that a man accosted her in a parking and told her to "leave Trump alone."

"Mr. Trump used his national and international audience of millions of people to make a false factual statement to denigrate and attack Ms. Clifford," the federal court complaint said at the time.

Harder argued that Trump's statement ought to be considered protected speech, and that Daniels did not identify specific damages.

"The Court agrees with Mr. Trump's argument because the tweet in question constitutes 'rhetorical hyperbole' normally associated with politics and public discourse in the United States," US District Court Judge Otero said in his opinion. "The First Amendment protects this type of rhetorical statement."

Michael Avenatti, the attorney for Daniels, said in a statement that he would appeal the decision and that her lawsuits against Trump and Michael Cohen, Trump's former longtime attorney, would "proceed unaffected."

"Trump's contrary claims are as deceptive as his claims about the inauguration attendance," Avenatti said in a tweet on Monday. "We will appeal the dismissal of the defamation cause of action and are confident in a reversal."

SEE ALSO: Michael Cohen's lawyer made a bombshell admission about the $130,000 'hush agreement' with Stormy Daniels

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NOW WATCH: Inside the Trump 'MAGA' hat factory

source https://www.businessinsider.com/stormy-daniels-defamation-lawsuit-dismissed-pay-trump-legal-fees-2018-10

Google cloud boss Diane Greene won't attend Saudi investment event, throwing a wrench into Google's plans to tap new revenue in the country (GOOG, GOOGL)

• Diane Greene, Google cloud chief, will not attend an investment event in Saudi Arabia. 
• Greene is the latest US business leader to pull out of the event following the disappearance of a dissident Saudi journalist.
• Greene's decision not to attend the conference comes following a year whe Google has tried to build closer ties to the Saudi government. 

---

Google is the latest in a still growing number of US businesses to distance themselves from Saudi Arabia following accusations that the government there is behind the disappearance of a dissident journalist.

Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene was scheduled to speak at an investment event called the Future Investment Initiative, a conference sponsored by Saudi government, but has now dropped out.

“We can confirm Diane Greene will not be attending the FII Summit,” said a Google spokesperson in a written statement.

A cloud of suspicion has hung over the Saudi government ever since Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, a Saudi citizen, and a well-known critic of the government there, went missing on Oct. 2. The government of Turkey alleges it has proof that Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi embassy in Turkey. Saudi officials have denied it had anything to do with Khashoggi’s disappearance.

In response to the accusations, several high-profile tech leaders announced last week they had pulled out of the conference dubbed the "Davos in the Desert." Included among them are Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber's CEO, Steve Case, an AOL cofounder and venture capitalist, Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, and Andy Rubin, cofounder of Android and former Google executive.  

The controversy comes at an awkward time for Google. The past year, the company has tried to strengthen ties with the Saudis. In April, Google's leaders met with  Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. According to reports, they discussed cooperating on cloud computing services and the possibility of building a digital hub in Saudi Arabia.    

Later that month, after the company reported earnings, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that Google would roll out cloud services in Saudi Arabia.

"Our global infrastructure continues to expand to support demand," Pichai told analysts on the call. "We commissioned three new sub sea cables and announced new regions in Canada, Japan, Netherlands and Saudi Arabia, bringing our total of recently launched and upcoming regions to 20."

Pulling out of the conference could conceivably harm Google's relationship with the crown prince, though had Greene attended, critics would have likely claimed that Google was once again at odds with the company’s values.

The situation shows just how hard it can be for Greene to build Google’s cloud business, and make up ground on two much larger rivals, Amazon AWS and Microsoft's Azure, while not running afoul of the company’s moral codes.

Earlier this year, after thousands of the company's employees rose up in protest, Google stopped working on a military program called Project Maven, an effort that used artificial intelligence to analyze drone surveillance footage.

The company also published a list of principles that would direct its use of AI in the future. Those principles appear to demand some sacrifice from the company. Last week, Google said it would not bid on a $10 billion Pentagon contract due to potential conflicts with the AI principles.

Amazon is currently the favorite to win the contract. And Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took a veiled shot at Google at a conference in San Francisco on Monday: "If big tech companies are going to turn their back on the US Department of Defense, this country is going to be in trouble," he said.

SEE ALSO: 'Things have changed at Google': An engineer who quit to protest Project Maven explains why the company's changing values forced him out

SEE ALSO: Individuals and businesses are distancing themselves from Saudi Arabia following the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

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NOW WATCH: The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is a $1,000 phone that's actually worth it

source https://www.businessinsider.com/google-diane-greene-wont-attend-saudi-investment-event

Hackers stole millions of Facebook users’ personal data — here’s why you should be worried (FB)

• Some 30 million Facebook users were victims of the hacking attack it revealed recently.
• That attack exposed the personal information of many users, including their names, phone numbers, birth dates, and more.
• That kind of information could be used for identity theft and to compromise users' financial and other accounts, security and privacy experts say.
• The exposure of that data can also pose particular and obvious dangers to people who are trying to keep a low profile, such as victims of domestic violence.

If you're one of the victims of the recently revealed hack of Facebook, you should be extra careful on the internet — and extra watchful of your other online and offline accounts.

The data hackers gleaned from the social network could be used for identity theft, and to access accounts ranging from those at banks and other financial institutions to online stores. It also could be used in so-called spear phishing attacks, in which hackers use the information they know about particular users to send them personalized messages that convince them to leak their passwords or other critical data.

"Given the scale of this — which was really surprising — and how much information was scraped … people can be legitimately concerned," said Justin Brookman, director of privacy and technology policy at Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports.

Some 30 million accounts were compromised in the attack, which Facebook first announced two weeks ago. The hackers were able to gain access to names and phones numbers of nearly all of those users as well as personal details such as birth dates, relationship status, gender, and education and work histories for 14 million of them.

The exposure of those kinds of personal details can be particularly dangerous to people who are trying keep a low profile, such as those who have been the victims of domestic abuse or protestors worried about reprisals from their governments. It can also create problems for people who were trying to keep certain parts of their lives private from the wider world, such as their sexual orientation or their religious affiliations.

The data from Facebook could be used to access bank accounts

But it can be risky to everyday users as well. That's because in the hands of malicious actors, this data can be used to hijack accounts on other services besides Facebook.

The password reset feature on many sites asks users to answer certain security questions. Those questions often ask for just the kind of personal details that were revealed in the Facebook hack, Brookman said.

But it's not just online accounts that are at risk. Information such as names and birth dates can also be used to gain access to banking accounts or medical records over the phone, said John Simpson, director of privacy and technology at Consumer Watchdog, a consumer advocacy group. That kind of information "can be tremendously empowering" to hackers, he said.

"They can take that information and definitely parlay it into information that can scam the individual," he said. "Potentially, there's some real damage that can be done to people."

Even the leak of just a phone number can pose a risk. To protect their accounts on various websites, many users have been turning on two-factor authentication, a security technique that often requires users when logging into their accounts to enter a special code in addition to their passwords. Many sites send that code via the SMS text messaging system to users' cell phones.

Security researchers have known for years, though, that the SMS system is vulnerable to hacking attacks. By knowing a user's phone number, a malicious actor could potentially intercept the two-factor authentication code and use it to gain control of the user's account.

It could also be used in targeted email attacks

Another potential danger comes from spear-phishing attacks. Typically in such an attack, a hacker sends an email that induces a user to click on a link to a spoofed site and enter their login information. The malicious actor usually uses what they know about the target — their friends, their family, their life experiences — to convince them that the email is legitimate.

Even seemingly innocuous information about a person can be used in such attacks. The more data a hacker has about someone, the more believable they can make the email lure. One set of data that was exposed in the Facebook hack was the locations where users had checked in using Facebook's app.

A hacker might be able to take that information and purport to be a representative of a target's credit card company, potentially even saying that the company had noticed their card being used on the date and place of the check in, said Michelle Richardson, director of the privacy and data project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, an advocacy group.

"These guys are really crafty," she said.

Because users often reuse passwords on multiple sites, they may find lots of their most sensitive and valuable accounts at risk if they fall victim to such a scam.

There are steps you can take to protect yourself

You can find out whether you were affected by the Facebook attack by logging into your account and going to a security page the company has set up. If you were affected, there are several steps you should take to protect yourself, security and privacy experts say:

• Put a freeze on your credit report with the major credit reporting agencies, such as Equifax. That will prevent criminals from using the information they gleaned about your from creating new financial accounts in your name. Thanks to a new law, credit freezes are now available for free.
• Keep a close eye on your financial statements to look out for mystery charges.
• Make sure you aren't using the same password in multiple places, and create new, unique ones if you are. A password manager such as LastPass can make it easier to create and keep track of your login information for different sites.
• Turn on two-factor authentication whenever you can, but especially on your most sensitive or valuable accounts. Even those such systems can be vulnerable to hacking attacks, they're still more secure than passwords alone.

Regardless of whether your account was affected, you might also want to consider deleting or deactivating your Facebook account, especially if you don't use it often. If you plan to keep your account, you should also think about limiting what you share on it.

"People share stuff on their Facebook profiles they wouldn't want shared with rest of world," said Brookman. He continued: "There's historical data that's out there about you that could potentially be leveraged against you or used to hack your account or compromise your friends'."

Now read:

• Facebook’s privacy 'bait and switch' confirms your worst fears about its unstoppable advertising impulses
• The departure of Instagram's cofounders is a bad thing for Facebook — but it could be even worse for the rest of us
• The FCC boss who repealed net neutrality says Google, Facebook and Twitter might need 'transparency obligations'

SEE ALSO: Facebook’s stock dropped by $120 billion this week, but critics are dead wrong for calling it ‘doomed’

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NOW WATCH: Apple might introduce three new iPhones this year — here’s what we know

source https://www.businessinsider.com/bank-accounts-could-be-compromised-becuse-facebook-hack-2018-10

Hackers stole Facebook information from 29 million people, including phone numbers and birth dates (FB)

• A massive attack on Facebook by unidentified hackers impacted 29 million people.
• The majority of data taken was personal names and phone numbers.
• For some people, much more information was taken — date of birth, location, religion, and a variety of other details.

Facebook announced important new details Friday about the massive hack that affected 29 million users of its social network — and it's much worse than we thought.

A mess of personal information, including details about people's recent locations, phone numbers and search histories, was taken by the as-yet unidentified hackers. 

After all, Facebook serves as an online identity for many people.

"For 15 million people, attackers accessed two sets of information – name and contact details (phone number, email, or both, depending on what people had on their profiles)," Facebook said in a blog post Friday.

"For 14 million people, the attackers accessed the same two sets of information, as well as other details people had on their profiles," the post said. 

For anyone who's filled out a Facebook profile page, those "other details people had on their profiles" can amount to a lot of personal information: Stuff like your birthdate, where you went to school, who you're in a relationship with — even your religion. It all depends on what you volunteered to Facebook when you filled out your profile page.

Here's the full list of information that hackers might have gotten if you're one of the unlucky 29 million impacted people:

• Username
• Gender
• Locale/language
• Relationship status
• Religion
• Hometown
• Self-reported current city
• Birthdate
• Device types used to access Facebook
• Education
• Work
• The last 10 places you checked into or were tagged in
• Website
• People or Pages you follow
• The 15 most recent searches

Wondering whether or not you're affected? So were we! Head to this Facebook page while logged into Facebook, and scroll to the bottom to find out.

SEE ALSO: Facebook says the FBI has asked it not to reveal who might be behind an hack that affected 30 million people

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NOW WATCH: Apple took another subtle jab at Facebook during its iPhone XS event

source https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-hack-what-information-was-taken-2018-10

Facebook says the FBI has asked it not to reveal who might be behind an hack that affected 30 million people (FB)

• Facebook says 30 million users were affected by a massive hack it first disclosed two weeks ago.
• On Friday, the social networking firm revealed more details about the attack — and said the FBI has asked it not to reveal who might be behind it.
• Hackers acccessed millions of victims' highly sensitive personal data, including locations, relationship information, recent searches, birthdates, and more.

30 million people have been affected by a massive hack of Facebook — and the FBI has asked the social networking company not to reveal who might be behind it.

On Friday, Facebook provided more details about an attack on its systems that it first disclosed two weeks ago, and said at the time could affect up to 50 million people.

In its update, Facebook said the company is cooperating wih the FBI, and 30 million people were affected in total — with the attackers gaining access to millions of users' highly sensitive data, including location, contact details, relationship status, recent searches, and more.

"We’re cooperating with the FBI, which is actively investigating and asked us not to discuss who may be behind this attack," Facebook exec Guy Rosen wrote in a blog post.

"We now know that fewer people were impacted than we originally thought. Of the 50 million people whose access tokens we believed were affected, about 30 million actually had their tokens stolen."

So what happened? The as-yet unidentified hackers were able to exploit vulnerabilities in Facebook's code to get their hands on "access tokens" — essentially, digital keys that give them full access to compromised users' accounts.

For 14 million victims, the attackers accessed a trove of user highly sensitive data, including gender, relationship status, religion, hometown, current city, birthdate, devices used to log in, education, locations checked into, pages they follow, and recent searches, name and contact details. 

For another 15 million, the hackers accessed less information — only name and contact details.

And for one million affected users, the hackers did not access any information.

This story is developing...

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Washington state's Supreme Court just tossed out its death penalty — here are the states that still have the power to execute prisoners

• Washington state's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the death penalty violates its constitution.
• Capital punishment has reached record lows across the US — at both the state and federal levels.
• Though most states still technically retain the death penalty, very few actually use it.

Washington state's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the death penalty violates its constitution because it has been "imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner."

The ruling declared that all eight of the state's prisoners who are currently on death row will now serve life sentences instead.

"The use of the death penalty is unequally applied — sometimes by where the crime took place, or the county of residence, or the available budgetary resources at any given point in time, or the race of the defendant," the justices wrote in their ruling. "The death penalty, as administered in our state, fails to serve any legitimate penological goal."

Washington isn't alone — data show that use of the death penalty has steadily declined since the 1970s, and few states still execute prisoners regularly.

Though the majority of states still retain capital punishment, few of them have actually used it in recent years. There are even 16 states that haven't executed a single prisoner since 1976, according to The Marshall Project.

As the death penalty fades out of use across the country, many states have even put the issue on the ballot in recent years. But voters have been reluctant to abolish capital punishment completely, no matter how rarely it's used.

Here are all the states that still retain the death penalty, but haven't executed anyone in at least five years:

Harvard researchers found in 2016 that the US's use of the death penalty is mainly fueled by just a handful of counties — they're known as "outlier" counties and they're scattered throughout states like Texas, Alabama, and Florida.

The researchers found that the counties that still actively pursue the death penalty tend to have several factors in common: overzealous prosecutors, inadequate defense attorneys, and racial bias.

SEE ALSO: Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz

DON'T MISS: Just 16 counties are fueling America’s use of the death penalty

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NOW WATCH: Inside the Trump 'MAGA' hat factory

source https://www.businessinsider.com/states-with-the-death-penalty-america-2018-3

Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe reportedly butted heads with Rod Rosenstein over the Russia investigation

• Deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe reportedly had a tense standoff after Robert Mueller was appointed as special counsel for the Russia investigation.
• The two men reportedly urged each other to recuse themselves from the Russia probe.
• During one exchange, Rosenstein is said to have pointed to a picture of McCabe wearing a political campaign T-shirt supporting his wife's run for Virginia state Senate.
• McCabe in turn criticized Rosenstein and pointed to a memo he wrote for President Donald Trump, in which he criticized FBI Director James Comey and added justification for Trump's firing of Comey.

A rift between deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein and former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe ran deep after Robert Mueller was appointed as special counsel over the Russia investigation, according to a Washington Post report published Wednesday.

After Mueller was appointed in May 2017, McCabe was summoned for a meeting that included the special counsel and Rosenstein, current and former officials said to The Post. During this tense meeting, Rosenstein and McCabe reportedly cited several reasons why the other ought to recuse himself from the Russia probe.

Some of the details of the meeting are disputed, but one person familiar with the situation said Rosenstein referenced a picture of McCabe wearing a T-shirt supporting his wife's campaign for the Virginia state Senate race in 2015. Critics, namely President Donald Trump, have railed against the McCabe's and alleged that their ties to the Democratic Party tainted the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.

McCabe brought documents from FBI ethics officials that claimed he followed ethics rules, according to two people cited in The Post.

But another person denied that the dispute was over a T-shirt and claimed that McCabe's statements following the controversial firing of FBI director James Comey were scrutinized by officials.

After Comey was abruptly fired, McCabe wrote a motivational memo to staffers and urged them to "hang in there."

"As men and women of the FBI, we are at our best when times are tough," McCabe wrote in January. "Please stay focused on the mission, keep doing great work, be good to each other and we will get through this together."

"We all miss him," McCabe added, referring to Comey, "and I know that he misses us."

As Rosenstein argued his case, McCabe reportedly pulled out the deputy attorney general's memo that Trump used to justify his firing of Comey. Legal experts have argued that this memo, which criticized Comey's handling of the Clinton investigation, was the catalyst for Comey's firing.

"Andy was angry," a person familiar with the events said to The Post.

McCabe was fired in March, one day before his retirement date, after an internal investigation on unauthorized media disclosures surrounding the FBI's probe of Clinton's emails. Rosenstein is currently the acting attorney general for Mueller's investigation, despite rumors that Trump has been weighing the possibility of replacing him.

"Well, we're going to see what happens," Trump said to Fox News host Shannon Bream on Wednesday night. "Everybody's working together."

SEE ALSO: Trump's anger toward Jeff Sessions is said to run deep, and it could mean his days as attorney general are shorter than anyone thinks

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NOW WATCH: Inside the Trump 'MAGA' hat factory

source https://www.businessinsider.com/andrew-mccabe-and-rod-rosenstein-recusal-russia-investigation-robert-mueller-2018-10

Apple and Google execs named to a Saudi advisory board amid controversy over reportedly murdered journalist

• More than a dozen high profile tech executives, including famous venture capital investors Marc Andreessen and former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick are part of a newly announced advisory panel for a $500 billion Saudi mega-city project.
• The panel was announced as much of the focus on Saudi Arabia turns towards the fate of a Saudi dissident who disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. 
• Shortly after the list of advisors was published, the list was changed and Apple's Jony Ive was no longer on the list. 

 

An array of high-profile business and technology leaders, including senior executives from Google and Apple were named to a new advisory board for the Saudi Arabian government on Tuesday, even as controversy swirls over the disappearance of a dissident Saudi journalist.

On Tuesday, the Saudi news outlet Argaam reported that Neom — a $500 billion megacity project being built by the country — has formed a new 19-member advisory board. Members include Apple's chief design officer Jony Ive; famed tech industry investor Marc Andreessen; Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Google's urban planning unit Sidewalk Labs; Travis Kalanick, ex-CEO of Uber; former European Commission vice president Neelie Kroes; ex-Dow Chemical Company CEO Andrew Liveris, and Silicon Valley investor Sam Altman.

Shortly after the list was published and as reporters reached out to individuals about their involvement, Apple's Ive was quietly removed from the list of names. The announcement was changed to promote a panel of 18 advisors, rather than the initial 19.

While Saudi Arabia was trumpeting its list of high-profile tech advisors, much of the news on Saudi Arabia was focused on the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government who disappeared after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey last week. The New York Times and several other news organizations report that Khashoggi was murdered by a team of 15 Saudi agents inside the consulate. A report in the Guardian on Tuesday says that Turkish authorities are focused on a black van seen leaving the consulate that they believe was carrying Khashoggi's body. 

The panel of tech and policy bigwigs will presumably help turn the sci-fi-like vision of Neom into a reality. According to Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Neom will provide a "civilizational leap for humanity" with a foundation of robots, AI and renewable energy.

Business Insider reached out to the members of the advisory board for comment about their involvement and whether they would remain on the board following Khashoggi's disappearance, and will update this story if they respond. (Timothy Collins, Janvan Hest, and Rob Speyer could not be reached for comment.) 

Here's the initial 19-member list, according to Argaam:

1) Sam Altman, the president of Y Combinator and the co-chair of OpenAI

2) Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz

3) Tim Brown, CEO and president of IDEO

4) Timothy Collins, vice chairman and CEO of Ripplewood Advisors

5) Alexandra Cousteau, a senior advisor to Oceana

6) Dan Doctoroff, founder and CEO of Sidewalk Labs

7) Norman Robert Foster, founder and CEO of Foster + Partners

8) Janvan Hest, a chemistry professor

9) Jonathan Ive, Apple's chief design officer

10) Travis Kalanick, CEO of City Storage Systems

11) Neelie Kroes, a retired Dutch politician and vice-president of the European Commission

12) Andrew N. Liveris, former CEO and chairman of Dow Chemical Company

13) Ernest Moniz, founder of Energy Futures Initiative

14) Marc Raibert, a former Carnegie Mellon University professor and a founder of Boston Dynamics

15) Carlo Ratti, a professor of Urban Technologies and Planning, and director of SENSEable City Lab

16) John Rossant, founder and chairman of the New Cities Foundation

17) Masayoshi Son, a Japanese business magnate and chief executive officer of Japanese holding conglomerate SoftBank

18) Rob Speyer, Tishman Speyer president and chief executive officer

19) Peter Voser, chairman of ABB.

SEE ALSO: There’s a history of clashes hidden behind the Instagram and Facebook success story that led to Monday’s bombshell breakup

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source https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-execs-named-saudi-board-controversy-jamal-khashoggi-disappearance-2018-10