Facebook, Uber, Brexit: Your Tuesday Briefing

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/briefing/facebook-uber-brexit.html

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Good morning.

Data harvesting on Facebook, a Brexit transition deal and a self-driving Uber’s first fatal accident. Here’s the latest:

• Alexander Nix, above, the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, the data firm hired by the Trump campaign that harvested information from more than 50 million Facebook profiles, was secretly filmed by a reporter as he offered to entrap foreign politicians with women.

Britain’s information commissioner is seeking a warrant to review the firm’s data, which was collected through a third-party app on Facebook.

The technical openness to engagement that helped make Facebook a juggernaut has become a privacy nightmare, our columnist writes. Here’s how you can protect your information.

Facebook’s share price plummeted, and a key executive who had urged more disclosure is planning to leave.

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• British and E.U. negotiators agreed on the terms of a 21-month Brexit transition.

London conceded that E.U. citizens who arrived in Britain during the transition period would have the same rights as those already in the country.

But the deal still depends on a broader agreement that is far from certain.

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• A self-driving Uber car struck a woman, causing the first known pedestrian fatality from a driverless vehicle on a public road.

While autonomous cars are expected to ultimately be safer, they face a challenge in trying to adjust for unpredictable behavior. In this case, the woman was crossing the street outside of a crosswalk.

(Here is a brief guide to the way these cars operate.)

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• Syrian propaganda videos showed President Bashar al-Assad driving a Honda from Damascus to eastern Ghouta, the suburb that has been under siege for almost five years.

In bypassing the news media, Mr. Assad delivered an alternative view of the war, one in which he is assured and in charge.

Separately, a young English woman’s idealism took her to Syria, and to her death. Anna Campbell, 26, died defending the Kurdish-led region of Rojava, whose leaders advocate equal rights for women.

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• President Trump unveiled an opioid plan that includes a push for the death penalty for dealers but was vague on details.

Separately, he is said to be considering reshuffling his legal team to more aggressively take on the special counsel’s Russia inquiry.

At least online, intelligence agency and law enforcement targets of President Trump’s insult-laden attacks are starting to strike back, sometimes in unusually harsh terms.

• Picture a leader. Most people will draw a man, not a woman. Researchers are investigating the reasons there’s such a gender gap in the recognition of leadership potential.

• A European plan to tax digital companies on where they generate revenue could hit Silicon Valley giants hard.

• With cheap flights becoming increasingly popular, Air France wants to let travelers know that flying doesn’t have to be a bare-bones experience.

• Here’s a snapshot of global markets.

• Meet Luigi Di Maio, a 31-year-old college dropout, who may be in line to become Italy’s next prime minister. [The New York Times]

• A junior U.S. officer, not top military officials, approved the botched combat mission in Niger last fall that left American and Nigerien forces dead, an unreleased Pentagon report says. [The New York Times]

• Armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has left 13 million people in a humanitarian crisis, double the number over the last year. [Reuters]

• Israel accused a 24-year-old French consular worker of smuggling guns into the West Bank from Gaza for financial gain. [The New York Times]

• Four bombings this month in Austin, Tex., have killed two people and injured four and put the state capital on high alert. [The New York Times]

• In Spain, a dispute over whether to exhume the body of Gonzalo Queipo de Llano, the civil war military commander, reflects divisions that still linger today. [The New York Times]

• In Austria, a far-right push to roll back smoking bans in restaurants and cafes has stirred more than the usual consternation. [The New York Times]

• And a photo of 38 scientists from a whale biology conference in 1971 identified all but the lone woman. Internet sleuths tracked her down. [The New York Times]

Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.

• Ever tried and failed to just stop thinking about doing something? Of course you have. Here’s why it fails.

• Fun fact: The shape of your ear affects the way you hear.

• Recipe of the day: Homemade fried chicken on a weeknight? Yes.

• A study shows the punishing reach of racism in the U.S. White boys who grow up rich are likely to remain so, but not black boys. (No such gap shows up between white and black girls.)

• Brian Eno and other pioneering songwriters use virtual reality headsets to take their audience “inside” the music.

• The fashion industry is suddenly embracing more diversity. We spoke to some of the models who are changing the catwalk.

• The Basque town of Astigarraga has 6,000 residents and an astonishing 19 cider houses.

Today, we end with a personal note:

Since these briefings’ inception over a year ago, this has been the question I have been asked the most:

“How do you know what Europeans want to read?”

That’s a fair question for a journalist, albeit a European one, who has spent most of his adult life in Asia, and still is there.

It is also a legitimate question for a U.S. newspaper at a time in which American news cycles are focused on the twists and turns of a tumultuous presidency.

So, here’s what we do:

Every day, we spend hours poring over correspondents’ dispatches and news reports from across Europe, from Iceland to Turkey.

In conversations with editors, we seek to distill wider trends from the day-to-day politics and give you what you need to know to start your day.

Of course, the result has often been a compromise. Is it flawed? Always.

But that’s the rule for all early drafts of history.

My last briefing is today’s. I’d like to invite you to keep reading, keep debating and keep challenging assumptions. Thank you for your time! Now enjoy your morning coffee.

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