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In a sometimes contentious news conference, Donald Trump outlined plans to let his sons manage his businesses rather than divesting or using a blind trust (“meaningless,” said the top U.S. ethics officer), denounced reports of a Russian dossier on him (and yelled at CNN), promised again that Mexico would pay for a border wall (nope, said Mexico again) and attacked high drug prices (yipes, said pharma investors). Here’s the transcript and some fact-checking. — [Glenn Thrush / New York Times]
Fascinating reading: Maureen Dowd’s interview with Peter Thiel, in which the billionaire contrarian talks about his support of Trump and the reaction in Silicon Valley and the gay community, life-extension science, the similarities between Trump and Elon Musk, the Hulk Hogan-Gawker lawsuit and more. They also played a few rounds of Confirm or Deny. — [Maureen Dowd / New York Times]
Alphabet’s moonshot division, X, has given up on Project Titan, its effort to provide internet access via drones. Team members have been reassigned to Project Loon, which uses balloons for broadband access, and Project Wing, a drone delivery initiative. — [Brian Fung / Washington Post]
Struggling Macy’s would like to blame at least part of its woes on “changing customer behavior” (read: Amazon and online shopping in general), but its predicament is the result of a decade of complacency. — [Jason Del Rey / Recode]
Facebook, often criticized for the way it handles news, announced the Facebook Journalism Project, in which it will collaborate with news organizations on new formats, offer more support for local news and provide new tools to publishers. — [Peter Kafka / Recode]
Instagram has some new ad inventory to sell — in between Stories, the little montages assembled from user photos and videos. The company said 150 million people use Stories every day, up 50 percent since October. — [Kurt Wagner / Recode]
On the latest episode of Recode Media with Peter Kafka, Fox digital ad exec Joe Marchese says he’s fine with people using ad blockers because it sends a strong signal to publishers that online advertising needs to change. — [Eric Johnson / Recode]
Top Stories From Recode
Mossberg: Streaming TV is beginning to look a lot like cable
What happened to Netflix-style choice?
We’re on the cusp of some of the biggest changes in technology in years
Here’s a big-picture perspective on what I saw at CES 2017.
The iPhone is gaining ground on Android in the U.S.
However, Apple’s market share dipped below 20 percent in China, according to a market research firm.
You’ll probably get to keep watching free video on your phone — even if it violates net neutrality
The FCC finally decided AT&T and Verizon are violating current law, but Trump is likely to scrap the rules entirely.
Amazon just got slapped with a $1 million fine for misleading pricing
List prices, shmist prices.
This new drone footage shows that Apple's ‘spaceship campus’ still has a long way to go
Lots of earthmoving for the new spaceship.
Full Transcript: Vic Gundotra of AliveCor on Recode Decode with Kara Swisher
A longtime tech exec shows what happens when big minds take on big problems.
This Is Cool
Watch poker pros go up against an AI supercomputer
Carnegie Mellon’s 20-day Brains vs. AI poker tournament is under way, and you can watch the action on Twitch.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
