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Onstage at Code Media, Facebook VP Dan Rose announced a new app for set-top boxes, including Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV — part of the company’s push to compete with television. Facebook also said videos in the News Feed will now automatically play with the sound on. — [Kurt Wagner / Recode]
More highlights from Code Media: The Washington Post’s Marty Baron on covering Trump; chef Marcus Samuelsson and BuzzFeed’s Ashley McCollum on the internet and food; and Stratechery writer Ben Thompson on building a subscription newsletter business. Much more here. — [Recode]
Phone records and intercepted calls show Trump campaign aides and other associates had repeated contacts with Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election. The investigation may be broadened to include ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn’s conversations with Russian diplomats. — [Michael S. Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo / New York Times]
Displaying confidence in the face of investor doubt, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey bought $7 million of Twitter stock over the last two days. — [Kurt Wagner / Recode]
Toshiba shares sank sharply after it announced a $6.3 billion writedown in its U.S. nuclear power unit and the possibility of selling off more of its chip business than planned. — [Pavel Alpeyev and Takashi Amano / Bloomberg]
SoftBank is buying U.S. private equity giant Fortress Investment Group for $3.3 billion to work alongside its $100 billion technology investment fund. — [Devin Banerjee and Pavel Alpeyev / Bloomberg]
On the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, Trivago co-founder Rolf Schrömgens credited the entrepreneurial strength of the U.S. to the nation’s history of welcoming immigrants. — [Eric Johnson / Recode]
Top Stories From Recode
WhatsApp has hired its first COO: Facebook exec Matt Idema
Idema will help WhatsApp manage its business ambitions.
Google has cut two anti-Semitic websites from its ads platform
Google wouldn’t comment on any action against individual sites, but said it takes hate speech seriously.
Is it time to separate the news from the Facebook newsfeed?
The last thing we need — and the last thing we should want — is a “personalized newspaper.”
The key question for self-driving car regulators: How safe is safe enough?
Car companies want the government to set the standards, but stay neutral on the technology.
A company that detects and disarms drones engaging in illegal activity just raised $15 million
Its anti-drone technology was used at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
This Is Cool
Thor is a terrible roommate
Remember when Thor moved in with human buddy Darryl from Australia? New video confirms Darryl is getting the short end of the deal.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
