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Trump said he misspoke at a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but no one who heard him speak Monday takes his Tuesday comments seriously. That includes Trump: After announcing that he really does think Russia interfered with the 2016 election, he added, “Could have been other people also. There’s a lot of people out there.” Meanwhile, Special Counsel Robert Mueller asked a federal judge to give immunity to five people who may testify at former Trump campaign boss Paul Manafort’s trial on bank fraud charges, which starts next week. [John Wagner and Felicia Sonmez / The Washington Post]
The European Union will fine Google a record $5.06 billion for antitrust violations. The EU says Google abuses the power of its Android operating system. Context: Google parent Alphabet earned more than $9 billion in Q1. [Wall Street Journal]
Republican Congressman Mike Coffman introduced legislation that would codify the basic tenets of the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order into law, including stopping internet service providers from blocking or throttling content and ending the practice of paid prioritization. He’s the first Republican House member to support the effort. [Makena Kelly / The Verge]
Silicon Valley needs to figure out how to promote women and people of color. And Andreessen Horowitz is doing that by changing one of its founding rules. The high-profile venture capital firm has elevated Connie Chan — a well-regarded expert on the intersection of Chinese and American tech trend — to general partner. To do so, the firm quietly scrapped an outdated rule that its critics said made front-of-the-pack partnerships just a collection of (mostly white) guys. That rule: To become a general partner, you had to have founded or led a company as CEO. Last month, Andreessen announced that it had hired Katie Haun — also not a founder or a CEO — as its first female general partner. [Theodore Schleifer / Recode]
The company formerly known as Priceline is investing $500 million in Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing company. Booking Holdings will work closely with Didi to offer its on-demand car services through its Booking.com apps, and Didi customers will have the option to book hotels through Booking.com and its sister site Agoda. Booking also operates Kayak, Priceline.com, Rentacars.com and OpenTable, which makes it a powerful ally for Didi, which is in global expansion mode. [Jon Russell / TechCrunch]
With little public scrutiny, the health insurance industry has joined forces with data brokers to vacuum up your personal data, and it is predicting your health costs based on data about things like race, marital status, what social media you use, how much TV you watch and if you buy plus-size clothing. Insurers contend they use the information to spot health issues in their clients — and flag them so they get services they need. [Marshall Allen / ProPublica]
Recode Presents ...
Grocery-delivery company Instacart is still more than alive, successfully positioning itself as the grocery industry’s ally and the last line of defense against Amazon-Whole Foods. We’ve invited CEO Apoorva Mehta to join us onstage at Code Commerce to talk about that, plus how the company plans to navigate the often-tumultuous relationship with its frontline workforce and much more. On September 17 and 18 in New York City, Mehta will join Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke, Instagram product boss Vishal Shah and other soon-to-be-announced industry leaders at Recode’s two-day forum on the technologies and innovations that are transforming retail. Code Commerce sold out last year, so if you’re interested, register today, before the first-mover price expires.
Top stories from Recode
Media leaders on both the left and right are pressing Facebook to define what journalism is. The social media giant recently invited editors and publishers, including six conservative publications, to a biannual meeting with its global news partnerships head Campbell Brown to explain how Facebook defines journalism and who practices it. Some journalists, including BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith, wondered out loud why “trash” like the Daily Caller was allowed there, and claimed that Facebook was false-balancing right versus left media outlets. [Kara Swisher and Kurt Wagner / Recode]
This is cool
How Helsinki arrived at the future of urban travel first.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
