Amazon wins Jedi preliminary injunction
A US judge has temporarily blocked a $10bn cloud computing contract that the US defence department granted to Microsoft instead of Amazon. Amazon is contesting the awarding of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (Jedi) contract in October, claiming in court that the military was influenced by Donald Trump’s bias against Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos. Microsoft said it was “disappointed with the additional delay”. The Pentagon said: “We are disappointed in today’s ruling... we are confident in our award of the Jedi cloud contract to Microsoft”. Sources: BBC, CNBC, Deutsche Welle, Financial Times, Marketwatch, The Register and Reuters.
Barr says he won’t “be bullied” by Trump tweets
The US attorney general, William Barr, said Donald Trump’s tweets “undercuts me” and makes it “impossible for me to do my job”. Trump had tweeted about the sentencing of a former advisor convicted of obstruction. Sources: Associated Press, BBC, CNBC, The Guardian and Reuters.
Huawei faces fresh US charges
US prosecutors have expanded their criminal case against Huawei, alleging the Chinese telecom gearmaker stole intellectual property from 6 additional companies and committed fraud. Huawei was already accused of stealing trade secrets from T-Mobile and illicitly selling kit to Iran, which it denies. Huawei stated: “These new charges are without merit and are based largely on recycled civil disputes from the past 20 years that have been previously settled, litigated and, in some cases, rejected by federal judges and juries.” Sources: BBC, Financial Times, The Register and Reuters.
VDL cites errors in “consultants affair” testimony
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, admitted during a German parliamentary hearing that “irregularities” occurred and “mistakes were made” in the granting of millions of euros in contracts to external consultants while she was German defence minister, but that no actual wrongdoing had taken place. Sources: Financial Times, Irish Times and Politico.
Apple loses employee lawsuit
California’s top court ruled that Apple retail store employees need to paid while they are waiting for anti-theft searches before leaving work. Sources: Cnet, Los Angeles Times and Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Google ordered to give dentist user details
A judge in Australia ruled that Google will have to provide a Melbourne dentist with the identity of an anonymous reviewer to advance to dentist’s defamation lawsuit. Sources: ABC News, BBC and The Guardian.
César board quits after Polanski backlash
The entire board of the César Academy, the French Oscars, resigned after activists called for boycott over several nominations for the latest film by Roman Polanski. Polanski fled Los Angeles after admitting to the statuary rape of a 13 year old girl in 1970s, and has faced other sexual assault accusations, which he has denied. Sources: BBC, France 24 and Reuters.
Agenda
Friday 14 February, 6pm: Speed dating at the Silversquare shared office space in the Gare district. Saturday 15-Sunday 16 February, 10am-7pm (both days): Puppy fair in Metz. Sunday 16 February, 10am-11:30am: Chinese paper-cutting workshop for children aged 4-12 in Strassen. Monday 17 February, 2pm-4:30pm: Talk with an educational advisor about studying at a US university, at Cedies in the Gare district. Thursday 20 February, 5pm: Presentations by startups housed at the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology.
Here are 7 science & technology stories you may have missed
Cybersecurity: A Swiss maker of encryption devices--used by governments from Argentina and Egypt to South Korea and the Vatican--was, apparently, secretly owned by the CIA and German spy agency BND, according to the Washington Post, and the SRF and ZDF (in German). Encryption: The FBI has apparently cracked Tor, software that anonymises internet traffic, but it is not clear exactly how they did it, per MIT Technology Review. Fauna: Australian sugar ants actually preferred dry urine over sugar in a recent study, per Inverse. Environment: Researchers found that “Ocean currents are speeding up, driven by faster winds,” per Scientific American. Energy: A company in Canada is trying to extract relatively green hydrogen by setting fires in underground oil reservoirs, per Science magazine. Astronomy: Something 500m light years away from Earth is transmitting “fast radio bursts” on a regular 16-day cycle, per Vice. Research: There’s an Uber for hiring freelance scientists, per Nature.
Since it’s still cold outside...
GQ has the “21 best men’s scarves in 2020” (although some don’t seem to be available to order online as of this writing).
Today’s breakfast briefing was written by Aaron Grunwald