Saudi Arabia says Jamal Khashoggi’s murder was premeditated, and Facebook will pay a meagre fine in Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Google paid Andy Rubin $90 mn exit package despite harassment charge
Andy Rubin, the creator of the Android mobile software, and accused of sexual harassment, received a hero’s farewell when he exited Google in October 2014, the New York Times reported.
The software developer, who had an extramarital affair with one of the female executives in the company, allegedly forced her to perform oral sex in a hotel room in 2013. Google conducted an investigation and found that the woman’s allegations were credible.
While Google could have fired Rubin and paid him nothing, the company chose to reward him with a $90 million exit package. The payment was scheduled to be made in installments of $2 million for four years. The last installment is due next month, the NYT report said.
Rubin is one of the three executives, accused of sexual misconduct, that Google has allegedly been protecting for the past decade. While the other two were ousted, like Rubin, they were compensated in millions of dollars as well.
Rubin Thursday defended himself on Twitter saying, “The New York Times story contains numerous inaccuracies about my employment at Google and wild exaggerations about my compensation” and called it a smear campaign by his ex-wife in a divorce and custody battle.
https://twitter.com/Arubin/status/1055632399172755456
As a response to the NYT article, CEO Sundar Pichai in a letter to the employees said that the company was taking “hard-line” approach towards inappropriate conduct, BBC reported.
Now, Saudi Arabia says Jamal Khashoggi’s murder was premeditated
In a fresh disclosure, Saudi Arabia has said journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder is premeditated, the New York Times reports.
The account published in a section of Saudi media stated that the Saudi prosecutor had received information from Turkey indicating premeditated killing of the journalist.
The Washington Post columnist had gone missing on 2 October from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Since his disappearance, Saudi Arabia had come up with several explanations of his murder including a rogue attack. Last Saturday, the kingdom said that he was a victim of a fistfight that broke out between a team of Saudi agents and the journalist when they tried to persuade him to return to the kingdom, NYT added.
China, Russia listening in on Trump’s cellphone conversations
A New York Times report claims that China and Russia are listening in on president Donald Trump’s personal phone calls.
Trump, despite being warned several times by the intelligence community, refuses to give up his iPhones.
The report states that China and Russia are now taking advantage of Trump’s casual behaviour and are eavesdropping. Supposedly, Chinese spies have a made a list of friends and associates that Trump often speaks to. The spies also want to know what Trump thinks.
The National Security Agency has altered Trump’s two iPhones in order to make them more secure.
White House officials say they are hoping that Trump doesn’t reveal any sensitive secrets to those friends he speaks to.
However, Trump Thursday said the NYT report was “soooo wrong!” and said he only used government phones and “only one seldom used government cell phone.”
The so-called experts on Trump over at the New York Times wrote a long and boring article on my cellphone usage that is so incorrect I do not have time here to correct it. I only use Government Phones, and have only one seldom used government cell phone. Story is soooo wrong!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 25, 2018
US defence secretary to send more troops to stop migrant caravan
US defence secretary James Mattis is expected to sign orders to send at least 800 troops to the US-Mexico border as migrant caravans from Central America are moving toward the US territory, reports CNN.
According to the officials, Pentagon — the US defence headquarters — has been under pressure from the White House to send troops to the US-Mexico border, especially after the US President Donald Trump repeatedly called for the use of the military.
The troops that are expected to reach the borders next week will provide fencing, wall materials and other technical support along the border. They will also provide tents and medical care for border authorities in those areas.
Hinting at his upcoming move, Trump tweeted Thursday, “I am bringing out the military for this National Emergency.”
Facebook to pay a meagre fine in Cambridge Analytica scandal
While UK authorities have slapped the maximum possible fine on Facebook over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the amount is, in fact, tiny for the social media giant, CNN reported.
UK Information Commissioner’s Office Thursday announced a $645,000 fine stating that Facebook failed to safeguard user data and was slow to contain the leak that was used to influence voters in the 2016 US presidential elections.
Cambridge Analytica — the data firm that worked on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign — had come under scrutiny earlier this year after it emerged that the firm had accessed 87 million Facebook users’ personal data without their permission.
The penalty is less than the average price of a home in London and it won’t hurt Facebook, CNN added.
However, the information commissioner has warned that any future fines in the case will be much higher under Europe’s new data protection law.
Facebook in a statement has said that it was reviewing the decision.