Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump.
Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Thursday.
- The Trump administration has started approving licenses for US companies to resume doing business with Huawei. The US Department of Commerce said it would allow some US businesses to resume selling goods to the Chinese telecoms giant.
- Funding for European startups is estimated to hit a new $34 billion record in 2019, thanks to mega-rounds and US investors hovering for deals. Despite the increase year on year, Europe lags on investment into Asian startups ($63 billion so far in 2019) and US startups ($116.7 billion).
- Google is putting new limits on political ads, blocking advertisers from targeting people based on their politics. Google will stop advertisers from targeting election ads using public voter records and general political affiliations, the company said Wednesday.
- Trump's 2020 campaign is attacking Facebook over fears it might change how its ad targeting works. Team Trump claims Facebook is trying to deprive it of key campaigning tools around targeting political ads.
- Trump said he's 'looking at' whether Apple should be exempt from China tariffs during visit to the company's facility in Texas. President Trump said he's 'looking into' whether Apple should be exempt from tariffs on Chinese imports that impact the company's products.
- Apple has canceled the premiere of 'The Banker,' its first major movie, as it investigates 'concerns surrounding the film.' Its plans to release it in theaters and on Apple TV Plus are reportedly on hold.
- Senators are demanding answers from Amazon about its Ring camera network, saying it could threaten national security. Ring's network of home security cameras was overseen by a Ukraine office, where employees were reportedly allowed to access the video data of any customer even if they didn't need to, according to The Intercept.
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had an undisclosed dinner with Trump and Peter Thiel at the White House. Trump hosted Zuckerberg and Facebook executive Peter Thiel for dinner while the CEO was visiting DC for a congressional hearing about Facebook's new cryptocurrency Libra, NBC News reported.
- Elon Musk says the Tesla 2020 Roadster 'maybe won't need a key at all.' Tesla unveiled the new Roadster in 2017, and it is expected to arrive as early as 2020.
- Uber appears to be expanding a feature that lets you choose your favorite driver. Riders have spotted the "favorite driver" feature in San Francisco. It was first noticed in Hong Kong and recently launched in the United Kingdom.
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