A look at Sen. Josh Hawley's war against Big Tech, which could portend the GOP's future approach to Silicon Valley as he draws bipartisan support on some issues (Emily Stewart/Vox)

Emily Stewart / Vox:
A look at Sen. Josh Hawley's war against Big Tech, which could portend the GOP's future approach to Silicon Valley as he draws bipartisan support on some issues  —  Facebook's biggest problem in Washington might not be Elizabeth Warren.  —  Tech has become one of the major issues of political debate heading into 2020.

WhatsApp sues Israel's NSO for allegedly helping spies hack phones around the world

WhatsApp said the attack exploited its video calling system in order to send malware to the mobile devices of a number of users https://ift.tt/34b3x42

Samsung's Next Foldable Phone May Look Like This

Samsung has unveiled a new design for a smartphone that folds into a square, racing ahead in folding devices after it launched its first model in September. https://ift.tt/34enJlG

Boeing CEO Accused of Telling 'Half-Truths' in 737 Max Hearing

Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg faced intense grilling by US lawmakers at a hearing on Tuesday over what the company knew about its MCAS stall-prevention system linked to two deadly crashes. https://ift.tt/2BSTy7l

Game of Thrones Prequel Series, With Naomi Watts, Is Dead at HBO: Reports

The first Game of Thrones prequel is reportedly dead. Created by Jane Goldman and George R.R. Martin, and starring Naomi Watts in the lead, it had wrapped up filming on the pilot earlier this year,... https://ift.tt/34ggWaS

WhatsApp Sues Israel's NSO for Allegedly Helping Spies Hack Phones

WhatsApp alleges that NSO helped government agencies deliver malicious software through seemingly harmless WhatsApp video calls, even if the targets never answered their phones. https://ift.tt/347VDbA

MX Player, a streaming and offline video app popular in India, raises ~$111M Series A led by Tencent; source: MX Player has a post-money valuation of $500M (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
MX Player, a streaming and offline video app popular in India, raises ~$111M Series A led by Tencent; source: MX Player has a post-money valuation of $500M  —  MX Player, a popular video app that offers both local playback and streaming services, said on Wednesday that it has raised $110.8 million …

Govt hikes digital payments target for FY20 to 45 billion

MeitY has also redistributed individual targets for banks and payments firms for the same period https://ift.tt/2BRHfYY https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Huawei’s Honor smart-TV with pop-up camera to take on Xiaomi TVs: Specifications, design and likely price

https://ift.tt/2BSKM9p

Apple Pay in EU antitrust spotlight as regulators seek details

Regulators wanted to know if Apple has rejected merchant apps as incompatible with the terms and conditions for integrating Apple Pay in their apps. https://ift.tt/2NrMzrz https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

WhatsApp sues Israel's NSO for allegedly helping spies hack phones around the world

WhatsApp said the attack exploited its video calling system in order to send malware to the mobile devices of a number of users https://ift.tt/32TBN3H https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Common Sense Media: screen time for Americans aged 8 to 12 has remained flat since 2015, but time spent watching videos has doubled to an hour per day (Rachel Siegel/Washington Post)

Rachel Siegel / Washington Post:
Common Sense Media: screen time for Americans aged 8 to 12 has remained flat since 2015, but time spent watching videos has doubled to an hour per day  —  More than twice as many young people watch videos every day as did four years ago, and the average time spent watching videos …

Slack rival Quill, which promises more focused team messaging, raised $2M seed led by Sam Altman and $12.5M Series A led by Index Ventures partner Sarah Cannon (Kate Clark/TechCrunch)

Kate Clark / TechCrunch:
Slack rival Quill, which promises more focused team messaging, raised $2M seed led by Sam Altman and $12.5M Series A led by Index Ventures partner Sarah Cannon  —  Slack created a new solution for workplace communication, one copied by many, even Microsoft.

Xiaomi's first high end smartwatch looks a lot like the Apple Watch, with a button and twisting control knob on the right side (Stan Schroeder/Mashable)

Stan Schroeder / Mashable:
Xiaomi's first high end smartwatch looks a lot like the Apple Watch, with a button and twisting control knob on the right side  —  Xiaomi's November 5 event is shaping up to be a pretty big one.  —  On Monday we wrote about the company's upcoming 108-megapixel phone, but now the company …

After CA passed AB5, a driver group launches a ballot measure to keep gig workers classified as contractors; Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash pledged $90M to defeat AB5 (Megan Rose Dickey/TechCrunch)

Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
After CA passed AB5, a driver group launches a ballot measure to keep gig workers classified as contractors; Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash pledged $90M to defeat AB5  —  A group of Lyft, Uber and DoorDash drivers are announcing a statewide ballot measure for the November 2020 ballot this morning in Sacramento.