U.S. intelligence chiefs briefed Donald Trump and top government leaders on uncorroborated reports compiled by a former British spy claiming Russia had collected damaging and salacious information about Trump and links between his campaign and the Kremlin. The memos were revealed, without details, by CNN, and later, in a controversial move, published in full by BuzzFeed. — [Peter Kafka / Recode]
Recode Daily: Spy chiefs warned Trump of a report that Russia has dirt on him
One more topic for a rare Trump press conference this morning.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Trump is scheduled to hold his first press conference since July at 11 am ET, where he will likely face questions about the leaked report, the untangling of his business interests, his Cabinet and staff appointees and his plans regarding the Affordable Care Act. Here’s how to watch, if it happens. — [April Glaser / Recode]
In his farewell address, President Obama spoke of the challenges to democracy posed by fear, apathy and economic and racial inequality, but voiced his faith in the ability of Americans to move forward by embracing tolerance and civic engagement. Here’s the video and full text. — [Mark Landler and Julie Bosman / New York Times]
Tesla hired Apple veteran Chris Lattner to lead its Autopilot software development. Lattner created the popular Swift programming language for building apps on Apple platforms. — [Ina Fried / Recode]
The philanthropic organization founded by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, has added some political expertise, luring former Obama campaign adviser David Plouffe away from Uber to serve as president of policy and advocacy. — [Kurt Wagner and Johana Bhuiyan / Recode]
Consumer Reports, which, in a first for Apple laptops, declined to recommend the new MacBook Pro over inconsistent battery life, will retest the model after Apple found that the magazine’s testing method had triggered an obscure software bug. — [Ina Fried / Recode]
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It’s part of a $27 million fund being managed by MIT and Harvard.
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This Is Cool
The folks at the Allstars Sports Bar in Bristol, England, took many hours and many tries to pull off this trick shot.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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