Waymo, formerly Google’s self-driving car unit, is suing Uber and its autonomous truck unit, Otto, for allegedly using stolen technology. The suit accuses former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski, now leading Uber’s self-driving efforts, of downloading thousands of confidential files before leaving to co-found Otto. Further complicating things, Waymo parent Alphabet is an investor in Uber. — [Johana Bhuiyan / Recode]

Two prominent Uber seed investors, Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor, criticized the “toxic patterns” in the company’s behavior and voiced doubts about the independence of the investigation into allegations of sexism and harassment. Outside counsel Eric Holder said Uber has given him free rein to conduct an impartial review. — [Johana Bhuiyan / Recode]

Meanwhile, Uber has lost another key member of its self-driving team: Raffi Krikorian, the senior director of engineering at Uber’s Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh. — [Johana Bhuiyan / Recode]

Salesforce, Google, Apple and a raft of other tech companies issued statements opposing President Trump’s rollback of protections for transgender students in public schools. — [Kara Swisher / Recode]

Disney’s Maker Studios unit will stop providing advertising and promotional support to some 60,000 YouTube creators and instead will focus on about 300 who have large followings and are well suited to work with other Disney divisions. — [Ben Fritz / Wall Street Journal]

Amazon is fighting a search warrant for recordings from an Echo owned by a murder suspect, contending that conversations with Alexa are protected under the First Amendment. — [Thomas Fox-Brewster / Forbes]

On the latest episode of Too Embarrassed to Ask, Upthere CEO Chris Bourdon explains why you may want to use more than one cloud storage service. — [Eric Johnson / Recode]

Top Stories From Recode

Google wants businesses to text with its Android Messages service

The company is continuing to expand the reach of its next-generation texting app.

U.S. airplane pilots are reporting more drone sightings, but no collisions yet

1,274 possible drone sightings were reported.

Trust study: Californians don’t like tech as much (they really don’t like tech as much)

A new survey shows Bay Area residents are warier than before about its homegrown industry.

Surprise! It’s 2017 and Square is thriving

Remember when Jack Dorsey’s Square was supposedly crumbling? I do.

A company that provides air traffic management for drones just raised money from Microsoft and Airbus

Most major U.S. airports are already using AirMap’s drone software.

We’re consuming too much media. It’s time to detox our brains.

For many of us, generating and managing the ceaseless flow of news, social media and questionable facts has become a full-time job.

Full transcript: The Too Embarrassed to Ask team answers listener questions about Apple’s AirPods

Yes, sometimes they fall out of your ears.

Facebook is starting to put ads in the middle of its videos

Many publishers have trouble making money off Facebook videos — this could change that.

Google researchers have cracked a key internet security tool

But the tool remains in wide use.

This Is Cool

Watch a trained bee roll a tiny soccer ball into a goal

It’s part of research into the surprising learning capabilities of small brains.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Uber’s diversity officer, Bernard Coleman III, joined the company just last month. Now, amid the furor over reports of sexual harassment, unresponsive management and a frat-boy culture, he is tasked with producing a diversity report long resisted by CEO Travis Kalanick. — [Johana Bhuiyan / Recode]

Among all the appalling allegations of sexism and harassment in former Uber engineer Susan Fowler’s bombshell essay, the most absurd, WTF illustration of a toxic workplace was the leather jacket episode. — [Kara Swisher / Recode]

President Trump rescinded Obama-administration guidelines specifying that transgender students have the right to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity, overruling his own education secretary. Apple quickly condemned the decision. — [Jeremy W. Peters, Jo Becker and Julie Hirschfeld Davis / New York Times]

Tesla reported mixed Q4 results and announced that CFO Jason Wheeler will be leaving. Former CFO Deepak Ahuja will return to replace him. CEO Elon Musk also said the company may build as many as three more Gigafactories. — [Johana Bhuiyan / Recode]

Apple’s new “spaceship” campus now has a name (Apple Park), a move-in date (April), a tribute to its late co-founder (the Steve Jobs Theater) and a host of architectural bragging points (like being home to “the world’s largest naturally ventilated building”). — [Dan Frommer / Recode]

Fast-growing Snap, which has cobbled together a series of offices in beachfront Venice, Calif., instead of moving to a big, corporate campus, is driving some of its neighbors crazy. — [Sarah Frier / Bloomberg]

On the latest episode of Recode Media with Peter Kafka, screenwriter Scott Frank says “Logan,” his dark sendoff for Hugh Jackman’s iconic “X-Men” character, is a superhero movie for people — like him — who don’t like superhero movies. — [Eric Johnson / Recode]

Top Stories From Recode

Mossberg: TV is changing, but not fast enough

What I learned at Code Media.

AwesomenessTV CEO Brian Robbins is stepping down

Here’s the memo.

Most U.S. workplaces still use ‘old-school’ tech like email and phone calls to communicate

Old habits die hard.

Instagram will now let you upload 10 photos at once

The new “photo carousels” are meant to encourage more posting.

Silicon Valley should be making products for Middle America, investor Jeremy Liew says

Liew says the Valley needs to come to terms with the fact that it’s a bubble that doesn’t represent “normal America.”

Google and Intel had the most active corporate VC firms last year

GV’s biggest investments in 2016 were Oscar, Stripe and Grail.

This Is Cool

Fun 3-D animations of some familiar loading screens

From Raphael Vangelis, “an homage to all the lost time we collectively spend in digital limbo.” And here’s the “making of” video.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

As Uber’s leaders responded privately and publicly to allegations of sexual harassment and indifferent management, past and present employees traced the problems to CEO Travis Kalanick’s belief that HR’s primary function should be recruiting. — [Johana Bhuiyan / Recode]

The Trump administration detailed plans for more aggressive enforcement of immigration laws, vastly expanding the definition of “criminal alien” and making millions of undocumented immigrants subject to arrest and deportation. — [Michael D. Shear and Ron Nixon / New York Times]

Stratechery’s Ben Thompson has a take worth reading about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg’s global-community manifesto, arguing that the prospect of Facebook using its immense power for political ends requires a strategy to rein it in. — [Ben Thompson / Stratechery]

Facebook is in talks with Major League Baseball to livestream one game a week during the upcoming season, a move that would bolster the company’s push to become more like TV. — [Jessica Toonkel / Reuters]

Verizon finalized its deal to buy Yahoo for $4.48 billion, $350 million less than it planned to pay before Yahoo revealed two massive data breaches. — [Ryan Knutson / Wall Street Journal]

At a Snap roadshow presentation ahead of its IPO, CEO Evan Spiegel faced questions from skeptical investors concerned about slowing user growth and rising competition from Facebook’s Instagram. — [Alex Barinka and Sarah Frier / Bloomberg]

On the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Jeremy Liew credits Snapchat’s success to Spiegel’s talent for rethinking established conventions. — [Eric Johnson / Recode]

Just added to the speaker lineup at Code Commerce on March 20 in Las Vegas: Marc Lore, head of Walmart’s U.S. e-commerce operations. Stitch Fix’s Katrina Lake and Bevel razor creator Tristan Walker will also be onstage. Seating is limited, so register now. — [Jason Del Rey / Recode]

Top Stories From Recode

Google is auditing more YouTube ad metrics

The news comes within two weeks of Facebook’s own announcement of ad auditing.

The woman who helped build Michelle Obama’s brand is joining Instagram

Kristina Schake is joining Instagram to lead comms, and current comms boss David Swain is leaving after almost a decade at Facebook.

UPS thinks it can save money and deliver more packages by launching drones from its trucks

The driver loads the drone from inside the truck.

Amazon plans to sell beer and wine at its new high-tech convenience store

The Amazon Go store in Seattle also carries sandwiches, salads and snacks.

Full transcript: Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx on Recode Decode

Foxx and Recode Senior Editor Johana Bhuiyan talk about the future of self-driving technology and much more.

This Is Cool

A real-time, interactive air pollution map

Plug in a location and BreezoMeter will show you the air quality down to street-level detail.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Uber has hired outside counsel, including former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, to join its investigation into a former employee’s claims of a corporate culture that tolerates sexual harassment. The company will also issue its first diversity report. — [Kara Swisher / Recode]

President Trump named Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, a widely respected and outspoken military strategist, as his new national security adviser, replacing the ousted Michael Flynn. — [Peter Baker and Michael R. Gordon / The New York Times]

Grocery delivery company Instacart is developing a reputation for messing with the way its workers are paid — replacing tips with a “service fee,” for instance, then restoring the tip option in its app, but making it hard for customers to find. — [Jason Del Rey / Recode]

WhatsApp is now the second Facebook-owned property, after Instagram, to adopt a feature modeled after Snapchat’s Stories. WhatsApp Status lets users share a short montage of photos and videos that disappears after 24 hours. — [Kurt Wagner / Recode]

Snap’s video-recording Spectacles, initially sold only at a New York pop-up store and in strategically placed vending machines, are now available online. — [Kurt Wagner / Recode]

Top Stories From Recode

One big idea links Netflix, Facebook, Uber and Airbnb — and creates real problems for TV

Stratechery’s Ben Thompson explains it all.

Don’t blame Facebook for Trump, Bloomberg’s Brad Stone says

Stone sympathizes with Facebook’s current political dilemma.

Full transcript: Hadi Partovi and Reshma Saujani talk about learning to code on Too Embarrassed to Ask

These days, it’s good to be familiar with coding no matter what field you’re in.

This Is Cool

Learn sign language with these 2,000 GIFs

Courtesy of educator Robert Demayo and Giphy.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick promised an “urgent investigation” of claims by a former engineer that she and other women were sexually harassed, brushed off by the human resources department and punished for bringing complaints. Calls to #deleteUber are on the rise again. — [Johana Bhuiyan / Recode]

President Trump’s revised travel ban, expected this week, will target the same seven majority-Muslim countries, but no longer cover green-card holders from those nations. Also in the works: A set of aggressive new policies on deporting illegal immigrants. — [Maria Abi-Habib and Carol E. Lee / Wall Street Journal]

Snap has lost one of its top ad executives less than a month before its expected IPO. Sriram Krishnan joined the company a year ago from Facebook. — [Kurt Wagner / Recode]

SpaceX launched a supply capsule for the International Space Station from a history-rich pad at Kennedy Space Center and once again successfully landed the rocket’s first stage. Here’s the webcast and drone video of the landing. — [Loren Grush / The Verge]

On the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, Brad Stone, author of “The Upstarts,” says self-driving cars represent an “existential crisis” for Uber — motivation that may work to its advantage. — [Eric Johnson / Recode]

Top Stories From Recode

These University of Washington professors are teaching a course on bullshit

Watch out, Big Data.

People love GIFs — but turning GIFs into ad dollars is taking some time

Tenor wants to become the Google Search for emotions.

An Intel drone got the assist on a vicious dunk at the NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest

Orlando’s Aaron Gordon used a drone to pass him the ball, and it worked out okay.

Apple released the first trailer for its new ‘Carpool Karaoke’ show this week

It’s pretty much exactly what you would have expected.

We read that Elon Musk tunnel-boring story so you don’t have to

How Elon wants to beat flying cars.

Watch Mister Rogers defend public television to the U.S. Senate in 1969

Trump is the latest president to consider de-funding it.

This Is Cool

Google just added a whole lot of new presidential history exhibits

And today would be an appropriate time to browse.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

In a 6,000-word mission statement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out an idealistic vision of an interconnected global community and Facebook’s role in promoting civility and civic engagement and fighting fake news and terrorism. — [Kara Swisher and Kurt Wagner / Recode]

In a contentious news conference, President Trump unloaded his grievances against the media, the courts and government leakers, dismissed reports of his associates’ Russia contacts and declared his month-old administration “a fine-tuned machine.” He also plans to sign a revised travel ban next week. Watch here. — [Peter Baker / New York Times]

Also railing against the media was video star Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg, whose anti-Semitic “jokes” cost him deals with Disney and YouTube. The NYT’s John Hermann sees the political context — Kjellberg as a populist reactionary in an internet nation-state. — [Rolfe Winkler, Jack Nicas and Ben Fritz / Wall Street Journal]

Samsung Group chief Lee Jae-yong was arrested on bribery, embezzlement and perjury charges related to an influence-peddling scandal that led to the impeachment of South Korean President Park Geun-hye. — [Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee / Reuters]

On the latest episode of Too Embarrassed to Ask, Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern says the latest batch of “unlimited” mobile data plans may make sense for “people who use a crapload of data,” but not for average users. — [Eric Johnson / Recode]

Top Stories From Recode

Now you can buy things from Costco, Whole Foods and other stores via Google Home

“Okay Google, order paper towels.”

A breakthrough in Alphabet’s balloon-based internet project means it might actually work

The Loon project says these advancements shorten their timeline for deployment.

CEO Evan Spiegel will likely be worth more than $4 billion once Snap IPOs

So who else is getting rich?

Here are three ways that immigrants make a tech company stronger

Individuals who immigrate often embody qualities that are highly sought after by employers — bravery and adaptability, for starters.

Verizon just acquired a drone company

The telecom giant announced last year that it would start providing data plans for drones, too.

President Trump asked his supporters (again) to support his campaign against the media

Questions include: “On which issues does the mainstream media do the worst job of representing Republicans?

Trump’s FCC chief wants it to be easier to listen to free FM radio on your smartphone

But he doesn’t think the government should mandate it.

This Is Cool

Play a duet with an AI pianist

This entertaining little experiment from Google listens to you play and uses machine learning to respond.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Yahoo’s series of data breaches didn’t torpedo the sale of its core assets to Verizon, but it will trim the $4.8 billion price tag by up to $350 million. Altaba, the stub company left after the deal, will assume much of the liability for breaches that may be discovered later. — [Kara Swisher / Recode]

With his GOP support dissolving, fast-food exec and robot fan Andrew Puzder withdrew his name as President Trump’s pick for labor secretary. Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence officials are withholding some sensitive details of their activities from Trump because they don’t trust his discretion. — [Alan Rappeport / New York Times]

Facebook is moving into LinkedIn’s turf, letting employers post job listings to their Page and applicants to respond through Messenger. — [Kurt Wagner / Recode]

Amazon and Google are looking at giving their Echo and Home smart speakers the ability to serve as phones, if they can resolve issues involving privacy, regulations and 911 calls. — [Ryan Knutson and Laura Stevens / Wall Street Journal]

On the latest episode of Recode Media with Peter Kafka, journalist Gabriel Snyder explains the New York Times’ plan to drive digital revenue by offering a single subscription, then regularly adding new services and features to increase the value. — [Eric Johnson / Recode]

Top Stories From Recode

Mossberg: Android apps on Chrome OS arrive, disappoint

The idea is great, but the execution needs work.

Elon Musk tweeted and deleted that the ‘Muslim immigration ban is not right’

Musk sits on two Trump advisory boards.

Why won’t Uber just add a tipping option?

A group representing Uber drivers has petitioned the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission to mandate that the company add a tipping feature.

Alphabet is sending hundreds of staff from its internet access unit to Google

The subsidiary, called Access, also has a new CEO.

Full transcript: ‘Hit Makers’ author Derek Thompson on Recode Media

The science of popularity.

Dubai is planning to launch autonomous, one-passenger drone taxis this summer

There’s no one flying the aircraft.

Full transcript: Kurt Wagner explains Snap’s IPO to Lauren Goode on Too Embarrassed to Ask

This special bonus episode delves into the particular secrets revealed by pre-IPO paperwork.

This Is Cool

This “Star Trek”-style visor lets the legally blind see

The eSight 3 uses a high-speed, high-def camera and a pair of OLED screens.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Onstage at Code Media, Facebook VP Dan Rose announced a new app for set-top boxes, including Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV — part of the company’s push to compete with television. Facebook also said videos in the News Feed will now automatically play with the sound on. — [Kurt Wagner / Recode]

More highlights from Code Media: The Washington Post’s Marty Baron on covering Trump; chef Marcus Samuelsson and BuzzFeed’s Ashley McCollum on the internet and food; and Stratechery writer Ben Thompson on building a subscription newsletter business. Much more here. — [Recode]

Phone records and intercepted calls show Trump campaign aides and other associates had repeated contacts with Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election. The investigation may be broadened to include ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn’s conversations with Russian diplomats. — [Michael S. Schmidt, Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo / New York Times]

Displaying confidence in the face of investor doubt, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey bought $7 million of Twitter stock over the last two days. — [Kurt Wagner / Recode]

Toshiba shares sank sharply after it announced a $6.3 billion writedown in its U.S. nuclear power unit and the possibility of selling off more of its chip business than planned. — [Pavel Alpeyev and Takashi Amano / Bloomberg]

SoftBank is buying U.S. private equity giant Fortress Investment Group for $3.3 billion to work alongside its $100 billion technology investment fund. — [Devin Banerjee and Pavel Alpeyev / Bloomberg]

On the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, Trivago co-founder Rolf Schrömgens credited the entrepreneurial strength of the U.S. to the nation’s history of welcoming immigrants. — [Eric Johnson / Recode]

Top Stories From Recode

WhatsApp has hired its first COO: Facebook exec Matt Idema

Idema will help WhatsApp manage its business ambitions.

Google has cut two anti-Semitic websites from its ads platform

Google wouldn’t comment on any action against individual sites, but said it takes hate speech seriously.

Is it time to separate the news from the Facebook newsfeed?

The last thing we need — and the last thing we should want — is a “personalized newspaper.”

The key question for self-driving car regulators: How safe is safe enough?

Car companies want the government to set the standards, but stay neutral on the technology.

A company that detects and disarms drones engaging in illegal activity just raised $15 million

Its anti-drone technology was used at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

This Is Cool

Thor is a terrible roommate

Remember when Thor moved in with human buddy Darryl from Australia? New video confirms Darryl is getting the short end of the deal.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

Onstage at Code Media, Apple SVP Eddy Cue, along with Propagate Content’s Ben Silverman and “The Late Late Show” executive producer Ben Winston, talked about Apple’s untraditional approach to making TV shows. Cue also premiered extended trailers for “Planet of the Apps” and “Carpool Karaoke.” Watch the interview here. — [April Glaser / Recode]

More from Code Media: Brian Robbins, CEO of AwesomenessTV, says millennials are losing their clout in pop culture and media companies should focus on Gen Z, and producer Jason Blum explains how he turns low-budget films into blockbusters. Two livestreams today: Chef Marcus Samuelsson and BuzzFeed’s Ashley McCollum at 9:35 am PT, and the Washington Post’s Marty Baron at 11:45 am PT. — [Recode staff]

President Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned after it was revealed that he had misled the White House about holding discussions with a Russian diplomat before he was authorized. — [Maggie Haberman, Matthew Rosenberg, Matt Apuzzo and Glenn Thrush / New York Times]

When Joanna Coles, the former Cosmopolitan editor who is now Hearst’s chief of content, was named to Snap’s board, a news report said her compensation was a fraction of her male counterparts’. It wasn’t true, but it was all too believable. — [Kara Swisher / Recode]

Disney has severed ties with YouTube star Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg after he posted a series of videos that included anti-Semitic jokes or Nazi imagery. — [Rolfe Winkler, Jack Nicas and Ben Fritz / Wall Street Journal]

One of the reasons for the exodus of talent from Google’s car project over the last year? A compensation system that paid team veterans so much that they felt free to pursue other opportunities. — [Alistair Barr and Mark Bergen / Bloomberg]

Top Stories From Recode

Jeff Bezos’s first — and only — female adviser has moved on to a new role at Amazon

Maria Renz is now Amazon’s VP of delivery experience.

8i wants to take holographic videos to the mainstream with mobile app Holo

It’s looking to bridge the old world of entertainment with the new world of content.

This Chrome add-on lets you see Twitter through the eyes of other users

FlipFeed wants to burst your social media bubble.

Full transcript: Alison Bechdel, onstage and on Recode Decode

The author discussed the musical based on her graphic memoir “Fun Home.”

This Is Cool

Here’s the drone that will be ferrying people around Dubai

The air taxi could take off this summer.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

The Trump administration is weighing a range of responses to the suspension of President Trump’s travel ban — like further appeals to a rewrite of the executive order. Meanwhile, National Security Council staffers are struggling to keep up with Trump’s tweets and craft policy to fit them. — [Rebecca Ballhaus / Wall Street Journal]

In a troubling sign of the times, U.S.-born NASA scientist Sidd Bikkannavar was detained by customs officials on his return from a recent trip abroad and not allowed to leave until he gave them his PIN code so that they could search his phone. — [Loren Grush / The Verge]

Feeling the competitive pressure from Sprint and T-Mobile, Verizon will start offering an unlimited data plan for the first time since 2011. — [Ryan Knutson / Wall Street Journal]

Apple CEO Tim Cook said fake news is “killing people’s minds,” and called for a major public education campaign and new tech tools to fight the spread of false stories and hoaxes. — [April Glaser / Recode]

Eddy Cue, the man in charge of Apple’s moves in music, movies and TV, will be interviewed onstage at Code Media tonight at 7:35 pm PT. Here’s how to watch the livestream on YouTube. — [Meghann Farnsworth / Recode]

On the latest episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, Flipboard CEO Mike McCue compares algorithm-driven social news feeds to junk food, and talks about the role of human editors in Flipboard’s customized “smart magazines.” — [Eric Johnson / Recode]

Top Stories From Recode

One in 10 U.S. readers consider Facebook a news outlet

But remember: Facebook says it isn’t a media company.

Oracle has filed an appeal in its copyright lawsuit against Google

A jury ruled in Google’s favor in May.

A Magic Leap investor says critics should stop ‘gloating’ and give augmented reality more time

Benedict Evans preaches patience after a leaked photo shows clunky hardware.

Full Transcript: The Verge’s Dieter Bohn talks Chromebooks on Too Embarrassed to Ask

How good is the stripped-down, low-cost laptop these days?

Ford is putting $1 billion into an AI startup, Detroit’s biggest investment yet in self-driving car tech

The automaker will take a majority stake in Argo AI, founded by two top engineers from Google and Uber.

This Is Cool

Break out of your Twitter filter bubble

FlipFeed is a Chrome extension from the Laboratory for Social Machines at the MIT Media Lab that lets you swap your feed for one from another user, either left-leaning or right-leaning, based on inferred political ideology.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.