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A senior Uber executive obtained the medical files of a woman in Delhi who was raped by one of the company's drivers and internally claimed that the claim may have been fabricated by Indian rival Ola to sabotage the company. Recode reports that the firing of Uber's president of business in the Asia Pacific, Eric Alexander, comes in addition to over 20 staff dismissed following an internal sexual harassment investigation, and appears to have only occurred when Recode questioned his continued presence at the company. It's not currently clear whether the means used to obtain the document were legal, or whether Alexander was acting under orders from above. Reports from sources at the company indicate that Alexander passed the woman's medical documents on to Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and senior vice president Emil Michael, with all three – none of whom has any medical qualifications – telling colleagues that they believed woman's story to be untrue based on their reading of her medical records. Experts providing testimony in India's courts clearly believed otherwise, and the driver was sentenced to life in prison in 2015.
Short-term holiday rental agency Airbnb has announced Open Homes, a new platform allowing people to offer free rooms to refugees and people displaced by natural disasters (The Verge). Those who wish to offer their space can sign up, and they'll be put in touch with vetted organisations who place people in temporary accommodation. The company writes: "In the past, Airbnb staff worked directly with relief organisations to match refugees with hosts who had volunteered their homes. This was often a painfully slow process due to the many intermediaries involved. Our new platform allows relief organizations to connect people in need directly with Airbnb volunteer hosts, which means a faster process and fewer missed opportunities". The company has a five-year goal of providing free short-term housing to 100,000 people in need, and currently has 6,000 active listings on its Open Homes platform.
A new poll conducted by London research company Qriously gives Labour a 3-point lead over the Conservatives in the 2017 UK general election (WIRED). The survey puts Labour on 41.3 per cent of the vote and the Conservatives at 38.5 per cent, making the final result too close to call because the difference falls within the 3.2 per cent margin of error. "This is the first poll that gives an outright lead for Labour," Christopher Kahler, Qriously's CEO, says. "But our results are not wildly out of line with what other polls are predicting. It’s generally agreed that it will be a close-run election. People generally believe the Conservatives will win," Kahler says."As to the impact on voting behaviour, that’s hard to say. It could galvanise Labour voters into action, or alternatively, it could make them feel the cause is hopeless and lead them to stay home. Likewise, it could make Conservative voters complacent, or encourage them to vote." Qriously correctly predicted the outcome of the Brexit referendum, the Italian constitutional referendum, the Dutch general election and the Turkish constitutional referendum. Qriously conducted this survey between Sunday, June 4 and Wednesday, June 7, interviewing 2,213 UK adults. Data was weighted on gender, age, region and income to be demographically representative.
OnePlus has confirmed its next phone, the number-jumping OnePlus 5, will be launched on June 20, with a livestream and pop-up events in cities including London and New York (Ars Technica). OnePlus is reportedly skipping directly from 3 to 5 due to the unlucky connotations of the number 4 in China. The phone is set to have the powerful new Snapdragon 835 SoC, also found in the Samsung Galaxy S8. However, the OnePlus 5 is expected to sell at roughly half the price of its £689 Samsung rival.
Thanks to the superior resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers from the Space Telescope Science Institute have seemingly done the impossible by determining the mass of a white dwarf using a theoretical method devised by Einstein in 1936 (WIRED). Einstein predicted that the weight of stars could be measured using the bending of distant starlight by its own gravity, but because stars are so far apart, the esteemed physicist never thought observing such a phenomenon would be possible. The new research measured shifts in the apparent position of a distant star as its light was deflected around Stein 2051 B on eight dates between October 2013 and October 2015. They determined that Stein 2051 B – the sixth-closest white dwarf star to the Sun – has a mass that is about two-thirds that of the Sun. As Stein 2051 B passed closely in front of this background star, the background star’s position was deflected.
From DDoS attacks to data manipulation, new cybersecurity regulations to organised fraud, businesses and consumers alike are faced with ever greater levels of security threats. Get inside knowledge on the developing threat landscape at WIRED Security 2017, returning to London on September 28.
A study has found that, as people come closer to death, they become more emotionally positive, focussing on meaningful aspects of their family lives and ideological beliefs (The Independent). The researchers analysed the blog posts and last words of people near death – terminal cancer patients and death row inmates in the USA – and compared them to simulated final statements by people imagining how they'd feel if they were soon to die. Co-author Dr Kurt Gray said: "When we imagine our emotions as we approach death, we think mostly of sadness and terror. Humans are incredibly adaptive – both physically and emotionally – and we go about our daily lives whether we’re dying or not. In our imagination, dying is lonely and meaningless, but the final blog posts of terminally ill patients and the last words of death row inmates are filled with love, social connection, and meaning."
While artificial intelligence stands to bring rapid improvements to the healthcare sector, director-general of the World Health Organisation Margaret Chan has warned that it must be for the good of everybody – not just the wealthiest countries (WIRED). "I would be hard pressed to promote to (impoverished) countries the advantages of AI when even standard machines for analysing samples or sterilising equipment cannot run for want of electricity," she said at the UN’s AI Summit for Good. One thing that all countries share however, she says, is a move away from communicable diseases being the greatest threat, to non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and hypertension. It’s the result of the "same dominant forces" shaping our health everywhere: "ageing, rapid unplanned urbanisation and the globalised marketing of unhealthy products." AI can help address these though, she added, and wearables have already been deployed to track and monitor health. "AI experts, what gadgets can you come up with to empower individuals to make healthy choices?" she asked.
A new vinyl mix of Nine Inch Nails' original soundtrack for Quake is "coming soon" to the band's official store (Engadget). ID Software's Quake set a new standard for first person shooters when it was released in 1996, and a large part of its dark, ominously oppressive atmosphere came from Trent Reznor's soundtrack for the game. The OST has never seen a stand-alone release, and was previously only available by playing the audio tracks included on the game disc.
Everything, the delightfully quirky, ambient game in which you can explore, embody and control anything in the universe, has become the first video game to be eligible for an Oscar… or rather, its lovely gameplay footage trailer, with narration from late British philosopher Alan Watts, has qualified for an Oscar (Eurogamer). Creator David OReilly tweeted the news following the trailer's win of the Jury Prize for Animation at the Vienna Shorts Festival. OReilly clarified: "the short/video of the game would compete in animated short category"; "obviously very unexpected and cool - i have a strong feeling it wont get very far. who knows. im grateful".
Housemarque's stylish, highly regarded hack'n'slash platformer, Outland is free on Steam until 18:00 today (VG24/7). The free offer - which remains permanently in your collection - is in aid of the forthcoming release of Housemarque's Robotron-inspired isomtric twin-stick shooter Nex Machina, which comes out on June 20. Outland is available for Windows, macOS and Linux.
Theresa May has promised to "rip up" the UK's human rights laws if they get in the way of being able to protect the country's ability to protect itself from terror attacks. In a speech given ahead of the final day of general election campaigning, the prime minister said "we will change those laws" if they don't allow her to introduce longer prison sentences and restrict the movements of those suspected of terror offences.
In our redesigned June issue we reveal how Russia hacked the internet and what the west needs to do now. We meet the kids of social media and journey to the factory line to see how robots pack your Ocado order. Out in print and digital. Subscribe now and save.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
