An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Two politicians from Amazon's hometown traveled across the country to New York to deliver a cautionary message about the company's expansion in the city. Members of the Seattle City Council, Lisa Herbold and Teresa Mosqueda, are urging elected officials in New York to pass legislation now that will address potential housing and transportation issues that will inevitably follow in the wake of Amazon's decision to build a major new campus in Queens. Both are speaking Monday at an event hosted by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which has been backing efforts to organize workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island. Amazon announced in November a major expansion in Long Island City, New York, and Crystal City, Virginia. In New York, Amazon would spend about $2.5 billion to create an 8.5 million square foot campus on the East River waterfront facing Manhattan from Long Island City. In return, the internet giant is set to receive almost $3 billion worth of state and city incentives. While Amazon could generate more than $27.5 billion in additional tax revenue for the city over 25 years, local politicians and community activists have already come out against the deal. Opponents fear the high salaries promised by Amazon and influx of as many as 40,000 employees eventually will push out residents in one of the city's fastest growing neighborhoods, and lead to even more congestion in the already overburdened subway system.

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After seven weeks of investigation, the former top aide to Saudi Crown Prince is still missing, Washington Post reports.

Trump says he'll visit US-Mexico border this week as shutdown, centred on his border wall funds demand, continues.

2019 will be "the year of 5G", Qualcomm says. The company today announced that over 30 5G devices, mostly smartphones, will launch in 2019. From a report: According to Qualcomm, the company has won almost all of the chip contracts underlying 5G deployments for 2019 -- a claim that appears to track with announcements we've heard from individual OEMS, but may be challenged by 5G modem making rival Intel at its own CES press conference this week. [...] During Qualcomm's 5G Summit in December, both Verizon and AT&T announced that they will be releasing Samsung-developed 5G smartphones in 2019 -- notably using Qualcomm 5G modems.

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Brown, whose case drew national US attention, said she was a victim of child trafficking when she killed a man in 2004.

Video footage shows men handcuffed, lined up for deportation to Bangladesh, where they will become refugees.

The partial gov't shutdown centres on Trump's request for over $5bn in border wall funding, a demand Democrats oppose.

Palestinian Authority cites "arrest and abuse" of its members as reasons to withdraw staff - a move slammed by Hamas.

After centuries of close ties, Orthodox churches in Ukraine have cut links with Russia.

It's been called the "Super Bowl of Astronomy," but when the American Astronomical Society's winter meeting plays out in Seattle this week, some of the stars won't be taking the field. From a report: The AAS meeting is just one of the scientific endeavors diminished by the partial government shutdown in Washington, D.C., which entered its 17th day today. NASA representatives, and researchers whose travel would typically be funded by NASA, have had to cancel their plans to be in Seattle due to the tiff involving the Trump administration and Republicans on one side, and Democrats on the other. The shutdown affects only a quarter of the federal government -- which means that the Defense Department and the Energy Department can continue research and development activities. Work continues as well at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and at the National Institutes of Health. But most employees at NASA as well as at the Agriculture Department, the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service are on furlough. Further reading: National Parks Face Years of Damage From Government Shutdown.

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As promised, AT&T has updated three smartphones from Samsung and LG to make them show 5G connectivity logos, even though none of them are capable of connecting to 5G networks. From a report: Now, when the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active, LG V30, or LG V40 are connected to portions of AT&T's LTE network that have received some speed-boosting updates, they'll show an icon that says "5G E" instead of "LTE." That "E" in the "5G" logo is supposed to tip you off that this isn't real 5G -- just some marketing nonsense. But there's no way of knowing that just from looking at the logo. The "E" is smaller than the rest of the icon. And even if you do learn that "5G E" stands for "5G Evolution," it isn't immediately clear what that means.

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China protests over US navy vessel sailing near disputed Paracel Islands as US officials join trade talks in Beijing.

Mark Wilson writes: Responding to a forum post that accused it of 'fingerprinting users', privacy-centric search engine DuckDuckGo says that fears are unfounded and that it is not tracking its users. The allegation was made after the Firefox extension CanvasBlocker showed a warning to users. The suggestion of fingerprinting -- gathering as much information as possible about a user through their browser to create a unique identifier that can be used for tracking -- is clearly something that would seem to sit in opposition to what DuckDuckGo claims to stand for. The company CEO says the accusation is simply wrong.

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Several former senior executives standing trial over alleged misconduct concerning 2008 cash injections.

Amazon has a new way to prevent thieves from stealing packages. In early 2019, Amazon will offer to deliver packages right into your garage, the company announced Monday at CES. The service is called Key for Garage, and joins Amazon's Key for Home and Key for Car services. From a report: Key for Garage, like Key for Home, requires some additional hardware. You'll need a $80 Chamberlain myQ Smart Home bridge, which will let Amazon talk to your garage door opener so that it can be opened by a delivery person. Folks who already own that hub will be able to use it. You'll also need an Amazon Prime subscription. Unlike Key for Home, you don't need a camera to record the delivery. This method of delivery might be welcomed by people who didn't like Key for Home (previously simply known as Amazon Key), which didn't always work well if you had dogs at home, didn't want to let Amazon into your house, or had an alarm system.

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