An anonymous reader shares a report: More than 30 million people use a Roku device to navigate the constellation of streaming TV services. The company's portfolio includes the "stick" ($49.99), which resembles a USB drive; the "puck" ($79.99), a black square with smooth edges and minimal detailing; and a $400 smart TV with Roku's operating system. The more expensive options offer better image quality and such features as extra digital storage space. As the era of cable and satellite TV dims, Chief Executive Officer Anthony Wood says Roku is poised to keep capitalizing on the boom in streaming video. It's an independent player that can work well with all the entrants, he says, including new services from Disney and Apple and forthcoming ones from AT&T and Comcast. "It's satisfying to see the world be all in on streaming," says Wood. "That's nothing but excellent for Roku." Many investors on Wall Street agree: The company's stock is up more than 300% this year, and Roku is valued at over $17 billion. Having built the dominant box, Roku is under siege from companies that recognize the value of its business model. Google sells a competing smart TV operating system. Samsung sells more than a dozen smart TVs that don't use Roku's operating system. Comcast is giving its internet subscribers a free streaming box. AT&T is offering a box for its customers. Apple is investing billions in streaming shows designed in part to strengthen the appeal of its hardware. But Roku's biggest challenger is Amazon.com, which is vying for tie-in deals for its Fire TV with smart TV manufacturers and battling for supremacy in international markets. In September it announced a major expansion in Europe, where Roku is less dominant.

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UN investigators accuse Chile's police of responding to recent protests 'in a fundamentally repressive manner'.

When is the House vote on the articles of impeachment? What would a Senate trial look like? A guide to impeachment.

The Conservative Party's win in UK elections has cleared the path for Brexit after three years of political paralysis.

In a wide-ranging interview with VentureBeat, Google AI chief Jeff Dean has discussed the company's early work on the use of ML to create semiconductors for machine learning, the impact of Google's BERT on conversational AI, and machine learning trends to watch in 2020. An excerpt from the interview where Dean talks about some of the trends one could expect to emerge, or milestones he thinks might be surpassed in 2020 in AI: I think we'll see much more multitask learning and multimodal learning, of sort of larger scales than has been previously tackled. I think that'll be pretty interesting. And I think there's going to be a continued trend to getting more interesting on-device models -- or sort of consumer devices, like phones or whatever -- to work more effectively. I think obviously AI-related principles-related work is going to be important. We're a big enough research organization that we actually have lots of different thrusts we're doing, so it's hard to call out just one. But I think in general [we'll be] progressing the state of the art, doing basic fundamental research to advance our capabilities in lots of important areas we're looking at, like NLP or language models or vision or multimodal things. But also then collaborating with our colleagues and product teams to get some of the research that is ready for product application to allow them to build interesting features and products. And [we'll be] doing kind of new things that Google doesn't currently have products in but are sort of interesting applications of ML, like the chip design work we've been doing. Further reading: AI R&D is Booming, But General Intelligence is Still Out of Reach.

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A drone with a machine gun attached can hit targets with high precision, according to its makers. Turkey is set to become the first country to have the drone, when it gets a delivery this month. From a report: The 25-kilogram drone has eight rotating blades to get it in the air. Its machine gun carries 200 rounds of ammunition and can fire single shots or 15-round bursts. Many countries and groups already use small military drones that can drop grenades or fly into a target to detonate an explosive. The new drone, called Songar and made by Ankara-based electronics firm Asisguard, is the first drone to be equipped with a firearm and be ready for service. Turkey expects the drones to be delivered before the end of the year. It is hard for a drone to shoot accurately, partly because of the difficulty of judging range and angle, and partly because the recoil from each shot significantly moves the drone, affecting the aim for the next round. Songar has two systems to overcome these challenges. One uses sensors, including cameras and a laser rangefinder, to calculate distance, angle and wind speed, and work out where to aim. The second is a set of robot arms that move the machine gun to compensate for the effects of recoil.

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Geoff Grewcock set up the Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary in his garden 18 years ago.

Hassan Nasrallah insists on its ally, the FPM take part in next government, with consultations starting on Monday.

Opposition supporters briefly block traffic in UK capital a day after poll that was won by Conservatives by big margin.

UNRWA's mandate overwhelmingly renewed for another three years, despite opposition by US and Israel.

Radio Free Europe and others had published allegations of a $1bn embezzlement scheme.

As we approach the weekend -- but more importantly, the end of the year -- it's good time as any to ask about the movies, TV shows, and documentaries from this year that you enjoyed the most or found incredibly insightful. Please list them below in the comments.

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The European Union is siding with Greece in its maritime dispute with Turkey.

Rare talks between President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar in Juba amid growing pressure to save peace deal.

European Union leaders meeting in Brussels have been keeping a very close eye on the UK election.