Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Thursday.
- Uber is paying $4.4 million to settle federal charges that workers experienced a 'culture of sexual harassment and retaliation.' The payment is part of a settlement by Uber that resolves sex discrimination charges brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2017.
- Lawmakers were unimpressed when Facebook explained how it continues to track users' location, even when location-tracking is off. Facebook said it uses context clues from locations tagged in people's photos, and lawmakers said the firm needs to give people more control over their information.
- SoftBank's Vision Fund operates with a macho culture of recklessness, according to employees speaking to Bloomberg. The report focuses on one partner, Jeff Housenbold, who invested in dog-walking startup Wag and blamed the #metoo movement for the firm's poor performance.
- The UK's competition regulator is turning its attention to big tech, floating tougher rules for Facebook and Google over their online ad dominance. The government is also reportedly planning a new watchdog to oversee the tech giants.
- Amazon is building a monster headquarters in Redmond, Washington, to pump out thousands of satellites and compete with SpaceX. The new facility will consist of two buildings with a total of 219,000 square feet of space.
- Tesla's delivery department is "facing a significant shortage of volunteers" for the final weeks of the year, the electric-car maker told employees in an email obtained by Business Insider. The email was sent on Tuesday by Bert Bruggeman, Tesla's vice president of manufacturing at its Fremont, California, vehicle assembly plant.
- Huawei's next major P40 flagship phone will reportedly launch in March 2020 without any Google apps. The phone will run Huawei's alternative app store and accompanying services, known as Huawei Mobile Services, but won't come with Google's Play Store or Google's most popular apps.
- Eight-year-old Ryan Kaji is the highest-paid YouTube star of 2019, according to Forbes' annual ranking. Kaji earned $26 million by unboxing toys on camera and conducting science experiments.
- Apple's AirPods Pro are sold out at retailers such as Apple, Target, Walmart, Amazon, and Best Buy. Apple and Best Buy are showing delayed ship dates that have been pushed to January, while product pages at the other retailers simply say they're out of stock.
- The notion that blue light is worse for sleep patterns than warm light might be flawed, a new study suggests. Researchers at the University of Manchester tested the impacts of blue light and yellow light on mice's sleep patterns and found that blue light is less disruptive to sleep patterns than previously thought.
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