Techflier

Adam Selipsky gave his first AWS re:Invent keynote this morning since taking over as CEO from Andy Jassy earlier this year. He had big shoes to fill, but it’s not as though Selipsky was a complete stranger to the AWS team. In fact, he had been at the division since its earliest days, helping Jassy to build it into a substantial business, before leaving in 2016 to become CEO at Tableau. He began the day with a history lesson, and he didn’t need to count on others to feed the background to him, given he had been there when they opened their doors in Seattle all those years ago, a pig-in-a-poke of an idea to sell web services. As Selipsky told it when he presented the cloud infrastructure concept to early potential customers, they didn’t quite get it. “What does this have to do with selling books?” he was continually asked. While he didn’t share the answer he gave, I would speculate that it had nothing to with it, and it had everything to with it. Years ago, at a presentation with A...

On-demand shuttle and software company Via has raised another $130 million, capital that has pushed its valuation to about $3.3 billion as demand from cities to update its legacy transit systems rises. The round was led by Janus Henderson with participation from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, ION Crossover Partners, Koch Disruptive Technologies and existing investor Exor. To date, the company has raised $800 million. Via, which today employs about 950 people, has two sides to its business. The company operates consumer-facing shuttles in Washington, D.C. and New York. Its underlying software platform, which it sells to cities, transportation authorities, school districts and universities to deploy their own shuttles, is not only the core of its business; it has become the primary driver of growth. Co-founder and CEO Daniel Ramot previously told TechCrunch that there was was little interest from cities in the software-as-a-service platform when the company first launched i...

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about the situation in Afghanistan in the East Room of the White House on August 26, 2021 in Washington, DC. Drew Angerer/Getty Images Biden winced when he learned that an ISIS-K suicide bombing had killed US troops in Kabul in late August, per the NYT. "The worst that can happen has happened," Biden said during a White House meeting, the Times reported.  Days later, Biden would say that the Afghanistan withdrawal was an "extraordinary success." "The worst that can happen has happened." Those were President Joe Biden's words during an August 26 meeting in the White House Situation Room after learning of a devastating ISIS-K suicide bombing near the airport in Kabul amid a chaotic evacuation process, the New York Times reported , citing participants in the meeting.  Biden winced at the news, the Times reported.  The ISIS-K attack killed 13 US service members and 170 Afghans. It was the deadliest day for the U...

Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer's chief scientific officer. Pfizer Omicron could require new vaccines if two factors are met, Pfizer's top scientist told Insider. The new variant would need to outcompete Delta globally and reduce protection from the current vaccine. Pfizer's Mikael Dolsten shared the plan to have an Omicron-specific shot ready by March 2022.  Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer's chief scientific officer, told Insider that the drugmaker is already preparing for the worst-case scenario that Omicron variant-specific shots will be needed. But to reach that point, Dolsten said he's watching how two yet-unknown elements play out in the next few weeks.  The first unknown is how well the current vaccines hold up against Omicron. The answer won't be a binary yes or no but rather a sliding scale of protection.  Experts generally do not anticipate that Omicron will completely evade all protection from the current shots. Previous research suggests many more mutation...

President Donald Trump discusses the potential impact of Hurricane Michael during a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and FEMA Administrator Brock Long in the Oval Office of the White House on October 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee/Getty Images Trump released a lie-filled statement about Omar in the wake of Boebert's Islamophobic comments. "Congresswoman Ilhan Omar should apologize... for essentially abandoning her former country," he wrote. Boebert could face censure by the House of Representatives after a phone call with Omar went awry. Former President Donald Trump released a lie-filled statement on Tuesday demanding that Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota apologize for "abandoning her own country." "Congresswoman Ilhan Omar should apologize for marrying her brother, committing large-scale immigration and election fraud, wishing death to Israel, and for essentially abandoning her former country, which doesn...

Prices are accurate at the time of publication. When you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more. Alyssa Powell/Business Insider Casper and Leesa both offer comfortable mattresses, 100-night risk-free trials, and 10-year warranties. Casper launched a Hybrid mattress to challenge Leesa's Hybrid mattress , which was formerly called the Sapira.  Both mattresses are excellent options, but Leesa's has better motion transfer, strong edge support, Goldilocks firmness, and heat dissipation. You can also read my full reviews of the Casper Hybrid and Leesa Hybrid for more details. When discussing the top brands in the bed-in-a-box industry, Casper and Leesa inevitably lead the conversation. Casper is often credited with popularizing the concept, and Leesa quickly grew to be a giant in the industry with its great beds and its socially-conscious initiatives, like the "One-Ten" program, which donates one mattress for every 10 ...

Former President Donald Trump. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images An appeals-court panel grilled Trump's lawyers over his privilege claims on January 6 documents. All three judges expressed skepticism of Trump's effort to stop the documents being turned over. A federal judge previously rejected Trump's claim, writing, "Presidents are not kings." Lawyers for former President Donald Trump and the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection sparred in court Tuesday over issues of executive privilege hanging over the committee's probe. The case centers on Trump's efforts to block the Biden administration from turning over documents the committee says are crucial to its examination of Trump's actions immediately before, during, and after the deadly Capitol riot. Trump asserted executive privilege over the documents, but the Biden White House declined to do the same and authorized the National Archives and Records Administ...

Kimbal Musk, Elon's brother. Fred Prouser/Reuters Elon Musk's brother is launching the Big Green DAO to disrupt the philanthropic world. Billionaire Kimbal Musk told CoinDesk if the DAO doesn't work, he'll try a different way. DAOs have become the latest crypto term after one group tried to buy a copy of the US Constitution. You've heard of ConstitutionDAO , but how about Big Green DAO? Kimbal Musk, the billionaire brother of Tesla chief Elon Musk, is creating a crypto collective — like the one that attempted to purchase the US Constitution — called Big Green DAO. The new DAO, short-hand for decentralized autonomous organization, is hoping to disrupt the philanthropic world and create food justice, according to its website . And Ark Invest's Cathie Wood is a contributor. "I've decided to run an experiment to decentralize philanthropy. This #GivingTuesday I'm launching the first Giving DAO," Kimbal wrote in a tweet . He is the chie...

Black Friday at Walmart. Mary Meisenzahl/Insider CEOs of major retailers, including Walmart, just told Biden supply-chain conditions are improving. For an undisclosed reason, Biden canceled his briefing to reporters after his CEO summit. The same day, the FTC requested information from some of those executives. They have 45 days to comply. From delayed couch deliveries to expensive Thanksgiving turkeys, Americans across the country have been experiencing the supply-chain crisis firsthand. At the White House on Monday, the CEOs of major retailers told President Joe Biden that conditions are improving. is administration isn't so sure. The same day that Biden met with with retail CEOs including those for Walmart and Kroger, his antitrust watchdog, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC),  announced the launch of an inquiry into the supply-chain disruptions that are causing harm to consumers and harming competition in the US economy, and it ordered nine major retailers, includin...