| Greetings, QuickTake readers! In this edition: U.S. agents to pull back from Portland; officials probe Arizona train derailment, and how masks made from banana trees could cut Covid's plastic waste.  Congress grills Big Tech CEOs The CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google testified before a congressional antitrust panel on Wednesday to defend claims that their companies have used their power to squash rivals and thwart competition. Capping a yearlong probe of market dominance in tech, members of the House panel slammed Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai for the power they wield over the digital marketplace and likened them to copycats and bullies to try to prove it's time to crack down. Here's what you missed: - CEOs split over whether China steals U.S. tech. Cook and Pichai said they were unaware of incidents of China stealing from their firms, while Zuckerberg said it's "well-documented" that the Chinese government steals technology from U.S. companies.
- Bezos says he doesn't know if Amazon verifies sellers. He couldn't ensure that the site doesn't use seller data to make competing products and called counterfeit goods "a scourge" that Amazon is serious about stopping.
- Apple weighed taking a 40% cut from subscriptions. In an email shared by the panel, an exec urged Apple in 2011 to boost App Store fees from 30% to 40%. (It's currently 15%.) Cook said 84% of apps don't pay fees and noted the many rivals trying to woo developers.
- Pichai accused of bias, manipulating search. Lawmakers alleged Google is stealing data from other websites and changing results to drive users to its services. When asked about bias, he said Google's algorithms aren't affected by ideology.
- Zuckerberg charged with profiting from misinformation. Asked about the popularity of conspiracy theories on Facebook, including that the coronavirus pandemic is a hoax, Zuckerberg said "we've been quite aggressive in taking some of that down."
- Zuckerberg denies election interference. Responding to concerns that right-wing groups use Facebook to infiltrate Black Lives Matter and spread anti-Semitic propaganda, he touted sophisticated tools used to intercept hate speech. "It hurts our business," he said.
In written testimony released late Tuesday, the CEOs told Congress that consumers benefit from thriving competition in tech. "Unlike industries that are winner-take-all, there's room in retail for many winners," Bezos said. At the end of the hearing, Rep. David Cicilline said their testimony affirmed "the anti-competitive practices at the heart of this investigation," adding, some companies "need to be broken up, all need to be heavily regulated." $ignificant figures 12,000. The U.S. will pull that many troops from Germany, bringing about 6,400 forces home and shifting 5,600 to other European nations, spurred by Trump's accusations the country has been "delinquent" on NATO fees. 150,000. Confirmed deaths from Covid-19 in the U.S. passed that total on Wednesday, by far the highest toll in the world. More than 4.3 million Americans have tested positive for the virus. 4.1%. Black and African American people represent that much of Snap's workforce, and Hispanic and Latinx workers account for only 6.8% of the 3,195-person company, according to the company's first diversity report. Highly quotable "Phased withdrawal." Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said federal agents who've clashed with protesters in Portland will start leaving, although White House officials said some would remain in the city on standby. "Scene from hell." A freight train traveling on a bridge that spans Tempe Town Lake in a Phoenix suburb derailed Wednesday, setting the bridge ablaze and partially collapsing the structure, officials said. "Persistent phobia." Russian officials rejected U.S. accusations that two Moscow intelligence agents are spreading disinformation about Covid-19 through English-language websites ahead of the November election. This is not normal "No one cares if you live or die." Thousands of African refugees and migrants en route to the Mediterranean coast face random killings, torture, forced labor, and beatings by traffickers and state officials, the UN said.  The future is now Saving an icon. Australian conservationists are using infrared drones to track koalas amid predictions the endangered marsupials could become extinct by 2050 due to habitat loss, climate change, and Chlamydia.  What's good Cutting Covid waste. Paper made from Abaca, a type of banana tree that's more water-resistant than an N-95 mask, could replace plastic in millions of face masks and hospital gear—and decompose in two months.  Now that you're caught up... Tell your friends to sign up to receive our newsletter five days a week. Follow QuickTake on Twitter , YouTube , Instagram, and Facebook . BTW: 2020′s final Mars mission is poised for blastoff from Florida Thursday morning. Here's what you need to know. Thanks for reading!
-Andrew Mach | 
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