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    1. Scott Morrison is the new Prime Minister of Australia

      Key points: The petition for a party room meeting of the Liberal Party got 43 signatures, so Turnbull allowed the meeting to be called. The party room voted 45:40 to spill the leadership. Three...

      Key points:

      • The petition for a party room meeting of the Liberal Party got 43 signatures, so Turnbull allowed the meeting to be called.

      • The party room voted 45:40 to spill the leadership.

      • Three candidates nominated: Peter Dutton, Scott Morrison, Julie Bishop.

      • Bishop was eliminated in the first round of voting.

      • Morrison won the second round of voting against Dutton, 45:40.

      • As the leader of the Liberal Party, Morrison becomes the new Prime Minister... probably. It now depends on whether their coalition partners, the National Party, support the new Liberal leader (but they probably will: the alternative is to lose government).

      EDIT1: And Josh Frydenburg is the deputy leader of the Liberal Party. That does not make him the Deputy Prime Minister: that role goes to the leader of the National Party whenever the Coalition is in government.

      EDIT2: The news: http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-24/scott-morrison-wins-leaderal-leadership/10160168

      Follow live here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-24/live-turnbull-leadership-challenge-looms/10159462

      Some background on Scott Morrison: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-24/scott-morrisons-rise-to-prime-minister-of-australia/10160458

      20 votes
    2. The Correspondant - A different business model for organizations producing journalism.

      I just watched an interesting This Week in Startups interview with the CEO of a nascent but successful new "news" organization from the Netherlands called De Correspondent. They are launching a...

      I just watched an interesting This Week in Startups interview with the CEO of a nascent but successful new "news" organization from the Netherlands called De Correspondent. They are launching a new US-based company called The Correspondent, which has some high profile supporters. This list includes Nate Silver, William Julius Wilson, Rosanne Cash, and some others.

      Their business model allows them to attract high-quality journalists by optimizing for journalistic integrity and independence. They have around 60,000 members paying around $70 per year in the Netherlands. They do no advertising business and are a for-profit corp with a dividend cap of 5% to make themselves unattractive to VC-type investors. The CEO claims they "ignore the news," meaning that they try to avoid the sound-bite quips that can be very distracting. They do not report on individual's scandals, instead focusing on systemic issues.

      Journalists are required to share their stories with the members as they are developing. Stories are not guarded secrets while in development unlike traditional news organizations. This allows members to contribute to the stories via a form of curated crowdsourcing. For example, they reached out to members when doing a story on Shell, and found a few members who had access to the company which led to discovery of Shell's own internal Inconvenient Truth type video which was made in 1991.

      The CEO also mentioned that he always includes a developer or designer in story discussions so that the latest investigation and presentation tools can be used on a story from day one.

      Please take a look at the links and let me know what you think of this model, and its chances in the US market. I am pretty excited for anyone trying anything new in this space. What do you think? Would you pay for something like this?

      Edit: I'm not sure if there is a better ~group for this topic, please move it if there is. Also, formatting, phrasing, and clarity.

      Here is a direct link to the CEO's Medium account with more information.

      15 votes