Facebook is considering merging some of its most popular apps, which is raising some concerns over what it could mean for user’s privacy. GN Business Editor gives you the basics on what could be Facebook’s biggest tech news in years. Also, we have another Oil and Gas deal out of Abu Dhabi that is worth billions, and we look at how global markets might react to the news that the US government’s reopening may only be temporary. Daily headlines from the UAE and around the world brought to you by Gulf News. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/videos
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00:00Hello everybody, alright we saw one major story come out of New York this week and that's
00:06Facebook.
00:07Now if you haven't seen the news already, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is talking about
00:11merging Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp.
00:16Now a lot of people might think this is a good idea.
00:18They're going to rebuild the entire infrastructure so that all three apps will work together.
00:22Now don't worry, the apps will still be there a few months from now when they introduce
00:26this new plan.
00:27So you don't have to worry about losing your Instagram feed or your previous messages.
00:32There is some concerns, however, because Facebook has been at the forefront of a lot of the
00:37privacy issues we've seen out in the cyber world very recently.
00:41And there's concerns about merging these three could open people up to new types of
00:46privacy violation.
00:47However, on Facebook's side, there is some good news.
00:50They have said that they do want to put end-to-end encryption across all the apps.
00:54So that means you should be secure.
00:56However, this is not without controversy.
00:58If you remember over the last year, we've seen both the former heads of Instagram and
01:03WhatsApp both leave Facebook because they were unhappy with Mark Zuckerberg's activity
01:08in their particular apps.
01:10We'll have to see where this goes, so keep checking back.
01:13Right now, it's just in planning stages, but it looks like more likely Facebook will go
01:18ahead with this.
01:19All right, in local news, we have some major oil announcements.
01:23This morning, AdNoc announced that they were giving two concessions to an Italian and an
01:28Austrian firm, that's Eni from Italy and OMV from Austria, who will have concessions in
01:34both a joint trading company and in an oil refinery company.
01:39This total deal is worth about $5.8 billion, and it's going to help both companies, or
01:46all three companies, build up a lot their overall refinery process.
01:51Third thing we're looking at this week, and this is not really going to have so much of
01:54a bigger impact here, but a global impact.
01:57Two things.
01:58One, Theresa May is hitting the road with her upcoming Brexit deal.
02:01She's got 60 days now, two months, to try to sell the Brexit deal she has to the parliament,
02:07or they're just crashing out of the European Union without a deal.
02:10The second thing is the U.S. government is back and open and ready for business again
02:14after the 35-day layoff.
02:16Now, what does that mean here?
02:18Not much, but it could boost investor confidence around the world.
02:22Maybe you see stock rise over the next few days.
02:25However, don't get too far ahead of yourselves.
02:27There could be an act two here.
02:29Donald Trump has threatened, unless he gets the money for his border wall and he's still
02:32asking for almost $5 billion, he could shut down the government again in as little as
02:37three weeks, or he could possibly even declare a national emergency, and then who knows what
02:41will happen at that point.
02:42All right, so a lot of stuff going on this week.
02:45Please keep checking back to gulfnews.com for the latest updates.
02:48Thanks for watching.