10 things in tech you need to know today

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Tuesday. Sign up here to get this email in your inbox every morning.

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1. Trump refuses to blame SolarWinds on Russia. The president was criticized by Senator Mitt Romney for having a "blind spot" when it comes to Russia, after he appeared to try and blame China for the major cyberattack.
   
   
2. Apple is working on a self-driving car. The firm plans to build a self-driving electric car by 2024, unnamed sources familiar with the project told Reuters.
   
   
3. Jack Ma offered up Ant Group to China. Ma reportedly offering up of parts of his firm came after he publicly scorned China in October, prompting Chinese President Xi Jinping to personally instruct regulators to dig into Ant's financial risks.
   
   
4. Al Jazeera journalists may have been hacked by NSO Group spyware. The hacking tool, dubbed "Kismet," was a zero-click, zero-day hack, meaning Apple had no idea the exploit existed, and the malware didn't need targets to click on anything for it to take effect.
   
   
5. The UK government is monitoring social media conspiracies. Internal emails made note of social media users who claimed the new coronavirus strain was "artificial" in response to news reports.
   
   
6. GitHub got rid of third-party cookies. The code platform decided that cookie permission banners were too annoying, and dropping third-party cookies means the firm can now no longer track which of its services are popular with users.
7. Exclusive: Google Verily hit reset on its leadership. The secretive health unit is overhauling its leadership structure and cutting down on CEO Andy Conrad's direct reports.
   
   
8. Exclusive: We spoke to Facebook's policy and privacy director about its attack campaign against Apple. Steve Satterfield batted off the suggestion that the Apple push was a distraction against Facebook's own antitrust issues.
   
   
9. Exclusive: Europe's tech unicorns are eyeing a bumper 2021 for IPO. Firms exploring a listing include UK-based food-delivery firm Deliveroo and British security firm Darktrace.
   
   
10. Hopin acquired New York networking app Topi. Hopin is the European live events startup that boomed to a $2.1 billion valuation less than a year after being founded, as coronavirus took conferences online.