A Jalopnik analysis of 14,756 ride fares from Uber and Lyft drivers suggests the ride-hailing apps are taking a bigger bite out of drivers' fares than they say.

The amount of money Uber and Lyft skim off drivers' fares is referred to as the "take rate," and it has been a point of contention in the past as drivers have protested over inadequate pay.

Jalopnik asked Uber and Lyft drivers to send in receipts both for one-off rides and longer records of multiple receipts over extended time periods. It found:

When Uber went public in May it reported its take rate for 2018 to be 21.7%, which has dropped to 19% as of the second quarter of 2019. Business Insider previously reported Lyft's 2018 take rate was 26%, although the company told Jalopnik it does not publicly share its take rates. The two companies also calculate the take rate slightly differently, with Uber factoring in tolls and surcharges.

Just looking at Uber's figures alone, the 35% take rate that Jalopnik discovered is more than 84% higher than what Uber claimed in an earnings call earlier this month. The 35% figure is close to the finding of a study last year by the Economic Policy Institute, which said that Uber skims around 33% off of its drivers' fares.

Read more: I'm a driver for Uber and Lyft — here are 10 things I wish I knew before starting the job

Both Uber and Lyft disputed Jalopnik's findings, saying the sample size was too small to be representative. Both declined to provide Jalopnik with statistically significant datasets.

Jalopnik admitted that 14,756 represents only a tiny fraction of the millions of Uber and Lyft trips made each day. An Uber spokesman said roughly 15 million Uber rides take place every day worldwide. Jalopnik also conceded there may have been selection bias for drivers unhappy with the cut being taken out of their fares.

Uber and Lyft were not immediately available for comment when contacted by Business Insider.

Google is losing its grip on the global smart speaker market.

According to a report from market research firm Canalys, Google fell to third place in the world's top smart speaker sellers during the second quarter of 2019. The ranking is based on the number of units shipped during this period.

Google shipped 4.3 million smart speaker devices in the three months to the end of June, which was down 19.8% on the same period last year, Canalys said.

It was overtaken by Chinese tech firm Baidu, which exclusively serves the Chinese market and grew by a whopping 3,700%, shipping 4.5 million units during this quarter versus 100,000 the year before. Baidu was second only to Amazon, which shipped 6.6 million Alexa devices and captures 25.4% of the global market share.

Canalys said that Baidu grew at a rapid rate thanks to "aggressive marketing" in China. It also benefited from being a "key driver of smart displays," it said, which accounted for 45% of the products it shipped in the quarter.

Canalys

Meanwhile, Google suffered from its Nest rebranding, the report said.

"Google's transition to the Nest branding while pivoting to smart displays proved to be a challenge, especially as it has begun rolling out its Nest Hub smart display globally," Canalys senior analyst Jason Low said in the report. "Google urgently requires a revamped non-display smart speaker portfolio to rekindle consumer interest as well as a robust marketing strategy to build its Nest branding outside of the US."

The Chinese market will become a more valuable audience for the US players to win as sales of smart speakers slow in their own country. According to Canalys, China doubled its quarterly shipment size to 12.6 million units last quarter, while the US saw shipments dropped 2.4%. Amazon and Google are now focused on driving sales elsewhere.

A Hong Kong tech company ended its participation in the government's new "smart lamppost" project installed in June after angry protesters starting cutting them down with electric saws.

TickTack Technology makes parts for the lampposts, which were put up in June and are meant to house security cameras and also beam 5G internet and WiFi to the surrounding areas.

However, activists in Hong Kong's protest movement have expressed fears that the lampposts are being using by the Chinese central government to spy on them and disrupt their activities.

Authorities on Hong Kong have denied this, but it hasn't stopped protesters pulling them down.

In response, TickTack said in a statement on Sunday that it would no longer be supplying its technology to the Hong Kong government.

Protesters attempt to cut a smart lamppost during an anti-government rally in Kowloon Bay district on August 24, 2019 in Hong Kong, China. Pro-democracy protesters have continued rallies on the streets of Hong Kong against a controversial extradition bill since 9 June as the city plunged into crisis after waves of demonstrations and several violent clashes. Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam apologized for introducing the bill and declared it "dead", however protesters have continued to draw large crowds with demands for Lam's resignation and completely withdraw the bill. Anthony Kwan/Getty Images

"We understand that disputes in society over the past few months led the public to be cautious and mistrustful towards some technology," the company said, according to Hong Kong Free Press.

The company said its employees and their family had been "personally threatened" over the lamppost project.

According to the company's website, TickTack parts are being use for the smart lampposts, as well as a Tree Management Project, which last year placed monitors on over 8,000 IoT sensors on trees across the city.

The company also states on its website that it currently has projects with Hong Kong's Lands Department, Transport Department, and bureaus linked to the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer.

According to the South China Morning Post, 50 smart lampposts were installed in June around Hong Kong in high-traffic areas like Kowloon Bay, Shing Kai Road in Kai Tak and Kwun Tong.

The speed, capacity, and reliability of 5G networks will transform life for consumers and businesses — so much so that it's been described as helping bring about "generational change" and even "the fourth industrial revolution."

But inevitably, with the promise of so much more data and billions of new internet-connected devices, comes the threat of hackers and others looking to profit from stolen information, and so with that the heightened challenge of improving cybersecurity.

The good news is that, from the outset, security is clearly a priority for those preparing to bring us all this new technology. John Marinho, the vice president of cybersecurity at wireless comms industry body CTIA, points out: "You now have a standard which provides security by design, privacy by design, from the very beginning."

When it comes to 5G's most effective new weapons against cybercrime, he says: "There's no silver bullet. It's a question of using all the tools in the tool chest, and these are among the most advanced tools the industry has now created."

Two significant tools are 5G's capability to tailor security updates for every single device, and also its ability to boost encryption between those devices.

An internet-connected Fridge from LG. LG

Currently, although security updates provide a robust defence across networks, 4G providers send the same types of updates to all devices, big or small, what Marinho calls "a model for one size fits all, tailored around smartphones" and he gives an example of the negative consequences.

"If I were to take the security models used on a smartphone and try to apply them to, say, a GPS dog collar, it wouldn't work, it wouldn't fit, it would risk consuming too much power and run down the battery."

By contrast, 5G providers will be better able to identify the different devices and so implement individual security functions tailored to each of them, from smartphones to kitchen appliances, sensors to factory floor equipment.

All of these devices have different priorities, and Marinho adds. "Whether it's data rates or latency that is critical, we can support the full spectrum of devices being used by the network, and ensure they all have the most suitable security possible," he says.

Boosting encryption similarly goes hand in hand with the increased reliability for mobile device users promised by 5G. As smartphone users move between networks, their unique information is stored as an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), contained in each phone's SIM card. It is the key to authenticating the device every time it is used, and thus contains highly personal data about each user, where they are and how they use the wireless network.

Read more: 5G is being used to perform remote surgery from thousands of miles away, and it could transform the healthcare industry

Now 5G networks will use a key embedded in the SIM card that encrypts that same IMSI before sending it to the network, meaning all that information is protected from cybercriminals - they won't be able to read the code in transit, nor unlock the decryption key.

Marinho explains: "It will become a challenge for them to even try to monitor the transmission or detect it in the same way we've seen those threats to 4G." He adds: "This is really driven by the notion of including privacy as part of the design in the same way as security."

Clearly, as well as all its promised benefits, 5G will introduce the capability to mitigate many of the threats we've seen in earlier network generations. Marino calls it "the most secure technology we have on the planet, built upon that of previous generations."

He reflects: "Networks continue to evolve. We saw it with 2G to 3G, and now on a larger scale with the introduction to 5G. There will be a point in time when people come to wonder, 'Why did we ever use wires to connect anything?'"

Update (8:16 p.m. ET): SpaceX aborted the test launch less than a second before ignition, then later scrubbed the attempt. The company says it will try again Tuesday.

Starhopper, we hardly knew ye.

SpaceX plans to launch the roughly 60-foot-tall (18 meters) vehicle, a stubby steel prototype of a planned Mars launch system called Starship, for the last time.

SpaceX flew Starhopper on its first untethered flight in July, but Elon Musk, the company's founder, says the vehicle's next launch will be its last. Its fate is to be cannibalized for parts and then become a test stand for Raptor rocket engines, about 40 of which are expected to power SpaceX's planned, roughly 400-foot-tall Starship system.

Read more: How SpaceX's new Starship launch system compares to NASA's towering moon rockets

Starhopper was originally expected to lift off at about 5 p.m. ET on Monday, or 4 p.m. local time, but the company delayed the launch several times, ultimately aborting its attempt with just 0.8 seconds left in the countdown. The company's founder, Elon Musk, said the issue seemed to be with devices that light up Starhopper's sole engine.

"Igniters need to be inspected. We will try again tomorrow same time," Musk tweeted on Monday following the scrub.

If and when liftoff finally does happen, Starhopper should soar up to 492 feet, or 150 meters, into the air, hover, and then land back on its pad in a cloud of smoke and dust in a matter of seconds.

Local authorities gave SpaceX permission to launch Starhopper between 3 p.m. and 1 a.m. ET on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. (When live broadcasts of the test launch resume, we'll include them in an update to this story.)

Police issued warnings to residents ahead of Starhopper's launch

SpaceX initially planned to launch Starhopper weeks ago, yet it ran into a snag with the Federal Aviation Administration. The US regulator apparently asked for more hazard analysis before granting its launch license, Musk tweeted on August 15.

A public-safety notice issued to residents of Boca Chica, Texas, on Saturday. Courtesy of Cheryl Stevens

That analysis was most likely performed because Boca Chica Village — a small community of about 20 people — sits within 1 1/2 to 2 miles of SpaceX's beachside launch pad.

Read more: Elon Musk's SpaceX is developing giant Mars rockets in a sleepy town in southern Texas. Here's what it's like to visit.

The police visited the neighborhood on Saturday night to hand out public-safety advisories to residents. The paper notices warned of a possible "overpressure event," i.e., a blast wave caused by a rapid explosion, from SpaceX's experimental launch that could blow out their windows in the event of a major malfunction.

This upset some residents, with one person telling Business Insider that they felt as if they now lived in a war zone.

The FAA says the likelihood of an explosion, however, especially one that'd cause injuries, is very low.

"To put this extremely remote chance in perspective, if SpaceX was to launch this same exact mission every day, we would statistically expect one serious injury or fatality at Boca Chica Village between 720 B.C. and today," an FAA representative told Business Insider on Monday.

The public health and safety notice comes about a month after SpaceX's most recent launch of Starhopper, on July 25. That flight inadvertently ignited a grass fire that burned through more than 100 acres of coastal wildlife refuge, thousands of acres of which surround the launch site and hamlet.

SpaceX has responded to the incident by putting together a better fire-prevention and response plan, according to Bryan Winton, the manager of the Lower Rio Grande Valley national wildlife refuge at the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

SpaceX is now coordinating more closely with local agencies on its launch plans and fire safety, has installed five new remote-control water cannons on its launchpad to douse flames (there used to be only one), is helping perform controlled burns, and more, Winton told Business Insider on Thursday.

Starhopper is one of many steps in SpaceX's quest to reach Mars

An illustration of SpaceX's coming Starship spaceship, left; and Super Heavy rocket booster, right; and an integrated Starship-Super Heavy launch system.© Kimi Talvitie

SpaceX is working toward launching a larger prototype, called Starship Mk1, that will use three Raptor rocket engines and be capable of launching from the Texas site, flying around Earth, and landing back there. The rocket company is also building a similar yet competing prototype in Florida called Starship Mk2.

Before SpaceX can launch either rudimentary rocket ship, or any full-scale Starships, the company needs sign-off from the FAA.

"Working on regulatory approval for both Boca Chica, Texas, and Cape Kennedy, Florida," Musk tweeted in March. "Will also be building Starship & Super Heavy simultaneously in both locations."

Those vehicles are all stepping stones to Starship, a roughly 18-story spaceship, and Super Heavy, a roughly 23-story booster.

The launch system is also being designed for full reusability, which may vastly reduce the cost of accessing space. Other versions could be built to deploy hundreds of satellites at a time or rocket paying passengers halfway around the world in about half an hour.

SpaceX fired up Starhopper for the first time in April. That test secured the rocket ship with giant bike-chain-like tethers on its legs, and the vehicle lifted just a few inches off the ground. Since then, the vehicle has soared about 60 feet, or 18 meters, off the ground, untethered.

A SpaceX representative previously told Business Insider in an email that such hop-and-hover flights were part of "a series of tests designed to push the limits of the vehicle as quickly as possible to learn all we can, as fast as we safely can."

Test launches are not guaranteed to happen, or even go well, though. "As with all development programs, the schedule can be quite dynamic and subject to change," the person said.

This story has been updated.

The Amazon rainforest has suffered from more than 10,000 new forest fires since August 15, a record pace that has sparked international concern and a state of emergency in Amazonas, Brazil's largest state. Experts fear that rapid destruction of the world's largest rainforest could bring consequences for the rest of the globe if left unchecked.

The crisis in the Amazon has led many people to donate funds toward rainforest protection efforts and share messages of support on social media. Some of the most popular images being shared in posts about the fires, however, are not actually photos of the current crisis.

This image of the Amazon shared by Cristiano Ronaldo was photographed in 2013 in southern Brazil away from the rainforest.

Ronaldo, Leonardo DiCaprio, and French President Emmanuel Macron are among those found to have shared misleading images in their posts about the fires, according to a report from Mother Jones. Several of the most popular images show forest fires in the Amazon from several years ago, while others were taken in different locations entirely.

Read more: Striking photos show the devastation wreaked by record-breaking fires in the Amazon rainforest

While there are plenty of genuine images of the fires that have devastated the Amazon in recent weeks, the mix-ups have given conspiracy theorists an opening to accuse influential people like Macron and DiCaprio of trying to spread panic using fake pictures. The photos contribute to a climate of misinformation surrounding the rainforest fires as world leaders and nonprofit organizations work to organize a response to a real crisis.

If you want to help protect the Amazon rainforest from forest fires, you can donate to charities like the Amazon Conservation Association, the Amazon Conservation Team, and Rainforest Trust. DiCaprio's environmental organization, Earth Alliance, on Sunday announced a $5 million emergency fund meant to help protect the Amazon.

The road to success hasn't been smooth for 25-year-old Boyan Slat, the founder of The Ocean Cleanup, which aims to rid the oceans of harmful plastic.

Slat, a Dutch innovator, came up with his concept for removing garbage from the ocean at age 16, and he's been refining the idea ever since.

His system is designed to collect plastic debris using the ocean's currents, though the technology remains largely unproven and has hit several snags. This month, however, the organization deployed an improved cleanup device that may have fixed some of its initial issues.

Read more: A massive plastic-cleanup device invented by a 25-year-old may finally be catching trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

If all goes according to plan, the device could eventually remove half the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a trash-filled vortex in the Pacific Ocean that is more than twice as large as Texas — within five years.

Take a look at a timeline of Slat's journey.

Elon Musk's company SpaceX is working on a multibillion-dollar rocket called the "Starship" that could one day take people to the moon, Mars, and launch thousands of satellites into orbit. Tech Insider Senior Correspondent Dave Mosher explains everything we know so far about the project.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Dave: This spring, SpaceX launched a squat, kind of ugly looking, but shiny little rocket, and it's called the Starhopper. And this is the very beginning, the first physical representation of the entire future of the company. This is the rocket that SpaceX is staking its future on.

The core reason that SpaceX is doing this is because of a dream that Elon Musk shared back in the early 2000s at the founding of SpaceX. He wanted to send a little plant to Mars and have it grow there to inspire people about space travel. He thinks we need to back up the human race to Mars, start a colony there, an Earth 2.0, and this Starship is key to all of that.

He wants to use it to transport 100 people and 150 tons of cargo to the red planet at a time, and he thinks by 2050, we can build a sustainable colony on Mars. So SpaceX is testing the concepts and the engines behind this Starship in south Texas, and they're starting to get this little tiny version of it called the Starhopper hopping off the ground to prove that the engines and the whole concept works.

Basically, the idea is will this thing blow up or not? And so far it hasn't blown up. We were down there for the very first hop of this vehicle, and it was one of the loudest things I've ever heard, but it did not blow up. And since then, SpaceX has done another hop, and they're gonna take these hops of this vehicle higher and higher to about 3 miles up. The engines that SpaceX is using are brand new. They're called Raptor engines. These things are enormous. They're about the size of a small delivery truck in which a controlled bomb goes off, basically.

After these hop tests are done and SpaceX proves that the system won't explode on a whim, they're gonna put these Raptor engines on an even bigger vehicle, which Musk has called the orbital version, and that's gonna go into orbit around Earth. And the key thing with that test is not only showing that it can get into orbit but that it can come back.

When a spacecraft comes back to Earth, it's entering the atmosphere at some point at 25 times the speed of sound. That plows through the atmosphere and builds up all this gas into superheated levels that can vaporize steel. So SpaceX needs to prove that this vehicle will not destroy itself when it comes back to Earth because if it does, then they can't safely launch people on it. That's what you need a shield for. You need to protect the vehicle from burning itself up when it either comes back to Earth or is entering the very thin atmosphere of Mars.

There are a few critiques of steel, and one of them is that it's just so heavy. It's dense. If you try to use too much of it, your spacecraft gets bogged down, and you can't launch as much payload into space. So you have to be really creative about how you build your spacecraft. SpaceX is getting around this problem by trying to go after a fuel-tank structure, the internal structure, these little ribs and slats and things to support the larger structure so that it doesn't fall in on itself. That way they can make the metal really thin but also take advantage of its cheapness and also strength.

This vehicle isn't using what SpaceX has typically used for its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets: That's RP-1. It's a form of kerosene. It's similar to the stuff that goes into jets. It smells like jet fuel. They also use liquid oxygen. The new Starship, and specifically the Starhopper, which just launched, is using liquid methane and liquid oxygen. Methane is important because SpaceX wants to be able to manufacture its fuel on another planet, and specifically Mars, and they can do that, in theory, with the thin atmosphere that Mars has. They can take the carbon dioxide, they can take water out of the ground, and they can take sunlight and use energy to combine those two and form methane on the surface of Mars, refuel Starship, and go back home to Earth.

The first things that SpaceX hopes to do with a full-scale, fully operational Starship is to show that it works. They want to get this thing into orbit, and then following that, they want to start sending the first missions to Mars. These would be robots, equipment to help scout out the surface and also set up a plant to generate methane and oxygen to fuel a future mission to come back to Earth. The first crude mission, though, is going to be with a Japanese artist and fashion billionaire called Yusaku Maezawa.

He is going to load up one of these Starships with a crew full of artists and maybe a couple astronauts just for safety and go around the moon to show that the system works. He's willing to put his life on the line for that, and Musk has even teased that he might go himself. Right now, SpaceX is targeting 2023 or thereabouts to launch this crude moon mission. But by 2024, the company wants to take advantage of a planetary alignment, which happens once every two years with Mars and Earth, to sort of close the gap between the planets and launch the first crude mission to Mars, land there, and put boots on the ground.

There's another really important use for this vehicle. They're gonna try to launch 12,000 satellites. That is twice as many as are currently in space right now, and I think three or four times as many as are currently operational, to build up a global network of satellite high-speed, low-latency internet, so many times faster than you could get today from a commercial provider. But to do that, they're gonna need to launch a ton of these Starlink satellites at once, and Starship could be the vehicle because it's so big and fully reusable to do that at low cost for SpaceX. We can't think of Starship just as a rocket to launch people to Mars.

It is going to be the future rocket for SpaceX and possibly the world. It'll launch the next generation of satellite internet. It could launch people to Mars, of course. It could also launch next-generation telescopes, and it could also launch NASA astronauts to the moon, as well as landing craft and any number of things that people want to get up that are big, and they want to do it cheaply.

If SpaceX can get government support, perhaps from NASA or the Department of Defense, to develop Starship, it's gonna go a long way into helping SpaceX get to the point where this system becomes a reality because right now they're relying on a Japanese billionaire and some of their own venture capital funding to fund this entire development project, which they estimate to be between $2 and $10 billion to complete. Some critics say, however, that $10 billion is even a low limit. It may cost as much as $20 billion to develop this system. So if SpaceX can get outside support, it can get government funding, it's gonna help make this thing a reality.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This video was originally published on June 5, 2019.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said his company would be donating to help preserve the Amazon after fires have ravaged the region.

"It's devastating to see the fires and destruction ravaging the Amazon rainforest, one of the world's most important ecosystems," Cook tweeted on Monday. "Apple will be donating to help preserve its biodiversity and restore the Amazon's indispensable forest across Latin America."

Cook did not reveal any further details about the donation Apple planned to make.

Scientists have already recorded more than 74,000 fires in Brazil this year, nearly doubling the 40,000 fires recorded in all of 2018. It's also the highest number of fires recorded since researchers started keeping track in 2013.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro deployed 44,000 troops on Saturday to combat the blazes after he was criticized for the way he initially handled the situation. He previously downplayed concerns about the fires as "sensationalist."

The Amazon accounts for more than half of the planet's remaining rainforest, and it's often referred to as the "lungs of the planet." But deforestation has become an increasingly prominent problem over the past 40 years, according to the BBC.

Climate change is an important issue to Cook and Apple, and the CEO has been vocal about its impact in the past. Most recently, he broached the topic in his commencement speech at Tulane University in May. "I don't think we can talk about who we are as people and what we owe to one another without talking about climate change," he said during the ceremony.

He also personally called President Donald Trump hoping to persuade him not to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement back in 2017.

Beleaguered media measurement and and analytics giant Comscore is recalibrating itself again.

After announcing that it would reduce its headcount by 8% as part of a reorganization this past week, the company's executives is embarking on a new strategy, which it outlined in an exclusive interview with Business Insider.

The company, which has gone head-to-head with TV measurement company Nielsen to measure and analyze audiences across several platforms in recent years, is reorganizing its products around five product pillars, each with a general manager that will oversee the pillar's vision, P&L, go-to-market strategy, delivery, sales, and market intelligence. The turnaround plan was approved by the company's board on Aug. 16.

The pillars are cross-platform (which includes both linear and addressable TV), digital, custom, activation and movies. Whille the first four will fall under the purview of new chief product officer David Algranati, the latter will report to director and interim CEO Dale Fuller. The company also reinstated Chris Wilson, who departed under its former leadership, as chief commercial officer.

"What we're trying to do is turn the company around," Fuller told Business Insider. "The reorganization allows us to get everyone focused, hold people accountable, drive the bottom line, and really start seeing the results. By the end of this year, we will be cashflow positive for the first time in the company's recent history."

Comscore is racing toward cross-platform measurement

Comscore used to have a chief information officer, chief research officer, and chief product officer who collectively dictated strategy, but no clearly defined product leaders, which made it hard to decide where to invest and manage the P&L, Algranati said.

Now, the chief information and chief research officer roles have been done away with, and Algranati oversees everything from the panels to the engineering, analytics and operations teams. The aim of the streamlining and vertical structure is to create more visibility, accountability and control, minimize bureaucracy, and innovate faster, he said.

The shift away from standalone traditional digital services is designed to help Comscore serve the market's needs, especially in cross-platform measurement, which refers to measuring ad campaigns across various types of media such as digital, TV, and mobile.

This means that Comscore is doubling down on areas including addressable TV and OTT, advanced audiences for activation, and targeting and outcome-based buying. For example, Comscore recently started working with AT&T's Xandr to be the measurement provider for its addressable TV offering.

"The market wants us to be cross-platform, and in order for us to be successful in cross-platform, we had to bring our TV and digital divisions together and really have a singular cross-platform division," said Wilson. "It allows our staff to really get cross-trained and understand what the future is. We're skating to where the puck is going versus skating to where the puck is today. The intersection of those two is really where the opportunity lies going forward."

Comscore has been besieged by crises over the past few years

Comscore, which is regarded as the leader in digital measurement, has been trying to take on industry leader Nielsen in cross-platform measurement since its merger with Rentrak in 2015. With this reorg, Comscore's leadership is moving from its traditional focus on digital measurement to what it sees as its next big growth opportunity.

Comscore execs argue they have an edge over Nielsen in addressable TV. As Algranati sees it, as advertisers air some ads in some households and not in others, traditional television ratings services don't cut it anymore, Algranati said.

Business Insider asked Nielsen for comment but had not heard back at the time of publication.

But while the advertising industry has been rooting for the company's success, Comscore has been besieged by crises over the past few years.

The company has been rocked by an SEC investigation into its accounting practices, executive departures, and growing pressure to offer new ways of measuring media. Bryan Wiener and Sarah Hofstetter, its former CEO and president, resigned in March after less than a year in their roles, with former chief operating officer Kathy Bachmann and former chief product officer Dan Hess departing soon after. The company cut 10% of its workforce in May and another 8% this past week.

Read More: Media measurement giants are under fire, and they're betting on digital marketing talent to win over clients

It has lost a string of other executives recently, including former chief product officer Dan Hess, SVP Naresh Rekhi, as well as director of product Jeanette Resnikoff, SVP of TV and cross-platform products Kendall McMahon, and EVP Anthony Psacharopoulos, who departed as part of last week's layoffs. Among the departing were long-time executives from the Comscore side — leading to speculation of a Comscore-Rentrak power struggle. One source called the changes a "Rentrak takeover."

Despite the drama, the company has made some gains, such as the aforementioned Xandr deal and several local TV contracts with the likes of Nexstar Media Group, Gray Television and E.W. Scripps Co., which industry sources see as positive momentum. Jane Clarke, CEO of the ad industry trade group the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, or CIMM, said that Comscore had the right strategy to be the third-party validator of addressable currency.

"Addressable breaks linear TV measurement and C3 and C7 ratings don't work anymore," she said. "The fact that Comscore is used to dealing with set-top boxes and its data goes in their favor."

Ed Gaffney, managing partner, director of implementation research and marketplace analytics for the ad buying giant GroupM in the US, said he was glad Comscore was finally doing what the industry has been asking for years, but that it needed a full-time CEO in place as soon as possible. Fuller said that the search was ongoing.

"The troubles are kind of in the rearview mirror, but they really need a day-in and day-out CEO," said Gaffney. "The only pillar that is missing is that they need to think of cross-platform as beyond a combination of digital and linear video, and include print and audio as well."

Comscore, on its part, acknowledged that the path ahead would be tough, but dismissed reports of a power struggle.

"It's not Rentrak versus Comscore; the market and customers define what we become, and that's premium video, which has really been the driver," Wilson said.

"The only way we're going to remove that label or stink around the company is execution," said Fuller.

Beyond Meat's plant-based products, which mimic the taste, look, and feel of real meat, are taking the fast-food industry by storm.

The company's signature "bleeding" veggie burger is now on menus at 9 food chains, including TGI Fridays, Carl's Jr., and A&W. Starting Tuesday, customers can also order Beyond's nuggets and wings at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Atlanta. Subway also plans to sell a Beyond Meat meatball sub starting next month.

The Beyond Burger is often billed as a healthier and more environmentally friendly alternative to beef, but many consumers have been skeptical about its processed nature.

Earlier this month, a group called the Center for Consumer Freedom — which is funded by some food companies and restaurants — ran a series of full-page ads in the New York Post and Wall Street Journal highlighting the chemical additives in alternative meat products. The ads used the slogan "Fake Meat, Real Chemicals" and compared the ingredients in "real" and "fake" bacon.

We asked four nutritionists to weigh in on this debate by evaluating the 22 ingredients in a Beyond Meat patty. Most of them classified the burger as a "sometimes" item, meaning it can be healthy to eat on occasion as a substitute for real beef.

Read more: How the Beyond Burger and the Impossible Burger actually compare when it comes to calories, sodium, and more

Coconut oil might be the most concerning ingredient

Beyond Burgers aren't necessarily less fatty or caloric than their real-meat counterparts, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're bad for you.

For the most part, the Beyond Burger's ingredients are relatively nutritious.

Two nutritionists praised the fact that the burger contains 2 grams of fiber, or 8% of the recommended daily value. A few also said the burger was a good source of protein, since it has the same protein content of a traditional 3-ounce beef patty (around 20 grams).

Compared to its competitor, the Impossible Burger, nutritionists said the Beyond Burger had the healthier protein source.

A 4-ounce Beyond Meat patty contains 250 calories. Leanna Garfield/Business Insider

"In my opinion, Beyond and Impossible are very different," said Cynthia Sass, a New York-based performance nutritionist. "Impossible's main protein source is soy, one of the 'big 8' most common allergens."

The Beyond Burger, on the other hand, uses pea protein isolate, which most people find easily digestible. The ingredient can, however, cause increased gastrointestinal discomfort if people aren't used to it, said Vandana Sheth, a registered dietitian nutritionist.

One element that had nutritionists divided was the burger's saturated fat content (6 grams). Two nutritionists saw the content as low compared to similar veggie burgers on the market, but Amy Gorin, a registered dietitian nutritionist, had one reservation.

"I don't love that the patties are made with coconut oil," she said. "This is a source of saturated fat, and you'll see that one burger contains 30% of the [recommended] daily value." Because coconut oil contains more saturated fat than butter or lard, many nutritionists recommend using it sparingly.

The Beyond Burger is still a healthy choice, in moderation

While all four nutritionists recognized the Beyond Burger as a processed food, that doesn't qualify it as "junk food." Lots of foods we might consider healthy, like Greek yogurt, cheese, or almond butter, are also processed.

The Beyond Burger sold at TGI Friday's. TGI Fridays

Pamela Bonney, a registered dietitian nutritionist, said the Beyond Burger is "highly processed," which typically means a product has been heavily altered and contains additives. Highly processed foods are often "ready-to-eat" items like candy, potato chips, diet soda, or microwavable meals.

Overall, Sass said, we should eat less of these processed foods and substitute whole ingredients instead. Research from the National Institutes of Health suggests that processed foods cause people to consume an extra 500 calories a day and ultimately gain more weight.

But compared to many other "highly processed" foods, Bonney said, the Beyond Burger uses particularly high-quality ingredients like mung bean protein, apple extract, and pomegranate fruit powder.

When it comes to choosing between a Beyond Burger and a real meat patty, the nutritionists agreed that the veggie burger was the healthier choice.

"I do believe that plant options that displace red meat are a step in the right direction," Sass said, adding that red meat is tied to some of our "most prevalent chronic diseases" like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Processed meats like sausage, bacon, and hot dogs could also increase the risk of stomach and bowel cancers.

What's more, red meat plays a role in the climate crisis, which Sass called "a major public health risk." The World Resources Institute estimates that cutting the world's beef consumption by 70% could reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by around 35%.

"The truth is that ... the protein source [we consume] does matter, both for human health and the health of the planet," Sass said.

That means Beyond Burgers can be part of a healthy diet, but shouldn't be your protein source for every meal.

Oracle is still fighting for JEDI.

The tech giant on Monday said it has filed an appeal related to a federal judge's decision to reject its bid to be reconsidered for the Pentagon's $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, project.

"The procurement was unlawful on several grounds," Dorian Daley, Oracle's general counsel, said in a statement.

The legal tussle began when the Defense Department decided to name Microsoft and Amazon as the finalists for its plan to build a cloud platform that will store and manage sensitive military and defense data.

Oracle challenged the decision, saying the bidding process was "riddled with improprieties" that largely favored Amazon, including undisclosed employment and bonus offers to DOD officials. The software giant also argued that the standards the DOD set for the contract were unfair.

A federal judge ruled against Oracle last month, saying "individual conflicts of interest did not impact the procurement."

In announcing Oracle's decision to appeal, Daley cited a separate and previously sealed opinion by the same federal judge that was critical of the JEDI bidding process.

The opinion, Daley said, "acknowledges that the procurement suffers from many significant conflicts of interest. These conflicts violate the law and undermine the public trust."

But Christopher Cornillie, a Bloomberg Government analyst, said that while the judge raised concerns in that opinion, "those concerns were rendered moot by his determination that Oracle had been fairly eliminated from competition."

"The top priority for Oracle's legal team will be making the case that it does, in fact, have standing to protest JEDI," Cornillie told Business Insider. "It'll be interesting to see how they do that."

Oracle's appeal marks another twist in the JEDI project. The Defense Department had planned to announce the contract winner as early as late August.

But the Trump administration asked the Defense Department to review the bidding process, raising the possibility that the JEDI contract would be delayed. There was speculation that Trump's high-profile feud with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos could be a factor for the White House's request.

Two weeks ago, the Defense Department's Inspector General's Office said it had assembled a team of editors, investigators, and attorneys to review the project.

"We are investigating whether current or former DOD officials committed misconduct relating to the JEDI acquisition, such as whether any had any conflicts of interest related to their involvement in the acquisition process," DOD spokesperson Dwrena Allen told Business Insider.

Got a tip about Oracle or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., message him on Twitter@benpimentel. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Vice Media has made leadership changes at its agency Virtue Worldwide as another one of the firm's founding execs leaves.

Ryan Mack, who has been at Virtue Worldwide since its inception in 2017, starting as chief operating officer and rising to president of Virtue a year and a half ago, is exiting the company. Before Virtue Worldwide, Mack was president for four years of Carrot, Vice's digital agency that was later merged into Virtue in 2017.

Read more: Refinery29's finances are getting tight, and it's urgently trying to close a deal with Vice Media, sources say

Mack is just the latest in a string of key execs to leave Virtue in the past few months, including Cameron Farrelly, its chief creative officer, and RG Logan, its strategy head.

The exits come as the venture-backed youth-focused media company is looking to Virtue to help it become profitable. They also come at a time of unease at the company, as it tries to repair its reputation and culture after reports of mistreatment of female employees.

Virtue combined its operations under one president

Virtue Worldwide today promoted Rob Newlan to global president from CEO overseeing EMEA and Asia; in his new role, he'll oversee all of Virtue's 21 offices, adding Latin America and North America to his responsibilities.

Also promoted was Krystle Watler, who is now the managing director of North America. Watler was previously a senior vice president and head of business development in North America.

Virtue didn't name an exact replacement for Farrelly's role but hired Simon Mogren, a vet of agencies like DDB, Ogilvy, and BBDO, as executive creative director for the US. Virtue has also hired a new head of strategy who hasn't been named publicly.

Virtue reports up to Dominique Delport, the president of international and global chief revenue officer of Vice Media. In an interview, Delport praised Mack's contributions to Virtue and said he had expressed a desire to go into the startup world.

Delport said the elevation of Newlan and Watler made sense as the company stretches its business across 20-plus markets and looks to get bigger commitments from clients in addition to project-based work.

"If you look at global brands, we have big global brands in the USA, but in volume we have more global brands that are not domestic brands, and we have a great opportunity internationally," he said.

Virtue was founded in 2005 as a creative agency, and it is one of just a handful of publisher-owned ad agencies. In 2017, Vice Media combined it with other standalone agencylike businesses into the full-service agency called Virtue Worldwide.

Vice Media has been putting more resources behind the agency after enduring a write-down in value by Disney and laying off 10% of its staff.

Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc, who took over in March 2018, has been trying to tie the company's units together under a new phrase, "One Vice." Virtue has historically operated independently, with most of its work being direct with clients and not tied to Vice Media properties.

Some there have felt that the separation insulated them from cultural problems at other parts of the company and questioned what the new slogan means for Virtue's independence.

Vice's CRO said Virtue would continue to tap the rest of Vice's resources for clients

Asked what One Vice means for Virtue, Watler and Delport talked up collaboration between Virtue and the rest of the company. Watler said being a publisher-born agency was a unique differentiator for Virtue because it let Virtue access Vice's assets. "It allows us to be the thinkers and strategists but also the makers," she said.

Virtue regularly taps into Vice's capabilities, less so for buying media on Vice's own sites, which some advertisers can shy away from because of the edgy content, but more for its production and data expertise, Delport said.

"It's not a white-label agency," he said. "We're here to connect the brands with the audience we know the best and leverage the insights and production we built at Vice."