Login
Big Brother News Watch
7-Foot-Tall Robot at Dallas Love Field Is Watching for Unmasked Travelers and Curbside Loiterers + More
A 7-Foot-Tall Robot at Dallas Love Field Is Watching for Unmasked Travelers and Curbside Loiterers
The Dallas Morning News via MSN reported:
Yes, those 7-foot-tall machines at Dallas Love Field are watching you. They want to make sure you’re wearing a mask if you’re boarding a flight or not parking too long at the curb if you’re picking up a returning traveler.
Love Field is testing two Security Control Observation Towers at the airport, one near baggage claim and another near security checkpoints, to figure out whether robotic assistants can both help customers get around and warn passengers who are breaking rules. The robots can also call airport security and operations in case more help is needed.
Airports have been at the forefront of technology, including facial recognition and other biometrics, for years, a trend that worries privacy advocates who say there are few, if any, laws or guidelines about how emerging technology should be used. Amazon took criticism in 2019 after testing its Rekognition technology with police departments before deciding to ban law enforcement from using it two years later.
Dr. Saphier: NYC Mayor Eric Adams Should Be Removed From Office for ‘Negligent’ Toddler Mask Mandate
Fox News medical contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier argued on “America Reports” Monday that New York City Mayor Eric Adams should be removed from office for continuing to push an indoor mask mandate on young children with “no strong evidence” behind it.
“It’s important to remember that the World Health Organization has never recommended masking children 2 to 5 years of age,” said Saphier.
“There is no magic number when it comes to an age a child can or cannot transmit the virus, that there is no strong evidence to show school mask mandates of children wearing masks actually has any effect on transmission.
“Children should not be masked and the New York City mayor who is continuing to mask toddlers — it is upsetting and negligent and he should be removed from office at this point because he’s making these points without any data to back it up. It will only cause harm.”
76ers’ Matisse Thybulle to Miss Some Playoff Games Over Vaccine Status
Because he is not fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, Philadelphia 76ers guard Matisse Thybulle will be unable to play first-round playoff games in Toronto against the Raptors. Canada does not allow unvaccinated foreign visitors to enter without special exemptions, and athletes are not exempt.
Thybulle said Sunday that he had received only one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, choosing to go no further with vaccination because he was “raised in a holistic household” and vaccination did not guarantee that a person would not spread the virus. “This was a decision I made a long time ago,” he said.
“It got to the point last year during the playoffs where I did actually consider getting vaccinated and went through with getting the first shot, the first dose. At that point, I was under the impression that getting vaccinated meant that I could not get the disease and transmit it to other people. And I felt like if I’m going to be a part of society, in the position I’m in, I need to do what’s right for the greater good. That argument of the greater good held a lot of weight for me.
“As things progressed, as this virus has changed many different ways, it just showed through the science that wasn’t the case anymore — that even while being vaccinated, you could still spread the disease.”
Philadelphia to Reimpose Indoor Mask Mandate in Public Spaces
Philadelphia will again require masks in indoor public settings such as restaurants, schools and businesses starting next week, the city said on Monday, responding to what appears to be a fresh wave of coronavirus transmissions.
The new rule, which is set to take effect on April 18, will make Philadelphia the first major city in the United States to reimpose such a mandate.
New infections in Philadelphia are rising quickly, up 50% from the start of April, prompting the city to step up prevention measures, city Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said at a news briefing. COVID hospitalizations, a lagging metric, remain stable, she said.
U.S. Seeks to Resume Enforcing Federal Employee Vaccine Mandate
The U.S. Justice Department on Monday asked a federal appeals court to allow the Biden administration to resume enforcing a federal employee vaccine mandate that had been blocked by a lower-court judge in January.
A 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Thursday reinstated President Joe Biden’s executive order mandating that federal civilian employees be vaccinated against COVID-19.
On Monday, the Justice Department asked the appeals court to take “appropriate steps so that the government may resume implementation and enforcement” of President Joe Biden’s executive order.
It said the appeals court should issue its order immediately to allow the ruling to take effect, arguing it is “justified by the serious ongoing harm to the public interest and to the government.”
Mask Mandates Return as COVID Cases Rise Across U.S.
Columbia University is again requiring its students to mask up in classrooms, with public health experts urging caution as COVID-19 case numbers climb across the U.S. As of Monday, Columbia is requiring that students wear non-cloth masks in classrooms, according to a student-run news site. The mask mandate, which will remain in place through the remainder of the spring semester, applies to all students, but not to professors, for whom masks are optional.
Columbia and Barnard aren’t alone in reimposing coronavirus precautions. At least two other universities — Georgetown in Washington, DC, and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland — are asking students to mask up again. Georgetown announced the reinstatement of a temporary indoor mask mandate beginning April 7 in response to a significant rise in cases on campus. The requirement will remain in effect for the foreseeable future, according to Georgetown.
17 Port Authority Workers Fired Over COVID Vaccine; Service Improves as Others Return to Work
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported:
Seventeen Port Authority employees have been terminated so far as disciplinary hearings continue for more than 300 employees who refuse to comply with the agency’s mandatory vaccination policy against the COVID-19 virus.
Authority spokesman Adam Brandolph said 100 employees have returned to work on 30 days of probation after they received the first dose of the vaccination. Nine employees have retired, and 127 remain suspended with pay pending their hearings.
A Modern City Starves
Many of Shanghai’s 26 million residents are facing food shortages as the Chinese government’s strict COVID lockdowns have ground one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world to a halt. Scenes of residents rationing vegetables and begging local officials to allow them to search for food have cast a shadow on the Chinese government’s COVID response.
Shanghai residents across the city are scrambling for food, as empty grocery shelves, unreliable government provisions, and strained food delivery services make it hard to secure enough to eat.
Extreme lockdown conditions and censorship mean journalists can’t easily report from the ground, so many Shanghai residents have turned to social media for support, posting photos of their few remaining vegetables and videos of residents demanding that local health authorities allow them to leave their building to look for food.
There Are No Laws Protecting Kids From Being Exploited on YouTube — One Teen Wants to Change That
At just 17, Chris McCarty is taking matters into her own hands to protect children from being exploited for cash in family vlogs. As part of their project for the Girl Scouts Gold Award, the highest honor in the program, the Seattle teenager spent months researching child influencers: kids who rake in serious cash for their appearances in YouTube vlogs, which are often run by their parents.
They were so fascinated and appalled by the lack of regulation around child labor and social media that they utilized their high school’s senior independent study program to phone-bank their neighbors to gauge community interest in the issue.
In January, McCarty cold-emailed a number of local lawmakers, including Washington State Representative Emily Wicks, who serves on the Children, Youth & Families Committee. McCarty presented their research, convincing the representative why she should work with a teenager to draft a new bill at the very end of the legislative session.
The Metaverse Holds Great Promise — and Great Risk
It’s been about six months since we first heard about Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s fever dream for a beautiful metaverse. But the metaverse could be so much more than one man’s quest for control over our virtual lives.
Most would agree that the metaverse could be a series of connected virtual environments that resemble and function similar to our physical world; or, a three-dimensional immersive version of the Web. And we have a sense of what it will be because many of its components already exist: social interactions and economic interactions are all features of a future metaverse that are not new.
The dream is very much alive — if a dream is a herd of tech companies stampeding to cash in. For Meta, Microsoft and other Big Tech players, this vision of the metaverse represents an enormous opportunity, specifically, the chance to be a platform not just for gaming or social media, but for life itself — a place where we work, learn, earn and spend; sort of an operating system for our digital lives.
Thousands Rally in LA to Oppose COVID Vaccine Mandates + More
Thousands Rally in LA to Oppose COVID Vaccine Mandates
Thousands of people including truckers and firefighters from across the country gathered Sunday outside Los Angeles City Hall to protest vaccination mandates designed to slow the spread of COVID-19.
The crowd gathered at Grand Park to hear speakers and performers, while big-rig trucks from the “People’s Convoy” were parked on nearby streets. Members of the convoy jammed traffic during a Washington, DC, protest earlier this year.
Organizers of the protest are opposing several COVID-19-related bills that have been proposed in the Legislature, although the broadest has been put on hold. Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, shelved her measure that would have required all public or private employees or independent contractors to be vaccinated. Wicks cited easing pandemic conditions and opposition from public safety unions.
Airline Worker Forced on Unpaid Leave Over COVID Vaccine Mandate Vows Fight Is ‘Far From Over’ at LA Rally
A “Defeat the Mandates” rally in Downtown Los Angeles Sunday afternoon drew thousands of protesters and a lineup of speakers who shared their stories about refusing to obey COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Among the many speakers was United Airlines pilot Sherry Walker, who says she was forced on unpaid leave and prohibited from accessing her 401(k) benefits for her refusal to take the vaccine.
Walker, with help of two other people, led more than 2,000 United Airlines employees in a lawsuit against the company for “discriminating, and retaliating against the unvaccinated, and forcing them on unpaid leave.”
The courts ruled in their favor in February, but Walker, through Airline Employees 4 Health Freedom (AE4HF), the organization she co-founded, is helping airline employees get back to work. She said her case was far from over.
COVID Curveball: Former Yankee Stadium Waitress Fired Over Vaccine Mandate After NYC Mayor Exempts Players
A New York City waitress who had been working at Yankee Stadium for 17 years is speaking out after she was fired over the vaccine mandate while Mayor Eric Adams officially exempted athletes and performers from the policy.
“It’s heinous,” Virginia Alleyne told co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” on Sunday. “What Mayor Adams has done is show us that the workers and plebeians don’t matter; that because we’re not millionaires, we have no value, no worth, and mostly that we are dispensable.”
Alleyne is expected to file suit against Adams over the policy, accusing him of not basing the move on science.
“Every New Yorker should be offended by this executive order 62,” her attorney James Mermigis said. “It’s an insult, quite frankly, to my client, who has worked 17 years at Yankee Stadium. It’s also an insult to all the city workers, the policemen, the firemen, the teachers, the healthcare workers, the sanitation workers who have been terminated from their jobs because of their refusal to vaccinate.”
12 Massachusetts State Police Members Fired for Refusing COVID Shot
A dozen members of the Massachusetts State Police have been fired for refusing to comply with the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, officials said.
The members — one sergeant and 11 Massachusetts State troopers — were terminated on Friday following a hearing process over their vaccination status, State Police spokesperson David Procopio told MassLive in a statement.
The 12 members of the Massachusetts State Police will be unable to appeal their terminations, as they had already been denied religious or medical exemptions, The Boston Globe reported.
“Governor Baker has proven yet again just how hypocritical he is,” Patrick McNamara, president of the State Police Association of Massachusetts, the union that represents troopers, said in a statement. “As part of a Friday night news dump, he has just terminated at least 12 Troopers due to his vaccine mandate. No appeals. No due process.”
Biden Official: Mask Mandate for Airplanes Could Be Extended
Extending the federal transportation mask mandate that applies to airplanes, buses and trains is “absolutely on the table,” Ashish Jha, the White House’s new COVID-19 response coordinator, said Monday on the Today Show.
The transportation mask mandate was extended last month but is currently set to expire on April 18.
Jha stressed that the decision to extend the transportation mandate lies with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky.
COVID-19 cases have been rising in a number of states due to the spread of the Omicron subvariant BA.2. However, Jha cautioned that he was not “overly concerned” by the trend.
California, New York Handled COVID Lockdowns the Worst, Florida Among the Best, a New Study Shows
A new study has graded states by how well they handled the coronavirus pandemic and its subsequent restrictions and lockdowns, showing a stark contrast between liberal and conservative states.
The Committee to Unleash Prosperity study compared state performance on metrics including the economy, education, and mortality from the virus, and examined how states and their respective governments handled the pandemic response.
New York, California, New Jersey and Illinois were among the worst in dealing with the coronavirus, performing “poorly on every measure,” the report said. These states “had high age-adjusted death rates; they had high unemployment and significant GDP losses, and they kept their schools shut down much longer than almost all other states,” the report added.
The study also found no correlation in those states that enacted stringent travel, vocation and dining restrictions with lower death totals.
6 Chicago Teachers Who Sued School System Over Vaccine Mandate Win Legal Victory
An Illinois judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday that prevents Chicago Public Schools from taking employment action against six teachers for refusing to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or undergo weekly testing.
CPS is “the only school district left in the state that’s still enforcing this. None of the rest of the school districts that are in this case are trying to get vaccination or testing compliance out of teachers,” said downstate attorney Tom DeVore, who represents the six CPS teachers. “They should drop it.”
CPS announced an employee vaccine mandate in August, with allowances for medical or religious exemptions. The district later relaxed those rules but said partially vaccinated and unvaccinated staff members had to test weekly for COVID-19. CPS says about 8.5% of its staff — some 4,100 employees — are required to test, according to district data.
NYC Contracted Unlicensed Security Firm to Guard COVID Isolation Hotels, Drawing Scrutiny From Investigators
During the early days of the pandemic, former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration booked hundreds of hotel rooms across the city that were to be used by New Yorkers who had tested positive for COVID-19 and needed a place to isolate.
As part of the initiative, the administration outsourced security on the premises — and one company contracted to guard at least 17 of the isolation hotels was unlicensed to do that work and now faces scrutiny from three local investigative agencies as a result, the Daily News has learned.
The company, Global Operations Security, locked in the hotel contract worth more than $7 million from the city Emergency Management Department on April 18, 2020, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by The News.
The apparent misrepresentation allowed Global to collect millions of taxpayer dollars, and a city Department of Investigation spokeswoman confirmed Friday that her agency recently received a referral from Mayor Adams’ office asking for a probe of alleged wrongdoing related to the hotel security contract.
COVID Digest: Germany May Reintroduce Restrictions in Fall, After Vaccine Mandate’s ‘Clear Defeat’
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach on Friday admitted that imposing a general vaccine mandate in Germany was now unlikely after lawmakers rejected imposing vaccine requirements on people older than 60, in a major blow to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government.
The vote was “a clear and bitter defeat for all those who advocate compulsory vaccinations,” Lauterbach said, adding that as a result “the room for maneuver to further relax the rules has been completely exhausted.’
He warned that the country may need to reintroduce requirements, such as mask-wearing, in the fall when infections are expected to rise.
Woman Shares ‘Horrific’ Day of Shanghai’s COVID Lockdown in Viral Clip
A video has gone viral on TikTok as a woman continues to document her experience living through Shanghai’s current COVID lockdown as the city battles the highly contagious Omicron variant.
On Monday afternoon, local time, Rochelle, @its__rochelle, posted a video from “lockdown day 10” which she called the “most horrific day so far,” in the video’s caption. The video has now been viewed over 1 million times.
In the comment section, Rochelle gave a bit more context about what she has witnessed around her. She said her compound was supposed to be receiving a food package over the weekend but so far it has not arrived.
She said she has learned that people in other compounds have had “actual” chains put on their doors with stickers placed over them. She showed some footage of this in the video.
Is Social Media (Re)Traumatizing You?
What happens when you’re out of content to scroll through and react to on the internet? What’s there to keep you engaged whether the content makes you angry, sad, happy or all of the above at once? What can a company like Facebook, Google or Twitter do to keep their hooks in so you keep coming back like a zombie begging for more? A new feature? An algorithm tweak?
Nope. It all comes back to you. You’re the one who’s going to keep you engaged when there isn’t enough out there to rope you back in. Not only are these companies making us chase our own tails, and by design, I might add, it might be doing actual damage to our psyche. That’s what has happened to mine, and it took me quite a while to realize it.
The deep dark secret, though, is that your No. 1 enemy on the internet might be you. It is most certainly the case for me and some folks I’ve talked to over the past two years during the weirdest simultaneous slow down and speed up in tech that I can remember in the last 30 years. The tech itself isn’t all that evolved, but the need and want to connect with others is. But that’s not the really traumatizing part.
Facebook Messenger’s ‘Dangerous’ New Update — Why You Should Be Concerned
If you’re one of Facebook Messenger’s 1.3 billion users, then Meta’s determination to radically change your app gained serious momentum this week. Despite multiple warnings that this update is a dangerous step in the wrong direction, Meta is not listening.
We are talking end-to-end encryption, of course, and Meta/Facebook’s ongoing program to bring the same level of security that protects WhatsApp to Messenger and even Instagram. These plans, first announced in 2019, have been seemingly plagued with technical challenges. The global rollout is not expected until late 2023.
Put simply, while full end-to-end encryption makes absolute sense on dedicated messaging apps, like WhatsApp and Signal, it is not the same when linked to social media platforms. I cannot browse WhatsApp, looking at profiles and photos, selecting people to click to contact. I cannot mask my identity behind a fake profile in WhatsApp. And, most critically, WhatsApp is not a sticky platform for kids, in the way that Facebook and Instagram (as well as TikTok) are.
John Oliver on Online Data Brokers: ‘What They Can Buy Is Pretty Troubling’
John Oliver took aim at the dark art of data brokers, raising the alarm on unregulated practices that many internet users are unaware of. The Last Week Tonight host discussed the “unsettling moments” that often happen throughout the day online, as we discover that companies are “monitoring our activities a little bit closer than we would like.”
He called attention to data brokers, who are part of a multibillion-dollar industry that encompasses “everyone from credit reporting companies to these weird people-finding websites whenever you Google the name of your friend’s sketchy new boyfriend”.
They “collect your personal information and then resell or share it with others” and have once been referred to as the “middlemen of surveillance capitalism.”
“It’s a sprawling, unregulated ecosystem,” and looking into what they do and how they do it can get “very creepy, very fast.”
TikTok Acts on Children’s Brains Like a ‘Candy Store’ Shortening Their Attention Span + More
TikTok Acts on Children’s Brains Like a ‘Candy Store’ Shortening Their Attention Span: Report
The way children are consuming social media, especially on TikTok, is likely negatively affecting their attention spans, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.
“It is hard to look at increasing trends in media consumption of all types, media multitasking and rates of ADHD [attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder] in young people and not conclude that there is a decrease in their attention span,” said Dr. Carl Marci, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
TikTok, known as Douyin in its home market, debuted in China in September 2016 as a short-form video sharing platform, primarily for lip-syncing and dancing videos, but became the most downloaded app in 2019, according to a paper published in NeuroImage last year.
The paper is one of several studies to examine the effect of TikTok on the brain, which examined how personalized videos, compared to general-interest videos, influenced the reward centers of the brain. The MRI scans of participants were highly activated in the addiction part of the brain who watched personalized videos, finding some users struggled to control when to stop watching.
White House Tells Agencies to Delay Vaccine Mandate After Court Win
The White House told federal agencies Thursday to hold off on reinstating a coronavirus vaccination mandate for millions of employees, hours after an appeals court rejected an earlier injunction that had blocked the executive order.
In a message to agency officials, the White House cautioned that “there are still procedural steps that need to take place to lift the injunction; at this time the district court’s preliminary injunction remains in effect.”
It’s not clear when the agencies might begin enforcing the mandate, which makes unvaccinated federal employees subject to discipline up to and including firing — unless they qualify for an exemption on medical or religious grounds or have such a request under consideration.
The White House’s message came after a ruling by a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to restore President Biden’s executive order. The court majority held that the Civil Service Reform Act, the general body of laws governing the 2.1 million executive branch workers, requires that any challenge to the order go through the government’s internal appeals channels, and not directly into the courts.
NJ Gym Owners Who Defied COVID Lockdowns Have Their Business License Restored
The owners of Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey, had their business licenses restored, nearly two years after they made nationwide headlines for defying New Jersey’s COVID lockdowns.
Atilis co-owner Ian Smith and co-owner Frank Trumbetti kept Atilis open to the public for the past two years, despite the revoked license, operating off of donations and merchandise sales.
Smith claimed that as a result of not complying with lockdown orders, he and Trumbetti received more than 90 citations, along with ten gym members who received citations; 9 criminal charges; that both he and Trumbetti were arrested, as well as one member; that local police changed the locks on the building, backed up their plumbing, and eventually boarded up the gym; that they were fined $15,497.76 every day they remained open, for 5 months; that $173,000 in fundraising for their legal defense was seized by the state; and that they owe more than $300,000 in legal bills.
Lockdowns in Shanghai and Other Chinese Cities Pose a Growing Threat to the Economy
China’s unwavering commitment to stamping out COVID by locking down big cities such as Shanghai threatens to deal a hefty shock to its vast economy, placing more strain on global supply chains and further fuel inflation.
Shanghai — home to China’s leading financial center and some of its largest sea and airports — has been under lockdown for 12 days, and there’s no sign of it ending.
Small businesses have been hit hard, with shops and restaurants being forced to shut down. Tesla, as well as many Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers, are unclear about when they can restart their factories. Meanwhile, port delays are getting worse, and air freight rates are soaring, putting even more pressure on global trade.
The stringent restrictions have dispelled any expectations that the country may relax its zero-tolerance approach toward COVID-19.
Return-to-Office Mandates Will Soon Be ‘Very Outdated,’ Says Atlassian’s Head of Distributed Work
Companies that adopted permanent remote-work policies during the pandemic are doubling down on their commitments to flexibility while major companies like Google and Twitter call employees back to offices this month.
But it’s only a matter of time before in-person requirements become passé, says Annie Dean, who leads distributed workforce strategy at Atlassian, an Australia-based software company.
“This conversation will seem very outdated as the next generation of leaders rises in the workplace,” she tells CNBC Make It, adding that “in the future, work is not a place. It can happen anywhere.”
In Latest Crackdown, China Targets Big Tech’s ‘Abuse of Algorithms’ That Influence Public Opinion
China’s technology sector was hit with another round of regulatory crackdowns by Beijing on Friday. The country’s internet watchdog wants to rein in potential “abuse of algorithms” by internet giants that dish out ads and content to users that can significantly influence their thinking.
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) will “conduct in-depth investigation and rectification of Internet enterprise platform algorithm security problems, evaluate algorithm security capabilities, and focus on inspecting large-scale enterprises with strong public opinion attributes or social mobilization capabilities.” CAC made no mention of which internet companies it would target.
Tech industry algorithms have been at the center of many political controversies in the U.S. Facebook, Twitter and Google have been ridiculed for using algorithms to flood news stories in people’s feeds with content that influences elections or exacerbates political polarization. Recently, Facebook and Instagram allowed calling for violence against ‘Russians and Russian soldiers’ when discussing the Ukraine invasion.
Cash App Data Breach Could Have Impacted More Than 8 Million Users
More than 8 million users of the mobile payment application Cash App could have been impacted by a data breach, according to a filing this week through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by parent company Block Inc.
On Monday, Block announced it had learned a former employee downloaded “certain reports of its subsidiary Cash App Investing LLC” in December without permission. That data, according to the filing, did not include usernames, passwords, Social Security numbers, birthdays, addresses or bank account information. It did, however, include full names and brokerage account numbers which the company said are used to identify a user’s “stock activity on Cash App Investing.”
The only users affected, according to the filing, are the 8.2 million past and present Cash App users who use Cash App Investing. The company said it is working to contact those users to provide them with information regarding the incident.
How Apple Became One of the Largest Companies in the World
Apple (AAPL) is one of the world’s most recognizable companies. With a market valuation well north of $2 trillion, after briefly touching $3 trillion last year, its devices are universal; used everywhere from Alaska to Zimbabwe.
From the advent of the personal computer to the dark days following Steve Jobs’ ouster, to the unprecedented success of the iPhone, Apple is easily one of the biggest, most successful companies on Earth. And here’s how the tech giant made it all happen.
Why Russia Might Struggle to Maintain Its Digital Iron Curtain
On March 14, the same day Russia banned Instagram, Russian tech entrepreneur Alexander Zobov announced he would soon launch a local version of the popular photo and video-sharing app called Rossgram.
Zobov and his team “were already prepared for this outcome of events in advance and decided not to miss the opportunity to create a Russian analog of the social network popular and beloved by our compatriots,” he wrote in a post on the Russian social network VK. The plan, he added, was to launch by end of March for “partners and top bloggers,” and in April for everyone else.
The launch is still pending. “The product is currently under development. It is too early to talk about launch,” Zobov told CNN Business in a written response in Russian via a representative.
Joe Rogan Blows up on People Who Call for Censorship on Social Media + More
Joe Rogan Blows up on People Who Call for Censorship on Social Media
Joe Rogan said nothing drives him more crazy than people who are calling for censorship on social media, arguing that when people insist on removing thoughts they disagreed with that’s “not discourse, that’s propaganda.”
During “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast Tuesday, the host spoke with playwright and filmmaker David Mamet, and the two talked about what can be done to stop censorship on sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The two also discussed how people calling for censoring of things they disagree with are pushing toward an “authoritarian dictatorship.” It starts at the 44:24 minute mark of the show here.
The host and Mamet talked about how people celebrated “certain people” getting removed from Twitter — like Alex Jones and Milo Yiannopoulos. Rogan said that even back then he had warned people where this kind of thing would lead.
“Do you understand that once they start censoring for what they believe is something that’s objectionable … it’s going to keep going further and further,” Rogan shared. “And they are going to keep moving the goal post.”
More Than 100 New York Court Employees Face the Boot for Refusing to Get COVID Vaccine
More than 100 New York state court employees — including the Appeals Court’s longest-serving justice — will soon be fired for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Court of Appeals Judge Jenny Rivera is among the 102 workers who refused to abide by the state vaccine mandate, the Office of Court Administration said Wednesday. One employee chose to resign, 11 decided to retire and 41 got vaccinated, said OCA spokesman Lucian Chalfen.
“All four of the judges who were not in compliance with the vaccine mandate, two in New York City and two outside New York City, remain so and they continue to be barred from entering any court facility and must work from home,” said Chalfen.
Nominated to sit on the state’s highest court by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2013, Rivera has been working from home since October. She did not immediately return a call seeking comment. OCA will refer her to the Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates judges and has the power to unseat them.
Philly’s Indoor Mask Mandate Likely to Return Next Week, as City COVID Cases Creep Upward
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported:
Philadelphia is poised to reinstate its indoor mask mandate next week as COVID-19 cases climb again.
An Inquirer analysis showed the most current COVID case counts and the percent increase of cases both meet the city’s benchmarks that would trigger the return of the mask mandate for public indoor spaces. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health agreed with the analysis.
The COVID data are not alarming enough to warrant an immediate change in the city’s mask policies, though, he said. The city has said it would announce changes to its COVID safety requirements on Mondays, and an announcement on whether mask requirements would return would likely come then, said James Garrow, a spokesperson for the department.
SC Senate Passes Scaled-Down Vaccine Mandate Ban Bill
Certain employers in South Carolina would be banned from requiring workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in a bill approved by the state Senate on Wednesday. In a 29-12 vote along party lines, the Senate passed the anti-vaccine mandate legislation, which the House of Representatives passed last December.
The bill prohibits state and local governments, including public school districts, from requiring their employees, contracted workers, vendors or students to get the COVID shot as a condition of employment or attendance. The legislation would prevent vaccine mandates from being imposed on the state’s first responders, defined as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, EMT, or paramedic who is paid from public funds.
In order muster up enough support for the bill to bring about a debate in the Senate, its backers had to drop its most controversial provision: fines for private businesses that impose vaccine requirements on their workers.
German Lawmakers Reject Mandatory COVID Shots for Over 60s
German lawmakers on Thursday rejected a bill requiring all people 60 and over in the country to be vaccinated against coronavirus — a compromise solution the government had hoped would get a parliamentary majority.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his health minister originally called for a vaccine mandate to apply to all adults in Germany, but some government lawmakers and most of the opposition had balked at the idea.
The bill was put forward by a cross-party group after months of haggling. It envisaged requiring older people to get the shot, but for there to be compulsory counseling for all adults to help them weigh the advantages and risks of vaccination against COVID-19.
In the end, 378 lawmakers voted against the bill, 296 were in favor and nine abstained.
Stopped Trucks, Foldable Beds for Workers: What European Businesses Face With China’s COVID Surge
China’s COVID controls have disrupted supply chains and stressed the daily life of workers, primarily in Shanghai and Shenyang, according to a slew of anecdotes from the EU Chamber of Commerce in China.
Shanghai, home to the world’s largest container shipping port, began a two-part lockdown on March 28 and has yet to announce when restrictions will lift.
EU Chamber members estimate Shanghai port volumes are down by about 40% week-on-week, Bettina Schoen-Behanzin, Shanghai chapter chair and a chamber vice president, said Wednesday.
“Shanghai is in a kind of state of exception,” said Schoen-Behanzin. “There’s a strong sense of uncertainty throughout the city. It’s fueled by supply shortages, endless lockdowns and a really big fear of being sent to those quarantine camps.”
A U.S. Lawyer Who Flew to China in January Says He Ended up in Government-Mandated Quarantines and Isolation for 3 Straight Months Before He Flew Home
Xue Liangquan, a Los Angeles-based lawyer, arrived in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Jan. 4. His plan was to spend the next few weeks visiting family in Shandong province in eastern China, and to spend Lunar New Year, an important traditional holiday for the Chinese, with them.
His hopes did not come to pass.
Instead, Xue, 37, says he went through three consecutive months of quarantine and isolation in Guangzhou and Shanghai from Jan. 2 to April 1. He said he ended his trip by flying back to Los Angeles on April 1, without having seen his family in China.
As Queensland’s COVID Vaccine Mandates Ease in Social Settings, They Still Apply to Many Workers
Mary Cullinane loved her job working with people with disabilities, but she left it when vaccine mandates were introduced.
The Lockyer Valley resident was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) more than 20 years ago. In 2017, she traveled to Russia to undergo a treatment called autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) which Ms. Cullinane said successfully halted the progression of her condition.
At the end of the treatment, doctors in Moscow told her not to be vaccinated against anything, including influenza, due to the risk of reactivating her MS.
Ms. Cullinane applied for a COVID-19 vaccination exemption but was unsuccessful. Her doctor told her he could not give her one as it was not one of the listed conditions.
Fortnite-Developer Epic Games and Lego Partner to Build a Metaverse Aimed at Kids
Fortnite-developer Epic Games announced today that it’s partnering with Lego to build a metaverse aimed at kids. The companies say they are going to shape the future of the metaverse to make it safe and fun for children while building an immersive digital experience for kids to play in.
While the companies didn’t go into detail about their plans for this virtual world, they outlined three principles that they say will ensure the digital spaces they develop are safe. The two will work together to make children’s safety and well-being a priority, safeguard children’s privacy and equip children and adults with tools that give them control over their digital experience.
Epic CEO and founder Tim Sweeney has previously said he sees the metaverse as a kind of online playground where users could play games, such as Fortnite, and watch movies on Netflix together.
Project ‘Zuck Bucks’: Meta Plans Virtual Coin After Cryptocurrency Flop
Meta has drawn up plans to introduce virtual coins, tokens and lending services to its apps, as Facebook’s parent company pursues its finance ambitions despite the collapse of a project to launch a cryptocurrency.
The company, led by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, is seeking alternative revenue streams and new features that can attract and retain users, as popularity falls for its main social networking products such as Facebook and Instagram — a trend that threatens its $118 billion-a-year ad-based business model.
Facebook’s financial arm, Meta Financial Technologies, has been exploring the creation of a virtual currency for the metaverse, which employees internally have dubbed “Zuck Bucks,” according to several people familiar with the efforts.
Google Play Pulls Dozens of Apps That Collected Personal Data From Millions of Android Users
Google has removed dozens of malicious apps from its mobile app marketplace, all of which allegedly contained code tied to a contractor employed by U.S. national security agencies.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the company that wrote the code is called Measurement Systems. The firm is said to have paid developers around the world to embed its software development kit (SDK) in their apps.
The precise number of Android apps that carried the malware is unclear (there were at least 12), but according to the researchers responsible for the discovery, the apps were downloaded at least 60 million times in total.
Google has now removed the compromised apps from the Play Store, but they remain active and are still gathering data. The apps include a number of Muslim prayer apps (with more than 10 million downloads), highway-speed-trap detection apps, QR-code reading apps and other “popular consumer apps.”
The Senate Bill That Has Big Tech Scared
If you want to know how worried an industry is about a piece of pending legislation, a decent metric is how apocalyptic its predictions are about what the bill would do. By that standard, Big Tech is deeply troubled by the American Innovation and Choice Online Act.
The infelicitously named bill is designed to prevent dominant online platforms — like Apple and Facebook and, especially, Google and Amazon — from giving themselves an advantage over other businesses that must go through them to reach customers.
As one of two antitrust bills voted out of committee by a strong bipartisan vote (the other would regulate app stores), it may be this Congress’ best, even only, shot to stop the biggest tech companies from abusing their gatekeeper status.
Are Microsoft’s Days as the ‘Friendly’ Tech Giant Over?
Over the past decade, Microsoft has pulled off a remarkable transformation of its public image in Europe — from bad boy to the most Brussels-friendly of tech giants?
But that shine may now be coming off. In Brussels and across Europe, the Seattle-based giant faces a flurry of antitrust complaints about its cloud business as well as fresh claims that the company is not living up to its word on paying press publishers for their content.
A new onslaught is picking away at Microsoft’s image in Europe as the “friendly one” among Big Tech companies — a position that was painstakingly cultivated under the leadership of Microsoft’s veteran lawyer-president, Brad Smith, during the past seven years.