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Stanford to International Students: Get the Booster or Face Deportation + More
Stanford to International Students: Get the Booster or Face Deportation
The best universities in the world are supposed to be bastions of scientific reasoning. Instead, during the pandemic, they instituted policies that are at odds with basic principles of public health. This includes, unfortunately, Stanford University, where I am an international graduate student in the PhD program in Physics.
This spring, Stanford instituted a requirement that all students be vaccinated or else face an “enrollment hold” which restricts their ability to complete classes, progress on degrees, get financial aid or even live on campus.
COVID is a disease that discriminates by age. Nearly 80 percent of COVID-19 related deaths in the U.S. have occurred among people 65 or older, and young people like me are relatively spared from the risk of hospitalization and death if infected. While bad outcomes can still happen, the odds are in line with other risks in my own life that I happily take.
If I do not get the booster shot before April 15, I cannot enroll for the spring quarter and my J-1 visa will be automatically canceled, as will the J-2 visas of my wife and child. I want to finish my program, but also do not want to be bullied into taking a booster shot. For international students like me, the consequence of not being injected with the booster is deportation.
Ex-NFL Player Says League ‘Nonsense’ Over COVID, Politics Led to Retirement
Retired NFL player Anthony Sherman said that his decision to step away from professional football after 10 years was driven by the league’s COVID-19 policies and political stances.
Sherman has commented publicly on some of the NFL’s COVID-related measures. In July 2021, he took to Twitter to protest the NFL’s decision to have players wear colored wrist bands to designate their COVID-19 vaccination status.
“Funny, I thought we all agreed on the evils of segregation back in the 60s. Here we are again — only this time it’s based on personal health choices instead of skin color,” the tweet read.
He went on to describe the experiences of NFL players who chose to remain unvaccinated and, as a consequence, were barred from eating with teammates, leaving their hotels during travel and were required to wear masks at all times, among other rules.
Los Angeles Ends Its Business Vaccine Verification Mandate
The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to end its mandate for many indoor businesses and operators of large outdoor events to verify that customers have been vaccinated against COVID-19, joining a wave of big U.S. cities that have relaxed the restriction.
It was not immediately clear how soon the measure would reach the mayor’s office, but the verification ordinance will not be enforced in the meantime because of the council vote, said Sophie Gilchrist, communications director for Martinez.
Businesses are still allowed to require vaccination verification for their clients.
Navy Halts Discharges of Sailors with COVID Religious Exemption Requests
The Navy suspended the discharges late on Tuesday of sailors who have refused to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate after a Texas judge ruled that a case involving vaccine-refusing Navy SEALs would apply to the entire Navy.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor granted the sailors’ request to broaden the case out to a class action that includes “4,095 Navy service members who have filed religious accommodation requests,” the Monday ruling said.
O’Connor then ordered the Navy to halt any action against the thousands of sailors prompting the Navy’s pause.
According to a copy of the Navy-wide message provided to Military.com by the Navy, the service will stop separation proceedings against any sailor who submitted a request for religious exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine requirement.
Judge Ousts Five School Board Members After Pennsylvania Parent Petition
A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday ordered five elected school directors be immediately kicked off the nine-member West Chester Area School board.
On Wednesday the same judge, William P. Mahon in the Chester County Court of Common Pleas, vacated Tuesday’s order and scheduled an argument for Friday.
It is all in response to a February petition filed by West Chester Area School District parent Beth Ann Rosica. In the petition, Rosica calls for the removal of five school board members, Sue Tiernan, Joyce Chester, Karen Herman, Kate Shaw and Daryl Durnell.
Students returning to in-person classes after two years of remote learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic were required to wear masks over their mouth and nose. When Pennsylvania ended mandatory school masking, the West Chester Area School District was among a handful of schools that kept masking in place.
Republicans Expose ‘Uncommon’ CDC, Teachers’ Union Ties on COVID School Reopening Guidance in Report
Republican lawmakers who sit on the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis released a report Wednesday revealing a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official’s testimony claiming that the agency coordinated with teachers’ unions at an extraordinary level in crafting its school reopening guidance, despite the agency’s earlier claims that such coordination was routine and nonpolitical.
In the interim report, exclusively reviewed by Fox News Digital, Republicans wrote that emails between the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the White House, and the CDC showed that the AFT’s “cozy relationship with the Biden administration’s political leadership at the CDC positioned the union to impose line-by-line edits” to the reopening guidance, despite the CDC’s “past practice to keep draft guidance confidential.”
The AFT’s edits were intended to make it more likely that schools would close to in-person learning, according to the Republicans’ findings.
In a joint statement provided exclusively to Fox News Digital, Republican Reps. Steve Scalise and James Comer accused President Biden of rewarding one of his biggest political donors while millions of children suffered from school closures.
Kansas Won’t Enforce Vaccine Rule for Nursing Home Workers
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s says Kansas won’t enforce a federal mandate that nursing home workers get vaccinated against COVID-19, acknowledging Wednesday that it conflicts with an anti-mandate state law she signed four months ago.
Nursing home workers must still get vaccines, but the federal government will charge Kansas nearly $349,000 a year to have federal teams survey nursing homes for compliance.
Kelly said Wednesday that she met several months ago with President Joe Biden’s health secretary, Xavier Becerra, and told him that the vaccine mandate “wouldn’t work.” “We’d be violating state law if our people were to be enforcing the federal mandates,” she said during an interview. “And so, we did work this out so that the federal government has assumed all responsibility for enforcement.”
Arizona Governor Ends 2-Year-Old Virus State of Emergency
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Wednesday ended the state of emergency he declared at the start of the coronavirus pandemic more than two years ago.
The Republican governor used the emergency powers to close schools and businesses, call up the National Guard, allow emergency licensing of health professionals and to take dozens of other actions.
Some Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature erupted in fury at the governor’s business closure and other orders, advancing bills to block them in the future. On Wednesday, Ducey signed a bill that bars counties and cities from closing businesses during a state of emergency. The bill does not apply to Ducey or subsequent governors.
WHO Treaty Seeks Total Control Over Global Health
The globalist cabal wants to monopolize health systems worldwide, and a stealth attack is already underway in the form of an international pandemic treaty. The negotiations for this treaty began March 3, 2022.
According to Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “me-first” approaches “stymie the global solidarity needed” to address global threats. His solution? Give the WHO all the power.
Over the past two years, in the name of keeping everyone “safe” from infection, the globalists have justified unprecedented attacks on democracy, civil liberties and personal freedoms, including the right to choose your own medical treatment. Now, the WHO wants to make its pandemic leadership permanent, and to extend it into the healthcare systems of every nation.
Freedom to Think by Susie Alegre Review — the Big Tech Threat to Free Thought
Human rights lawyer Susie Alegre’s fascinating book sketches a brief history of legal freedoms from the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi onwards, and explains the conceptual struggles behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights announced in 1948. That text defends rights to freedom of both “thought” and “opinion”: some delegates understood “thought” to mean religious belief, while others considered it superfluous as an addition to “opinion”; it was the Soviets who insisted it remain, “out of respect for the heroes and martyrs of science”.
Any and all information we feed into the social-media maw, Alegre notes, “will be analyzed to reveal psychological traits or fleeting states of mind that will, in turn, be used to manipulate our behaviour or to tell others how they should treat us”. This is particularly egregious in the realm of behaviour-tracking targeted at children.
Apple and Meta Handed Over Sensitive Data Straight to Hackers
Some of the victims of a new scam where threat actors impersonated police to steal sensitive data from tech companies’ endpoints have been revealed, and they’re big news.
A Bloomberg report claims that both Meta (Facebook’s parent company) and Apple fell for the trick, with the two companies reportedly sharing user IP addresses, phone numbers and home addresses with the fraudsters.
Besides Meta and Apple, a number of other major tech companies have reportedly been targeted, including Snap and Discord, although it’s unclear whether or not these companies fell for the scam.
NYC Mandates Coronavirus Vaccine for High School Students Attending Prom + More
NYC Mandates Coronavirus Vaccine for High School Students Attending Prom
New York City’s high school seniors who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus (COVID-19) will have to miss out on one of the most highly anticipated night of their high school career.
In the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, proms have returned for graduating seniors — typically held in the spring from April to June — but currently only for those students who are fully vaccinated, the city Department of Education (DOE) confirmed.
“So I mean, my concern is — they can go to school, you can go eat in a restaurant, they can go to a wedding. Why can’t they go to a prom?” said Kelly McKay, a parent of a New Dorp High School senior.
McKay explained the hardships endured by her daughter to graduate high school and that she should be allowed to celebrate her accomplishment with her friends at prom. She also said students “shouldn’t be pressured” to get the vaccine.
Judge OKs Class Action Suit for Sailors Refusing Navy Vaccine Mandate
A federal judge has allowed a class-action lawsuit from U.S. Navy sailors claiming religious exemptions to the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate to move forward.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor’s Monday ruling also temporarily blocked the Navy from punishing or discharging approximately 4,000 sailors who have refused the vaccines on religious grounds.
O’Connor found that the sailors covered in the class action shared key similarities with a group of 35 sailors who had previously sued over the mandate — a group that he granted a preliminary injunction against being punished for refusing the vaccine in January.
Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the scope of O’Connor’s earlier decision, ruling that the Navy could use vaccination status when determining deployment, assignments and operational decisions. Monday’s ruling does not contradict the Supreme Court‘s decision, allowing the Navy to take the same actions against sailors refusing the vaccine in the class action group.
‘Really Alarming’: The Rise of Smart Cameras Used to Catch Maskless Students in U.S. Schools
When students in suburban Atlanta returned to school for in-person classes amid the pandemic, they were required to mask up, like in many places across the U.S. Yet in this 95,000-student district, officials took mask compliance a step further than most. Through a network of security cameras, officials harnessed artificial intelligence to identify students whose masks drooped below their noses.
Remote learning during the pandemic ushered in a new era of digital student surveillance as schools turned to AI-powered services like remote proctoring and digital tools that sift through billions of students’ emails and classroom assignments in search of threats and mental health warning signs. Back on campus, districts have rolled out tools like badges that track students’ every move.
But one of the most significant developments has been in AI-enabled cameras. Twenty years ago, security cameras were present in 19% of schools, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Today, that number exceeds 80%. Powering those cameras with artificial intelligence makes automated surveillance possible, enabling things like temperature checks and the collection of other biometric data.
One of the Most Far-Reaching Vaccine Mandate Bills in California Will Not Move Forward
One of the most far-reaching vaccine bills introduced in the California Legislature this year will not move forward as planned, after the proposal to require all workers to be inoculated against COVID-19 was shelved on the eve of its first hearing.
Citing improved pandemic conditions and opposition from public safety unions, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) said she would hold Assembly Bill 1993, which would have required employees and independent contractors, in both the public and private sectors, to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment unless they have an exemption based on a medical condition, disability or religious beliefs.
The move comes as a group of truck drivers protesting COVID-19 mandates around Washington, DC, has said it plans to head to California to oppose vaccine legislation in the Golden State. AB 1993 had been among the bills listed on the People’s Convoy website that the group planned to protest in California.
Adm. Giroir Hits Back at Fauci’s Comments on COVID Restrictions: ‘Eliminate This From Your Vocabulary’
Former White House Coronavirus Task Force member Admiral Brett Giroir said on “America’s Newsroom” Wednesday that Dr. Anthony Fauci is wrong to suggest COVID restrictions may need to be brought back. Fauci said Americans should be prepared for such actions in response to the Omicron BA. 2 sub-variant or future strains.
“Tony Fauci always likes to cover all of his bases, so he can’t be 100 percent wrong in the future. But we should not be talking about lockdowns, restrictions, anything with BA.2 or any variant we have on the horizon. We have vaccine immunity, we have natural immunity, we have antibodies, we have oral drugs, we have all this in our armamentarium and we’re in a really good place. Most Americans have immunity.
“And if you had Omicron, you’re certainly immune to the BA.2 variant, so we should not be talking about that. Secondly, we now know in retrospect that mandates really don’t work, so we don’t have the need for them, and they don’t really work. So I think Dr. Fauci needs to eliminate this from his vocabulary for near and long-term,” Admiral Brett Giroir said.
We Are so Over COVID
COVID-19 may not be done with us. But we sure as heck are done with it. That sentiment comes screaming off the page of a new Monmouth University national poll released this week.
Consider: More than 3 in 4 Americans (77%) support the relaxing of CDC guidelines on masking and social distancing in areas with low COVID rates. Roughly 3 in 4 (73%) also agree with the statement that “it’s time we accept that COVID is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.”
Among that last group, more than 4 in 10 want there to be no future COVID regulations or mandates put in place. And according to a new AP-NORC poll, 44% of Americans said they often or always wear masks around people outside of their homes. That’s down from 65% in January 2022 and 82% in February 2021.
These numbers come even as Omicron subvariant BA.2 has become the dominant strain in the U.S.
Biden Crypto Executive Order Portends Dollar Destruction, Liberty Erosion
If you like what the Biden administration has done to the paper dollar, then you’ll love what it could do to a digital dollar. The odds of that perilous prospect becoming reality increased exponentially on March 9, when the White House introduced its “Executive Order on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets.”
The order might not only foretell the further erosion of the world’s reserve currency — and with it the wealth, economic dynamism and power that currency underpins — but the further erosion of our liberties.
It calls for mobilizing the federal bureaucracy to regulate digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, and to prepare for the creation of a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC) — an electronic dollar one might hold in a digital account with the Federal Reserve.
How the Shanghai COVID Shutdown Will Be Used Against the West
China is in a mild panic, and I have a hunch it has little to do with COVID-19.
Their ridiculous, and failed, “zero-tolerance” COVID policy is magic thinking. But this magic thinking has led to yet another port shut down, this time in Shanghai. The target is not the Chinese longshoremen and lorry drivers, trying to keep them from catching a virus that might kill 0.5% of them. The target is the multinational American and European companies that are being pressured at home to decouple from China. The Shanghai lockdowns stifle supply chains heading to the U.S. and Europe, proving that China is “the indispensable nation.”
China is nervous that people here are thinking otherwise.
Volkswagen knows what the Shanghai shutdown means. It means supply constraints because everything is made in China, including some basic semiconductors used in automotive manufacturing. That leads to higher prices because things are harder to buy, harder to make. That hurts the U.S. economy.
Facebook Paid GOP Firm to Malign TikTok
Facebook parent company Meta is paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the country to orchestrate a nationwide campaign seeking to turn the public against TikTok.
The campaign includes placing op-eds and letters to the editor in major regional news outlets, promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook, and pushing to draw political reporters and local politicians into helping take down its biggest competitor.
These bare-knuckle tactics, long commonplace in the world of politics, have become increasingly noticeable within a tech industry where companies vie for cultural relevance and come at a time when Facebook is under pressure to win back young users.
Rise of the Five-Year-Old ‘TikTots’
Children as young as five use social media, despite most platforms having rules users must be over the age of 13.
An annual study into media habits, from Ofcom, highlighted the mini social-media mavens, with a third of parents of five- to seven-year-olds revealing their child had a social-media profile. Among the eight- to 11-year-olds who used social media, the most popular platform was TikTok, with one in every three having an account.
The report noted even younger children — TikTots as Ofcom dubbed them — were watching videos on TikTok, including 16% of the three- to four-year-olds. The survey also found 22% of parents of three- to four-year-olds and 38% of parents of eight- to 11-year-olds said they would allow their child to have a profile on social media before they reached the minimum age.
Meta Halts Plans for Mega New Data Center After Local Backlash
Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, has halted its plans for a new data center in the Netherlands after intense opposition from the government.
“Given the current circumstances, we have decided to pause our development efforts in Zeewolde,” said a company spokesperson.
The “current circumstances” in question are local, provincial, and national governments raising a series of concerns over the massive project, which would have served much of continental Europe.
Data-Harvesting Code in Mobile Apps Sends User Data to ‘Russia’s Google’
Russia’s biggest Internet company has embedded code into apps found on mobile devices that allow information about millions of users to be sent to servers located in its home country.
The revelation relates to software created by Yandex that permits developers to create apps for devices running Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, systems that run the vast majority of the world’s smartphones.
Yandex collects user data harvested from mobile phones before sending the information to servers in Russia. Researchers have raised concerns the same “metadata” may then be accessed by the Kremlin and used to track people through their mobile phones.
Florida, 20 Other States, Sue Federal Government Over Mask Mandate for Airline Travel + More
Florida, 20 Other States, Sue Federal Government Over Mask Mandate for Airline Travel
In Florida’s latest salvo against the Biden administration over COVID-19 restrictions, Attorney General Ashley Moody on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging requirements that people wear masks in airports and on planes, trains and buses.
Moody, joined by attorneys general from 20 other states, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Tampa. In part, it contends that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has overstepped its legal authority in requiring masks for travelers.
The lawsuit alleges, in part, that the CDC violated a law known as the Administrative Procedure Act. That includes arguing that the agency overstepped its legal authority and took “arbitrary and capricious” actions. The lawsuit said, for example, that the agency did not consider “lesser alternatives.”
Other states joining in the lawsuit are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.
Municipal Workers Demand NYC End What They Call Double Standard and Lift Vaccine Mandate
Mayor Eric Adams is facing more backlash for his decision to lift the vaccine mandate for professional athletes and performers. City workers were out in force on Tuesday in Queens to rally for change, CBS2’s Jenna DeAngelis reported.
Those who gathered in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park said they feel there is a double standard and that the city should lift the vaccine mandate for them, so they can work and serve the city.
Many at the news conference called on the city to reinstate and compensate its workers who feel their livelihoods are being threatened due to their personal medical decisions in relation to the vaccine mandate.
Firefighters, paramedics, police officers, and transit and sanitation workers were among those standing in solidarity. They want Adams to level the playing field after he announced, last week, professional athletes and performers are exempt from the vaccine requirements.
Fauci: Americans Should Be Prepared for New COVID Restrictions
White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday warned about the potential for the reinstatement of COVID-19 restrictions in the U.S. In an interview on the BBC’s “Sunday Morning,” Fauci said U.S. residents “need to be prepared for the possibility” of restrictions being put back into place.
Presenter Sophie Raworth asked if a new infectious COVID-19 variant could lead to future lockdowns and mask mandates. “I don’t want to use the word ‘lockdowns.’ That has a charged element to it. But, I believe that we must keep our eye on the pattern of what we’re seeing with infections,” he said, noting that the U.S. is currently moving toward normalcy.
“Having said that, we need to be prepared for the possibility that we would have another variant that would come along,” Fauci noted. “And then, if things change and we do get a variant that does give us an uptick in cases and hospitalization, we should be prepared and flexible enough to pivot toward going back — at least temporarily — to a more rigid type of restrictions, such as requiring masks indoor.”
Lawmakers Have Introduced a Bill That Would Allow the U.S. Treasury to Create a Digital Dollar
Four U.S. lawmakers proposed a new bill Monday that would authorize the Treasury Department — rather than the Federal Reserve — to create and issue an electronic dollar.
The “Electronic Currency and Secure Hardware Act,” or ECASH Act, proposed by Democratic representatives Stephen Lynch (Massachusetts), Jesús Chuy Garcia (Illinois), Ayanna Pressley (Massachusetts) and Rashida Tlaib (Michigan), would allow for a digital dollar that preserves privacy and anonymous transaction.
According to the bill, the digital dollar would be token-based, and held on your card or phone. But because it wouldn’t be account-based, losing the card or phone that stores the tokens would mean you also lose your funds.
Ex-Court Staff Who Refused COVID Vaccines Sue to Get Jobs Back
More than two dozen former court employees are suing the New York State Unified Court System, seeking reinstatement of their jobs after their requests for a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate were denied.
In the lawsuit filed March 21 in state Supreme Court in Albany, 28 ex-employees who worked in courts and administrative offices around the state argue that their applications seeking exemptions to the mandate did not differ substantially from those of employees whose requests were approved.
They also say the court system never explained why their requests were denied despite repeated requests for an explanation.
Here’s What the Trucker Convoy Plans to Protest in California
The trucker convoy that has spent the last three weeks in the Washington, DC, area has decided to head west, to California.
On Sunday night, during a livestream, one of the organizers of the “People’s Convoy” — Mike Landis — proposed that the group travel to the Golden state. Landis read off several bills — 10 — that he mentioned are up for a vote next week.
On their website, ThePeoplesConvoy.org, 10 bills are listed with the headline “10 CA Bills You Must Oppose.” On their website, they call these “universally dangerous” and would affect nearly every area of the lives of California’s residents. ”If passed, these bills will change everything for people who want to Live, Work or Learn in the State of CA while exercising their right to medical freedom,” the website reads.
The Military Wants AI to Replace Human Decision-Making in Battle
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — the innovation arm of the U.S. military — is aiming to answer thorny questions by outsourcing the decision-making process to artificial intelligence. Through a new program, called In the Moment, it wants to develop technology that would make quick decisions in stressful situations using algorithms and data, arguing that removing human biases may save lives, according to details from the program’s launch this month.
Though the program is in its infancy, it comes as other countries try to update a centuries-old system of medical triage, and as the U.S. military increasingly leans on technology to limit human error in war. But the solution raises red flags among some experts and ethicists who wonder if AI should be involved when lives are at stake.
Twitter, Facebook, Google Have Repeatedly Censored Conservatives Despite Liberal Doubts
The debate around the possible injection of political bias into Big Tech company policies has persisted for years, as has the discussion on free speech, Silicon Valley’s constantly fluctuating and often vague content moderation policies, attempts to curb “misinformation,” and the rights of a company to operate its business how it sees fit versus the importance of public discourse in an increasingly virtual world.
A pattern has emerged of right-leaning voices being censored far more often than those on the left. Both Democrats and Republicans alike have pushed for steps to be taken to reign in the enormous power wielded by Big Tech companies. Disagreements remain on how such measures should be taken. Calls to repeal Section 230, break up the tech companies, or police their actions through the creation of a government advisory board have all cropped up.
Yet, critics have argued that government intervention could lead to censorship against political opponents and everyday Americans by the party in power. Digital strategist Bret Jacobson told Fox News Digital that concerns related to tech censorship should be addressed by consumers rather than “Draconian” and “unwise” government attempts to control what users see and hear.
Federal Pressure on Big Tech to Censor COVID ‘Misinformation’ Violates Constitution: Lawsuit
The public government campaign to pressure Big Tech platforms such as Twitter to crack down on supposed misinformation violates the U.S. Constitution, according to a new lawsuit.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has repeatedly pressed Twitter and other platforms to suppress COVID-19 misinformation, while White House press secretary Jen Psaki has said President Joe Biden thinks it’s the responsibility of social media companies to “stop amplifying untrustworthy content, disinformation, and misinformation, especially related to COVID-19, vaccinations, and elections.”
Scientist Mark Changizi, attorney Michael Senger, and stay-at-home father Daniel Kotzin want a federal court in Ohio to declare that the effort violated the First Amendment of the Constitution; that Murthy’s campaign against misinformation lacked statutory authorities; that a request by the government for Twitter and other companies to turn over information about “sources of misinformation” violates the Fourth Amendment since no warrant has been granted; and that Twitter and other companies are under no obligation to censor content and will not be penalized if they choose not to do so.
DOJ Endorses Antitrust Legislation Aimed at Big Tech
The Department of Justice sent letters to bipartisan lawmakers on the House and Senate Judiciary committees endorsing antitrust proposals that aim to block tech giants from giving preferential treatment to their own products.
It marks the Biden administration’s most direct endorsement of the American Online Innovation and Choice Act.
The legislation would block dominant online companies, determined by user base and revenue, from preferring their own goods or discriminating against rival products on their platforms. The definition would likely mean the bill would apply to Amazon, Apple, Meta and Google.
Web3 Promises to Put the Internet Into the Hands of the People. Don’t Believe the Hype.
Similar to “the internet” or “cryptocurrency” in their infancy, the term “Web3” has entered the public discourse before being widely understood. However, Web3 might be the haziest and most vague of the bunch.
Web3 promoters would say it’s a new version of the internet that is owned by users and builders and powered by tokens or crypto. Unlike Web2 —- the current web, which is dominated by centralized platforms, including Google, Apple, and Facebook — they claim Web3 will use blockchain, crypto and NFTs to take the power away from Big Tech and transfer it back to the internet community.
NYC Won’t Rehire Unvaccinated Workers, Mayor Says + More
NYC Won’t Rehire Unvaccinated Workers, Mayor Says
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday that his administration would not rehire unvaccinated city workers.
Around 1,400 city employees were fired earlier this year for failing to comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Adams said, during a news conference at Citi Field, he did not plan to rehire them. “Not at this time,” he said, according to The Wall Street Journal, “We are not reviewing if we are going to bring [them] back.”
He also thanked the more than 340,000 city employees who have been vaccinated, recognizing them for “[standing] up and [doing] the right thing.”
Nets’ Kyrie Irving Says He Stands ‘for Freedom’ by Not Getting COVID Vaccine
After his long-awaited first home game at Barclays Center — where he was previously restricted from playing due to New York City’s private sector vaccine mandate — Kyrie Irving said his decision not to get vaccinated was to make sure he stands on what he believes in.
“I’m standing for freedom, so that’s in all facets of my life. There’s nobody that’s enslaving me. I don’t want anyone telling me what to do with my life, and that’s just the way I am, and if I get tarnished in terms of my image and people slandering my name continually because those aren’t things that I forget,” said Irving.
Irving never wavered in his stance to get vaccinated against COVID-19 this season. He became the NBA’s only part-time player, available exclusively in road games and not at home due to the City’s vaccine mandate. The Nets initially ruled Irving ineligible to play on the road or practice at home at the beginning of the season, but then reversed course on that decision in mid-December.
Unvaccinated United Airlines Employees Return to Work
Unvaccinated United Airlines employees who sought medical or religious exemptions will be able to return to work Monday, according to an internal memo.
More than 2,000 employees with an approved request for reasonable accommodation (RAP) and who have been out on unpaid leave will be able to return to their normal positions, United Vice President of Human Resources Kirk Limacher said in a memo, reviewed by FOX Business.
As part of the airline’s comprehensive vaccine policy, about 67,000 U.S.-based employees faced a deadline last September for getting vaccinated or risk losing their job — barring some exemptions.
In October 2021, the company fired more than 230 employees that refused to get vaccinated against the virus by the carrier’s deadline. Those fired did not seek an exemption, a United Airlines spokesperson previously told FOX Business.
Supreme Court Restores Pentagon’s Authority Over Deployment of Unvaccinated SEALs
The Supreme Court on Friday granted an emergency request from the Defense Department to restore its authority over the deployment of unvaccinated Navy SEALs and other special warfare service members amid a pending legal challenge to the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The court’s move temporarily blocked a January ruling by a federal judge in Texas. That judge halted the department from considering vaccination status in deployment decisions affecting Navy special forces operators who have refused to comply with the military’s mandate on religious grounds.
The ruling marks the latest twist as the Pentagon fights to be able to enforce its mandate against the plaintiffs in the case, who argued that the mandate violated their religious rights.
Spotify Rolls out COVID Disclosures Two Months After Joe Rogan Boycott
Spotify is rolling out a COVID content advisory tab on podcasts and other content that mentions the coronavirus.
Spotify promised the feature, a small blue tab that directs to its COVID-19 information hub, nearly two months ago. It comes after a handful of musicians and creators boycotted the platform for its airing of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which they say spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.
Spotify had been under fire for hosting the episodes. It bought the exclusive streaming rights to “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast in a deal reportedly worth at least $200 million.
Convoy Protesting COVID Mandates Rolling on to California
A group of truck drivers protesting COVID-19 mandates on roads and highways around the Washington, DC, area in recent weeks will head to California next, an organizer announced Sunday night.
During a livestream of the People’s Convoy nightly rally Sunday, organizer Mike Landis read a list of measures aimed at controlling COVID-19 in California, The Herald-Mail reported.
“I think stopping those is more important at this point in time than getting the emergency declaration repealed because that’s already in place and we need to stop stuff like these bills from getting in place,” Landis said, “otherwise, the rest of us that don’t live in California are going to end up subject to the same situation.”
Landis did not say when the group would leave, but he invited people to convoy Monday to a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, before they pack up and head West, and hinted at a possible return.
Pupils Had Futures Blighted During the Pandemic: Now They Are Being Cheated Again
COVID has swept through schools once again in the past few weeks, with teachers going off sick again and desks emptying fast. The new extra-infectious variant of Omicron comes at just the wrong time for children who have already missed out on so much over the past two years and in England now face SATs, GCSEs or A-levels this spring.
A report from the Commons education select committee, whose Tory chair, Robert Halfon, has doggedly worried away at this issue for two years, recently concluded that school closures in England had been “nothing short of a national disaster for children and young people”, with pupils in the most deprived areas up to eight months behind in some subjects and the government’s “catch-up” national tutoring program (NTP) failing to deliver in precisely the places that need it most.
Shanghai Is Locking Down Over 10 Million People at a Time. Why That’s a Big Deal.
Many countries around the world have decided to live with the coronavirus, even as a new subvariant fuels another wave of infections. But China is an extremely important exception.
What’s happening: China continues to deploy “snap” lockdowns as it tries to eliminate the transmission of COVID-19 within its borders. The policy is hanging over the outlook for the global economy and financial markets, presenting more unknowns as investors scramble to assess the impacts of the war in Ukraine and surging inflation.
Starting Monday, around 11 million residents in the eastern half of Shanghai will be banned from going out for four days as mass testing kicks off. The staggered lockdown will then move to the other half of the city, which has about 14 million residents, beginning Friday.
How vital is Shanghai? The lockdown in Shanghai is a big deal not just because of the city’s scale, but also because of its deep financial and economic links.
The Government Cracking Down on Social Media Won’t Make Kids Less Sad
In his recent State of the Union address, President Biden implored Congress to hold “social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit.” Following suit, a bipartisan group of eight state attorneys general launched a nationwide investigation into whether TikTok is intentionally “designing, operating, and promoting its social media platform to children” in order to cause “mental health harms.”
Though well-intentioned, these efforts are misplaced. In the name of “the children,” people have been freaking out about new arts and technologies for centuries, and social media platforms are just the latest target.
And while there likely is a mental health emergency, this moral panic allows politicians to divert attention away from the more complex causes of the problem, while not helping children at all.
Elon Musk Asks if ‘New Platform’ Needed as Twitter Slammed on Free Speech
Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked his followers on Twitter if a “new platform” is needed after he criticized the social media giant over free speech.
“Is a new platform needed?” he asked Saturday afternoon after taking a hit at Twitter and accusing the platform of “failing” to follow free speech rules. Musk, who has 7.9 million Twitter followers, on Friday said “free speech is essential to a functioning democracy” and asked his followers in a poll if they believe “Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”
More than 2 million Twitter users responded to the poll in which 70 percent said the platform doesn’t adhere to free speech principles, while 29.6 percent think otherwise.
The Real Way Facebook Knows so Much About You (and How to Stop It)
Is Facebook always listening? The truth is, it doesn’t need to. Big Tech companies have far easier ways of gathering information on you. Take Google. If you use Gmail, Google Drive, YouTube, Google Podcasts, and an Android phone, think about every bit of information you willingly pass along. Tap or click to erase what Google knows about you.
On Facebook, your activity speaks volumes. Say you join a “buy nothing” group. Facebook might guess you value sustainability or just love saving money. This detail goes into its highly specific profile of you.
Facebook also knows what you do elsewhere because you might have connected apps sharing your data. You can stop that.
A Google Billionaire’s Fingerprints Are All Over Biden’s Science Office
As President Joe Biden granted his science office unprecedented access and power, one outside adviser to that office has attained what staffers describe as an unusual level of influence.
A foundation controlled by Eric Schmidt, the multi-billionaire former CEO of Google, has played an extraordinary, albeit private, role in shaping the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy over the past year.
Schmidt has long sought to influence federal science policy, dating back to his close ties to the Obama administration. While his spokespeople presented his efforts to help Biden as part of Schmidt Futures’ mission to “focus and mobilize these networks of talent to solve specific problems in science and society,” his foundation’s involvement in funding positions for specific figures raised repeated red flags from internal White House watchdogs.
Schmidt sits on the boards of a wide variety of technology companies, particularly those focused on artificial intelligence.