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Vaccine Mandate for Federal Employees Awaits Court Ruling + More
Vaccine Mandate for Federal Employees Awaits Court Ruling
A federal judge in Texas overstepped his authority when he blocked President Joe Biden’s requirement that all federal employees get vaccinated against COVID-19, an attorney for the administration told a federal appeals court panel Tuesday.
Department of Justice lawyer Charles Scarborough argued that the Constitution gives the president, as the head of the federal workforce, the same authority as the CEO of a private corporation has to require that employees be vaccinated. “This is the president exercising his authority as an employer,” Scarborough said.
Arguing for those challenging the mandate, lawyer Trent McCotter said it was the administration that was exceeding its statutory and constitutional power. McCotter referenced the recent Supreme Court opinion that the government cannot force private employers to require employee vaccinations. He said the federal employee mandate was the same kind of “coercive choice” struck down in that case. “It’s a sort of freestanding, ongoing constitutional injury,” McCotter said.
Navy Says It Can’t Deploy Destroyer While Commander Remains Unvaccinated
Navy warship remains docked and can’t be deployed because it’s commanded by an officer who refuses to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Navy officials said.
The ongoing legal battle over whether the military can force troops to get the jab has left the ship docked in Norfolk, Virginia. U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday issued an order last month banning the Navy and Marine Corps from taking any disciplinary action against the unnamed Navy warship commander and a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel for refusing to get the vaccine.
Merryday granted a preliminary injunction barring the Navy from requiring the commander or the lieutenant colonel to take the vaccine or issuing “any punitive or retaliatory measure against [them] pending a final judgment in the case,” according to Stripes and Stars.
On Thursday, Merryday denied the U.S. Department of Defense’s request to halt the injunction.
Governments, Colleges May Be Barred From Asking Workers, Students About COVID Shot Status
Louisville Courier Journal reported:
State and local governments and public colleges would be prohibited from requiring employees or students to disclose their COVID-19 vaccine status under a bill that cleared a House committee Tuesday.
Filed by Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge, HB 28 would ban state government, local governments and state colleges from forcing employees or applicants to disclose whether or not they have received any COVID-19 vaccine shots, or “take adverse action” against those who do not disclose their vaccine status.
If a governmental entity violates the provisions, it would be subject to possible civil action with penalties of up to $1,000 per day, per violation. If public colleges violate the law — inquiring about the vaccine status of their faculty, staff and students — they could be denied state funding or their authority to operate.
Ted Cruz Says People Hug Him on Planes for Protesting Vaccine Mandates in Viral Video
A clip of Texas Senator Ted Cruz, posted on Twitter by The Recount, was recorded while Cruz was speaking to the media following a meeting with leaders of the “People’s Convoy” and fellow GOP Senator Ron Johnson.
While discussing the meeting, which was promoted as being about the “harmful effects of President Biden‘s vaccine mandates,” Cruz told a story about how people on planes thank him for attempting to stop the restrictions and rules targeting federal employees and large businesses.
“Every week, I fly back and forth to Houston. Almost without exception every time I’m on an airplane, either the captain or a flight attendant will come up to me, will hug me and say thank you for fighting for us,” Cruz said.
“Because I’ll tell you United Airlines — sadly Houston’s a hub of them — has fired thousands of pilots and flight attendants. What difference does it make? We’re in the District of Columbia, right now there are mandates affecting kids in DC. This is wrong,” Cruz added.
Djokovic Is Included in the Draw at Indian Wells Despite His Unclear Vaccination Status
Novak Djokovic, one of the world’s most prominent sports stars to hold out against getting a coronavirus vaccination, was included in the field for this week’s Indian Wells tennis tournament in Southern California, even though there are doubts over whether he will be able to enter the United States and participate.
Djokovic has expressed reluctance to be vaccinated against coronavirus, saying that he was not convinced by the science. He said the issue was more important to him than adding to the 20 Grand Slam tournaments he has won.
Under U.S. immigration law, people who are not citizens and also not immigrants must show proof of full vaccination as well as a negative coronavirus test to enter the country by air.
GOP Senators Cruz and Johnson Meet With ‘People’s Convoy’ Truckers
Trucker protesters against COVID vaccine mandates and restrictions met Tuesday with a pair of Republican lawmakers for two hours on Capitol Hill.
Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Ted Cruz of Texas spoke with a small group of protesters from “The People’s Convoy,” who said they won’t end their now three-day long circuit along the DC beltway — traveling around 55-60 miles per hour along the often congested corridors of Maryland and Virginia — until they sit down with other members of Congress and their demands for the rollbacks of a national state of emergency and vaccine mandates are met.
Convoy truckers are also asking for congressional hearings on the origins of the pandemic along with an investigation into state and federal COVID responses.
One point of contention for protestors who spoke during a roundtable discussion is that while COVID mandates are being rolled back, healthcare workers and members of the military have already been dismissed and discharged for refusing to get vaccinated.
Austria Says It Is Putting Its COVID Vaccine Mandate on Ice
Austria is suspending its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, its ministers for health and constitutional affairs said on Wednesday, six days before fines for breaches were due to start being imposed.
The measure, the most sweeping in the European Union as it applied to all adults with few exceptions, has been in effect since Feb. 5, but enforcement was only due to begin on March 15.
“We will…suspend the vaccine mandate in accordance with the principle of proportionality,” constitutional affairs minister Karoline Edtstadler told a news conference. “Why? Because there are many convincing arguments at the moment that this infringement of fundamental rights is not justified.”
German Government Produces New Legal Framework for Pandemic Rules
The German government introduced a legal framework for pandemic regulations and rules Wednesday. Most of the country’s current coronavirus restrictions are set to end by March 20.
The country’s health and justice ministers said if German lawmakers pass the framework, the country’s 16 state legislatures could adopt the new “hot spot” measures if virus cases rise again in certain regions, if hospitals are at risk of becoming overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients or if new virus variants start spreading.
The regulations cover matters such as mask requirements, social distancing, and requiring proof of vaccination, recovery from the illness or negative tests to be able to participate in certain parts of public life. Nationwide, masks would remain mandatory on long-distance trains and flights.
Amazon May Face Criminal Liability for Lying to Congress, House Lawmakers Allege
House lawmakers who spent much of 2019 and 2020 probing Amazon for possible antitrust violations now accuse the tech giant of lying to Congress and want the Justice Department to investigate “potentially criminal conduct” from the company and some of its executives.
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland dated March 9, members of the House Judiciary Committee say “Amazon lied through a senior executive’s sworn testimony” about how the company had used the data it collects from third-party sellers. The lawmakers further allege the company “engaged in a pattern and practice of misleading conduct,” which may have been an attempt “to influence, obstruct, or impede” the House committee’s investigation.
Facebook Gives Group Admins New Tools to Block Misinformation
Facebook is once again trying to stem the flow of misinformation within Groups. The social network is giving group admins new tools to help prevent misleading information from spreading.
With the update, group admins will be able to “automatically decline” posts that have been determined to be false or misleading by Facebook’s third-party fact-checkers. Admins who want to take an even tougher stance can use the feature to decline the post and block or suspend the user from future posts in the group.
China State-Backed Hackers Compromised Networks of at Least 6 U.S. State Governments, Research Finds
A Chinese state-sponsored hacking group successfully compromised the computer networks of at least six U.S. state governments between May 2021 and February this year, according to research published by cybersecurity firm Mandiant on Tuesday.
The group, known as APT41, allegedly exploited vulnerabilities in web applications to get their initial foothold into state government networks, Mandiant said.
APT41, which Mandiant claims carries out state-sponsored espionage on behalf of Beijing, took advantage of software flaws and quickly exploited security vulnerabilities that were made public by researchers. The hackers also adapted their tools to attack via different methods, it said.
Mandiant, the company behind Tuesday’s research, is a Nasdaq-listed cybersecurity firm based in the U.S. On Tuesday, Google said that it plans to acquire the company for around $5.4 billion.
HBO Hit With Class Action Lawsuit for Allegedly Sharing Subscriber Data With Facebook
HBO is facing a class-action lawsuit over allegations that it gave subscribers’ viewing history to Facebook without proper permission, Variety has reported. The suit accuses HBO of providing Facebook with customer lists, allowing the social network to match viewing habits with their profiles.
It further alleges that HBO knows Facebook can combine the data because HBO is a major Facebook advertiser — and Facebook can then use that information to retarget ads to its subscribers. Since HBO never received proper customer consent to do this, it allegedly violated the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), according to the lawsuit.
Twitter Quietly Launches Tor Service in the Face of Russian Censorship
Twitter just struck a blow against government censorship, even if the tech giant won’t come out and say so directly.
On Tuesday morning, Alec Muffett, a cybersecurity professional with a long history of working with the Tor network, announced he’d brought skills to bear at Twitter. Specifically, Muffett wrote that he’d helped the company launch a censorship-resistant way for users to access the social media platform — even if government officials in, say, a country like Russia, wanted to prevent that.
Tor works by sending users’ internet traffic through random servers, and encrypting that traffic at every step. This means a website can’t see who specifically is browsing it, and an ISP can’t see what sites its customers are viewing. Tor is great, to put it bluntly, for doing things you wish to keep to yourself.
Biden Admin Asks Supreme Court to Intervene in Navy Seal Vaccine Mandate Case + More
Biden Admin Asks Supreme Court to Intervene in Navy Seal Vaccine Mandate Case
The Biden administration on Monday asked the Supreme Court to allow the Department of Defense to enforce its COVID-19 vaccination requirement for a group of unvaccinated Navy Seals.
A federal judge in January upheld a lawsuit from 35 Navy Seals and filed the preliminary injunction on religious freedom grounds, saying the service members had a right to refuse the vaccine because of their beliefs.
The Biden administration has appealed the decision to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, but it filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court on Monday to let it enforce the mandate so it can avoid possibly deploying unvaccinated Navy Seals.
Wichita Airmen Join Lawsuit in Face of Discharge for COVID Vaccine Mandates
As some face discharge for their choice to not get vaccinated against COVID-19, 36 airmen have filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration.
On Tuesday, March 8, Alliance for Free Citizens says 36 airmen currently on active duty in the Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Omaha, Neb.
The suit challenges the legality of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate on service members. Alliance For Free Citizens said this is the largest lawsuit filed to date against the proposed mandates.
Court documents indicate all 36 airmen applied for a religious exemption to the mandate due to the vaccine violating their sincerely held religious beliefs. Currently, most have had their request rejected while several are on the verge of discharge.
Students Sue Santa Clara University Over COVID Vaccine Booster Mandate
Two students sued Santa Clara University over its COVID-19 vaccine booster shot requirement Monday.
The lawsuit said sophomore Harlow Glenn, 20, agreed to get her first Pfizer COVID-19 shot last year to comply with the university’s vaccine mandate, but alleges she suffered numbing in her legs, severe headaches, menstrual cycle disruptions, bloody urine, body pains and hair loss. The university, she said, denied her requests for religious and medical exemptions from the shots.
Another sophomore, Jackson Druker, 19, agreed to comply with the initial vaccination requirement and hasn’t suffered a bad reaction, but does not want to take the additional risk of a booster shot, the lawsuit said.
Both students face disenrollment under university policy if they have not received the required initial and booster shots by March 17, the lawsuit said.
Tolerating COVID Misinformation Is Better Than the Alternative
The First Amendment hasn’t kept public officials from calling upon Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and other tech platforms to restrict false or misleading claims about vaccination and other COVID-related issues. The White House has urged tech companies to censor individuals engaged in protected speech. Senator Amy Klobuchar introduced legislation in hopes of pressuring social-media companies to do more “to prevent the spread of deadly vaccine misinformation.”
And the government can apply pressure on private speech in other ways: The Department of Homeland Security, for example, is characterizing misinformation as a terrorism threat. All of these efforts reflect a judgment that, at least on pandemic matters, the liberal approach to dissent has greater costs than benefits.
I can think of at least four reasons why neither government officials nor corporate bosses should try to protect the public by newly restricting the expression of ideas, even during a pandemic.
Days After Mandate Eases, LA County Urges Masks to Fend off COVID
Los Angeles Daily News reported:
Los Angeles County’s health director continued urging residents on Monday, March 7, to wear masks, even though they’re no longer required in most indoor settings, saying they still offer strong protection against COVID-19 transmission.
The county lifted its indoor mask mandate for most locations on Friday, following the state’s lead. But the masks are still “strongly recommended” by the state and the county.
Masking is still required in higher-risk settings, including healthcare facilities, transit centers, airports, aboard public transit, in correctional facilities and at homeless shelters and long-term care facilities.
Indoor masks also continue to be required on K-12 school campuses, although the county and state will lift that requirement on Saturday. The policy, however, is expected to remain in place in the Los Angeles Unified School District until the end of the school year.
Chicago Public Schools to Drop Mask Mandate March 14; Teachers Union Vows to Fight the Change Without Collective Bargaining
Chicago Public Schools announced Monday masks will be optional for staff and students at schools and on school buses beginning March 14, setting up another showdown with the Chicago Teachers Union over COVID-19 safety protocols.
The union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the state labor board Monday, asking for the CPS mask mandate to continue until CTU’s complaint is resolved. Universal masking is one of the tenets of the COVID-19 safety agreement the teachers union forged with CPS in January after an acrimonious battle led to five days of canceled classes during the Omicron surge. In a letter Friday to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, CTU President Jesse Sharkey warned that moving to a mask-optional policy would be a “clear violation” of the agreement.
Ohio’s Capital City Drops Mask Mandate as COVID Cases Fall
Ohio’s capital and largest city has dropped its mask mandate amid a continuing fall in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.
Columbus City Schools, the state’s largest district, on Tuesday also dropped its mask mandate.
South Dakota House Rewrites Noem’s Vaccine Exemption Bill
South Dakota House Republicans on Monday passed a completely rewritten version of a bill from Gov. Kristi Noem to allow employees to gain exemptions from their employer’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates, setting up a statehouse clash over the proposal.
House lawmakers, in a snub to the governor’s bill, rewrote it to allow employees to cite any objection of their conscience. Noem’s initial bill, which had passed the Senate, would allow employees to avoid mandates by citing either a medical exemption, religious grounds for refusal or a test showing antibodies against COVID-19 in the last six months.
COVID Vaccine Mandate for Health Professionals Pushed Back Again
British Columbia’s long-promised COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all regulated health professionals will not come into effect later this month as planned, despite earlier statements from the provincial health officer.
Instead of making the shot mandatory for health professionals who work in private practice — including everyone from dentists and doctors to chiropractors and massage therapists — a new public health order will require them to report their vaccination status to their professional colleges.
The order, posted online Monday, states that B.C.’s 19 professional regulatory colleges were informed on March 4 that they would have to collect their members’ vaccination information.
As Virus Cases Go From 1 to 24,000, New Zealand Changes Tack
Back in August, New Zealand’s government put the entire nation on lockdown after a single community case of the coronavirus was detected.
On Tuesday, when new daily cases hit a record of nearly 24,000, officials told hospital workers they could help out on understaffed COVID-19 wards even if they were mildly sick themselves.
It was the latest sign of just how radically New Zealand’s approach to the virus has shifted, moving from elimination to suppression and now to something approaching acceptance as the Omicron variant has taken hold.
Twitter Is Looking for Younger Users. It’s Turning to the Tech World’s Teen Savant to Help Find Them.
Teenagers have flocked to TikTok in recent years, abandoning apps like Facebook and Instagram. Twitter is stuck somewhere in the middle.
Despite its large cultural relevance, Twitter has repeatedly failed to gain mass adoption, and its forays into new formats like short-form video and live-streaming have flopped. But cultivating a young, hyper-engaged user base could be a key step toward becoming a platform as influential as its power users believe it to be.
To lead these efforts, Twitter has tapped Michael Sayman. Sayman is known as a prodigy in Silicon Valley when it comes to building products for young people. He dropped out of high school at age 17 after being recruited by Mark Zuckerberg to work for Facebook.
In 2017, Sayman left Facebook for Google, where he once again was tapped with helping a tech giant grow and retain young users.
Alphabet to Acquire Mandiant for $5.4 Billion
Google parent company Alphabet plans to acquire Mandiant, the cybersecurity firm that uncovered the SolarWinds hack, for $5.4 billion, the tech giant announced Tuesday. Mandiant will join Google’s Cloud business following the close of the acquisition, according to the announcement.
Bloomberg reported Microsoft had reportedly also been interested in Mandiant, but the company pulled out of talks more than a week ago.
“Organizations around the world are facing unprecedented cybersecurity challenges as the sophistication and severity of attacks that were previously used to target major governments are now being used to target companies in every industry,” Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said in a statement.
TikTok Children’s Privacy Lawsuit Can Proceed, Says UK High Court
A UK High Court judge has granted permission for a class-action style privacy lawsuit to proceed against TikTok over its handling of children’s data.
The lawsuit was filed back in December 2020 by a then 12-year-old girl who has been granted anonymity by the court to bring the claim that the social networking site is processing children’s data unlawfully.
The suit is seeking damages on behalf of millions of children for alleged abuse of their information — and if the legal action succeeds TikTok could be on the hook to pay billions of dollars in compensation.
NYC to Face Lawsuit Over Mask Mandate for School Kids Under 5 + More
NYC to Face Lawsuit Over Mask Mandate for School Kids Under 5
New York City should drop the mask mandate for school children age 5 and under, says a group of local parents.
They plan to file a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court to overturn the mandate on Monday, the day mask rules will be dropped for all students older than 5. The rules will remain in effect for youngsters who are not eligible for COVID vaccines.
“For many of us, this is something we find harmful for our children. We want to have the choice whether to do it or not.” The group of about a dozen parents from throughout the five boroughs plans to argue that the city has to pass a law to enforce the mandate.
At a Friday press conference, Mayor Adams defended the decision to keep the mask mandate for kids 5 and under in place.
Tech Trojan Horse: How the Senate Is Poised to Codify Censorship of Social Media
In the name of “reforming” the internet and bringing tech monopolies to heel, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has penned a “Nudge Act” that would expand corporate censorship and speech controls.
The act, however, is less of a nudge and more of a shove toward approved content and choices.
The Act is a masterpiece of doublespeak. It refers to developing “content-agnostic interventions” that would ultimately be enforced by a commission. That sounds great; after all, many of us have called for years for a return to content neutrality on social media where sites function more as communication platforms, similar to telephone companies. However, that is clearly not the intent of the bill’s sponsors, who see it as a weapon against “misinformation.”
New Jersey Will End Omicron Public Health Emergency, NYC to Lift Indoor Vaccine Mandate
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday said large-scale mitigation measures are no longer needed to fight COVID, lifting a public health emergency order that was declared in response to the Omicron variant.
The public health emergency officially ends on Monday when the Garden State will lift its mask mandate for public schools, the last mitigation measure it had in place to combat COVID.
Across the Hudson River, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced he will lift the mask mandate for public schools effective Monday as well as the vaccination requirement for indoor dining, gyms and entertainment venues.
Schools will still screen students to make sure they stay home if they have symptoms, and masks are still required for events with children under 5 years old because they are not eligible for vaccination yet.
Broadway to Maintain COVID Vaccine and Mask Mandate Through April
Broadway will maintain its mask and vaccine policies through April despite Mayor Eric Adams rolling back many COVID-19 mandates starting Monday.
Broadway shows returned to New York in September after being shuttered for nearly 2 years due to the pandemic.
Several shows also faced shutdowns and cancellations due to a spike in cases linked to the Omicron variant in January.
‘People’s Convoy’ Congested Beltway to Protest Pandemic Restrictions, Plans to Return Monday
An armada of drivers calling themselves the “People’s Convoy” circled the Beltway for more than 4 hours Sunday to protest pandemic restrictions, and it plans to do so again on Monday.
Organizers said their goal is to be a “huge pain.” On Sunday, the disruption they caused was fairly minimal. Though the convoy of hundreds of trucks, cars and SUVs started out in a deliberately slow-moving formation that stretched roughly 30 miles, it became diluted after merging with normal Beltway traffic.
Convoy organizer Brian Brase has repeatedly said the People’s Convoy will not enter the District. Brase has said the group wants an end to the national emergency declaration in response to the coronavirus, first issued by President Donald Trump in March 2020 and later extended by President Biden, and for Congress to hold hearings investigating the government response to the pandemic.
Demonstrators Rally Against Washington State COVID Mandates
Opponents of restrictions intended to curb the spread of COVID-19 rallied at the state Capitol on Saturday, calling on attendees to remain politically active in hopes of electing more conservative lawmakers.
The Washington State Patrol estimated that about 700 people showed up for the demonstration, called “Government Resistance Impedes Tyranny,” The Seattle Times reported. Some local semi-truck drivers and other vehicles participated in a convoy to attend the protest.
Boston’s Indoor Mask Mandate for Businesses Is Lifted
A city order that required people to wear face coverings in indoor public spaces in Boston, including restaurants, shops, museums and entertainment venues, was lifted Saturday.
Boston follows New York, Los Angeles and other major U.S. cities that are relaxing pandemic restrictions as officials push for more normalcy after two grueling years of the pandemic.
Thousands of Canadians Join Coast-to-Coast ‘Freedom Chain’ to Defend Freedom
Canadians in different parts of the country gathered together at various rallies on Mar. 5 to uphold freedom in an event dubbed the “Freedom Chain.”
Participants rendezvoused along the Trans-Canada Highway, which spans 7,476 km, in an effort to reach across the entirety of the country starting from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Chris Vee, who took part in the Freedom Chain in Vancouver, said he was there to fight for Canadians’ freedoms in the face of COVID-19 policies. Melanie, another Vancouver participant who only gave her first name, said she was protesting against the COVID-19 mandates and defending the freedom of all Canadians.
“I care about freedom for all Canadians,” she told The Epoch Times. “In British Columbia,… [the government] has not lifted the mandates for anyone in this province yet, and as an unvaccinated person, it’s really hard for me to find work, to feed my family, and…to live my life.”
Belgium Scraps Almost All COVID Measures as Crisis Eases
Belgium began easing most COVID-19 restrictions Monday in the biggest move to relax measures since the onset of the crisis some two years ago.
Gone are the coronavirus passports that allows entry into bars, restaurants, theater and cinemas as well as capacity limits. Facemasks, long the symbol of the pandemic, will no longer be mandatory except on public transport and in the healthcare sector.
The government announced last week that the nation of 11 million will go from code orange — the second-toughest for virus measures — to code yellow as of Monday.
Netflix, China-Based TikTok Join Google, Apple, Other Companies Cutting Ties With Russia
An increasing number of private companies are severing their ties to Russia as Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine escalates and Western countries impose economic sanctions.
On Sunday, China-based TikTok said it was suspending livestreaming in Russia amid the country’s new “fake news” law that’s aimed at silencing dissent and limiting information about its invasion of Ukraine.
And Netflix announced it was shutting its operations in Russia, making it one of the largest media companies to pull out of the market following the attack on Ukraine.
Alternatives to Facebook: Taking the ‘Big’ Out of ‘Big Tech’
Social media platforms appear to have entered a permanent state of crisis. In what has become a series of legal woes, Meta‘s Facebook has agreed to pay $90 million to settle a privacy lawsuit over user tracking. This comes in the wake of Frances Haugen — a former Facebook employee — shedding light on the platform’s inability to prevent the spread of harmful content at the global level in documents released last fall.
For Big Tech, money talks louder than moral conscience. Mainstream social media companies have little incentive to transform their platforms into ones that would better protect their users if they fear that this will diminish profit. What is more, the spread of harmful content on Twitter and Facebook is not caused by negligence or lack of good will, but by the very infrastructure of these platforms.
What would it look and feel like to engage with friends and family online without the influence of algorithms designed to manipulate us?
The Real Reason Russia Is Blocking Facebook
Russia’s Internet censorship agency announced on Friday that it plans to block access to Facebook throughout the country, joining a small handful of the world’s most repressive regimes in cutting off its citizens from the world’s largest social network. In an Orwellian twist, the agency, called Roskomnadzor, said it made the move to uphold the free flow of information, blaming Facebook for restrictions it has placed on Russian state media outlets in recent days.
Of course, blocking Facebook isn’t really about upholding free speech for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has spent years eroding press and online freedoms and arresting protesters.
But contrary to what Western observers might assume, it also isn’t really about restricting Russians’ access to social media — at least, not directly. It’s an act of intimidation aimed at bringing other social networks to heel.
NYC Kids Under 5 Still Have to Wear Masks in School When Mandate Lifts + More
NYC Kids Under 5 Will Still Have to Wear Masks in School When Mandate Lifts
If Mayor Adams lifts the mask mandate for city public school students and teachers this Monday as expected, kids under 5 who are too young to receive a vaccine will have to keep wearing their face coverings, according to comments Adams made earlier in the week.
When Adams originally announced last Sunday that he would end the city school mask mandate next week barring any unforeseen COVID-19 spikes, he didn’t specify that the change would only apply to kids over 5.
But in an interview the following day with Bloomberg TV, when Adams was asked if kids under 5 would have to keep wearing masks if the school mandate lifted, Adams said “yes, we have to. In daycare, in pre-k, in those areas where children are not vaccinated…we have to still take the precautions that are needed.”
Roughly 96,000 city students are enrolled in the city’s Pre-K and 3-K programs for 3- and 4-year-olds.
Top NYC Officials Call for Student COVID Vaccine Mandate by Next School Year
Just when you thought city vaccine mandate debates were waning.
A powerful pair of elected city officials — Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and City Comptroller Brad Lander — are calling on Mayor Eric Adams to require coronavirus vaccines for city school kids next year.
In a joint statement, Williams and Lander demanded “a requirement for full COVID vaccination for students to return to school next fall, as part of the City’s standard vaccination requirements.”
Adams, along with Gov. Kathy Hochul, have both previously signaled their support for a school vaccine mandate.
Vaccination Proof Repeal Doesn’t Stop Some Businesses From Keeping Tabs
Several cities and counties across the U.S. are beginning to lift local COVID-19 precautions, but not all businesses are ready to follow suit.
Business owners contacted this week by Newsweek said they don’t know exactly when they will be ready to lift proof of vaccination requirements for their customers, largely due to the unpredictable nature of the coronavirus thus far.
While some areas no longer require customers to provide proof that they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to enter indoor businesses, some of those businesses say they intend to keep their own precautions in place a while longer.
The Human Side of Data Science Can No Longer Be an Afterthought
Data science increasingly shapes our world, from the news we read to who is selected for a job interview to how long someone is sentenced to prison.
As the amount of data we collect and analyze grows exponentially, we are beginning to see concerning consequences: algorithms that reinforce social biases, threats to our privacy, the spread of fake news and even the weaponization of disinformation for use in cyberwarfare.
Our approach to data science so far has treated social and ethical concerns as an afterthought. The “move fast and break things” mindset encourages people to tackle technical challenges first and then focus on the human impact and unintended consequences later (if at all).
Los Angeles County to Drop Indoor Mask Order Friday
Los Angeles County residents will no longer be required to wear masks at restaurants, bars, gyms, shops and other businesses starting Friday as community spread of the coronavirus continues to decline, the county’s top health official said.
Data published Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts California’s most populous county in the lowest level of virus transmission.
Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said the milestone means she would issue a revised health order that aligns with new state guidelines unveiled Monday allowing vaccinated or unvaccinated people to choose to go without face coverings.
Business owners can choose to require masks for both customers and employees.
Mask Mandate Over in Vermont’s Largest City
Vermont’s largest city has ended its indoor mask mandate after a drop in COVID-19 cases.
The mandate expired on Thursday.
Last month, the Burlington City Council voted not to renew the masking order. Businesses may choose to keep masking guidance.
State officials announced Thursday that Vermont is lifting its indoor masking guidance, including for schools, as of Mar. 14.
NFL Drops All COVID Restrictions
U.S. News & World Report reported:
The National Football League’s COVID protocols will be lifted immediately under a deal reached between the league and its players’ association.
The agreement makes the NFL one of the first major sports leagues to take such action, CBS News reported.
The NFL said it will no longer mandate testing, mask use, COVID-19 signage, isolation and room capacity limits.
Novak Djokovic Will Likely Be Able to Participate in French Open as France Lifts Vaccine Requirement
With France lifting protocols around COVID-19 vaccine passports, tennis star Novak Djokovic, who is not vaccinated, will now likely be able to compete in the French Open. Starting on Mar. 14, vaccine passports will not be required in France. The French Open, a tournament that Djokovic won in 2021, is scheduled to begin on May 22.
Djokovic has been vocal about his vaccine status, saying he would give up Grand Slam title chances before getting vaccinated. Despite his stance, he says he is not anti-vaccine.
Google Suspends All Ad Sales in Russia as Censorship Demands Grow
Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL.O) Google said on Thursday that it had stopped selling online advertising in Russia, a ban that covers search, YouTube and outside publishing partners.
The move by the world’s top seller of online ads by revenue follows similar pauses in Russia by Twitter Inc. (TWTR.N) and Snap Inc. (SNAP.N) after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Google earlier had banned Russian state-funded media from buying or selling ads through its technology. It also had invoked its sensitive events policy, which bars marketing that seeks to take advantage of the war, with an exception for protest or anti-war ads.
Google Has Been Putin’s Most Compliant U.S. Tech Censor. Will That Change With Ukraine?
The one U.S. tech company that’s partnered more than any other over the last 10 years with Vladimir Putin’s censorship machine is the one that adopted the early slogan “Don’t be evil” — Google and its YouTube unit.
Google has provided substantially more user data to the Russian government and censored far more content than Apple, Facebook, Microsoft or Twitter at the request of Kremlin departments.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week, U.S. tech giants have stopped providing some services to Russians. Apple ceased product sales, Google cut Russians off from advertising revenues, and both removed Russian news outlet RT from their app stores, as did Microsoft.
Supreme Court Says Government Can Use State Secrets Privilege to Block Surveillance Evidence in FISA Case
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday said the federal government could invoke the state secrets privilege to protect evidence it said could harm national security, in a case brought by three Muslim men.
The men are seeking to sue the government for hiring a confidential informant to secretly engage in electronic surveillance and gather information about their community in violation of their religious rights.
While the government invoked the state secrets privilege, a lower court said that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — a law aimed at electronic surveillance — displaced the state secrets privilege. In a 9-0 ruling, the Supreme Court disagreed.
“Although today’s ruling is technical, it’s likely to have ominous implications for the ability of those subjected to unlawful spying by government intelligence agencies to ever challenge that spying in court,” said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law.
After Clearing All Regulatory Hurdles, Microsoft Closes $20 Billion Nuance Deal
When Microsoft announced its intent to buy Nuance Communications last year for $20 billion, it marked a hard move into healthcare for the company. But the deal was not a slam dunk by any means in an increasingly tight regulatory environment. After finally clearing all the regulatory hurdles, however, the company announced today that the deal has closed.
In a video statement CEO Satya Nadella called Nuance a pioneer in enterprise artificial intelligence and said that he is looking forward to seeing what the two companies can accomplish together.
Microsoft and Nuance will move forward with one of the biggest acquisitions in the Nadella era, second only to the $26 billion LinkedIn deal in 2016. It’s worth noting that the company has a $69 billion deal pending to acquire Activision/Blizzard it announced in January, but that deal is still working its way through the approval process.
Microsoft Suspends ‘All New Sales of Products and Services in Russia’
Microsoft President and Vice-Chair Brad Smith announced today via blog post that Microsoft would be suspending “all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia” following the country’s “unjustified, unprovoked and unlawful” invasion of Ukraine. The company didn’t name specific products, but a blanket ban would include Windows and Office software, Surface and Xbox hardware, Azure cloud computing services, and consumer services like OneDrive and Xbox Game Pass.
Microsoft isn’t the first of the big tech companies to formally halt sales in Russia while the country’s invasion of Ukraine continues. Apple halted sales of its products there earlier this week, and Google suspended advertising in Russia yesterday. Multiple tech companies, including Microsoft, have also blocked, demonetized or deprioritized content from Russian state media outlets like RT and Sputnik.
Thousands of Nvidia Employee Passwords Leak Online as Hackers’ Ransom Deadline Looms
The ransomware group that claims to have taken a terabyte of data from chipmaking giant Nvidia is threatening to release the company’s “most closely-guarded secrets” today unless it meets the gang’s increasingly bizarre demands.
The Lapsus$ ransomware group, which first claimed responsibility for the data breach last week, has already started leaking data. According to data breach monitoring website Have I Been Pwned, the hackers stole the credentials of more than 71,000 Nvidia employees.
Several Nvidia email addresses known to TechCrunch all appeared compromised, according to our checks. The data includes email addresses and Windows password hashes, according to HIBP, “many of which were subsequently cracked and circulated within the hacking community.”