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Shaq Rips COVID Vaccine Mandates: ‘You Shouldn’t Be Forced to Take Something You Don’t Want’+ More
Shaq Rips COVID Vaccine Mandates: ‘You Shouldn’t Be Forced to Take Something You Don’t Want’
Shaquille O’Neal opened up about his thoughts on mandated COVID-19 vaccination policies, disagreeing with the notion that people should be forced to get the jab.
O’Neal, the Basketball Hall of Famer who won NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat during his career, encouraged his listeners on “The Big Podcast with Shaq” to “be safe and “take care of your family.” But he disagreed with forcing those people who don’t want it to get it.
O’Neal and his co-hoss Nischelle Turner debated whether it was fair for a private company to dismiss someone who doesn’t receive the COVD-19 vaccine. The former center suggested a worker shouldn’t have to make the decision to get vaccinated if it was “going against (their) morals.”
The Left Is Weaponizing ‘Misinformation’ to Silence Dissent
Just as you thought the 2020s couldn’t get any more dystopian, we are now witnessing the enthusiastic embrace of corporate censorship by the Left in the name of combatting the nebulous scourge of “misinformation.”
Joe Rogan, the most popular podcaster in the English language, has found himself at the center of a firestorm of progressive ire, from scientists to celebrities to rock legends to White House spokespersons acting in their official capacity, all for the crime of allegedly spreading dangerous misinformation and endangering public health.
Labeling skepticism about official narratives “misinformation” is steadily becoming the liberal establishment’s favored tool to silence and defame dissenting perspectives. The term “misinformation” is often employed with such reckless abandon that one need not actually spread malicious falsehoods to be assailed by it. Thus, a comedian like Rogan, who makes no claim to intellectual authority or expertise, is now at the center of this ridiculous controversy.
Ottawa Protests: Tensions Grow as ‘Intolerable’ Truck Blockade Paralyzes Canada Capital
Paul Aubue, a 64-year-old grandfather, travelled from New Brunswick to join hundreds of others as they descended on the Canadian capital. Aubue, the owner of a trucking company, said he’d been driven to protest by a recent requirement that truckers crossing from the U.S. into Canada be vaccinated against COVID.
Most Canadians, even though they’ve grown tired of the pandemic, also say they’re against the sustained protests, which have paralyzed central Ottawa and forced businesses to close.
But as tensions rise between protesters and local officials, analysts say the recent events could signal the birth of a growing populist movement which could potentially reshape Canadian politics.
On Thursday, Justin Trudeau rejected suggestions that the military might be called in to end the protest. “One has to be very, very cautious before deploying military in situations engaging Canadians,” he told reporters, adding that a military response was not on the cards “right now”.
How Many States Still Have Mask Mandates in Place?
As the pandemic continues, many people are likely left wondering: Does my state still have a mask mandate?
While many states have let their mask mandates expire and other have never implemented them, some do still have them in place. Currently, only nine states in the U.S. still require masks to be worn in all indoor public places, according to the AARP. Those states requiring the wearing of masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status are California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington state.
In addition, Washington, D.C., has a mandate requiring that everyone who is older than 2 must wear a mask when inside all public areas. Two other states — Connecticut and Rhode Island — also have mask requirements. Connecticut has an indoor mask mandate but only for those who are unvaccinated.
Republican Officials Say Study on Lockdown Ineffectiveness Validates COVID Approach
A new study out of Johns Hopkins University indicates that lockdown measures during the coronavirus pandemic “have had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality,” and Republican leaders are pointing to it as justification for their approach.
The review looked at 24 studies that qualified for the authors’ analysis, which included those that looked at lockdown stringency, shelter-in-place orders and various forms of “compulsory, non-pharmaceutical intervention.”
“This is what so many people had been talking about for so long. That it does not really have an effect on how well we were able to go through it,” House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told Fox News Thursday.
“But what does it have an effect on, all these shutdowns? How many people missed a cancer screening? The mental health, the suicides for young children. This shutdown is going to have effects for decades to come.”
New Legislation Would Ban IRS From Using Facial Recognition Software on Taxpayers
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would be barred from using facial recognition software on taxpayers under new legislation introduced Friday in Congress. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., authored the bill after learning more about the IRS’ plan to require users of its online tax payment system to provide a selfie to a third-party company in order to access their accounts.
Huizenga raised concerns about the sensitive data being vulnerable to hackers and expressed distrust in the IRS after the agency targeted conservative groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating tax-exempt status.
Huizenga is not alone in his concern. Democrats and privacy advocates alike raised alarms after the IRS announced its facial ID plans with the third-party vendor ID.me that reportedly has a $86 million contract with the IRS.
Kenney to Announce Next Week the Date Alberta Will End Its COVID Vaccine Passport
The Canadian Press via Yahoo!Finance reported:
Premier Jason Kenney says his government will announce next week a date to end Alberta’s COVID-19 vaccine passport, with the actual cancellation coming soon after that.
Kenney said he will also announce next week a phased approach to end almost all COVID-19 health restrictions by the end of the month provided the pressure on hospitals continues to decline.
The passport — known in Alberta as a restriction exemption — mandates anyone using non-essential services such as bars and restaurants show proof of vaccination.
‘Live With the Virus’? For Australians, It’s Taken Some Getting Used To.
Nearly 95% of adults are vaccinated. The coronavirus is now milder. It’s the heart of summer, after a long year and a half of snap lockdowns and closed borders.
Australia, the government says, is ready to “live with the virus,” ready for the authorities to get out of people’s lives and let them make their own health decisions. Hit the pub, enjoy life, spend some money.
But many Australians, it seems, weren’t ready. After Australia’s prime minister declared lockdowns a thing of the past, so many residents of its two biggest cities stayed inside anyway as Omicron spiked that it was labeled a “shadow lockdown.” And even as the country’s borders opened for the first time since March 2020, this travel-loving nation mostly stayed put.
Perhaps more than any other country, Australia in recent weeks has gone through a dizzying U-turn in its approach to the pandemic.
Spain to Scrap Mandatory Outdoor Masks, Other Measures as Contagion Ebbs
Spain will next week lift a requirement for people to wear masks outdoors as a measure against the coronavirus, extending a wider rollback of restrictions as the contagion slowly recedes in the country.
Spain follows several other European countries that have begun to roll back COVID-related restrictions. Outdoor masks are no longer compulsory in France and Italy announced on Wednesday it would release a timetable for a phase-out of restrictions.
Mask wearing outdoors was reinstated in late December to curb the spread of the emergent Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Facebook Feels the Cold Hand of Mortality on Its Shoulder
No wonder Mark Zuckerberg is plotting his escape to the metaverse. On planet earth, Facebook swings seamlessly from one crisis to the next, and this may be its most serious yet.
For the first time in its history, the Silicon Valley titan has experienced a fall in the number of users to its site as TikTok and YouTube become more popular with the younger generation.
On the face of it, that hardly constitutes a disaster. The decline is miniscule in the context of a company with its global reach — just 500,000 fewer daily log-ins, still leaving it with 1.93 billion users. But for an organization that has been able to boast quarter-on-quarter growth for 18 years, it is a pretty seismic event.
Traversing the Healthcare Metaverse — a Look Into the Virtual Healthcare Era
Facebook announced last year that it was committed to putting $10 billion into the virtual world: its metaverse division. And last week, news broke that Microsoft was nearing a $70 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard, the video game publisher of World of Warcraft and other top-selling games.
It’s clear that the metaverse — a new virtual reality sector that reimagines the internet as a 3D experience that users can be a part of — is being hyped by tech titans as the future of the internet, but what does it mean for the future of healthcare?
In what I’m calling the “medaverse,” a new mode of communication in health and the healthcare market will shift how patients interact with providers, receive information and care and buy products and services.
Amazon Hikes Prime Membership Fees in U.S. As Wages, Costs Rise
Amazon.com Inc on Thursday said it was raising the price of its annual U.S. Prime subscriptions by 17%, as it looks to offset higher costs for shipping and wages that it expects to persist this year.
Shares rose as much as 17% in extended trade as Amazon also beat profit expectations for the holiday season. If shares increase on Friday by that much, it would be the stock’s biggest percentage gain since October 2009 and grow founder Jeff Bezos’ wealth by about $20 billion.
For the holiday quarter, Amazon earned $14.3 billion, double its net income from a year earlier. That included a pre-tax gain of $11.8 billion from its stake in electric car maker Rivian Automotive (RIVN.O).
Exclusive: iPhone Flaw Exploited by Second Israeli Spy Firm — Sources
A flaw in Apple‘s software exploited by Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group to break into iPhones in 2021 was simultaneously abused by a competing company, according to five people familiar with the matter.
QuaDream, the sources said, is a smaller and lower profile Israeli firm that also develops smartphone hacking tools intended for government clients.
The two rival businesses gained the same ability last year to remotely break into iPhones, according to the five sources, meaning that both firms could compromise Apple phones without an owner needing to open a malicious link.
That two firms employed the same sophisticated hacking technique — known as a “zero-click” — shows that phones are more vulnerable to powerful digital spying tools than the industry will admit, one expert said.
Mark Zuckerberg Loses $29 Billion Overnight as People Abandon Facebook + More
Mark Zuckerberg Loses $29 Billion Overnight as People Abandon Facebook
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg saw $29 billion wiped from his net worth when his company’s share price collapsed following its latest quarterly report.
Shares of Meta dropped more than 25% in after-hours trading after the company announced lower-than-expected revenue figures, as well as a decline in Facebook users for the first time in its 18-year history.
The number of daily active Facebook users fell by 1 million to 1.929 billion, with the company blaming competition from rivals like TikTok and YouTube.
The poor performance saw the company’s stock market value fall by roughly $200 billion, leading to a drop in Zuckerberg’s fortune, which is mostly tied up in Meta stock. Zuckerberg is ranked as the world’s seventh richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, with his net worth before the collapse estimated at $121 billion.
Replacing Soldiers Discharged for Vaccine Refusal Could Cost Army $200 Million
The U.S. Army has announced that it will soon begin discharging soldiers who have refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine. More than 3,300 service personnel could be affected — and Newsweek has calculated that the cost of replacing them could reach $200 million.
Roughly 97% of active-duty soldiers have received at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine, according to Army figures released last week. However, 3,350 soldiers had refused to get the vaccine as of Jan. 26. Some 3,073 have been issued official reprimands, suggesting they could be among the first to be discharged.
It’s not clear whether the Army will recruit one soldier to replace each service member discharged for refusing the vaccine, but the effort would be a costly one.
Denmark Has Lifted All COVID Restrictions — Why Isn’t America Ready to Follow?
Denmark became the first country in the European Union to lift all of its COVID restrictions on Tuesday. The country used its high vaccination rate to justify the move despite COVID cases in the country reaching their highest level in the pandemic.
People in Denmark are no longer required to wear face masks in indoor spaces. COVID passes for bars and restaurants and the need to self-isolate after a positive test result have also been removed.
The decision has been made as officials in countries, including the U.S., reconsider their approach to controlling COVID in what is the third calendar year of the pandemic. It also comes in the light of data suggesting the Omicron variant is less severe than its predecessors, and as vaccines and treatments have become more widely available.
Truckers Protesting COVID Rules Has GoFundMe Halted After Millions Raised
GoFundMe on Wednesday suspended a fundraising campaign for the “Freedom Convoy” of truckers who have traveled across Canada to protest COVID-19 restrictions.
The “Freedom Convoy 2022” campaign raised more than 10 million Canadian dollars in crowd-sourced donations before GoFundMe flagged the account for review and suspended access to the money on Wednesday.
Wednesday’s action against the fundraiser marks the second time GoFundMe has suspended access to the money that was raised. CTV reported the company froze the campaign’s funds in mid-January when CAD $4.5 million was raised because it sought details on how the funds would be used.
Navy Chaplain Among Sailors Denied Religious Exemption to COVID Vaccine Mandate: ‘Kick in the Gut’
A chaplain in the U.S. Navy Reserve said Wednesday that the military is being used by the Biden administration as a “nice little test group” that “can’t say no” after he said he was denied a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine.
The chaplain, who spoke with Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity, said he faces possible dismissal from the Navy after nearly two decades of service due to his refusal to get a vaccine.
He would miss out on crucial retirement pay and benefits if he’s dismissed before hitting the 20-year mark. “It’s a kick in the gut for sure,” the chaplain said. “If I lose retirement benefits that way, that would be a pretty significant burden to me and my family. At the same time, this is a fight worth fighting. I do not think this is a lawful order.”
‘Havana Syndrome’ Symptoms in Small Group Most Likely Caused by Directed Energy, Says U.S. Intel Panel of Experts
The mysterious and sudden brain injuries suffered by a small group of American diplomats and spies overseas were most likely caused by pulsed electromagnetic energy delivered by an external device, a panel of scientific experts working for U.S. intelligence agencies has concluded.
The panel’s findings, while full of caveats, are consistent with what has been a longstanding hypothesis by intelligence officials — that a foreign adversary, most likely Russia, is responsible for at least some of the symptoms suffered by those who have fallen victim to what is commonly known as Havana Syndrome.
The CIA assessment, issued last month, also ruled out what it called a sustained global campaign by a hostile foreign power to injure Americans. But it found two dozen cases in which it could not rule out a hostile cause, and those appear to be the cases the expert panel focused on.
Many of those people are part of the original group of diplomats and spies who first exhibited symptoms in 2016 at the U.S. Embassy in Havana.
Canadian Protesters Say No ‘Hatred’ or Violence Here, They’ll Be Reported to Police: ‘All on Same Page’
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other liberal Canadian leaders have slammed the trucking “Freedom Convoy” as spreading “hateful rhetoric” and expressing “violence toward fellow citizens.” But protesters on the ground say that’s not the case at all.
“The truckers and supporters here have made an effort to say that we will call out any violence or hatred that we’re seeing, and we’ll report it to the police,” one woman protesting in Ottawa, who has been in the capital since Friday, told Fox News Digital. “So we’re all on the same page here. We don’t want to see any violence. They didn’t drive all this way to promote any violence or hate. They’ve come here to make a very peaceful statement that we would like to stop mandates and we’re supporting free choice.”
Austria’s Upper House Backs COVID Vaccine Mandate
Austria’s upper house of parliament on Thursday passed a bill to make coronavirus vaccines compulsory for adults, bringing the European Union’s first such sweeping vaccine mandate a step closer.
The mandate, which is expected to be carried out in phases, is likely to come into force within days but there will be no checks until Mar. 15, when police will start verifying the vaccination status of people they stop in their regular patrols. More thorough checks will begin at a later, unspecified date in a third phase once a vaccination register is up and running.
France’s COVID Vaccine Pass to Stay Until ICUs Are ‘Emptied’, Says Health Minister
France’s vaccine pass will remain in place until hospitals are able to function normally without cancelling non-emergency procedures to make room for COVID patients in intensive care, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Wednesday.
The government says the vaccine pass helps curb the spread of the coronavirus and has spurred more people to get the COVID shot, alleviating pressure on hospitals. Critics say it impinges on civil liberties and some have taken to the streets in protest.
EU Proposes to Extend COVID Certificates by 1 Year
The European Commission proposed Thursday to extend by a year the use of COVID certificates aimed at facilitating travel across the 27-nation bloc during the pandemic, until the end of June 2023.
Despite the announcement by the director of the World Health Organization’s Europe office that Europe is now entering a “plausible endgame” to the pandemic, the EU said the virus is still very prevalent on the continent.
To come into effect, the extension proposal must be accepted by EU members and the European Parliament.
DeepMind’s New AI Can Write Code That’s Better Than Yours
Artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepMind has developed a new coding engine capable of outperforming many human developers, called AlphaCode.
As explained in a paper published by the firm, AlphaCode is able to write computer programs at a “competitive level”, ranking among the top 54% of humans in a competition setting.
Acquired by Google in 2014, DeepMind has long been at the forefront of artificial intelligence development. Most famously, the company developed AlphaGo, which became the first ever computer program to defeat a human player at the ancient Chinese game of Go.
Apple Privacy Changes Hammer Social Media Stocks Beyond Meta
Shares of Facebook parent company Meta (FB) sank to a 52-week low on Thursday, following a disappointing Q4 earnings report and news that the social networking giant is struggling to contain the damage from Apple’s (AAPL) iOS privacy changes called App Tracking Transparency (ATT).
But the damage wasn’t just contained to Meta. The blast radius from revelations that Apple’s ATT will take a $10 billion bite out of Meta’s revenue enveloped the social network’s peers as well — shares of Twitter (TWTR), Snap (SNAP) and Pinterest (PINS) fell in early trading.
Snap in particular took a beating, dropping nearly 20% to $25.44 a share after the open Thursday. Twitter was down more than 7% to $33.86, while Pinterest fell 8% to $25.10.
U.S. Moving — Some Say Too Slowly — to Address TikTok Security Risk
The Biden administration is moving to revise federal rules to address potential security risks from TikTok and other foreign-owned apps, eight months after opting not to pursue a forced shutdown of the Chinese-owned video-sharing platform.
The Commerce Department recently concluded a public-comment period on the proposed rule change, which would expand federal oversight to explicitly include apps that could be used by “foreign adversaries to steal or otherwise obtain data,” according to a filing in the Federal Register.
The U.S. military has already banned its members from using the app on government-issued devices. Some lawmakers including Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) say the White House is moving too slowly to come up with a comprehensive plan.
U.S. Truckers Slam Facebook for Removing Page Organizing DC Freedom Convoy: ‘Censorship at Its Finest’ + More
U.S. Truckers Slam Facebook for Removing Page Organizing DC Freedom Convoy: ‘Censorship at Its Finest’
American truckers are following Canada’s lead and organizing a protest against vaccine mandates. The U.S. group’s Facebook page, however, was removed early Wednesday in a move that the organizer called “censorship at its finest.”
The group, titled “Convoy to DC 2022,” acted as a place for truckers to plan and coordinate their trek from California to Washington, DC.
Jeremy Johnson, who set up the Facebook group, said his personal account was also removed, prompting him to contact a civil rights attorney to discuss the next steps. “They like to silence people that speak the truth,” Johnson said of his Facebook ban.
The group’s goal is to end vaccine mandates through peaceful protests. “The government needs to really take a look at what the American people want,” Johnson said. “And they don’t want mandates.”
U.S. Army Starts Kicking out COVID Vaccine Refusers After Over 3,000 Soldiers Got in Trouble for Not Getting the Shots
The U.S. Army will begin separating soldiers who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine in accordance with a new directive announced by Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth on Wednesday.
The order to commanders to begin involuntary separation of unvaccinated soldiers applies to all regular Army soldiers, as well as cadets and active-duty reservists, who do not have an accepted or pending exemption request, according to an Army statement.
The Army has already issued 3,073 general officer written reprimands for vaccine refusers and relieved six Army leaders of command, including two battalion commanders; however, no soldier had been discharged from the Army for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine as of Jan. 26.
North Carolina Man Would Rather Die Than Take COVID Vaccine for Transplant
A Burke County man will not get the COVID-19 vaccine even if it means he will die, because it’s a requirement to get a kidney transplant he desperately needs.
Chad Carswell, a U.S. Air Force veteran, is afflicted with multiple health conditions and is a double-amputee. He says his kidneys are functioning at about 4%, making his need for a transplant dire.
He went through the process at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem in an effort to get a transplant, but stopped in his tracks when he was told a COVID-19 vaccine was a requirement to get an organ transplant.
He says he supports the choice of getting the vaccine, but not any mandate to do so.
Lockdowns Only Reduced COVID Mortality by .2%, Study Finds: ‘Lockdowns Should Be Rejected out of Hand’
Lockdowns during the first COVID-19 wave in the spring of 2020 only reduced COVID-19 mortality by .2% in the U.S. and Europe, according to a Johns Hopkins University meta-analysis of several studies.
“While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted,” the researchers wrote. “In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”
The researchers — Johns Hopkins University economics professor Steve Hanke, Lund University economics professor Lars Jonung, and special advisor at Copenhagen’s Center for Political Studies Jonas Herby — analyzed the effects of lockdown measures such as school shutdowns, business closures, and mask mandates on COVID-19 deaths.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb Says It’s Time to Consider Dumping School COVID Mask Mandates
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should adjust its COVID-masking guidance to account for high-immunity protection in America, specifically when it comes to schools, Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Wednesday.
“We’re going to probably have to tolerate, and probably should, a higher level of baseline spread at the point at which we consider withdrawing some of this mitigation,” said Gottlieb, a current board member at COVID vaccine maker Pfizer, which has recently requested that the FDA clear two-dose vaccinations for children 6 months to 5 years old.
Gottlieb said the U.S. shouldn’t wait until what the CDC considers low prevalence in a community — less than 10 cases per 100,000 people per day — to end masking students, teachers, staff and school visitors.
Nearly 4K Unvaccinated NYC Workers Face Firing Next Week Amid Slowdown in COVID Shots
Mayor Adams to city workers: Get vaccinated or get lost.
The Adams administration has alerted nearly 4,000 unvaccinated municipal employees — including cops and firefighters — that they will lose their jobs if they do not get their coronavirus shots by the end of next week.
Adams’ shot across the bow came in letters issued to the affected workers this week informing them that they have until Feb. 11 to get inoculated.
It was not clear which agencies the 4,000 targeted employees work for.
Panel OKs COVID Vaccine Mandate for Philly Police Officers
Philadelphia police officers will now need to have at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, or have submitted an exemption request, by Feb. 11.
A three-person panel comprised of a neutral lawyer, a city lawyer and a lawyer for the Philadelphia Police Department’s union on Tuesday approved the vaccine mandate following a legally required arbitration process. The arbiters’ decision represents a win for the city, which announced the mandate for all city workers in November of last year.
As well as providing proof of at least one dose of vaccine by Feb. 11, police officers will have to get their second shot within 14 days. The ruling does not apply to booster shots, which are not part of the city’s mandate.
Sheriff Lifts Vaccine Mandate for New Las Vegas Police Employees
Las Vegas Review-Journal reported:
Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo has rescinded a mandate requiring new Metropolitan Police Department hires to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
In a Tuesday interview, Lombardo said he continues to encourage officers and other employees to get the vaccine. But with a recent dip in positive cases at the department, he lifted the vaccine mandate for new hires about a week ago.
Oahu Opens New COVID Isolation, Quarantine Facility
Officials on Hawaii’s most populous island of Oahu have opened a new facility for COVID-19 patients who need a place to isolate or quarantine.
The facility is the second of its kind on the island and will start with 26 units that can expand to 50, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Tuesday.
The first facility has 30 isolation units with 56 beds. That facility has been nearly full in recent weeks as the state has dealt with a record wave of Omicron cases.
WHO Warns Nations About Lifting COVID Restrictions
The director general of the World Health Organization warned countries against lifting their COVID-19 restrictions, saying “this virus is dangerous, and it continues to evolve before our very eyes.”
The WHO director general said he did not believe that nations needed to return to lockdowns to curb further spread of the COVID-19 pandemic amid the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, but he said that nations could not rely on vaccination alone to solve the pandemic.
Why the Prospect of the IRS Using Facial Recognition Is so Alarming
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is planning to require citizens to create accounts with a private facial recognition company in order to file taxes online. The IRS is joining a growing number of federal and state agencies that have contracted with ID.me to authenticate the identities of people accessing services.
The IRS decision has prompted a backlash, in part over concerns about requiring citizens to use facial recognition technology and in part over difficulties some people have had in using the system, particularly with some state agencies that provide unemployment benefits. The reaction has prompted the IRS to revisit its decision.
As a computer science researcher and the chair of the Global Technology Policy Council of the Association for Computing Machinery, I have been involved in exploring some of the issues with government use of facial recognition technology, both its use and its potential flaws.
Facebook Changed Its Name to Declare Itself a Metaverse Pioneer — but It’s Years Late to the Party
What currently exists in the metaverse realm isn’t much.
Take Decentraland, which launched in 2017 as one of the earliest movers in the metaverse. Many have compared it to Second Life, a 2000s-era virtual game that has been referenced as an early iteration of the pre-Zuckerberg, hyped-up metaverse.
What exists may be somewhat barren and awkward, but early entrants to the space want to be clear: Facebook, now known as Meta in an effort to declare itself a metaverse pioneer, was absent until now.
Google’s Found a New Way to Track Workspace Users
Heads up for all the Google Workspace users out there: starting at the end of next month, you’re going to need to take a few extra steps to delete your data off the platform.
Historically, Google users have been been able to tweak the ways the tech giant tracks them across the web using their “Web & Activity Settings,” which lets any Googler — on Workspace or otherwise — turn off the company’s ability to track their activity across different sites and services, their location, and more. Workspace admins were also able to automatically flip on and off activity tracking for the users in their organization.
That’s all changing on Mar. 29, according to a new FAQ posted on Google’s Workplace administrator forum. At the end of that month, the company will be adding a new feature — “Workspace search history” — that can continue to track these customers, even if they, or their admins, turn activity tracking off.
Navy Should Be Held in Contempt for Violating Court Order on COVID Vaccine Exemptions + More
Navy Should Be Held in Contempt for Violating Court Order on COVID Vaccine Exemptions: Complaint
The U.S. Navy is violating a court order by allegedly blocking treatment for a traumatic brain injury and inflicting other forms of punishment on SEALs who requested religious exemptions to the coronavirus vaccine, according to a new legal complaint.
On Jan. 3, a federal court in Texas granted a temporary injunction against the Navy’s vaccine mandate after multiple SEALs sued President Biden. Judge Reed O’Connor, in issuing the order, argued that “[t]here is no COVID-19 exception to the First Amendment” and “[t]here is no military exclusion from our Constitution.”
But First Liberty, a religious liberty law firm, alleges in Monday’s filing that multiple SEALs continue to encounter a variety of roadblocks due to their unvaccinated status.
New Orleans Mayor, Health Department Sued Over COVID Vaccine Mandates
More than 100 plaintiffs who live and work in the New Orleans area are suing Mayor LaToya Cantrell and the city’s health department over its COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates.
The city last month announced that by Feb. 1, all individuals ages 5 and older would have to show proof of at least two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine or a negative PCR or antigen test to enter certain businesses, though a vaccine mandate went into effect for adults on Jan. 3. Additionally, all individuals 2 years old and older must wear masks indoors.
The complaint filed by Rodrigue & Arcuri and attorney Jimmy Faircloth of Faircloth, Melton, Sobel & Bash LLC, on behalf of more than 100 plaintiffs — and counting — accuses the mayor and the health department, including New Orleans Health Director Jennifer Avengno, of causing “social, economic and cultural harm” through ‘authoritarian actions under the pretext of an emergency without end.”
Mandate to Vaccinate New Orleans Schoolchildren Kicking In
As school systems across the U.S. struggle to keep classrooms open amid the pandemic, New Orleans is set to become the nation’s first major district to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for children 5 and up, though state regulations will allow parents to opt-out easily.
Ahead of Tuesday’s deadline, many schools in the city have been holding vaccination events, including one at KIPP Believe school. One by one, dozens of children presented their signed permission slips, pushed up the sleeves of their pale yellow school uniform shirts and — often wincing, but rarely with tears — received a shot. Then they got candy.
Waivers for those opposed to vaccination are easy to obtain under state regulations, and schools will work with students who aren’t inoculated, he said. But eventually everyone will have to be vaccinated or have a waiver.
Austin to Governors: Guard Troops Must Get COVID Vaccine
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in letters to seven governors, is reaffirming the need for members of their states’ Army and Air National Guards to get the mandatory COVID-19 vaccine or lose their Guard status.
The letters, which have not been publicly released, come as the military services begin to ramp up the number of active-duty troops being discharged for refusing the vaccine. Nearly 600 Marines, airmen and sailors have been thrown out of the military or dismissed from entry-level training at boot camps as of last week.
Two of the letters — to Alaska and Texas state leaders — note that they have an ongoing lawsuit over the vaccine and that, Austin said, limited his abililty to comment further on their concerns. Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska filed lawsuits challenging the military’s vaccine mandate, but a federal judge has already rejected the Oklahoma challenge.
Joe Rogan Pushes Back on Spotify, Citing Newsweek Coverage of Wuhan Lab
Joe Rogan responded to claims that his Spotify podcast promoted COVID-19 misinformation by saying that theories change over time. As an example of how something that was considered misinformation “a short while ago is now accepted as fact,” he cited Newsweek’s coverage of the theory that the coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China.
On April 23, 2020, Newsweek published an article reporting that the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency updated its assessment of the origin of COVID to reflect that it may have been accidentally released from an infectious diseases lab.
There were several articles published during that period by Newsweek on the theory, including one from May 2020 reporting on a study that argued scientists should not rule out the possibility that the virus was made in a laboratory.
Elites Are Smearing Truckers Because We’re Doing Their Job Representing the People
Forty-eight hours after an impromptu rave party erupted at the biggest truckers’ protest the world has ever seen, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed me and my fellow Road Warriors from a secret location he had been spirited away to, out of a fear that our peaceful protest against vaccine mandates would turn into Canada’s Jan. 6.
Like the hysteria that preceded Trudeau’s flight, his comments were pure propaganda; Ottawa Police reported no incidents and not a single arrest — at a protest topping 100,000 souls; indeed, the mood was absolutely festive. The peaceful protest included flags and signs in both of Canada’s official languages and with more than a few four-letter words.
Two Virginia Universities No Longer Requiring COVID Vaccinations After AG’s Legal Opinion
George Mason and Virginia Tech universities will no longer mandate COVID-19 vaccinations following a legal opinion last week from the state’s attorney general.
The announcements from the universities followed a legal opinion from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R), saying public colleges and universities in the state cannot require the vaccine.
The Mainstream Media Is Attacking Joe Rogan Instead of Admitting Its Own Failures
Podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan is back in the media’s crosshairs. A few days ago, rock legend Neil Young issued an ultimatum to Spotify: The music platform could carry his music or they could carry The Joe Rogan Experience podcast but not both.
Mainstream media pundits claim that Rogan has spread falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccine by having prominent vaccine skeptics such as Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Peter McCullough on his podcast. They conveniently ignore the fact that Rogan has platformed a range of perspectives on the COVID vaccine; for example, he had vaccine enthusiast Sanjay Gupta on as well.
Indeed, the move to smear Rogan for peddling “misinformation” is less about the truth than it is about a deeply unpopular mainstream media elite refusing to acknowledge its own failures, and how it lost its credibility with the American people.
South Africa Says People Who Test Positive for COVID but Have No Symptoms No Longer Need to Isolate
People who test positive for COVID-19 in South Africa but have no symptoms will no longer have to self-isolate, the government announced Monday. The change came after daily COVID-19 cases dropped in the country, one of the first to see a surge in cases driven by the Omicron variant late last year.
Isolation periods were also cut for people who do have symptoms after testing positives, from 10 days to 7, per the office of President Cyril Ramaphosa. The new rules also end compulsory isolation for contacts of those who test positive.
The president’s office said 60% to 80% of people had anti-coronavirus antibodies when tested, a level it said had “risen substantially.” The immunity appears mainly driven by people getting sick. Only 27% of the population received two doses of a vaccine, compared to 63% in the U.S. and 73% in the UK, per Our World in Data.
Austria’s COVID Vaccine Law Comes Into Force Amid Resistance
A new law comes into force in Austria this week that makes vaccination against COVID-19 compulsory for anyone over 18. Several countries have introduced mandates for the elderly or medical staff, but this is the first nation in Europe to adopt such sweeping measures.
LOu Moser, a ceramic artist who lives south of Vienna, is not vaccinated against COVID-19 and neither is her husband, Gus. They strongly disagree with Austria’s new vaccine mandate.
Vaccination, she says, should be a personal choice. “I’ve had COVID-19. And so I actually don’t see the point of being jabbed when I’ve got sufficient antibodies,” LOu tells me.
Karoline Edtstadler, minister for the EU and Constitution, says the government is “very aware that it is really a strong step and really hard measure.” But, she says, it is necessary. The vaccine mandate, she says, will expire in January 2024, and could be ended earlier if the pandemic allows. The law comes into force on Feb. 3, but the authorities will not start checking people’s vaccination status until mid-March.
The Unnerving Rise of Video Games that Spy on You
Tech conglomerate Tencent caused a stir last year with the announcement that it would comply with China’s directive to incorporate facial recognition technology into its games in the country.
The state’s use of biometric data to police its population is, of course, invasive, and especially undermines the privacy of underage users — but Tencent is not the only video game company to track its players, nor is this recent case an altogether new phenomenon.
All over the world, video games, one of the most widely adopted digital media forms, are installing networks of surveillance and control.
NSO Offered ‘Bags of Cash’ for Access to U.S. Cell Networks, Whistleblower Claims
The surveillance company NSO Group offered to give representatives of an American mobile-security firm “bags of cash” in exchange for access to global cellular networks, according to a whistleblower who has described the encounter in confidential disclosures to the Justice Department that have been reviewed by The Washington Post.
Surveillance companies try to access cellular communication networks to geolocate targets and provide other spying services. Cellular companies seek to prevent such intrusions by restricting access to the SS7 network and using firewalls to block computer queries that seek personal information on their customers.