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Cashless Society: Big Banks Prepare to Launch Digital Wallet to Compete With Apple Pay and PayPal
Major U.S. banks, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan and others, will push into the digital wallet space in the second half of this year to take on Apple Pay and PayPal.
Early Warning Services LLC (EWS), the bank-owned company that operates the money-transfer service Zelle, will be managing the new digital wallet, according to WSJ. The wallet has yet to be named but will be separate from Zelle and allow shoppers to pay at merchants’ online checkouts with linked debit and credit cards.
The move towards electronic and contactless payments has been gradual but could soon be thrown into hyperdrive if enough consumers adopt EWS’ new wallet. It was during the coronavirus pandemic that the government, Federal Reserve and corporations urged people to avoid unnecessary physical transactions that increased the push toward a cashless society.
The dystopic view is that a cashless society could mean governments and corporations will have even more control over our wallets — and that’s frightening.
Supreme Court Puts off Considering State Laws Curbing Internet Platforms
The Supreme Court asked the Biden administration on Monday for its views on whether the Constitution allows Florida and Texas to prevent large social media companies from removing posts based on the views they express.
The practical effect of the move was to put off a decision on whether to hear two major First Amendment challenges to the states’ laws for at least several months. If the court ends up granting review, as seems likely, it will hear arguments no earlier than October and will probably not issue a decision until next year.
The laws were challenged by two trade groups, NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which said the First Amendment prohibits the government from telling private companies whether and how to disseminate speech.
The Texas law differs in its details, Judge Andrew S. Oldham wrote in a decision upholding it. “To generalize just a bit,” he wrote, the Florida law “prohibits all censorship of some speakers,” while the Texas law “prohibits some censorship of all speakers” when based on the views they express.
Microsoft Investing Billions in ChatGPT Maker
Microsoft is investing billions of dollars into OpenAI, the company behind the popular ChatGPT language generation tool, as part of a third phase of a partnership between the two tech companies, Microsoft announced Monday.
Microsoft did not detail the exact amount it is investing in OpenAI with the latest phase, describing it as a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment.” Semafor previously reported the company was in talks to invest $10 billion into the artificial intelligence company.
The investment adds to the ones Microsoft made in OpenAI in 2019 and 2021 and extends the partnership between the companies as ChatGPT becomes increasingly popular.
End the Persecution of Unvaccinated New Yorkers, Like Me
You wouldn’t know it from the lack of headlines, but COVID vaccine mandates were struck down in court again last week, this time for New York state health workers. The common-sense decision was based on the well-established fact that the vaccines don’t stop infection or transmission. But does anyone even care about facts, here in the land of COVID-emergency-forever?
Unlike almost anywhere else in the country, unvaccinated parents here are still denied entry to their children’s public schools, and unvaccinated 2020 heroes are still fired, prohibited from working as educators, healthcare workers, firefighters or any of the other essential jobs they fulfilled during the height of the pandemic.
This scandalous injustice persists despite a state-court ruling in October that also declared the city’s vaccine mandates arbitrary and capricious. The ruling cited CDC guidelines and the state Constitution, which says: “No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws of this state or any subdivision thereof.” Mayor Eric Adams filed an appeal the very next day.
As an unvaccinated New Yorker, I experienced the consequences of this groupthink firsthand. For months I was barred from cafes, theaters and museums with my children. Most painfully, I was kept from my daughter’s school spring concert and made to stand outside in the schoolyard and watch through an open back door.
GOP Rep. Andy Biggs Reintroduces Multiple Bills to ‘Address COVID Overreach’
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) reintroduced multiple bills to “address COVID overreach on Americans.” Biggs shared an update in a press release on Monday.
“Now with a Republican majority in the House, we have a better opportunity to pass legislation that reverses COVID vaccine and mask mandate policies set by fanatics who seek to maintain control over Americans,” Biggs said.
“These power-hungry individuals are rejecting science. COVID cases and deaths remain low. Normal life has returned,” he added. “Most importantly, individuals should be making their own COVID and healthcare choices — not tyrannical government officials. All types of COVID-related mandates have got to go and these pieces of legislation help us get there.”
VP Harris Required People to Sign ‘Attestation of Vaccination’ Paper to Attend Her Florida Speech: Reports
Vice President Kamala Harris required all attendees of her event on Sunday in Tallahassee, Florida to sign a form confirming whether they have been vaccinated or not, according to reports.
The form was titled, “Attestation of Vaccination,” and it required guests to indicate whether they are unvaccinated, partially vaccinated or vaccinated.
Those who declined to indicate either were required to provide proof that they completed a COVID-19 test within three days of the event and received a negative result, wear a mask and socially distance themselves from others.
Navajo Nation Rescinds Mask Mandate on Vast Reservation
The Navajo Nation has rescinded a mask mandate that’s been in effect since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, officials announced Friday, fulfilling a pledge that new tribal President Buu Nygren made while campaigning for the office.
The mandate was one of the longest-standing anywhere in the U.S. and applied broadly to businesses, government offices and tourist destinations on the vast reservation, which extends into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. The tribe at one point had one of the highest coronavirus infection rates in the country and among the strictest measures to help prevent the spread of the virus.
Nygren and Navajo Nation Council Delegate Otto Tso, who temporarily is overseeing the tribe’s legislative branch, jointly announced the lifting of the mask mandate on social media Friday evening.
‘Ready, Willing and Able’: COVID Vaccine Policies at Ontario Hospitals Are Keeping Some Health Workers From Filling Dire Staff Shortages
About 160 veteran nurses, personal support workers and healthcare technicians, along with their families, gathered in a church hall in Port Perry, Ont., in person or by video conference, on a snowy afternoon this past Saturday.
These distressed individuals have a message for patients waiting for healthcare in the province: we want to work on the front lines but are being shut out. “I am ready, willing and able to work,” Lori Turnbull told CTV National News. But nobody will hire her.
All of the health workers in this unusual audience were terminated after declining to get two COVID-19 vaccinations in 2021, as required by all 140 of Ontario’s public hospitals and some nursing and retirement homes.
Despite Ontario dropping its health sector mandate in March, the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) continues to recommend the continuation of mandatory vaccination policies among the province’s 140 public hospitals.
Rentokil Pilots Facial Recognition System as Way to Exterminate Rats
The world’s largest pest control group is piloting the use of facial recognition software as a way to exterminate rats in people’s homes.
Rentokil said it had been developing the technology alongside Vodafone for 18 months.
The surveillance technology, which is already being tested in real homes, tracks the rodents’ habits and streams real-time analysis using artificial intelligence.
In developing the technology, Rentokil watched rats in a controlled environment, with cameras monitoring their behavior patterns. Machine learning using an AI system allows it to build recognition capabilities.
