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Homeland Security ‘Pauses’ Disinformation Board Three Weeks After Creating It
The Biden administration may be struggling in its efforts to fight security-related misinformation. The Washington Post sources claim the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has “paused” a Disinformation Governance Board just three weeks after its April 27 announcement.
Officials reportedly decided to shut down the board on May 16, but that decision appears to be on hold after a last-minute effort to retain board leader Nina Jankowicz. She resigned from the board and the DHS today (May 18).
There is a chance the board could survive depending on a Homeland Security Advisory Council review. If the reports are true, though, the U.S. government may have to rethink its anti-disinformation efforts if they’re going to survive both criticism and internal scrutiny.
Nationals Fired Scout for Refusing COVID Vaccine. He’s Now Selling Cars — and Suing
Benny Gallo’s baseball career is dead, at least for now, because the Washington Nationals told him to get a COVID vaccine and fired him when he did not.
He could have gotten the shot, if for no other reason than to save his job as a scout. Instead, he is suing the Nationals. “I’m drawing the line on this,” Gallo said. “In the long run, I know I’m right.”
In 2021, the Nationals mandated employee vaccinations, citing the need “to safeguard the health of our employees and their families, our customers and visitors, and the community at large.” The Nationals said they would work toward “reasonable accommodation” for employees who cited religious or medical reasons for declining the vaccine.
Gallo cited both. In his lawsuit, which discusses his convictions “as a devout Christian regarding the sanctity of his physical body” and his control over what goes into it, a footnote cites three passages from the Bible, in support of what the team had said would need to be a “sincerely held religious belief.”
2 More Bills Targeting COVID Rules Head to Ducey’s Desk
Two more bills restricting responses to the coronavirus pandemic are heading to Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s desk, including one that would impact the ability of future state leaders to respond to another airborne-spreading disease and a second blocking the state from ever requiring schoolchildren to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Tuesday’s state Senate votes were the latest moves by GOP lawmakers to limit what they have called government overreach.
The Republican-controlled Senate approved a bill that would ban any state or local government agency from requiring facemasks to be worn in their buildings. The measure already passed the House and got no support in either chamber from minority Democrats. They have argued it removes one of the most effective measures to prevent the spread of a respiratory disease like COVID-19.
Senators also approved a bill barring the state Health Services Department from adding a COVID-19 vaccine to the list of inoculations required to attend public schools. It replaces a measure passed last year that only banned mandates for vaccines given federal emergency use authorizations. That measure too is heading to the governor’s desk and got no support from minority Democrats.
We Desperately Need More Accountability From NIH
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has received more scrutiny of its activities over the past two years than perhaps ever before. Yet its leadership consistently fails or refuses to answer the call for transparency.
This time, NIH leadership is fighting to keep secret hundreds of millions of dollars in private royalty payments pocketed by the agency and its bench of scientists. Americans deserve some sunlight on what appears to be a potentially enormous conflict of interest.
The NIH distributes roughly $32 billion in research grants to 56,000 recipients in the medical community each year. Those taxpayer dollars lend quite a bit of clout. But there’s money traveling in the other direction, too, when NIH-backed work is utilized by private companies.
We know precious little about it, but over just five sample years, it amounted to a whopping $134 million, spread over 22,000 payments to nearly 1,700 scientists. Each and everyone is a potential conflict of interest.
Santa Fe County Deputies Union Wins Labor Case on Vaccine Mandate
Santa Fe New Mexican reported:
Santa Fe County erred in disciplining sheriff’s deputies who failed to comply with a vaccine mandate, an arbitrator with the New Mexico Public Employees Labor Relations Board decided in March.
Thomas Griego, a hearing officer with the board, recommended the county rescind “any and all discipline” issued against members of the Santa Fe County Deputy Sheriff’s Association over their refusal to comply with a COVID-19 vaccination policy until mediation can occur.
He found the county implemented disciplinary actions, including termination of deputies after the union had declared an impasse in negotiations.
The result could be the reinstatement of at least three deputies who were union members.
Apple Reinstates Mask Mandate for Employees at 100 Stores: Report
Apple Inc. has reinstated its mask requirement for employees at roughly 100 stores and pushed back plans for corporate employees to return to the office three days a week over COVID-19 concerns, according to a new report.
Apple’s purported delay in requiring corporate employees to return to the office comes two weeks after roughly 200 of the company’s 165,000 employees released an open letter to the tech giant‘s executive team pushing back against the plan for a hybrid work model.
Younger Children Most Affected by COVID Lockdowns, New Research Finds
The youngest children have been most affected by lockdowns and closures during the COVID pandemic, with new research finding that the educational progress and social development of four- and five-year-olds suffered severely during their first year at school.
Aggressive behavior such as biting and hitting, feelings of struggling in class or being overwhelmed around large groups of children were among the difficulties reported by teachers during interviews.
The research — published by the Education Endowment Foundation — found parents and teachers concerned that children in England were struggling with their emotional well-being as well as their ability to learn language and numeracy skills, after starting in reception classes after the earlier spring lockdown.
China’s Censors Aim to Contain Dissent During Harsh COVID Lockdowns
Top doctors have been among those silenced for urging a shift away from China’s draconian pandemic control strategy.
As Shanghai enters its seventh week of COVID-19 lockdowns, China’s censors have been hard at work trying to contain an eruption of public outrage and enforce the leadership’s prohibition of any public debate or calls to reconsider its strategy.
Medical professionals remain a key target for censors, as they have been since the inception of the pandemic. Indeed, the suppression of health experts’ speech in late 2019 and early 2020 may have denied the country and the world an opportunity to control the virus. Yet the practice continues.
China’s Protracted Lockdowns Cause Critical Shortages in West
Hospitals in the United States are on high alert, with some doctors prioritizing patients in critical condition as the prolonged lockdown in China’s Shanghai has caused a global shortage of chemicals used in medical imaging.
Some of the largest U.S. hospitals said earlier this month they were facing significant shortages of iodinated contrast media products, which are dyes given to patients so that their internal organs and vessels can be picked up by CT scans, X-rays, and radiography.
The dwindling supply was due to the temporary closure of the production facility of General Electric’s healthcare unit in Shanghai, a trade hub that has been locked down for nearly two months. Though the factory has been allowed to resume operation gradually, the Greater New York Hospital Association warned that an 80% reduction in supply might last through the end of June, according to a May 5 statement.
ESG Scores Similar to China’s Social Credit System, Designed to Transform Society, Think Tank Director Says
Major financial institutions and global organizations are using a corporate scoring system to create a type of social credit system designed to influence behavior and transform society, according to a director at a conservative think tank.
Environmental, social and governance, or ESG, scores effectively grade social responsibility for entities ranging from corporations to governments. Factors like reliance on renewable energy sources or the strength of diversity policies can influence ESG scores.
Justin Haskins, director of the Socialism Research Center and editorial director at the Heartland Institute, compared ESG scores to a social credit system being developed in China. The Chinese Communist Party announced a moral ranking system in 2014 that monitors individuals, government organizations and companies and ranks them based on their social credit, according to the South China Morning Post.
“I don’t believe that ESG scores are really being used for the reason that they say they are,” Haskins told Fox News. “I think it’s mostly about controlling society … and about pushing a left-wing agenda.”
An EU Law Could Let U.S. Prosecutors Scan Phones for Abortion Texts
Last week the EU unveiled draft regulations that would effectively ban end-to-end encryption and force internet firms to scan for abusive materials. Regulators would not only require the makers of chat apps to scan every message for child sexual abuse material (CSAM), a controversial practice that firms like Meta already do with Facebook Messenger, but they would also require platforms to scan every sentence of every message to look for illegal activity.
Such rules would impact anyone using a chat app company that does business within the EU. Virtually every American user would be subject to these scans.
Regulators, companies, and even stalwart surveillance opponents on both sides of the Atlantic have framed CSAM as a unique threat. And while many of us might sign up for a future in which algorithms magically detect harm to children, even the EU admits that scanning would require “human oversight and review.”
The EU fails to address the mathematical reality of encryption: If we allow a surveillance tool to target one set of content, it can easily be aimed at another. This is how such algorithms can be trained to target religious content, political messages or information about abortion. It’s the exact same technology.
‘Make Twitter Show Their Work’: How Elon Musk Can Ensure Twitter Protects Free Speech
Last month, Elon Musk shocked the world by suddenly becoming Twitter’s largest shareholder — then announcing that he had reached a $44 billion deal to purchase the social media platform in its entirety.
Musk — who also serves as CEO of Tesla and SpaceX — has promised to “make significant improvements to Twitter” and has polled his followers on whether Twitter “rigorously adheres” to the principles of free speech.
In interviews with The Daily Wire, several free speech experts and leaders of free speech advocacy groups suggested how Musk can maximize the new Twitter’s ability to protect users’ First Amendment rights.
Experts agreed that Musk’s purchase of Twitter changes the dynamic around government and corporate censorship of free speech.
Twitter Board Says It Plans to Enforce Musk Merger Agreement
Twitter Inc.’s board said it plans to enforce its $44 billion agreement to be bought by Elon Musk, saying the transaction is in the best interest of all shareholders.
The proposed takeover includes a $1 billion breakup fee for each party, which Musk will have to pay if the deal falls apart due to financing issues. But Musk can’t just walk away by paying the charge.
The merger agreement includes a specific performance provision that allows Twitter to force Musk to consummate the deal, according to the filing. That could mean that should the deal end up in court, Twitter might secure an order obligating Musk to complete the merger rather than winning monetary compensation for any violations of it.
The board’s statement comes as Musk appears to be maneuvering to ditch or renegotiate his offer. Musk said last week that the deal was “on hold” until he gets more information, specifically proof from Twitter that so-called spambots make up less than 5% of its users.
Meta Donated $4 Million to a Supposedly ‘Grassroots’ Lobbying Firm to Fight Antitrust Bills on Its Behalf
Meta’s loosening its pocketbooks and digging trenches in preparation for a political war over antitrust legislation that, if lost, could rattle its struggling core business. Though Meta and even CEO Mark Zuckerberg have begrudgingly advocated for small reforms in the past, the company is increasingly relying on a little-known lobbying firm called the American Edge Project (AEP) to spearhead its opposition to widely popular policy proposals supporters say will bolster competition in the digital economy.
A new report from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) cites a 501(c)(4)’s 990 filing from AEP which shows the organization received a single $4 million donation between December 10, 2019, and October 31, 2020. That donation came around the same time Meta (then Facebook) told the Washington Post it contributed to AEP.
Put together, the report’s authors argue these findings imply Meta not only bankrolls AEP but may have also served as its founder.
