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Sleep Expert Issues ‘Serious Health Risks’ Warning Over Viral TikTok Trend
People are taping their mouths shut overnight in the latest bizarre online trend — and one expert told Newsweek that the craze poses “serious” issues.
The tag “#mouthtaping” has 23 million views across the platform and some videos on the technique have reached the millions.
“Unfortunately mouth taping is an extreme way of encouraging nose breathing that has some serious health risks,” explained sleep expert James Wilson, AKA The Sleep Geek, who works with organizations, sports teams and individuals.
A large cause of concern is the risk of sleep apnea, narrow nostrils or something blocking your nasal airways.
‘I Didn’t Really Learn Anything’: COVID Grads Face College
Nearly a third of Angel Hope’s high school career was spent at home, in virtual classes that were hard to follow and easy to brush aside. Some days he skipped school to work extra hours at his job. Some days he played games with his brother and sister. Other days he just stayed in bed.
“It was like school was optional. It wasn’t a mandatory thing,” said Hope, 18, of Milwaukee. “I feel like I didn’t really learn anything.”
Across the country, there are countless others like him. Hundreds of thousands of recent graduates are heading to college this fall after spending more than half their high school careers dealing with the upheaval of a pandemic.
They endured a jarring transition to online learning, the strains from teacher shortages and profound disruptions to their home lives. And many are believed to be significantly behind academically.
Facebook Gave Nebraska Cops a Teen’s DMs so They Could Prosecute Her for Having an Abortion
A Nebraska teenager is facing criminal charges alleging she aborted a fetus in violation of state law after authorities obtained her Facebook messages using a search warrant. Seventeen-year-old Celeste Burgess, who is being tried as an adult along with her mother Jessica Burgess, is awaiting trial in Madison County District Court on charges that they broke a Nebraska law banning abortions after 20 weeks.
This marks one of the first instances of a person’s Facebook activity being used to incriminate her in a state where abortion access is restricted — a scenario that has remained largely hypothetical in the weeks following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Nebraska currently outlaws abortions beyond 20 weeks. On Monday, Republican lawmakers in the state failed to secure enough votes to decrease that window to 12 weeks.
While Celeste told police that she had suffered a miscarriage, they continued to investigate, serving Facebook with a search warrant to access Celeste and Jessica’s Facebook accounts. They subsequently found messages between the mother and daughter allegedly detailing how Celeste had undergone a self-managed abortion with Jessica’s help. There are four states that ban abortion at 24 weeks and more than a dozen that broadly ban it at the start of fetal viability.
COVID: Children Struggling With Speech Following Lockdowns
A couple has spoken about how their child is struggling with speech and language skills after being isolated during the pandemic.
“A lot of kids were quite isolated, and not able to have the normal socialization because obviously everyone was locked in at home,” said three-year-old Ethan’s mum Louise.
One speech expert told BBC Wales referrals had increased after COVID. The Welsh government has launched a scheme to help children whose speech and language skills were affected by the lockdowns.
Group of 23 States Tells U.S. Court CDC Lacks Authority to Set Transit Mask Rules
A group of 23 state attorneys general led by Florida told a federal court on Monday that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lacks the legal authority to impose a nationwide transportation mask mandate to address COVID-19.
The CDC sought “an unprecedented masking mandate regulating every breath of millions of Americans,” said the brief in support of the group that sued to overturn the mask mandate.
The group, which included Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, Texas and Virginia, urged the appeals court to reject the CDC’s “overreach.”
A group of 17 Republican U.S. lawmakers including Senator Rand Paul and Representative Thomas Massie also filed a brief Monday arguing the CDC lacked the authority to impose masking requirements.
NBA Reportedly Warns Players They Still Can’t Play in Toronto Without COVID Vaccination
NBA players won’t be permitted to travel to Canada to play the Toronto Raptors next season without being vaccinated against COVID-19 or receiving an approved medical exemption.
Bleacher Report and ESPN reported on Monday that the league sent a memo to players reiterating the Canadian policy that was in place last year and has impacted MLB games this summer. Per the reports, players who miss time because of their vaccination status won’t be paid for missed games. Teams are required to list those players as “Out: Health and Safety Protocols.”
The NBA does not require players to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but local, regional and national laws can prohibit players from traveling or playing without being vaccinated. Canada requires international travelers entering the country to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The requirement impacted multiple players last season including Philadelphia 76ers guard Matisse Thybulle, who missed three playoff games in Toronto because he’s not fully vaccinated. Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving also missed a March 1 regular season game at Toronto because of his vaccination status.
Norwegian Cruises to Drop Vaccination Requirement, Ease Testing Rules
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings will end its vaccine requirement for customers and loosen coronavirus testing rules next month, the company announced Monday.
Starting Sept. 3, fully vaccinated travelers who are 12 or older will no longer have to test before boarding a ship on Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises.
Travelers in that age group who are unvaccinated or who do not show proof of vaccination will be allowed onboard as long as they present a negative PCR or antigen test taken in the 72 hours before boarding. Children under 12 will have no testing or vaccination requirements.
Requirements could still vary depending on local regulations at different ports, “including but not limited to Canada, Greece and Bermuda,” the announcement said.
Snapchat Rolls out Parental Controls
Snapchat will allow parents to view who their teen users are connecting with on the app without viewing the content of the messages, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday. The feature is under the new Family Center on the app and comes after increased scrutiny from lawmakers over youth safety on Snapchat and other apps.
Parents can also confidentially report any accounts that may be concerning to Snapchat.
Snapchat will roll out additional features to the Family Center in the fall, including content controls for parents and the ability for teens to notify their parents when they report an account or piece of content.
Over the last year, Snapchat and other social media apps have faced mounting pressure from lawmakers and advocacy groups to increase safety features for teen users.
WhatsApp Is Going to Stop Letting Everyone See When You’re Online
WhatsApp announced several new privacy updates on Tuesday, including the ability for users to check their messages without other people knowing. The platform will soon allow people to control who can see when they’re online, prevent others from taking screenshots of certain messages and leave groups without notifying entire channels.
WhatsApp has long touted its use of end-to-end encryption, which means only the sender and recipient of a message can see its contents. And like other private messaging platforms, it already allows users to send messages that disappear after set periods of time.
However, last year, WhatsApp was heavily scrutinized after an update to its terms of service.
At the time, many users expressed concerns about a section of WhatsApp’s privacy policy that detailed what is shared with parent company Facebook, which has a troubled reputation when it comes to protecting user data.
Big Tech Just Got One Step Closer to Squashing Key U.S. Antitrust Bill
Sponsors of a key bipartisan antitrust bill have tried for months to secure a Senate vote and potentially pass “the first major bill on technology competition” to come before the Senate “since the dawn of the Internet.”
Now, The Wall Street Journal reports, that bill will remain “in limbo” as Congress has failed to schedule a vote before its recess. This could signify that Big Tech companies will prevail — through intense lobbying and criticism — and prevent the bill from passing a Senate floor vote. In just one week this summer, one industry group reportedly spent $22 million in ads against the bill.
The bill is controversial because it targets large companies like Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Apple. It stops them from self-preferencing business practices, like promoting their products above others or forcing smaller businesses to buy ad space to compete.
Critics, like Google, say the law could threaten everything from the quality of online services to national security, but supporters, like bill co-sponsor Representative David Cicilline (D-RI), say much of the criticism boils down to “lies coming from Big Tech.”
TikTok Parent ByteDance Just Bought a Hospital Group in China
TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is making some pretty heavy bets on the healthcare space as it acquired Amcare, which runs high-end children’s and women’s hospitals across China.
The buyout cost ByteDance $1.5 billion, according to Bloomberg. A spokesperson for Xiaohe Health, ByteDance’s healthcare business, confirmed the acquisition but declined to comment on the deal size.
The transaction is turning some heads in the tech industry. For one, China has over the past few years ramped up anti-competition regulations on tech companies and blocked major consolidation deals, including Tencent’s proposal to combine the country’s top two live streaming platforms for gamers.
