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Texas Sues CDC to Stop Mask Mandates on Planes
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Irving, are suing the Biden administration to end mask mandates on planes.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, argues that the mandate imposes a “restriction on travelers’ liberty interests” and that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not have the authority to introduce such a blanket preventive measure.
First issued in January 2021, the federal mask mandate requires travelers to wear masks while using public transportation services or facilities, including airports and subway stations. Those who violate the mask mandate could be subject to fines.
The federal mandate is set to expire on March 18.
Protesters Defy Police Presence in Ottawa After Officers Warn of Crackdown
Truckers who have blockaded downtown Ottawa for nearly three weeks have ignored repeated warnings that they could face steep fines and possible arrest as protesters defied a growing police presence in the Canadian capital.
Officers had warned of an impending crackdown Thursday, as busloads of police reinforcements arrived in the city, and work crews took the rare step of erecting metal fences outside the senate and parliament.
But despite heavy rain, supporters flocked to Parliament Hill, and the mood of imminent confrontation receded.
Canadian Trucker Protester Not Afraid of Increased Police Pressure: ‘We Have the Right to Peacefully Assemble’
Protesters are continuing to fight against Canada’s vaccine mandate and are not afraid of increased police pressure.
“We have the right to peacefully assemble. We have the right to peacefully protest. There is nothing but love and solidarity… it’s a beautiful movement,” Kelly Dearborn, a protester who’s taking a stand with the Canadian Freedom Convoy told FOX Business’ Grady Trimble Thursday.
Dearborn’s comments come as Ottawa police told demonstrators to leave and threatened arrests. On Thursday, Trimble reported that law enforcement continues to hand out fliers warning truckers and protesters that they could be charged with criminal offenses. The truckers’ vehicles are also at risk of being removed and their driver’s licenses could be suspended, or even canceled.
On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took action against the protests by enacting the Emergencies Act. Dearborn argued that Trudeau’s actions go a “step too far,” as Parliament will vote on the law, today.
Youngkin Signs Law Requiring Virginia Public Schools to Make Masks Optional by March 1
Gov. Glenn Youngkin took to the steps of the Virginia Capitol on Wednesday to ceremonially sign a bill making masks optional in public schools, proclaiming before scores of cheering supporters that “we are reaffirming the…fundamental rights all parents have to make decisions for their children.”
The law goes into effect immediately, but school districts have until March 1 to comply. Youngkin, who built his campaign for office partly on a promise to end school mask mandates, cast his first big legislative win as “restoring power back to parents.”
Senate Faces High-Stakes Budget Talks With Government Shutdown Looming
Congress is staring down a potential government shutdown beginning Friday night if it does not pass a temporary government funding bill, as Senate Republicans push for amendment votes that could complicate the formula for passage.
Those amendments include a potential balanced budget amendment backed by Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., and an amendment from Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, that aims to defund all federal vaccine mandates.
“Enough is enough. It’s time to stop the petty tyrants imposing COVID-19 vaccine mandates on families across the country. No child should be denied an education because of his or her personal medical choice,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said of his amendment to bar federal funding from going to schools that mandate coronavirus vaccines for children.
A government shutdown is widely not expected at this point. But things are still developing.
4-Year-Old Autistic Boy Allowed to Fly Without Wearing Mask
Lawyers representing the family of a 4-year-old boy with autism said Wednesday that they have received a temporary court order from a federal judge exempting him from having to wear a mask when flying from Florida to Boston for treatment.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patti Saris in Boston scheduled an emergency hearing Wednesday after the lawyers said two airlines and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declined to grant a mask exception for the boy. His family lives in Sanford, Florida, and must travel for care at Boston Children’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Saris ordered that a mask exemption letter that applies for the next 30 days for American Airlines and Southwest Airlines be issued to Michael Seklecki Sr., the boy’s father until additional court actions can be held.
Ilhan Omar Defends ‘Freedom Convoy’ Donors After GiveSendGo Leak
Rep. llhan Omar has defended donors to the so-called Freedom Convoy truckers’ protest in Canada after their names were revealed in a data leak from fundraising site GiveSendGo.
Omar, a Democrat who represents Minnesota’s 5th congressional district, posted on Twitter on Wednesday suggesting that media coverage of small donors could lead to them being “harassed.” Omar linked to a tweet from Alison Mah, an editor at The Ottawa Citizen, who had shared an article about a woman whose name had appeared in a leaked list of donors.
The woman is a cafe owner who had to close her business on Tuesday after receiving threats because she had donated $250 to the Freedom Convoy via GiveSendGo.
Israel to Scrap COVID Passport System as Omicron Wanes
Israel’s prime minister says the country’s coronavirus vaccination “green pass” system will be suspended as new daily cases of COVID-19 continue to decline.
Naftali Bennett said Thursday after meeting with health officials that Israel’s Omicron wave “has been broken” and that additional reductions in coronavirus restrictions were forthcoming.
The Green Pass, Israel’s digital vaccination passport, limited entry to indoor venues and large gatherings to people who had recovered from coronavirus or received at least three doses of the vaccine.
Can Facebook Monopolize the Metaverse?
The company formerly known as Facebook spent nearly two decades cementing its position as the biggest social media company in the world — in large part by buying other social media startups, like Instagram and WhatsApp. Critics have accused Mark Zuckerberg and his company of using a “copy-acquire-kill” strategy to pressure its would-be competition into selling or risk being crushed by Facebook.
Now, some are concerned that Meta may be employing the same tactics in the metaverse, a concept that Zuckerberg describes as “an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it.” In practical terms, the metaverse is a virtual space where people wearing AR/VR headsets can interact with each others’ avatars, play games, have meetings, and so on.
Britain’s Former Deputy Prime Minister Is Now One of the Most Powerful People at Meta
Nick Clegg, once the second most powerful man in Britain, is now one of the most powerful people at Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg promoted the former deputy prime minister to president of global affairs on Wednesday, putting him in charge of “all policy matters” as the tech giant faces a barrage of global regulation. Clegg was previously vice president of global affairs.
The Cambridge University graduate, who joined Facebook in 2018 as head of policy and communications, used to be the leader of Britain’s centrist Liberal Democrats party.
He will now be in charge of decisions that affect the billions of people worldwide who use Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Oculus, which are all owned by Meta.
If They Could Turn Back Time: How Tech Billionaires Are Trying to Reverse the Aging Process
In the summer of 2019, months before the word “coronavirus” entered the daily discourse, Diljeet Gill was double-checking data from his latest experiment. He was investigating what happens when old human skin cells are “reprogrammed” — a process used in labs around the world to turn adult cells (heart, brain, muscle and the like) — into stem cells, the body’s equivalent of a blank slate.
Sure of his findings, he took them to his supervisor, Wolf Reik, a leading authority in epigenetics. What Gill’s work showed was remarkable: the aged skin had become more youthful — and by no small margin. Tests found that the cells behaved as if they were 25 years younger.
Last summer, Reik resigned as the director of the Babraham Institute to lead a new UK institute being built by Altos Labs, a contender for the most flush startup in history. Backed by Silicon Valley billionaires to the tune of $3bn (£2.2bn), Altos has signed up a dream team of scientists, Gill and numerous Nobel laureates among them.
Hybrid AI: A New Way to Make Machine Minds That Really Think Like Us
Artificial intelligence has come a long way. In recent years, smart machines inspired by the human brain have demonstrated superhuman abilities in games like chess and Go, proved uncannily adept at mimicking some of our language skills and mastered protein folding, a task too fiendishly difficult even for us.
But with various other aspects of what we might reasonably call human intelligence — reasoning, understanding causality, applying knowledge flexibly, to name a few — AIs still struggle. They are also woefully inefficient learners, requiring reams of data where humans need only a few examples.
Some researchers think all we need to bridge the chasm is ever larger AIs, while others want to turn back to nature’s blueprint.
