The European Commission has designated 19 online platforms under its Digital Services Act, a move that opens them up to hefty fines if they target advertisements at certain users, publish illegal content, or fail to “address the spread of disinformation.” In an announcement on Tuesday, the commission named 17 “Very Large Online Platforms” and two “Very Large Online Search Engines,” defined as those reaching at least 45 million monthly active users. Among the platforms cited are Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, while Google and Microsoft’s Bing are the two designated search engines. The decision means that as of August, these platforms must be in compliance…
Author: mediahitman
Lawyers for Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and his associates argued on Tuesday that the organization is being prosecuted as a “scapegoat” for former president Donald Trump, who they claimed was solely responsible for instigating the January 6 2021 riot on Capitol Hill. “It was Donald Trump’s words. It was his motivation. It was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6th in your amazing and beautiful city,” Tarrio’s lawyer, Nayib Hassan, told jurors during closing arguments at a federal court in Washington, DC. “It was not Enrique Tarrio. They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald J. Trump…
UK Health Secretary Steve Barclay is set to give the go-ahead to an initiative that would see healthcare workers wear body-cameras while on duty in a move designed to counter alarming rape and sexual assault statistics in hospitals, The Telegraph reported on Monday. Barclay is “clear that sexual violence or misconduct of any kind is unacceptable and has no place in the NHS (National Health Service),” the Telegraph quoted an unnamed government source as saying on Monday. The government is “determined to work closely with the NHS to root out this vile behavior,” the source added. The measure looks set to be given the…
Ex-White House doctor, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Tx.), is demanding that President Joe Biden take a cognitive test or drop out of his newly announced 2024 race altogether. Jackson, who has repeatedly questioned whether the 80-year-old president has the cognitive ability to be commander-in-chief, renewed calls for a mental evaluation as Biden announced Tuesday he was seeking re-election. The Republican made the demands in a letter, obtained by The Post, which is currently being circulated among House Republicans in a bid to garner support before it is sent to Biden. “We call on you to either resign immediately and renounce your bid for reelection…
Russia’s most advanced T-14 Armata main battle tanks have been deployed to fight Ukrainian troops, RIA Novosti news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a source. The news comes as Kiev is planning a decisive push against Moscow’s forces. “The Russian forces have begun to use the newest Armata tanks to fire at Ukrainian positions,” the source said, adding that the tanks “haven’t participated in direct assault actions yet.” According to the source, the T-14s were fitted with additional protection from anti-tank munitions. Tank crews have been training in one of Russia’s newly incorporated Donbass republics since 2022. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s…
The World Health Organization warned Tuesday of a “huge biological risk” after Sudanese fighters seized the National Public Health Laboratory in the capital Khartoum, as foreign nations raced to mount rapid evacuation efforts from the country and violence punctured a fragile US-brokered ceasefire. Gunfire and the roar of fighter jets was heard by CNN journalists in Khartoum on Tuesday, half a day after the announcement of a 72-hour truce raised hopes of opening up escape routes for civilians desperate to flee. Heavy clashes erupted between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group battling the army for control of the country,…
The exit of Tucker Carlson, one of Fox News’ most popular prime-time hosts, has cost the channel’s parent company more than $500 million in market value, according to trading data. Class A shares of Fox Corporation dropped as much as 5.4% on Monday before paring losses to 2.95%. The decline occurred shortly after the company announced plans to part ways with Carlson with immediate effect after more than a decade. Carlson’s departure came several days after the broadcaster agreed to pay $787 million to settle a defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. The firm had previously sued the network…
Public schools in Texas would have to prominently display the Ten Commandments in every classroom starting next school year under a bill the Texas Senate approved Thursday. Senate Bill 1515 by Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, now heads to the House for consideration. This is the latest attempt from Texas Republicans to inject religion into public schools. In 2021, state Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Mineola Republican, authored a bill that became law requiring schools to display donated “In God We Trust” signs. King said during a committee hearing earlier this month that the Ten Commandments are part of American heritage and it’s time to bring…
The U.S. submarine fleet’s biggest adversary lately hasn’t been Red October. In 2005, the nuclear-powered USS San Francisco collided with an underwater volcano, or seamount, at top speed, killing a crew member and injuring most aboard. It happened again in 2021 when the USS Connecticut struck a seamount in the South China Sea, damaging its sonar array. With only one-quarter of the sea floor mapped with sonar, it is impossible to know how many seamounts exist. But radar satellites that measure ocean height can also find them, by looking for subtle signs of seawater mounding above a hidden seamount, tugged…
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) reported Friday that Alef Sausage Inc., a Mundelein, Ill. establishment, is recalling approximately 61,574 pounds of ready-to-eat (RTE) halal meat and poultry sausage products due to misbranding and possible temperature abuse. FSIS officials said the products were not labeled with a handling statement indicating that they should be kept refrigerated, which could lead to temperature abuse of the products. The RTE meat and poultry sausage products were produced and distributed into commerce on various dates from 2018 through April 2023. The following products of various weights are subject to recall: The…
President Trump spoke at the Lincoln-Reagan dinner in Lee County, Florida and one of the most interesting parts of the night was when he gave Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn a shoutout. Trump called his former National Security Advisor “brave” and would go on to tell Flynn to “stay healthy and ready.” Trump’s move was a major hint that Flynn will be given a position in Trump’s cabinet if he regains office. Many users on Twitter were over joyed Trump gave Flynn a shoutout because it reminded them of Trump’s 2016 run. Flynn has been a Trump loyalist for the last…
U.S. Senators Kyrsten Sinema, an independent of Arizona, and Cynthia Lummis, Republican of Wyoming, have introduced Senate Bill 884, also known as “the Improving Digital Identity Act of 2023.” The bill was introduced March 21 and ordered to proceed out of committee on March 29 without amendments and with a favorable recommendation. The bill’s text states: “The lack of an easy, affordable, reliable, and secure way for organizations, businesses, and government agencies to identify whether an individual is who they claim to be online creates an attack vector that is widely exploited by adversaries in cyberspace and precludes many high-value transactions…
Unionized city of Chicago employees fired or disciplined for violating COVID-19 vaccination requirements must be reinstated and repaid for any loss of wages or benefits, a state hearing officer has ruled. The decision in a case before the Illinois Labor Relations Board applies to city workers represented by trade unions or by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. The unions banded together to challenge regulations Mayor Lori Lightfoot imposed starting in 2021. Administrative Law Judge Anna Hamburg-Gal said the city violated the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act by not bargaining in good faith over vaccine requirements and…
“Demonic” MS-13 gang member Oscar Solis murdered and dismembered a Florida Uber Eats driver for “no reason,” officials said at a press conference Tuesday. “This was a horrific crime of passion,” Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco told reporters. “What he did is demonic, but at the same time, we couldn’t answer the question why.” “This person killed him for no reason.” Randall Cooke, 59, vanished April 19 after sending his wife a text that said he was completing his last delivery near their home in the city of Holiday, north of Tampa. She never heard from him again. She reported him missing, and Uber Eats…
President Joe Biden announced new environmental justice actions on Friday, including an executive order that the White House says will make environmental justice a central mission of federal agencies. “Under this order, environmental justice will become the responsibility of every single federal agency – I mean, every single federal agency,” Biden pledged at a White House Rose Garden signing ceremony surrounded by climate and environmental justice advocates just before Earth Day. He continued, “Every federal agency must take into account environmental health impacts on communities and work to prevent those negative impacts. Environmental justice will be the mission of the entire…
Twitter has removed labels describing global media organizations as government-funded or state-affiliated, a move that comes after the Elon Musk-owned platform started stripping blue verification checkmarks from accounts that don’t pay a monthly fee. Among those no longer labeled was National Public Radio in the U.S., which announced last week that it would stop using Twitter after its main account was designated state-affiliated media, a term also used to identify media outlets controlled or heavily influenced by authoritarian governments, such as Russia and China. Twitter later changed the label to “government-funded media,” but NPR — which relies on the government for…
MyPillow founder and prominent election denier Mike Lindell made a bold offer ahead of a “cyber symposium” he held in August 2021 in South Dakota: He claimed he had data showing Chinese interference and said he would pay $5 million to anyone who could prove the material was not from the previous year’s U.S. election. He called the challenge “Prove Mike Wrong.” On Wednesday, a private arbitration panel ruled that someone did. The panel said Robert Zeidman, a computer forensics expert and 63-year-old Trump voter from Nevada, was entitled to the $5 million payout. Zeidman had examined Lindell’s data and…
The city of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture has a few claims to fame: It’s home to a major U.S. naval base, it’s the birthplace of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and it lends its name to a local variation of Japanese curry. On Thursday, it staked out a new claim as the first municipality in the country to use ChatGPT in its municipal offices. Roughly 4,000 employees at Yokosuka’s municipal government office began using the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, which was created by OpenAI late last year, for a one-month trial in efforts to improve operations. “With the population decreasing, the…