Last Christmas Eve, NewsBreak, a free app with roots in China that is the most downloaded news app in the United States, published an alarming piece about a small town shooting. It was headlined "Christmas Day Tragedy Strikes Bridgeton, New Jersey Amid Rising Gun Violence in Small Towns."...
Russia’s brutal ongoing invasion of Ukraine has provided US intelligence services with a rare opening to recruit Kremlin insiders furious with the handling of the war....
Nineteen percent of cotton on the U.S. market still sources back to the forced labor heartlands of East Turkestan (Xinjiang), according to a new analysis. Reducing that figure is easier than Washington makes it look.--...
The House Bill 777 was introduced on March 25 by Representative Kellee Dickerson, who helped fund the Louisiana Freedom Caucus. The bill would criminalize library workers and libraries for joining the American Library Association....
In November, ahead of President Joe Biden’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) issued a press release casting himself as a fierce opponent of China. It declared, “Since being elected to the U.S. Senate, Senator Scott has introduced dozens of bills to punish Communist China for its increased...
The U.S. government in recent months launched an operation to fight a pervasive Chinese hacking operation that successfully compromised thousands of internet-connected devices, according to two Western security officials and one person familiar with the matter....
The U.S. biomedical company Thermo Fisher Scientific announced on Jan. 5 that it will no longer sell human DNA identification technology to the Chinese police in the Tibet Autonomous Region. In 2019, it had made a similar decision to halt the sale of these products in Xinjiang, the northwestern region where the Chinese...
ProPublica editor-at-large Eric Umansky started investigating police oversight after an NYPD officer hit a teenager with a car in 2019. In the years since, he’s learned how police departments have undermined the promise of body-worn cameras.
The rollout of a landmark company ownership registry officially launched by the United States Treasury Department on Jan. 1 and aimed at fighting dirty money flows in the U.S. has been met with political attacks and the spread of misinformation, amid ongoing tensions around the transparency tool....
I guess it’s the big business which is complaining here trying to lobby against transparency. The small business owners don’t have much to hide as you suggest.
Kenneth Smith, 58, is facing execution by an untested method that has never before been used in capital punishment in the US. It’s a technique that has been rejected on ethical grounds by veterinarians for the euthanasia of most animals other than pigs: death by nitrogen gas.
A data scientist promoted by the rightwing activist Christopher Rufo, the Manhattan Institute thinktank, and other conservatives as an expert critic of the former Harvard president Claudine Gay has co-authored several papers in collaboration with a network of scholars who have been broadly criticized as eugenicists, or...
Citibank, N.A., a national bank with headquarters in New York City that issues consumer credit cards, including retail services credit cards for companies like Home Depot and Best Buy, will pay $1.4 million to harmed consumers along with a $24.5 million penalty, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) says in a...
a surveillance program now known as Data Analytical Services (DAS) is run in coordination with the telecom giant AT&T has for more than a decade allowed federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to mine the details of Americans’ calls, analyzing the phone records of countless people who are not suspected of any crime,...
There have been dozens of lawsuits that have attempted to challenge the 2020 presidential election results but they were dismissed at the state and federal levels across the country....
Two active members of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, joined by 51 colleagues, introduced two bipartisan pieces of legislation in further response to Russian atrocities in Ukraine by strengthening the current ban on Russian petroleum products as well as supporting Ukrainian reconstruction and recovery....
the dubious estimates nH Predict spits out seem to be a feature, not a bug
This is the major problem with algorithms, one of the issue being that they will produce a lot of false positives even if there are best intentions.
But another major problem is that you can influence the outcome by altering the parameters as the article also says. We have been observing similar issues in health and social policy in many countries over the last years, and the results have always been devastating. And research suggests that biases may increases dramatically in the future if we continue to use these algorithms the way we do it now.
“Like President Biden said weeks ago memorializing the victims of the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting, the October 7 ‘devastating atrocity has brought to the surface painful memories left by millennia of Antisemitism;’ and under his presidency ‘we will continue to condemn Antisemitism at every turn’,” White House...
Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights, a student group at HLS, sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden Monday urging him to demand that the Chinese government release tech entrepreneur Ekpar Asat — the brother of Rayhan Asat, the Law School’s first Uyghur graduate....
The 89-page lawsuit, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights in a California federal district court, traces 75 years of history and analyzes acts committed and rhetoric espoused by the Israeli government that exhibit a disregard for international law....
The magazine’s editor Jake Silverstein said the letter signed by Jazmine Hughes and Jamie Keiles violated the outlet’s policy on public protest, but Keiles says there are no clear guidelines, especially for contributing writers. He explains he signed on to the letter due to his disappointment in the journalistic standards...
The three-time Grammy-winning singer announced her collaboration with the national free speech organization PEN America during an Instagram Live with Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in the U.S. Pink will also work with bookseller Books & Books to distribute four books from PEN America’s Index of Banned Books: Todd...
In a new report, Human Rights Watch found that restrictions on movement from South American countries to Mexico and Central America, often promoted by the United States government, have helped contribute to sharp increases in numbers of people crossing the Darién Gap. This exposes migrants to abuses, including sexual violence,...
A Florida state representative, identified online as Republican Michelle Salzman, has gone viral on social media for shouting “all of them” after being asked how many dead Palestinians will be enough during a Florida Senate session.
The politician was responding to a speech calling for a ceasefire from the Democrat Rep. Angie Nixon. Newsweek has reached out to Salzman for comment by email.
The pair are among 16 members of the US Congress who have written directly to president Joe Biden urging the United States to drop its extradition attempts against Assange and halt any prosecutorial proceedings immediately.
A little-known “socialist” activist hub in New York City pushing pro-China talking points is helping to organize protests against Israel in the United States alongside shadowy dark money groups sympathetic to Hamas and other Palestinian terror factions, records show.
Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza has killed more than 10,500 Palestinians, including dozens of family members of award-winning Palestinian American writer, poet and physician Dr. Fady Joudah....
After a particularly disappointing night of election results for Republicans, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) lamented “pure democracies,” where major decisions are left up to voters rather than their elected officials.
“Thank goodness that most of the states in this country don’t allow you to put everything on the ballot, because pure democracies are not the way to run a country,” Santorum said Tuesday night on Newsmax.
Recent interviews with Black voters, voting rights groups, candidates and researchers show that the voter fatigue felt by many has been widely shared in a state where nearly 40% of the overall population is Black. This year, political dynamics have combined to begin changing that, leading many voters to reengage.
As he has been outspoken about preventing civilian deaths in the ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas — a militant group that launched a deadly surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said that “there got to be a better way than killing thousands of men, women and children.”...
NewsBreak: Most downloaded US news app has Chinese roots and 'writes fiction' using AI ( www.reuters.com )
Last Christmas Eve, NewsBreak, a free app with roots in China that is the most downloaded news app in the United States, published an alarming piece about a small town shooting. It was headlined "Christmas Day Tragedy Strikes Bridgeton, New Jersey Amid Rising Gun Violence in Small Towns."...
The Ukraine war is a huge opportunity for US intel to recruit Russian spies ( edition.cnn.com )
Russia’s brutal ongoing invasion of Ukraine has provided US intelligence services with a rare opening to recruit Kremlin insiders furious with the handling of the war....
Shein, Temu and the $800 Sin: Stopping Uyghur Forced Labor Cotton by Unstitching the U.S. Border Free-for-All ( dominotheory.com )
Nineteen percent of cotton on the U.S. market still sources back to the forced labor heartlands of East Turkestan (Xinjiang), according to a new analysis. Reducing that figure is easier than Washington makes it look.--...
A New Bill In Louisiana Would Criminalize Librarians and Libraries Who Join the American Library Association ( bookriot.com )
The House Bill 777 was introduced on March 25 by Representative Kellee Dickerson, who helped fund the Louisiana Freedom Caucus. The bill would criminalize library workers and libraries for joining the American Library Association....
"An egregious violation of academic freedom": At Louisiana's flagship university, oil companies can influence research and coursework for a price ( thelensnola.org )
Cross posted from: https://feddit.de/post/11345243...
Secretary of State Blinken to press Beijing over its support for Russian defense base on his trip to China next week ( www.reuters.com )
Cross posted from: https://feddit.de/post/11319037...
Sen. Rick Scott Says He’s a China Hawk. But He’s Made Lots of Money With China-Related Investments. ( www.motherjones.com )
In November, ahead of President Joe Biden’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) issued a press release casting himself as a fierce opponent of China. It declared, “Since being elected to the U.S. Senate, Senator Scott has introduced dozens of bills to punish Communist China for its increased...
Amazon is capable of reducing plastic waste in the US. So why isn’t It? - It has done so elsewhere—when forced, a new report shows. ( www.motherjones.com )
Cross posted from: https://feddit.de/post/11174494...
US disabled Chinese hacking network targeting critical infrastructure ( www.reuters.com )
The U.S. government in recent months launched an operation to fight a pervasive Chinese hacking operation that successfully compromised thousands of internet-connected devices, according to two Western security officials and one person familiar with the matter....
Rights group urges US company Thermo Fisher Scientific to stop supplying China’s regime with DNA surveillance tech ( www.hrw.org )
The U.S. biomedical company Thermo Fisher Scientific announced on Jan. 5 that it will no longer sell human DNA identification technology to the Chinese police in the Tibet Autonomous Region. In 2019, it had made a similar decision to halt the sale of these products in Xinjiang, the northwestern region where the Chinese...
21 Bodycam Videos Caught the NYPD Wrongly Arresting Black Kids on Halloween. Why Can’t the Public See the Footage? ( www.propublica.org )
ProPublica editor-at-large Eric Umansky started investigating police oversight after an NYPD officer hit a teenager with a car in 2019. In the years since, he’s learned how police departments have undermined the promise of body-worn cameras.
New US company ownership database faces continued political attacks weeks after launch ( www.icij.org )
The rollout of a landmark company ownership registry officially launched by the United States Treasury Department on Jan. 1 and aimed at fighting dirty money flows in the U.S. has been met with political attacks and the spread of misinformation, amid ongoing tensions around the transparency tool....
Biden starts to decouple economy from China ( www.lockhaven.com )
Brewing in the background is the growing fear that China is cozying up to America’s adversaries....
‘I’m not ready, brother’: US man to be put to death months after botched execution attempt ( www.theguardian.com )
Kenneth Smith, 58, is facing execution by an untested method that has never before been used in capital punishment in the US. It’s a technique that has been rejected on ethical grounds by veterinarians for the euthanasia of most animals other than pigs: death by nitrogen gas.
Russian propagandists rejoice at the suspension of aid from the United States and promise to use Ukrainians in a war against NATO countries in the event of victory ( bird.makeup )
Cross-posted from: feddit.de/post/8086514
Scientist cited in push to oust Harvard’s Claudine Gay has links to eugenicists ( www.theguardian.com )
A data scientist promoted by the rightwing activist Christopher Rufo, the Manhattan Institute thinktank, and other conservatives as an expert critic of the former Harvard president Claudine Gay has co-authored several papers in collaboration with a network of scholars who have been broadly criticized as eugenicists, or...
President Biden: student loan borrowers enrolled in SAVE “who took out less than $12,000 in loans and have been in repayment for 10 years will get their remaining student debt cancelled immediately" ( www.whitehouse.gov )
“Borrowers who may be eligible for early debt cancellation to sign up for the SAVE plan at studentaid.gov,” a statement by the White House says.
‘I miss my name’: Giuliani verdict lays bare limits of defamation law ( www.theguardian.com )
S.F. Supervisor Dean Preston blames capitalism for San Francisco’s homelessness and drug crises ( web.archive.org )
When Railroad Workers Get Hurt on the Job, Some Supervisors Go to Extremes to Keep It Quiet ( www.propublica.org )
Railroad officials have lied, spied and bribed to keep workers’ injuries off the books. “Don’t put your job on the line for another employee.”
Rights group urges US to back UN Security Council action to protect Gaza’s civilians, not to use vetoes to block resolutions aimed at stopping mass atrocities ( www.hrw.org )
The mystery of the missing binder: How a collection of raw Russian intelligence disappeared under Trump ( edition.cnn.com )
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries singles out Republican ‘pro-Putin caucus’ opposing Ukraine aid ( www.theguardian.com )
China’s cyber army is invading critical U.S. services ( www.washingtonpost.com )
Texas AG threatens to prosecute doctors in emergency abortion ( www.reuters.com )
archive link | Excerpt:...
NYC-based Citibank Ordered to Pay $25.9 Million for Intentional, Illegal Discrimination Against Armenian Americans by Giving Consumers False Reasons for Credit Denials ( www.consumerfinance.gov )
Citibank, N.A., a national bank with headquarters in New York City that issues consumer credit cards, including retail services credit cards for companies like Home Depot and Best Buy, will pay $1.4 million to harmed consumers along with a $24.5 million penalty, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) says in a...
Secretive White House Surveillance Program Gives Cops Access to Trillions of US Phone Records ( www.wired.com )
a surveillance program now known as Data Analytical Services (DAS) is run in coordination with the telecom giant AT&T has for more than a decade allowed federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to mine the details of Americans’ calls, analyzing the phone records of countless people who are not suspected of any crime,...
Meta Is Allowing Political Ads That Claim the 2020 Election Was Stolen ( advocatechannel.com )
There have been dozens of lawsuits that have attempted to challenge the 2020 presidential election results but they were dismissed at the state and federal levels across the country....
Two Bipartisan Measures to Strengthen U.S. Response to Putin’s War ( doggett.house.gov )
Two active members of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, joined by 51 colleagues, introduced two bipartisan pieces of legislation in further response to Russian atrocities in Ukraine by strengthening the current ban on Russian petroleum products as well as supporting Ukrainian reconstruction and recovery....
UnitedHealth uses AI model with extreme bias to deny care, lawsuit alleges ( arstechnica.com )
White House blasts Elon Musk’s ‘unacceptable’ antisemitic tweet ( thehill.com )
“Like President Biden said weeks ago memorializing the victims of the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting, the October 7 ‘devastating atrocity has brought to the surface painful memories left by millennia of Antisemitism;’ and under his presidency ‘we will continue to condemn Antisemitism at every turn’,” White House...
Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights Urge US President Biden to Demand Release of Uyghur Entrepreneur ( www.thecrimson.com )
Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights, a student group at HLS, sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden Monday urging him to demand that the Chinese government release tech entrepreneur Ekpar Asat — the brother of Rayhan Asat, the Law School’s first Uyghur graduate....
Palestinians Sue Biden for Failing to Prevent Genocide in Gaza ( theintercept.com )
The 89-page lawsuit, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights in a California federal district court, traces 75 years of history and analyzes acts committed and rhetoric espoused by the Israeli government that exhibit a disregard for international law....
Tell congress, say no to bad internet bills ( www.badinternetbills.com )
To whom it may concern.
China is using the world's largest known online disinformation operation to harass Americans, investigation finds ( feddit.de )
Cross-posted from: feddit.de/post/5711530...
NY Times Magazine Writers Forced Out After Signing Letter Against Israeli War on Gaza --- [video, 15 min] ( www.democracynow.org )
The magazine’s editor Jake Silverstein said the letter signed by Jazmine Hughes and Jamie Keiles violated the outlet’s policy on public protest, but Keiles says there are no clear guidelines, especially for contributing writers. He explains he signed on to the letter due to his disappointment in the journalistic standards...
Pop Star Pink to Give Away Banned Books at Florida Tour Stops ( www.rollingstone.com )
The three-time Grammy-winning singer announced her collaboration with the national free speech organization PEN America during an Instagram Live with Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in the U.S. Pink will also work with bookseller Books & Books to distribute four books from PEN America’s Index of Banned Books: Todd...
U.S. lawmakers question Costco, ADI over sales of Hikvision, Dahua equipment as competitors already pulled the items ( feddit.de )
Cross-posted from: feddit.de/post/5651027...
‘I will not be silenced’: congresswoman Rashida Tlaib won’t stop fighting for Palestinian rights ( www.theguardian.com )
The first Palestinian American woman in Congress was formally rebuked this week, but allies say she’ll keep speaking up for peace and justice.
"This hell was my only option:" Human Rights Watch accuses the US of pushing migrants to cross the Darién Gap, exposing them to abuse and empowering organized crime ( www.hrw.org )
In a new report, Human Rights Watch found that restrictions on movement from South American countries to Mexico and Central America, often promoted by the United States government, have helped contribute to sharp increases in numbers of people crossing the Darién Gap. This exposes migrants to abuses, including sexual violence,...
GOP and Dems Unite to Smear Gaza Ceasefire Supporters as "Pro-Hamas" ( theintercept.com )
Unusual collaboration: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Marjorie Taylor Greene unite in push to free Julian Assange ( www.theguardian.com )
The pair are among 16 members of the US Congress who have written directly to president Joe Biden urging the United States to drop its extradition attempts against Assange and halt any prosecutorial proceedings immediately.
Chinese Communist Party-allied group behind Hamas-friendly protests in US ( www.washingtonexaminer.com )
A little-known “socialist” activist hub in New York City pushing pro-China talking points is helping to organize protests against Israel in the United States alongside shadowy dark money groups sympathetic to Hamas and other Palestinian terror factions, records show.
Palestinian American Dr. Fady Joudah Grieves 50+ Family Members Killed in Gaza & Slams U.S. Media Coverage --- [video, 15 min + transcript] ( www.democracynow.org )
Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza has killed more than 10,500 Palestinians, including dozens of family members of award-winning Palestinian American writer, poet and physician Dr. Fady Joudah....
Ohio voters enshrine abortion access in constitution in latest statewide win for reproductive rights ( apnews.com )
Mississippi has a history of voter suppression. Many see signs of change as Black voters reengage ( english.elpais.com )
Recent interviews with Black voters, voting rights groups, candidates and researchers show that the voter fatigue felt by many has been widely shared in a state where nearly 40% of the overall population is Black. This year, political dynamics have combined to begin changing that, leading many voters to reengage.
Bernie Sanders says he hopes Israel rids of Netanyahu: "You got a right wing government in Israel, which is racist." ( thehill.com )
As he has been outspoken about preventing civilian deaths in the ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas — a militant group that launched a deadly surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said that “there got to be a better way than killing thousands of men, women and children.”...