Category Archives: News to use

Useful news for all to advance knowledge of the world and how it works

Trump’s former Coast Guard chief endorses Biden, cites ‘insurgency’ on the Constitution – POLITICO

Source: Trump’s former Coast Guard chief endorses Biden, cites ‘insurgency’ on the Constitution – POLITICO

President Donald Trump’s former four-star head of the Coast Guard is speaking out on his decision to endorse Joe Biden, saying it’s due to an “insurgency” on Americans’ constitutional rights that has occurred on the commander in chief’s watch.

Retired Adm. Paul Zukunft, who stepped down as commandant of the Coast Guard in June 2018, is one of almost 500 former national security leaders who signed an open letter released Thursday questioning Trump’s fitness for command.

Veteran Texas Senate Candidate Responds to GOP Super PAC Calling Her Tattoos ‘Radical’: ‘They Cover My Shrapnel Wounds’

MJ Hegar (@mjhegar) | Twitter

Source: Veteran Texas Senate Candidate Responds to GOP Super PAC Calling Her Tattoos ‘Radical’: ‘They Cover My Shrapnel Wounds’

“A pro-Cornyn Super PAC is using a photo of my tattoos to make me seem ‘radical.’ That’s pretty funny to me,” Hegar wrote in a Thursday morning tweet, posting the image from the conservative ad and another of herself flexing her tattooed arm. “You think I’m ashamed of them? They cover my shrapnel wounds from when my helicopter was shot down. They’re a mark of my service to our country. I’m damn proud of them.”

Facebook Is Restricting Its Workers’ Political Speech and They’re Pissed

20200729_zia_a189_504.jpg?w=1200&h=630&c

Facebook employees are furious after the company announced a new rule on Thursday prohibiting them from using their profile pictures to display political messages.

The new rule bars certain kinds of profile pictures on Workplace, a private version of Facebook for internal use among company employees. The full text of the rule was shared with Mother Jones:

Personal expression is a valuable part of our culture, and our hope is to preserve the ability for you to share your thoughts on different issues, including social issues, in moderated groups or within the space of your own profile. However, that doesn’t mean you should broadcast your beliefs into all of your work interactions without any context. Profile pictures are meant to be a tool to help us identify who we’re speaking to online. Some people are using it to express support for a social, political, or personal cause—which doesn’t give colleagues the choice to opt-in to that personal expression—so we’re going to require everyone to use a photo of themselves or the default of their initials as their profile picture and ask people to express their support for causes on their profile or appropriate group. Workplace has profile photo frames that will still be available to express ally ship and identity, particularly around FRBG [Facebook Resource Business Group] related initiatives like Pride, Black History Month, and Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month, but you won’t be able to create your own frames.

Incensed Facebook workers littered the comment section of rules update post with frustrated messages.

“What happens when we go back to the office? Will my appearance have to be neutral and ‘not include clothing, signage or language that are connected to a social or political issue’?” one employee wrote, quoting a clarification of the new rule by a member of Facebook’s internal communications team. “This policy is asking to be broken.”

“It’s never been a better time to unionize,” another chimed in. 

The move comes after a summer of frustration for employees. In August, Buzzfeed News reported that employees were upset that the company had refused to delete the event page of a right-wing militia group planning to attend a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Kyle Rittenhouse ended up fatally shooting two protestors at the event.

Facebook employees have also expressed their frustration over the company’s inaction on posts by Donald Trump, including a misleading one about mail-in voting, as reported by BuzzFeed News. 

“We deeply value expression, open discussion, and a company culture built on respect and inclusivity,” Joe Osborne, a Facebook spokesman, said in a statement. “What we have heard from our employees is that they want the option to join debates on social and political issues rather than see them unexpectedly in their work feed. So we’re updating our policies and work tools to make sure our people have both voice, and choice.”

COVID-19 cases climbing in US, Europe, Canada | CIDRAP

Source: COVID-19 cases climbing in US, Europe, Canada | CIDRAP

According to data from the New York Times, there have been 41,822 new cases per day in the country over the past week, a 14% increase from the previous 2 weeks. Among the states seeing the largest increases in new cases over the past 14 days are Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

And the United States is far from the only country seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases as the fall begins. In a televised speech yesterday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the nation is at a “crossroads,” with British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec all entering a second wave of the pandemic, the CBC reports. Trudeau urged Canadians to follow public health guidelines.

As a new report from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) highlights, data from Sep 13 show sustained increases (greater than 10%) in the 14-day COVID-19 case notification in 13 countries: the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.