“Moderna said its Covid-19 vaccine was safe and effective in children ages 6-11. The company said it would submit its results to health regulators in seeking authorization to widen the use of its shots. Meanwhile, federal officials said they would do more to get over-the-counter Covid-19 tests to consumers after some manufacturers have struggled to meet demand. The Biden administration also said it will exempt certain foreign air travelers from vaccine rules when U.S. border curbs ease on Nov. 8.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“The FDA's vaccine advisory board plans to meet today to discuss whether the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine should be authorized for kids ages 5 to 11. Once the FDA makes its authorization, the issue goes to the CDC’s vaccine advisory group, which is set to meet November 2 and 3. In Europe, countries are looking uneasily toward another pandemic winter. Europe is the only region in the world reporting an increase in Covid-19 cases right now. Vaccination rates vary widely there, from as low as 24% in some eastern areas to a 74.6% average among EU nations and an 85% rate in Belgium. Some Eastern European countries like Latvia and Romania are imposing new lockdowns, curfews and other measures. Moscow is also in the middle of a 10-day lockdown as Russia faces its worst pandemic phase ever.” Read more at CNN
“President Biden has refused to assert executive privilege over more documents that former President Trump wants to keep out of the hands of the committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot. Trump has tried to keep the documents secret by claiming executive privilege, but since he is no longer president, legal experts agree Biden has final say on whether they’re covered by such a measure. Biden previously refused to assert executive privilege over a similar batch of Trump-related documents, and the White House has said Biden wants the committee to have as much information as possible about January’s attack. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is expected to name Kim Wyman, a Republican secretary of state who challenged Trump's false claims of election fraud, to a key election security role with the Department of Homeland Security.” Read more at CNN
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democrats’ idea for a new billionaires’ tax to help pay for President Joe Biden’s social services and climate change plan quickly ran into criticism as too cumbersome with some lawmakers preferring the original plan of simply raising the top tax rates on corporations and the wealthy.
Biden said Monday he’s hopeful the talks with Congress can wrap up overall agreement on the package this week. It’s tallying at least $1.75 trillion, and could still be more. Biden said it would be ‘very, very positive to get it done’ before he departs for two overseas global summits.
‘That’s my hope,’ the president said before leaving his home state of Delaware for a trip to New Jersey to highlight the child care proposals in the package and a related infrastructure measure. ‘With the grace of God and the goodwill of the neighbors.’” Read more at AP News
“The U.S. is one of six countries without national paid leave. Many places offer at least 12 weeks. The Democrats’ family-policy plan would create four weeks.” Read more at New York Times
“Tesla became the latest U.S. company to hit $1 trillion in market value. The electric-car maker’s stock price has more than doubled in the past year on surging sales and rising profit. Helping Tesla cross the mark was news that Hertz had ordered 100,000 vehicles to add to its rental-car fleet.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Facebook is a cesspool of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and violent and polarizing content. And its own researchers privately concluded that despite concerted efforts, the company was removing less than 5 percent of hate speech on the site, my colleagues report.
Let's back up for a second. Facebook is under no legal obligation to moderate what’s on its site, because federal law says social media companies aren’t liable for content people post on the sites. And anytime these companies try to moderate speech, it raises a host of tricky questions around what language should be considered acceptable and where to draw lines on misinformation.
But the public pressure on Facebook to moderate itself has been immense — particularly among liberals — and is expected to grow with these revelations.
The findings on hate speech are just one bit of reporting about the company from a Facebook whistleblower who is testifying before Congress and governments across the globe this fall. Combining whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony with The Washington Post’s own reporting, we are learning about what is really happening behind the scenes at the world’s largest social media company.
Some of the revelations are eyebrow-raising. Here’s a cheat sheet, with a more in-depth rundown here.
Facebook dropped its guard after the November election and let ‘Stop the Steal’ content proliferate ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection. It also dismantled a Civic Integrity group aimed at combating this kind of stuff, with some employees fearing it was because they had become too vocal about the dangers of Facebook.
The Post exclusively reported that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally decided to let Vietnam’s Communist government have near-total control over Facebook as the country’s elections neared. It meant leaders there could and did crack down on dissidents’ free speech ahead of the election. Vietnam was threatening to shut down Facebook entirely and Zuckerberg didn’t want to lose business in this huge market, Post reporting finds.
A Facebook spokeswoman, Dani Lever, denied that decisions made by Zuckerberg ‘cause harm,’ saying the claim was based on ‘selected documents that are mischaracterized and devoid of any context.’
Facebook let QAnon stay on its site for about a year, even as the company knew how quickly this extremist ideology based on false claims was reaching users unchecked, according to The Post. To test this, a Facebook employee set up an account claiming to be a Christian mother in North Carolina who liked Donald Trump and found that this account was invited to join QAnon groups within days.
Facebook knows all of this. My colleagues write: ‘The documents and interviews with former employees make clear that Facebook has deep, highly precise knowledge about how its users are affected by what appears on its sites.’
It’s a critical time for Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg testifies virtually to Congress in March.
After the 2016 election, Facebook was under fire for letting Russian misinformation campaigns go basically unchecked. Now Facebook is under fire for — well, everything, it seems.
Its dirty laundry is being aired as lawmakers start to seriously grapple with how to regulate Facebook and other social media companies.
For better or worse, these Facebook revelations are coming to light at arguably a dangerous time for American society. One political party is denying the results of a legitimate presidential election, and one of the American leaders of misinformation, Trump, is making moves to run for president again.” Read more at Washington Post
Frances Haugen in London yesterday.Henry Nicholls/Reuters
“Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistle-blower, called on British lawmakers to regulate the company: ‘Until the incentives change, Facebook will not change.’” Read more at New York Times
“TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat will appear on Capitol Hill today with a unified message: We're not Facebook.
Why it matters: The companies are trying to dodge the crossfire as lawmakers mull legislation to rein in Facebook, Axios' Margaret Harding McGill writes.
At the hearing before the Senate Commerce consumer protection subcommittee, representatives of TikTok, YouTube and Snap will focus on measures they've put in place to protect children.” Read more at Axios
“About $24 billion in goods is estimated to be sitting outside California’s two biggest ports as the shipping backup there continues to put pressure on an already-brittle supply chain. This animated time lapse shows how ships have to circle and circle the ports, waiting to dock. The problem extends far beyond California, though. Goldman Sachs estimates that, nationwide, the time it takes loaded ships to make it through US ports has tripled from historical norms. Officials have warned that the supply chain crisis, which has led to massive price increases on consumer goods, could last through the first half of 2022. Meanwhile, the related worker shortage issue is hitting American companies hard. In a recent national survey, 47% of businesses reported a shortage of skilled workers in the third quarter.” Read more at CNN
“The assistant director who handed actor Alec Baldwin a prop firearm that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza on the set of ‘Rust’ last week had been fired from a previous film in 2019 after an unexpected discharge on that set, according to a producer from that film.
Assistant director Dave Halls, who was identified in an affidavit as the person who handed Baldwin the gun, was fired from ‘Freedom’s Path’ in 2019 after a crew member was injured following the unexpected discharge of a firearm, said a producer from ‘Freedom’s Path,’ who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the current investigation.” Read more at Washington Post
“NEW YORK (AP) — Details are still emerging about how Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer on a New Mexico film set, but some political onlookers swiftly assigned guilt to one of Hollywood’s most prominent liberals.
Right-wing pundits and politicians have long chafed at Baldwin’s criticism of former President Donald Trump and his Trump parody on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ They wasted little time zeroing in on the actor who pulled the trigger. The hashtag #AlecForPrison ricocheted around Twitter….
By Monday, Trump’s oldest son was selling $28 T-shirts on his official website with the slogan ‘Guns don’t kill people, Alec Baldwin kills people.’ The post was later removed.
Gun violence has long divided the country, but the fact that some observers seemed to revel in Baldwin’s role in the shooting added a political dimension to the tragedy. CNN host Jake Tapper on Sunday called Hutchins’ death ‘heartbreaking for normal people.’
‘But there’s something about our politics right now that is driving people away from our shared humanity,’ Tapper said.
Court records provided some details about the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of ‘Rust’ near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Authorities have said that the assistant director, Dave Halls, handed the weapon to Baldwin and announced ‘cold gun,’ indicating that the weapon was safe to use.
In an affidavit released Sunday night, the film’s director, Joel Souza, said Baldwin was rehearsing a scene in which he drew a revolver from his holster and pointed it toward the camera, which Hutchins and Souza were behind. Souza, who was wounded by the shot, said the scene did not call for the use of live rounds.
It’s not clear yet where the gun-handling protocol failed. Souza said the movie’s guns were usually checked by armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and then again by Halls.” Read more at AP News
“Virginia's bellwether race for governor between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin remains close. President Joe Biden will campaign with McAuliffe, who has held the office once already, in Arlington on Tuesday, according to his official schedule. This comes after former President Barack Obama headlined a rally for McAuliffe in Richmond over the weekend. McAuliffe and Youngkin are tied at roughly 45% each, according to a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll released Tuesday. But roughly 5% of likely voters say they are still undecided a week before the Nov. 2 election. David Paleologos, director of Suffolk University Political Research Center, said the race is simply a ‘dead heat,’ and will boil down to which party can get out its voters.” Read more at USA Today
“The Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros will face off in Game 1 of the 2021 World Series in Houston Tuesday night (8:09 p.m. ET, FOX). Both teams are coming off six-game series' respectively, with the Astros eliminating the Boston Red Sox in the American League and the Braves knocking off the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League. Atlanta enters the series searching for their first title since 1995, while the Astros are back in the World Series for the third time in five years and are aiming for their first championship since 2017. Framber Valdez, coming off a stellar eight-inning start in Game 5 of the ALCS, will start for the Astros while the Braves are expected to send 14-game winner Charlie Morton to the mound.” Read more at USA Today
“McDonald's workers in several cities are planning a one-day walkout Tuesday to protest what they say is continued sexual harassment of employees and to call for the workforce to unionize. Employees in at least 10 cities intend to strike in response to the alleged rape of a 14-year-old McDonald's worker in Pittsburgh by her manager, and other allegations of harassment at the fast-food giant's restaurants, according to Fight for $15 and a Union, a group of fast-food and other low-wage workers that's organizing the walkout. Tuesday's protest would be the latest strike as workers use leverage gained from a nationwide labor shortage to demand higher pay, better benefits and stronger workplace protections.” Read more at USA Today
“BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Police say they exchanged gunfire with a suspect during a shooting at a shopping mall in Boise, Idaho, that killed two people and injured four -- including an officer.” Read more at AP News
“A flesh-eating sexually transmitted infection that causes ‘beefy red’ ulcers is becoming more prevalent in the United Kingdom, a report revealed.” Read more at USA Today
“Illinois authorities identified another victim of John Wayne Gacy, who murdered dozens of young men in the 1970s.” Read more at New York Times
“Houses of worship — across faiths, including Jewish synagogues, Buddhist temples and Catholic churches — are experiencing rising vandalism, arson and other property damage.
2021 is on track to exceed last year's spike in hate crimes in the U.S., many of them linked to religious bigotry, report ‘Axios Today’ podcast host Niala Boodhoo and Axios' Russell Contreras.
The number of hate crimes reported in FY 2020 was the highest since 2001, when a wave of Islamophobia followed the 9/11 attacks, according to updated FBI data released yesterday.
Politics and crises across the world are driving hate incidents:
New York City experienced almost as many anti-Semitic hate crimes during a three-week period in May as in the whole first quarter of the year, said Brian Levin, who directs the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University.
That spike coincided with heightened tensions between Israel and Palestine.
African American churches experienced property damage in retaliation for Black Lives Matter protests, and a Buddhist temple in Los Angeles was set on fire as a result of anti-Asian hate.
It’s not just property damage: Tomorrow is the third anniversary of one of Pennsylvania’s worst mass shootings, when a white supremacist killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018.
Attorney General Merrick Garland told Congress Monday that the DoJ's Civil Rights Division is expediting review of federal hate crimes.” Read more at Axios
“Sudan’s coup. Seven people have been killed and 140 injured so far in Sudan as soldiers appeared to fire on those protesting the military coup mounted in the early hours of Monday morning.
Responding to the takeover, the United States has frozen $700 million in direct aid to Sudan and has not ruled out sanctions, with State Department spokesperson Ned Price saying the United States was ‘willing to resort to any and all appropriate measures to hold accountable those who may be attempting to derail the will, the aspirations of the Sudanese people.’ The U.N. Security Council is expected to discuss the issue today.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Princess Mako quietly married a commoner without traditional wedding celebrations Tuesday and said their marriage — delayed three years and opposed by some — ‘was a necessary choice to live while cherishing our hearts.’
The marriage to Kei Komuro cost Mako her royal status. She received her husband’s surname — the first time she has had a family name. Most Japanese women must abandon their own family names upon marriage due to a law requiring only one surname per married couple.
The couple’s marriage document was submitted by a palace official on Tuesday morning and made official, the Imperial Household Agency said. There was no wedding banquet or other marriage rituals for the couple. The agency has acknowledged that many people have not welcomed their marriage.” Read more at AP News
“Polish escalation | The European Union is threatening to block budget payments to Poland — amounting to $21 million and growing — over Warsaw’s refusal to comply with a 500,000 euro-a-day fine, Jorge Valeroreports. The European Court of Justice ordered the penalty after Poland failed to comply with a ruling to shut a lignite mine which the neighboring Czech Republic says is draining water reserves from the border region.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Lives Lived: Paul Salata had a soft spot for underdogs, and in the 1970s it compelled him to pitch an idea to the N.F.L.: ‘Mr. Irrelevant,’ an irreverent celebration of the last player picked in the draft, which continues to this day. Salata died at 94.” Read more at New York Times
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