“Federal health officials’ decision Thursday to rescind almost all masking and distancing recommendations for fully vaccinated Americans created as much confusion as it did celebration, sending states, businesses and individuals scrambling to figure out what rules, if any, are still appropriate and when.
Many, including President Biden, hailed the relaxation of restrictions by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a milestone that signaled a return to normal. But with a majority of Americans unvaccinated, others questioned the sudden and blanket recommendation, worrying the onus is now heavier on state and local governments, businesses and individuals to determine whether precautions are necessary. They feared the guidelines could undercut two of the simplest and most effective tools — masks and physical distancing — for stopping the spread of a virus still infecting about 35,000 people in the United States every day.
Two of the nation’s medical societies — the American Society of Transplantation and the American Academy of Pediatrics — and more than a dozen physicians interviewed Friday also expressed concern the decision was premature, coming only days after regulators cleared a vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds and when so many are still unprotected.” Read more at Washington Post
Walmart won’t ask shoppers to offer proof that they have been vaccinated for Covid-19, instead relying on customers’ word.
PHOTO:BRITTANY N. GADDY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
“American companies began to rethink their requirements for face masks after federal health regulators relaxed their guidelines this week, and on Friday Walmart Inc. made the first big move to bend to the new view.
The U.S.’s largest private employer said it would no longer require vaccinated workers and shoppers to wear masks in stores and warehouses outside of municipalities that require it. Walmart’s new policy for its 1.6 million U.S. workers goes into effect May 18, the company said, while vaccinated customers could shop maskless immediately.
That made the country’s largest retailer by revenue an early mover in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new guidance. Executives in sectors ranging from autos to grocers said they were still wrestling with how to respond to the new guidelines, which they note conflicts in many cases with state, local and other protocols specific to certain industries.” Read at Wall Street Journal
“Many of the country’s largest retailers will keep requiring masks in their stores despite eased national restrictions, though industry groups and workers’ advocates fear enforcement will become increasingly difficult and contentious.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday that fully vaccinated Americans no longer need to wear masks in most situations.Workers unions blasted the policy change, saying it creates confusion and puts store employees at increased risk of getting sick.
Target, Home Depot, CVS and Harris Teeter are among the chains that will continue to require masks in store, though they are reviewing new CDC guidance and reevaluating store policies.
Others, like Trader Joe’s, have updated their policies and will no longer require fully vaccinated shoppers to wear masks, though it was unclear how the retailer would determine which shoppers have been inoculated. Kenya Friend-Daniel, a spokeswoman for the grocery chain, said stores would not require proof of vaccination and added that most other covid-related policies, including face coverings for employees, social distancing rules and frequent store cleanings, will remain in place….
The legislation must still be voted on, first by the House and then by the Senate before it is sent to the White House for final approval. Thompson said the legislation would likely be considered by the House next week, but it is unclear when the Senate might take up the bill.” Read more at Washington Post
“A group of House Democrats and Republicans announced Friday that they had struck a deal to establish an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a significant breakthrough after months of partisan standoff over the mandate for such a panel — and whether it should exist at all.
The proposed 10-person commission, which emulates the panel that investigated the causes and lessons of 9/11 terrorist attacks, would be charged with studying the events and run-up to Jan. 6, with a focus on why an estimated 10,000 supporters of former president Donald Trump swarmed the Capitol grounds and, more importantly, what factors instigated about 800 of them to break inside.” Read more at Washington Post
“The hacker group DarkSide, which was responsible for a ransomware attack that shut down the Colonial Pipeline and led to fuel shortages in multiple states this week, claims to be shutting down, Krebs on Security and several cybersecurity firms report.
Why it matters: In a message from a cybercrime forum, the group said it had lost access to the infrastructure needed to carry out its extortion operations and that a cryptocurrency account it uses to pay its affiliates had been drained.
What they're saying: ‘Servers were seized (country not named), money of advertisers and founders was transferred to an unknown account,’ reads the message, which was reviewed by Krebs.
‘A few hours ago, we lost access to the public part of our infrastructure,’ the message continues. ‘Also, a few hours after the withdrawal, funds from the payment server (ours and clients’) were withdrawn to an unknown address.’
The group also claimed it released decryption tools to all companies it had attempted to extort, but had not yet been paid.
Between the lines: Security experts say cyber criminal groups often disband and return under different names, and it therefore can't be determined if the disruption to DarkSide's infrastructure is legitimate or permanent, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It is also unknown if the U.S. government had any role in the events that led to the group's closure.
The big picture: Colonial Pipeline reportedly paid hackers linked to DarkSide nearly $5 million in cryptocurrency after last week's ransomware attack to regain access to its computer systems.
President Biden announced Thursday that the Justice Department launched a new task force that will specifically prosecute ransomware hackers ‘to the full extent of the law.’
Biden late Wednesday signed an executive order in an attempt to bolster the country's cybersecurity defenses following the cyberattack.” Read more at Axios
“The United States now has company on Mars.
A Chinese spacecraft descended through the thin Martian atmosphere and landed safely on a large plain on Saturday morning, state media reported, accomplishing a feat that only two other nations had before. (In the United States, it was still Friday — 7:18 p.m. Eastern time — when the spacecraft touched down.)
The landing follows China’s launch last month of the core module of a new orbiting space station, as well as a successful mission in December that collected nearly four pounds of rocks and soil from the moon and brought it to Earth. Next month, the country plans to send three astronauts into space, inaugurating what could become a regular Chinese presence in Earth’s orbit.
Just by arriving at Mars and orbiting it in February, China’s space program confirmed its place among the top tier of agencies exploring the solar system. Now that it has executed a landing — with the deployment of a rover still to come — it has established itself as a principal contender in what some view as a new era of space competition.” Read more at New York Times
“City officials in Columbus, Ohio, have agreed to pay a $10 million settlement to the family of Andre Hill, a Black man who was fatally shot by a police officer in a garage in December.
The settlement, which is set to be the largest ever paid out by the city, will now move to the Columbus City Council for a vote on Monday.” Read more at New York Times
“Less than two years before Marjorie Taylor Greene became a member of Congress, she walked the halls of a congressional office building with a few men searching for a new Democratic congresswoman from New York named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
A deleted video from February 2019 unearthed by CNN shows Greene arriving at Ocasio-Cortez’s office door to find it locked. She, and the men with her, then taunt the congresswoman’s staff through a mail slot and defile her guest book, all while mocking Ocasio-Cortez.
‘You need to stop being a baby and stop locking your door and come out and face the American citizens that you serve,’ Greene said. I’f you want to be a big girl you need to get rid of your diaper and come out and be able to talk to the American citizens instead of just having to use a flap, a little flap, it’s kind of like crazy. Sad.’
One of the men in Greene’s group, Anthony Aguero, was inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 when supporters of former president Donald Trump stormed the building, according to CNN. In the 2019 video, Greene says more conservatives should come to Washington and confront lawmakers.
‘I mean, this is a woman that’s deeply unwell. And clearly needs some help,’ Ocasio-Cortez said Friday when asked about the video. ‘Her kind of fixation has lasted for several years now.’
Greene defended the video as taxpayers ‘walking around and talking to lawmakers.’ She also continued to label Ocasio-Cortez and other congresswomen of color as terrorists and the ‘JihadSquad.’ Greene claimed that she was the real victim of harassment.
The video has surfaced days after Greene, now a Republican congresswoman from Georgia with full rein of the Capitol, verbally accosted Ocasio-Cortez outside the House chamber Wednesday and derided her for ignoring Greene’s demand that the two women debate.” Read more at Washington Post
“WASHINGTON — A network of conservative activists, aided by a British former spy, mounted a campaign during the Trump administration to discredit perceived enemies of President Trump inside the government, according to documents and people involved in the operations.
The campaign included a planned sting operation against Mr. Trump’s national security adviser at the time, H.R. McMaster, and secret surveillance operations against F.B.I. employees, aimed at exposing anti-Trump sentiment in the bureau’s ranks.
The operations against the F.B.I., run by the conservative group Project Veritas, were conducted from a large home in the Georgetown section of Washington that rented for $10,000 per month. Female undercover operatives arranged dates with the F.B.I. employees with the aim of secretly recording them making disparaging comments about Mr. Trump.
The campaign shows the obsession that some of Mr. Trump’s allies had about a shadowy ‘deep state’ trying to blunt his agenda — and the lengths that some were willing to go to try to purge the government of those believed to be disloyal to the president.” Read more at New York Times
Shakiro, in a photo provided by her mother.Credit...Joséphine Marie Njeukam
“Two transgender women were sentenced to five years in prison in Cameroon this week after they were found guilty of ‘attempted homosexuality’ and public indecency, the latest example of an increasing crackdown on gay and transgender people in the West African nation, human rights groups say.
Shakiro, identified in police documents as Loïc Njeukam, and Patricia, referred to as Roland Mouthe, both identify as transgender and were arrested in February as they were having dinner at a restaurant in Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital. On Tuesday, they were also found guilty of failing to show proof of identity and given the maximum fine of 200,000 CFA francs, or $370.
Shakiro, a social media personality who has amassed tens of thousands of followers through her posts calling for more tolerance toward gender minorities in Cameroon, has stopped eating and shared plans to die by suicide since the verdict, according to her mother, Joséphine Marie Njeukam, who visited her in prison on Wednesday.
Ms. Njeukam said her child told her, ‘Mum, I won’t survive here for five years.’ She said that her child didn’t kill anyone or steal, and that her sexuality ‘shouldn’t be a crime.’
Cameroon is one of more than 30 African countries that criminalize homosexuality. In recent months lawyers and human rights groups have raised alarm over what they describe as an increase in arbitrary arrests based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the country.” Read more at New York Times
“LONDON — Prince Harry compared his former royal life to a mixture of being on ‘The Truman Show’ and living ‘in a zoo.’
In a wide-ranging interview with the Armchair Expert podcast, Prince Harry talked about struggling as a member of the British royal family and said he thought about quitting royal life in his 20s. He recalled thinking: ‘I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be doing this. Look what it did to my mom.’
Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana, died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being chased by paparazzi.
Harry was speaking ahead of his upcoming mental health documentary series on Apple TV Plus with Oprah Winfrey. It is also Mental Health Awareness Week in the United Kingdom.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Ireland’s health care system shut down after being targeted in a ransomware attack on Friday. The scope of the shutdown is unclear, though many hospitals in Dublin were forced to cancel most of their appointments heading into the weekend.” [Vox] Read more at BBC
Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Former President Trump’s portrait, a photograph made by Pari Dukovic, is on display to the public for the first time since the closure of the museums due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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