Harmony Evans's Blog, page 722
July 29, 2023
Are You Ready for “The New Agenda”?
This article was written by Swedish independent journalist Peter Imanuelsen, also known as PeterSweden. You can follow him at PeterSweden Substack.
The elites are working on a new agenda and you were not told about it. They call it “The New Agenda”. You might have heard about it by another name, namely Agenda 2030.
Thought you could avoid getting brainwashed by throwing away your TV and not watching the news? Well, think again. Now they are pushing “The New Agenda” on your phone.
Yes, in their own documentation, the UN calls Agenda 2030 for “The New Agenda”. That sounds very similar to something else that we are told is just a crazy conspiracy theory.
Now I came across something very interesting. They are pushing this agenda very hard right now, trying to get people to accept and support it. I guess they have noticed that people do not actually want to eat the bugs and own nothing….
On the latest Samsung Galaxy phone, they now come pre-installed from the factory with the Agenda 2030 app to tell you about how wonderful this new agenda really is. Over 300 million phones now have this app installed.
In the app they tell you how important it is to follow “The New Agenda”, in fact, they are working to implement it in full.
“We are working on getting back on track for the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda” – Samsung Agenda 2030 app.”So what is this Agenda 2030?They have outlined various different “Global Goals” that they have decided must be implemented and followed. Of course, one of the main ones is called “Climate Action”.
Another one is “Gender Equality”, in other words, to implement the feminist agenda.
Guess what is really good for the environment according to “The New Agenda”? Migration!
In fact, the reason they are seizing the farms from the Dutch farmers is because of Agenda 2030. They need to reduce their emissions by the year 2030 as outlined in this agenda.
The secret agenda.Most people don’t know that this agenda is being planned behind their backs, by the elites that nobody voted for. And the mainstream media is of course not talking about this, and if they are, they are talking about it in a positive manner, brainwashing people into supporting the Agenda 2030.
But this should not come as a surprise. Bill Gates who not long ago donated a whopping $1.27 BILLION towards funding the “Global Goals” outlined in “The New Agenda”, has also donated $319 million to the mainstream media. Of course the media will support it.
Unlike the mainstream media, I don’t get a cent from Bill Gates. I need you, the reader, to support me in order to bring you these stories that the mainstream media won’t.
For the cost of only an iced coffee a month, you can support my work as an independent journalist. And your financial support is much needed if I’m to be able to compete with the millions in funding that the mainstream media gets.
If you are able to support my work, that is highly appreciated and needed. You also get access to exclusive articles such as this one. And I really think you will find this article very interesting and informative!
So let’s take a deeper look into this Agenda 2030 app now comes pre-installed on many phones, and I will explain the propaganda that maybe not everyone notices at first glance…
It is worse than you think!
Independent journalist Peter Imanuelsen has dedicated years to reporting the things the mainstream media ignores. You can follow him at PeterSweden Substack.
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Transgender Seeks Assisted Suicide in Canada, Claiming It’s the Only Way to End Suffering from Vaginoplasty Complication | The Gateway Pundit
Lois Cardinal, a 35-year-old indigenous transgender woman, is currently engaged in a bitter confrontation with Canada’s healthcare system after it denied his request for assisted suicide, Daily Mail reported.
Cardinal cites ongoing and severe pain from a complication related to a vaginoplasty procedure he underwent in 2009 as his reason for seeking a medically assisted death.
“In 2009, I was rushed into having SRS before I was ready. Resulting in immediate regret and sterilization,” Cardinal said.
Cardinal lives on a native reserve near St. Paul, Alberta, and shared his medical records on social media this week, as an attempt to bring attention to the shortcomings of Canada’s healthcare policies around both euthanasia and gender affirmation surgeries.
“I’m in constant discomfort and pain, and it’s taking this psychological burden on me. If I’m not able to access proper medical care, I don’t want to continue to do this,” Cardinal told the Daily Mail.
Vaginoplasty, a surgical procedure that involves inverting the penis to create a neo-vagina, often leaves recipients suffering from post-operative pain and discomfort.
According to a recent study from the University of Florida, common complications include pain during intercourse and bladder problems.
According to Boston Children’s Hospital, “vaginoplasty requires a lifetime commitment to aftercare. If you have a vaginoplasty, you will initially have to dilate your vagina multiple times a day to keep it open. Eventually, that can be reduced to several times a week, depending on a variety of factors.”
Cardinal formally applied for medical assistance in dying (MAiD) under Canada’s law earlier this year, but his application was rejected.
The note from Cardinal’s doctor noted that he was suffering from ‘pain/anxiety related to neo-vagina for gender affirmation.”
But Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) rejected his request.
Source: @duchess_elle/Twitter
Source: @duchess_elle/TwitterAfter his request was rejected, Cardinal was prescribed a ‘numbing cream’ for his neo-vagina, but according to him, it was ineffective.
Cardinal criticized his rejection as a ‘human rights concern.’
He told Daily Mail that doctors are more interested in finding out what pronouns he uses than easing his pain.
“I’m not getting any better and nor am I experiencing better medical care, or any medical care,” Cardinal said.
“It’s so captured by gender ideologies, that they care more about my pronouns,” he added.
Cardinal is not just concerned about his situation; he is openly critical of the gender-affirmation ideology that led his to undergo his surgery. He has posted videos expressing his disagreement with the current rhetoric of the trans community and believes that an inability to have ‘honest and tough conversations’ is fueling transphobic sentiments.
In a tweet, Cardinal urged the government offices at all levels to reevaluate their stance on “gender-affirming care.
I’m speaking from experience of being a sterilized first nations person.
I call on ALL levels of governments and offices to reconsider their stance on ‘gender affirming care’. pic.twitter.com/K9hcaRjW01
— Duchess Lois Of Alberta (@duchess_elle) July 25, 2023
In response to Cardinal’s concerns, a representative from the RCYBC clarified their role and scope of influence in an email communication, stating, “In your email, you have also asked ‘Why isn’t the RCYBC approaching these children with a cultural, holistic, and historical approach before affirming a gender identity?’ It is important to clarify that the mandate of the RCY does not include services or service delivery directly to children and youth. The RCY does not have direct influence over decisions in the community regarding ‘affirming gender identity.’”
I did contact the @RCYBCyouth @RCYBC and this was the reply. pic.twitter.com/fNg4PKGBfS
— Duchess Lois Of Alberta (@duchess_elle) July 28, 2023
The post Transgender Seeks Assisted Suicide in Canada, Claiming It’s the Only Way to End Suffering from Vaginoplasty Complication | The Gateway Pundit appeared first on Harmony Evans.
Most of the 100 million people who signed up for Threads stopped using it
Getty Images | NurPhoto
Meta’s new Twitter competitor, Threads, is looking for ways to keep users interested after more than half of the people who signed up for the text-based platform stopped actively using the app, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly told employees in a company town hall yesterday. Threads launched on July 5 and signed up over 100 million users in less than five days, buoyed by user frustration with Elon Musk-owned Twitter.
“Obviously, if you have more than 100 million people sign up, ideally it would be awesome if all of them or even half of them stuck around. We’re not there yet,” Zuckerberg told employees yesterday, according to Reuters, which listened to audio of the event.
Third-party data suggests that Threads may have lost many more than half of its active users. Daily active users for Threads on Android dropped from 49 million on July 7 to 23.6 million on July 14, and then to 12.6 million on July 23, web analytics company SimilarWeb reported.
“We don’t yet have daily numbers for iOS, but we suspect the boom-and-bust pattern is similar,” SimilarWeb wrote. “Threads took off like a rocket, with its close linkage to Instagram as the booster. However, the developers of Threads will need to fill in missing features and add some new and unique ones if they want to make checking the app a daily habit for users.”
Although losing over half of the initial users in a short period might sound discouraging, the Reuters article said Zuckerberg told employees that user retention was better than Meta executives expected. “Zuckerberg said he considered the drop-off ‘normal’ and expected retention to grow as the company adds more features to the app, including a desktop version and search functionality,” Reuters wrote.
Chief Product Officer Chris Cox also spoke at the company event, reportedly saying that Meta is considering “retention-driving hooks” such as “making sure people who are on the Instagram app can see important Threads.” Threads is part of Meta’s Instagram platform, so users can create a Threads profile as part of their Instagram account.
Advertisement Zuck: Threads still needs “basic functionality”When contacted by Ars today, a Meta spokesperson pointed to Zuckerberg’s comments from Wednesday’s earnings call. Zuckerberg said:
On Threads, briefly, I’m quite optimistic about our trajectory. We saw unprecedented growth out of the gate and more importantly we’re seeing more people coming back daily than I’d expected. And now, we’re focused on retention and improving the basics. And then after that, we’ll focus on growing the community to the scale we think is possible. Only after that will we work on monetization. We’ve run this playbook many times before—with Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Stories, Reels, and more—and this is as good of a start as we could have hoped for, so I’m really happy with the path we’re on here.
Zuckerberg also told investors that “Threads has been dramatically more than we expected in terms of the adoption and the rate of that… we had a small team working on [it] for a while, but it really kind of blew up and created a big opportunity immediately.”
Zuckerberg said “there’s still a lot of basic functionality to build” for Threads and talked briefly about the challenge of attracting users to new standalone apps. “We’ve tried a bunch of standalone experiences over time, and in general, we haven’t had a lot of success with building kind of standalone apps,” he said.
Threads could succeed in part because of user backlash to Musk’s changes at Twitter, now officially called “X,” Zuckerberg seemed to suggest. “It could just be that this is such an idiosyncratic case because of all of the factors that are happening around Twitter or X, I guess, it’s called now,” he said.
Threads is available in about 100 countries, including the US and UK, but is not in the European Union yet because of concerns over compliance with EU regulations. Threads has drawn privacy-related criticisms because of the amount of personal data collected by the app.
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Senate Democrats Kill Republican Amendment to Only Fly the American Flag Over Government Buildings | The Gateway Pundit
Senate Republicans recently introduced a measure which would forbid the flying of any flag except the American flag over government buildings. Only ONE Democrat voted for it and it missed passage by just one vote.
The Democrats voted against this for obvious reasons. The LGBT lobby wields a massive amount of power in the Democrat party, and Senate Democrats know who their masters are.
Congratulations to Senator Joe Manchin for being the sole Dem vote.
American Greatness reports:
Senate Democrats Shoot Down GOP Amendment to Fly Only the American Flag Over Government Buildings
On Thursday, Senate Democrats voted against a Republican-introduced measure that would have forbidden the federal government from flying any flag other than the American flag over government buildings.
As Fox News reports, the measure in question was introduced by Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) as an amendment to the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which would have instituted the ban for all public buildings, from federal office buildings and courthouses to post offices.
Although the measure did win a narrow majority, with 50 in favor and 49 against, it took 60 votes to approve the measure due to an agreement previously worked out by Senate leadership. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) was the sole Democrat to vote with the Republicans in favor of the amendment.
A similar measure was introduced in the House by Congressman Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), which was attached to the House’s version of the NDAA, and specifically targeted the gay pride flag, which was flown by the White House and promoted by the Defense Department during the month of June, which some consider to be “gay pride month.”
Republicans should keep trying to pass this and shame the Democrats every time it fails to pass.
It would be fair and proper, so of course the Dems stridently objected…
↓
Senate Democrats Shoot Down GOP Amendment to Fly Only the American Flag Over Government Buildings https://t.co/DQwurKWeUQ
— Junkyard Dogs (@baileyjer) July 28, 2023
Any legislator opposed to this common sense bill is suspect and should be primaried.
The Senate Democrats kill GOP legislation to fly only the American flag from government buildings https://t.co/UiBUWZhYfC #FoxNews
— PA VOTER (Marla) (@PAKAG2020) July 28, 2023
The American flag is the only flag that belongs on U.S. government buildings.
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Android malware steals user credentials using optical character recognition
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Security researchers have unearthed a rare malware find: malicious Android apps that use optical character recognition to steal credentials displayed on phone screens.
The malware, dubbed CherryBlos by researchers from security firm Trend Micro, has been embedded into at least four Android apps available outside of Google Play, specifically on sites promoting money-making scams. One of the apps was available for close to a month on Google Play but didn’t contain the malicious CherryBlos payload. The researchers also discovered suspicious apps on Google Play that were created by the same developers, but they also didn’t contain the payload.
Advanced techniquesThe apps took great care to conceal their malicious functionality. They used a paid version of commercial software known as Jiagubao to encrypt code and code strings to prevent analysis that can detect such functionality. They also featured techniques to ensure the app remained active on phones that had installed it. When users opened legitimate apps for Binance and other cryptocurrency services, CherryBlos overlaid windows that mimicked those of the legitimate apps. During withdrawals, CherryBlos replaced the wallet address the victim selected to receive the funds with an address controlled by the attacker.
The most interesting aspect of the malware is its rare, if not novel, feature that allows it to capture mnemonic passphrases used to gain access to an account. When the legitimate apps display passphrases on phone screens, the malware first takes an image of the screen and then uses OCR to translate the image into a text format that can be used to raid the account.
“Once granted, CherryBlos will perform the following two tasks: 1. Read pictures from the external storage and use OCR to extract text from these pictures [and] 2. Upload the OCR results to the C&C server at regular intervals,” the researchers wrote.
Most apps related to banking and finance use a setting that prevents the taking of screenshots during sensitive transactions. CherryBlos appears to bypass such restrictions by obtaining accessibility permissions used by people with vision impairments or other types of disabilities.
Searches for previous instances of malware that uses OCR came up empty, suggesting the practice isn’t common. Trend Micro representatives didn’t respond to an email asking if there are other examples.
AdvertisementCherryBlos was embedded into the following apps available from these websites:
LabelPackage namePhishing domainGPTalkcom.gptalk.walletchatgptc[.]ioHappy Minercom.app.happyminerhappyminer[.]comRobot 999com.example.walljsdemorobot999[.]netSynthNetcom.miner.synthnetsynthnet[.]ai“Like most modern banking trojans, CherryBlos requires accessibility permissions to work,” the researchers wrote. “When the user opens the app, it will display a popup dialogue window prompting users to enable accessibility permissions. An official website will also be displayed via WebView to avoid suspicion from the victim.”
Once the malicious app obtains the permissions, it uses them not only to capture images of sensitive information displayed on screens, but also to perform other nefarious activities. They include defense evasion techniques such as (1) automatically approving permission requests by auto-clicking the “allow” button when a system dialogue appears and (2) returning users to the home screen when they enter the app settings, possibly as an anti-uninstall or anti-kill contingency.
The malicious apps also use accessibility permissions to monitor when a legitimate wallet app launches. When detected, it then uses them to launch predefined fake activities. The goal is to induce victims to fill in their credentials.
The researchers found dozens of additional apps, most of which were hosted on Google Play, that used the same digital certificate or attacker infrastructure as the four CherryBlos apps. While the 31 apps didn’t contain the malicious payload, the researchers flagged them nonetheless.
“Although these apps appear to have complete functionality on the surface, we still found them exhibiting some abnormal behavior,” they wrote. “Specifically, all the apps are highly similar, with the only difference being the language applied to the user interface since they are derived from the same app template. We also found that the description of the apps on Google Play are also the same.”
The researchers said that Google has removed all such apps that were available on Play. A list of those apps is available here.
The research is only the latest to illustrate the threat of malicious apps. There’s no silver bullet for avoiding these threats, but a few smart practices can go a long way toward that goal. Among them:
Don’t download apps from third-party sites and sideload them unless you know what you’re doing and trust the party controlling the site.Read reviews of apps before installing them. Be especially careful to look for reviews that claim the apps are malicious.Carefully review permissions required by the app, with a particular eye for apps that seek accessibility permissions.“The threat actor behind these campaigns employed advanced techniques to evade detection, such as software packing, obfuscation, and abusing Android’s Accessibility Service,” the researchers wrote. “These campaigns have targeted a global audience and continue to pose a significant risk to users, as evidenced by the ongoing presence of malicious apps on Google Play.”
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July 28, 2023
Residents of Woodlawn, Chicago Vent Anger at Leaders Over Illegal Immigrants: ‘They Rob us, They Harass us’ (VIDEO) | The Gateway Pundit
People living in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago are not happy with the illegal border crossers who have been relocated there.
They claim that these people are harassing them and committing crimes.
What do they think the Democrats who run their city are going to do about it? Enforce the law?
CBS News in Chicago reports:
Woodlawn residents take city officials to task for ‘disruptions’ at migrant shelter
Confrontations, anger, and frustration were on display Monday evening as neighbors in Woodlawn talked about what they call big problems at a nearby migrant center…
“I would ask you all to go out there – go out there at night, in the middle of the night – and see what goes on,” one woman said at the meeting.
What’s going on – according to community members – is loitering, late-night partying, littering, prostitution, and at least one fight between migrants and residents.
But many of the residents said they no longer have any tolerance for the disruptive behavior by those seeking asylum here. The residents said it is making them feel unsafe.
“They disrespect us, they rob us, they harass us,” another woman said.
The residents said their patience is wearing thin.
“Let me say this – they’ve got one more time to deal with it, because otherwise, next time they deal with it, they’re going to deal with it from the streets. We’re going to take over,” a man said. “Nobody is going to be able to stop us from what we’re going to do to them.”
Here’s the video:
Woodlawn, Chicago residents blow up over illegals in the neighborhood:
“They disrespect us, rob us, harass us”
“We’re gonna take over. Nobody is gonna be able to stop us from what we’re gonna to do them.” pic.twitter.com/8bO5u86WSX
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 27, 2023
If Republicans were smart, they would send operatives into this community and others with a simple message.
You want this to stop? Put us in charge for once.
The post Residents of Woodlawn, Chicago Vent Anger at Leaders Over Illegal Immigrants: ‘They Rob us, They Harass us’ (VIDEO) | The Gateway Pundit appeared first on Harmony Evans.
Google’s RT-2 AI model brings us one step closer to WALL-E
Enlarge / A Google robot controlled by RT-2.
On Friday, Google DeepMind announced Robotic Transformer 2 (RT-2), a “first-of-its-kind” vision-language-action (VLA) model that uses data scraped from the Internet to enable better robotic control through plain language commands. The ultimate goal is to create general-purpose robots that can navigate human environments, similar to fictional robots like WALL-E or C-3PO.
When a human wants to learn a task, we often read and observe. In a similar way, RT-2 utilizes a large language model (the tech behind ChatGPT) that has been trained on text and images found online. RT-2 uses this information to recognize patterns and perform actions even if the robot hasn’t been specifically trained to do those tasks—a concept called generalization.
For example, Google says that RT-2 can allow a robot to recognize and throw away trash without having been specifically trained to do so. It uses its understanding of what trash is and how it is usually disposed to guide its actions. RT-2 even sees discarded food packaging or banana peels as trash, despite the potential ambiguity.
Enlarge / Examples of generalized robotic skills RT-2 can perform that were not in the robotics data. Instead, it learned about them from scrapes of the web.In another example, The New York Times recounts a Google engineer giving the command, “Pick up the extinct animal,” and the RT-2 robot locates and picks out a dinosaur from a selection of three figurines on a table.
AdvertisementThis capability is notable because robots have typically been trained from a vast number of manually acquired data points, making that process difficult due to the high time and cost of covering every possible scenario. Put simply, the real world is a dynamic mess, with changing situations and configurations of objects. A practical robot helper needs to be able to adapt on the fly in ways that are impossible to explicitly program, and that’s where RT-2 comes in.
More than meets the eyeWith RT-2, Google DeepMind has adopted a strategy that plays on the strengths of transformer AI models, known for their capacity to generalize information. RT-2 draws on earlier AI work at Google, including the Pathways Language and Image model (PaLI-X) and the Pathways Language model Embodied (PaLM-E). Additionally, RT-2 was also co-trained on data from its predecessor model (RT-1), which was collected over a period of 17 months in an “office kitchen environment” by 13 robots.
The RT-2 architecture involves fine-tuning a pre-trained VLM model on robotics and web data. The resulting model processes robot camera images and predicts actions that the robot should execute.
Enlarge / Google fine-tuned a VLM model on robotics and web data. The resulting model takes in robot camera images and predicts actions for a robot to perform.Since RT-2 uses a language model to process information, Google chose to represent actions as tokens, which are traditionally fragments of a word. “To control a robot, it must be trained to output actions,” Google writes. “We address this challenge by representing actions as tokens in the model’s output—similar to language tokens—and describe actions as strings that can be processed by standard natural language tokenizers.”
AdvertisementIn developing RT-2, researchers used the same method of breaking down robot actions into smaller parts as they did with the first version of the robot, RT-1. They found out that by turning these actions into a series of symbols or codes (a “string” representation), they could teach the robot new skills using the same learning models they use for processing web data.
The model also utilizes chain-of-thought reasoning, enabling it to perform multi-stage reasoning like choosing an alternative tool (a rock as an improvised hammer) or picking the best drink for a tired person (an energy drink).
Enlarge / According to Google, chain-of-thought reasoning enables a robot control model that perform complex actions when instructed.Google says that in over 6,000 trials, RT-2 was found to perform as well as its predecessor, RT-1, on tasks that it was trained for, referred to as “seen” tasks. However, when tested with new, “unseen” scenarios, RT-2 almost doubled its performance to 62 percent compared to RT-1’s 32 percent.
Although RT-2 shows a great ability to adapt what it has learned to new situations, Google recognizes that it’s not perfect. In the “Limitations” section of the RT-2 technical paper, the researchers admit that while including web data in the training material “boosts generalization over semantic and visual concepts,” it does not magically give the robot new abilities to perform physical motions that it hasn’t already learned from its predecessor’s robot training data. In other words, it can’t perform actions it hasn’t physically practiced before, but it gets better at using the actions it already knows in new ways.
While Google DeepMind’s ultimate goal is to create general-purpose robots, the company knows that there is still plenty of research work ahead before it gets there. But technology like RT-2 seems like a strong step in that direction.
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OUTRAGEOUS! Baltimore Jury Refuses to Return Murder Verdict in Trial of Teen ‘Squeegee Worker’ Who Repeatedly Shot Victim in the Back | The Gateway Pundit
A Baltimore jury on Thursday returned a ‘voluntary manslaughter’ verdict in the murder trial of a black teen ‘squeegee worker’ who fatally shot a 48-year-old man in the back.
On July 7, 2022, Timothy Reynolds, 48, decided to confront teens who were harassing and extorting motorists stuck in traffic at the Inner Harbor.
A group of ‘youths’ were harassing motorists by squeegeeing their windshields and trying to extort money by using violent force.
The so-called ‘squeegee kids’ have been extorting, beating and threatening motorists for years.
WATCH:
One year after motorist Timothy Reynolds was shot dead at a downtown intersection, a former squeegee kid is preparing to stand trial. The 15-year-old will stand trial for murder on July 17. https://t.co/z3KjjgTm6T pic.twitter.com/u949w72QK0
— FOX Baltimore (@FOXBaltimore) July 7, 2023
Reynolds confronted the ‘teens’ with a baseball bat and that’s when things escalated.
One of the teens retrieved a gun from a backpack, put on a face mask to hide his identity (premeditated) returned to the scene and opened fire on Reynolds as he tried to run away.
The masked 14-year-old teen shot Reynolds five times total – 3 times in the back!
The defense argued the ‘teen’ who was out there ‘just trying to make some money’ was acting in self-defense when he repeatedly shot the victim in the back.
The Baltimore jury considered first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and voluntary manslaughter if they believed the ‘teen’ acted in self-defense.
The jury on Thursday refused to return a murder verdict.
Instead, the killer, who is now 16, was convicted on a voluntary manslaughter charge.
A juror then apologized to the teen killer for convicting him on a voluntary manslaughter charge.
The defendant, who has not been named due to his age, is still facing 35 years in prison.
CBS News reported:
Jurors acquitted a 16-year-old of first and second degree murder but found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the death of Timothy Reynolds.
The teen was one of several squeegee workers Reynolds confronted with a bat near the Inner Harbor on July 7, 2022.
WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren reports he is still facing 35 years behind bars unless his attorneys can successfully petition for sentencing as a juvenile.
His lawyers argued he acted in self defense, while prosecutors said the victim was walking away when he was shot and the teenager covered his face when he retrieved a weapon from a backpack near Conway and Light Streets.
Jurors believed the now 16-year-old defendant pulled the trigger and shot Timothy Reynolds but rejected that it was premeditated murder.
Timothy’s sister held up his picture outside of the courthouse.
Timothy Reynolds sister holds up his picture https://t.co/QThQibUZJC @wjz pic.twitter.com/gNzlpQvTxx
— Mike Hellgren (@HellgrenWJZ) July 27, 2023
The post OUTRAGEOUS! Baltimore Jury Refuses to Return Murder Verdict in Trial of Teen ‘Squeegee Worker’ Who Repeatedly Shot Victim in the Back | The Gateway Pundit appeared first on Harmony Evans.
Elizabeth Warren’s Push for a New Tech Regulator
As the influence and power of Big Tech companies continue to grow, concerns about their monopolistic practices, consumer privacy, and national security risks have reached a tipping point. In response to these concerns, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have introduced a groundbreaking bipartisan bill to establish a new federal agency, the Digital Consumer Protection Commission. This regulatory body would be tasked with overseeing and reining in the power of giant tech firms, such as Amazon, Meta, and Google, and addressing a range of anti-competitive behaviors and privacy violations.
In recent years, the dominance of Big Tech companies has raised significant concerns among both lawmakers and the public. These concerns encompass a wide range of issues, including the preferential treatment of their own products, data collection and privacy practices, and national security risks posed by foreign ownership. The proposed Digital Consumer Protection Commission aims to address these issues by providing additional oversight and complementing the work of existing regulatory bodies.
Senator Lindsey Graham expressed his motivation behind the bill, sharing stories of families feeling helpless in the face of Big Tech’s influence. He highlighted the severe consequences, such as cyberbullying leading to suicide, human trafficking, and exploitation of minors, while social media platforms seemingly turn a blind eye. These pressing concerns demand a robust regulatory framework to protect consumers and ensure a fair and competitive digital landscape.
A key aspect of the proposed bill is to tackle the issue of self-preferencing, where tech giants give favorable treatment to their own products on their platforms, thereby creating an unfair advantage over their competitors. The Digital Consumer Protection Commission would ban companies like Amazon, Meta, and Google from engaging in self-preferencing practices, fostering a more level playing field for all market participants.
Furthermore, the commission would work in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Justice Department to authorize and review merger proposals. This proactive approach would prevent anti-competitive consolidation in the tech industry and allow for retroactive review of past mergers to ensure they were fair and did not stifle competition.
In addition to addressing anti-competitive practices, the Digital Consumer Protection Commission would prioritize safeguarding consumer privacy. The agency would guarantee users the right to know when companies collect their data, promoting transparency and providing individuals with more control over their personal information. The commission would also limit targeted advertising, restricting it to data collected from user activity within the platform and excluding information obtained from external sources.
These measures aim to strike a balance between the need for personalized advertising and protecting users’ privacy rights, ensuring that tech companies are held accountable for their data collection and usage practices.
Foreign ownership of tech platforms has raised concerns about potential national security risks, especially with platforms like TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, headquartered in Beijing. The proposed agency would require platforms with foreign ownership, such as TikTok, to either sell their companies to American owners or establish a US-based subsidiary. This provision aims to mitigate potential threats to national security and ensure that critical digital infrastructure remains under American control.
Senator Elizabeth Warren has a proven track record of championing regulatory measures to protect consumers and address systemic issues. Her efforts include the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) following the 2008 financial crisis. The CFPB, authorized by the Dodd-Frank Act, aimed to oversee and regulate financial institutions to prevent predatory practices and ensure fair treatment for consumers.
Building on her success with the CFPB, Warren now seeks to establish a similar regulatory body to address the unique challenges posed by Big Tech. By leveraging her experience and expertise, she aims to create a more accountable and fair digital marketplace.
Although Senators Warren and Graham have taken the lead in introducing the bill, they have yet to secure additional co-sponsors. To advance the legislation, they will need to garner support from more lawmakers and push for a hearing to discuss its potential impact and feasibility.
The bipartisan nature of the bill underscores the growing recognition that addressing the power of Big Tech is a priority across party lines. Both senators emphasize the urgency of reining in Big Tech’s exploitative practices, protecting consumer data, addressing national security risks, and fostering a fair and competitive marketplace.
In summary, the introduction of the Digital Consumer Protection Commission bill by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Lindsey Graham signifies a significant step towards regulating the power of Big Tech companies. By establishing a dedicated agency focused on addressing anti-competitive practices, protecting consumer privacy, and mitigating national security risks, the proposed legislation aims to bring much-needed oversight and accountability to the tech industry. As the bill moves forward, bipartisan support and further collaboration will be crucial in shaping the future of Big Tech oversight and ensuring a fair and equitable digital landscape for all.
First reported on The Verge
Frequently Asked Questions1. What is the Digital Consumer Protection Commission bill?The Digital Consumer Protection Commission bill is a bipartisan legislative proposal introduced by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Lindsey Graham. The bill seeks to establish a new federal agency, the Digital Consumer Protection Commission, to oversee and regulate Big Tech companies, such as Amazon, Meta, and Google. The agency’s primary focus would be to address anti-competitive behaviors, protect consumer privacy, and mitigate national security risks.
2. What issues does the bill aim to address?The bill aims to address several concerns related to Big Tech companies, including self-preferencing, data collection and privacy practices, anti-competitive behaviors, and national security risks posed by foreign ownership of tech platforms.
3. How would the Digital Consumer Protection Commission tackle self-preferencing by Big Tech companies?The commission would ban companies like Amazon, Meta, and Google from engaging in self-preferencing practices, where they give favorable treatment to their own products on their platforms. This measure aims to create a more level playing field for all market participants and prevent Big Tech from gaining unfair advantages over their competitors.
4. What role would the Digital Consumer Protection Commission play in reviewing mergers and acquisitions in the tech industry?The commission would work in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Justice Department to authorize and review merger proposals in the tech industry. This proactive approach would prevent anti-competitive consolidation and allow for retroactive review of past mergers to ensure they were fair and did not stifle competition.
5. How would the Digital Consumer Protection Commission protect consumer privacy?The commission would guarantee users the right to know when companies collect their data, promoting transparency and giving individuals more control over their personal information. The agency would also limit targeted advertising, restricting it to data collected from user activity within the platform and excluding information obtained from external sources.
6. How does the bill address national security risks posed by foreign-owned tech platforms?Platforms with foreign ownership, such as TikTok and its parent company ByteDance headquartered in Beijing, would be required to either sell their companies to American owners or establish a US-based subsidiary. This provision aims to mitigate potential threats to national security and ensure critical digital infrastructure remains under American control.
7. What is the significance of bipartisan support for the bill?The bipartisan nature of the bill indicates that addressing the power of Big Tech is a priority across party lines. Both Senators Warren and Graham emphasize the urgency of regulating Big Tech’s practices, protecting consumer data, and fostering a fair and competitive digital marketplace. To advance the legislation, they will need to garner support from more lawmakers and push for a hearing to discuss its potential impact and feasibility.
8. How does the bill leverage Senator Elizabeth Warren’s experience with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)?Senator Elizabeth Warren’s experience in championing regulatory measures, including the creation of the CFPB after the 2008 financial crisis, informs her efforts to establish the Digital Consumer Protection Commission. Building on her success with the CFPB, Warren aims to create a similar regulatory body to address the unique challenges posed by Big Tech and ensure a more accountable and fair digital marketplace.
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Brad AndersonEditor In Chief at ReadWriteBrad is the editor overseeing contributed content at ReadWrite.com. He previously worked as an editor at PayPal and Crunchbase. You can reach him at brad at readwrite.com.
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New York City to Implement New Restrictions on Utensils, Condiments, Napkins, and Extra Containers in Take Out Orders to Combat Waste and Climate Change | The Gateway Pundit
The Democrats have outdone themselves. After a recent series of policy initiatives targeting everyday appliances such as gas stoves, air conditioners, water heaters, dishwashers, and portable gas generators, the Democrat party have now shifted their focus towards reducing waste generated by utensils, condiments, napkins, and containers (UCNC) used in food service.
In their latest quest to save the planet from waste and climate change, Mayor Eric Adams signed a bill, Skip the Stuff, earlier this year, in relation to “restricting the provision of eating utensils, condiment packets, napkins and extra eating containers, and clarifying the definition of third-party courier service.”
The move is set to take effect on July 31, 2023, affecting food service establishments across New York City.
Under the new rules, food service establishments are prohibited from providing utensils, condiment packets, napkins, or extra containers to take-out or delivery customers, unless specifically requested by the customer.
Online ordering and delivery apps will have to be updated to reflect this default setting, while delivery and courier services are also expected to adhere to these restrictions.
According to the bill summary:
This bill would prohibit food service establishments, couriers who deliver food, and food delivery platforms from providing eating utensils, extra eating containers, condiment packets and napkins to customers for take-out and delivery orders unless the customer requests them.
Delivery platforms would have to provide a means for a customer to request the items, but the bill would require that the default option is that the customer does not request such items.
Food service establishments, couriers and delivery platforms who violate this bill would be subject to civil penalties, however the bill would require that warnings, instead of a monetary penalty, be given for any violation occurring before July 1, 2024.
These new restrictions, however, will not apply to self-serve stations inside food service establishments.
A warning period will be in effect until June 30, 2024. Starting July 1, 2024, establishments not following the restrictions may receive a Notice of Violation. Penalties for violations within a 12-month period will escalate, starting at $50 for the first offense, $150 for the second offense, and $250 for the third and subsequent offenses.
Businesses should be prepared for inspections, at least annually as part of routine inspections or 311 investigations, from the New York City Department of Sanitation and the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.
“New York City has long been a leader in the fight to reduce the use of single-use products — especially plastics — to fight climate change, reduce carbon emissions, and divert waste from landfills,” said Kate Smart, a spokesperson for City Hall. “This is an important step to reduce consumers’ personal waste impact, which is why we support this legislation and look forward to working with the City Council to enact it.”
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