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Execs ignored the damage Instagram does to teens, Meta whistleblower tells Congress

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:06 GMT

Washington (CNN) — Meta’s top executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, ignored warnings for years about harms to teens on its platforms such as Instagram, a company whistleblower told a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday.Meta instead fosters a culture of “see no evil, hear no evil” that overlooks evidence of harm internally while publicly presenting carefully crafted metrics to downplay the issue, said Arturo Bejar, an ex-Facebook engineering director and consultant.Bejar is the latest former insider to level public allegations that the tech giant knowingly turns a blind eye to problems that its policies and technology cannot cheaply or easily address.Bejar’s testimony before members of the Senate Judiciary Committee comes after what he described as fruitless appeals to Zuckerberg and his lieutenants in the fall of 2021 based on research his team had conducted on the experiences of teens and other users of Meta’s platforms.Sexual harassment of teensTuesday’s hearin...

Brandeis University bans Students for Justice in Palestine campus chapter following SJP support for Hamas

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:06 GMT

Brandeis University is banning the campus’ Students for Justice in Palestine chapter after SJP groups across the country applauded Hamas for the terrorist organization’s deadly attacks in Israel.Brandeis SJP following Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Oct. 7 supported “Palestinian resistance in all of its forms” and rejected “the characterization of Palestinian resistance as ‘terrorism.’ ”Hamas terrorists murdered an estimated 1,400 Israeli civilians and troops in the surprise attack. Another 240 Israelis were kidnapped, and nearly 7,000 were injured.The university in Waltham, which was founded by the American Jewish community a few years after the Holocaust, is no longer recognizing the Brandeis SJP chapter after national Jewish groups urged colleges to investigate their SJP chapters — including for possibly violating the ban against materially supporting a foreign terrorist organization.“National SJP has called on its chapters ...

Sturbridge man dead after being electrocuted on the job in Cambridge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:06 GMT

A man working as an AT&T subcontractor died this morning after being electrocuted on the job, authorities say.Cambridge Police went to Bent Street at around 8:30 a.m. after receiving information that a man had been electrocuted, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s office. At that location, police found 44-year-old Sturbridge man, who was not named in the statement, on the ground and they tried to save his life.He was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.“The preliminary investigation suggests that the man was working as a subcontractor at an AT&T facility. At the time of the incident, it appears that he was working on an emergency lighting conduit,” the DA statement reads.His death is under investigation by the DA’s office, including State Police detectives assigned to that office, and Cambridge PD, according to the DA. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, will also investigate.This...

Older adults want to ‘age in place,’ but their options are limited in most states

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:06 GMT

Robbie Sequeira | (TNS) Stateline.orgAs older adults begin to outnumber young people in the United States in the coming decade, advocacy groups are challenging states to shift away from single-family zoning in favor of housing solutions that allow older adults to “age in place.”By 2035, the U.S. will have more people over the age of 65 than under the age of 18, a first in the nation’s history. Recent census data suggests that the U.S. is short of aging-ready homes, with just 40% of the country’s housing considered accessible enough to meet the basic needs of older adults.Organizations such as AARP are lobbying state by state for two housing approaches: the development of so-called middle housing such as duplexes, triplexes and townhomes, and the allowance of accessory dwelling units, often known as granny flats or in-law suites.This year, some states overhauled the type of single-family zoning practices that advocates say have not aged well with the graying population.Many older adu...

Missing 13-year-old girl prompts search in in North County

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:06 GMT

SAN DIEGO — San Diego County Sheriff's deputies launched a search for a missing 13-year-old girl who was last seen near a North County school on Tuesday. She has since been found safe, the department confirmed.According to SDSO, the young girl was last seen just before 10 a.m. near San Elijo Middle School at 1600 Schoolhouse Road. The ASTREA helicopter was launched to assist in the search for the girl, SDSO said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.At 11:50 p.m., authorities told FOX 5 her disappearance is not believed to have been an abduction.SDSO did not disclose any additional details about the incident since she is a juvenile, including where she was found by law enforcement. Although, the ASTREA helicopter also went over Carlsbad during the search, according to local police.

Chile shuts down a popular glacier, sparking debate over climate change and adventure sports

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:06 GMT

The decision by Chile’s National Forestry Corporation to permanently ban hikers from a popular glacier in Patagonia has incensed adventurers and local guides alike. What officials see as a question of safety — citing rapid, destabilizing melting — has sparked a debate over the risks of ice-climbing in a rapidly changing climate.The Explorers, or Exploradores, glacier in Laguna San Rafael national park had been a well-trodden ice-hiking destination in the southern region of Aysén for at least two decades. But a two-week study by government hydrologists, found the glacier is reaching a dangerously unstable “inflection point.”“There are evident risks and uncertainty regarding the behavior of the glacier,” the forestry department, which oversees Chile’s national parks, said in an email permanently banning ice-hiking on Oct. 31. “Conditions are not safe for ecotourism activities on the Explorers Glacier,” it read.Ice-climbers around the world are being forced to adapt to the effect...

A prosecutor says a foreign link is possible to the dozens of Stars of David stenciled around Paris

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:06 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Two couples who allegedly stenciled dozens of blue Stars of David on buildings in Paris and two of its suburbs last week are linked by a third party living abroad, the Paris prosecutor said Tuesday. The link was based on a telephone conversation by one couple in Russian, a statement said.“At this stage, it is not excluded that the markings of the blue Stars of David in the Paris region were made at the explicit demand of a person living abroad,” prosecutor Laure Beccuau said. An investigating judge was taking over the case, “as much to identify the authors as to analyze the intentions that guided the operation.”The war between Israel and Hamas has led to at least 1,040 known acts of antisemitism in France, the interior minister said Sunday. But the prosecutor’s office investigating the appearance of 60 blue stars, similar to those on the Israeli flag, has yet to conclude whether those who put up the stencils had antisemitic intent, Tuesday’s statement said.S...

Telecoms must up network investments to meet growing demand for mobile data: report

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:06 GMT

TORONTO — A new report says phone carriers will need to boost their network investments as it forecasts data consumption in Canada could double by 2027.The report by PwC, presented Tuesday at the Canadian Telecom Summit, says Canadian providers will need to increase their capital expenditures for 5G and fibre networks by two per cent per year to meet the growing demand for mobile data use.It comes after BCE Inc. announced Monday it would cut network investment plans by more than $1 billion in response to a regulatory decision allowing independent internet providers to access large telephone companies’ fibre networks in Ontario and Quebec.The ruling is meant to stimulate competition for internet services in the two provinces, where the CRTC says independent internet providers now serve 47 per cent fewer customers than they did two years ago.Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne says he is reviewing the CRTC’s decision and that the federal government’s “top p...

Cyprus official says Israel-Hamas war may give an impetus to regional energy projects

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:06 GMT

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The political and economic ramifications from the Israel-Hamas war may provide an impetus to plans for a pipeline conveying offshore natural gas to Cyprus for processing and shipping to foreign markets, the east Mediterranean island nation’s energy minister said Tuesday.The fighting in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s desire to boost its energy security also lend weight to a proposed 2,000-megawatt undersea electricity cable that would connect the power grids of Israel and Cyprus to the European mainland via Greece, Cypriot Energy Minister George Papanastasiou said.Papanastasiou said Israel’s contacts with Turkey for possible energy cooperation – part and parcel of the Israeli government’s desire to keeping all available options open – may have fallen by the wayside given Turkey’s increasingly harsh criticism of Israeli actions in Gaza.After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told hundreds of thousands of participants a...

Wisconsin GOP proposes ticket fee, smaller state contribution to Brewers stadium repair plan

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 16:11:06 GMT

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republicans in the Wisconsin state Senate proposed tweaks Tuesday to their plan to help fund repairs to the Milwaukee Brewers stadium that would scale back the state’s contribution by about $35 million and impose a surcharge on tickets to non-baseball events.The Legislature’s finance committee was set to vote on the changes Wednesday. Approval could set up a floor vote in the Senate as early as next week.The Brewers contend that their stadium, American Family Field, needs extensive repairs. The team argues that the stadium’s glass outfield doors, seats and concourses should be replaced and that luxury suites and the video scoreboard need upgrades. The stadium’s signature retractable roof, fire suppression systems, parking lots, elevators and escalators need work as well, according to the team.Team officials have hinted the Brewers might leave Milwaukee if they don’t get public money for the repairs.The state Assembly last month appr...