Tag: bans

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Politics

Biden Administration to Use Federal Civil Rights Workplace to Deter States From Faculty Masks Bans

Biden Administration to Use Federal Civil Rights Office to Deter States From School Mask Bans

The nation’s most vulnerable students, namely students with disabilities, low-income students and students of color, have suffered the deepest setbacks when districts pivoted to remote learning, and their disproportionate disengagement has long drawn concern from education leaders and civil rights watchdogs.

Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, students are entitled to a free, appropriate public education, known as FAPE, and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on race, color and national origin.

The department could initiate its own investigations into districts, if state policies and actions rise to potential violations of students’ civil rights. It could also review complaints from parents and advocates who make the case that prohibiting masks mandates is, in effect, a civil rights violation because it could deny a student their right to an education by putting them in harm’s way in school. Such investigations could result in resolution agreements, as many investigations by the office often do, and in the most extreme cases result in revocation of federal funding.

Dr. Cardona said conversations with parents of children with autism, respiratory illness or weak immune systems, “who rely on school for socialization and the important building blocks of learning,” had contributed to his sense of urgency.

“I’ve heard those parents, saying ‘Miguel, because of these policies, my child cannot access their school, I would be putting them in harm’s way,’” Dr. Cardona said. “And to me, that goes against a free appropriate public education. That goes against of the fundamental beliefs of educators across the country to protect their students and provide a well rounded education.”

The administration will also send letters to six states — Arizona, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah — admonishing governors’ efforts to ban universal masking in schools.

Last week, Dr. Cardona sent similar letters to the governors of Texas and Florida, reminding them that districts had both the funding and the discretion to implement safety measures that the C.D.C. recommended for schools. The secretary also made clear that he supported district leaders who defied the governors’ orders.

Categories
Politics

Russia Bans Bard School – The New York Occasions

Russia Bans Bard College - The New York Times

Michael C. Kimmage, a former State Department official who specializes in US-Russian relations, said the bard action sent a terrifying message to academics.

“I can’t think of a responsible administrator at an American college or exchange program who doesn’t take this seriously and is concerned,” said Dr. Kimmage, now professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington.

Russia has taken several steps to reduce educational exchanges between the two countries, despite trying to establish educational partnerships elsewhere and improve the quality of its domestic public universities.

In 2014, the Russian government withdrew from the Future Leaders Exchange program, a US State Department-funded initiative to promote US study by foreign high school students, after a Russian teenager studying in Michigan sought political asylum had. More recently, limited consulate services have made it difficult for Russian students to obtain a visa to study in the United States.

Suspicions have also increased in the USA. In 2019, a program at the American University in Washington was criticized as being too soft on Russia, and the Russian ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, accused the US news media of Russophobia while calling for increased cultural exchange between the countries.

Several American universities set up programs in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but some of them have closed in recent years. In 2018, Stanford University announced that it was suspending its Russian study abroad programs, citing security issues. That same year, Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts began phasing out its program at Astrakhan State University in Astrakhan, Russia, citing the cost and difficulty of managing its program from the United States as reasons.

The decline may be largely symbolic, indicative of the deterioration in relations between countries. Russia has never been a major partner in international study programs with the United States and ranks low on the list of countries whose students come to the United States. And according to the Institute of International Education, the number of Americans studying abroad in Russia fell to 1,305 in 2019, and data is available for the last year, from 1,827 in 2011.

Categories
Business

Fb Bans Myanmar Army Accounts in Aftermath of Coup

Facebook Bans Myanmar Military Accounts in Aftermath of Coup

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook announced Wednesday that it banned Myanmar’s militarily and militarily controlled state and media units from its platforms weeks after the military toppled the country’s fragile democratic government.

The move plunged the social network directly into Myanmar’s post-coup politics – and left no question unanswered that it was picking sides in a heated political struggle.

After years of criticism of how the Myanmar military used the website, Facebook acted, among other things, to incite hatred against the country’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority. Since the coup earlier this month that toppled civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and returned Myanmar to full military rule, the military has repeatedly shut down the internet and blocked access to major social media sites, including Facebook.

The social network went offline a few days ago on the main news site of the Myanmar military and another site on the state television channel. Official reports by high-ranking military leaders in Myanmar linked to the violence in Rohingya in 2018 were also deleted. However, many other sites related to the military were still online.

Now Facebook has taken further measures to make it clear that it is making a political judgment. In a statement, the company said it banned “remaining” accounts related to the military because the coup was “an emergency”.

“Events since the February 1 coup, including deadly violence, have sparked the need for this ban,” the company said. The risk of leaving the Myanmar military on Facebook and Instagram is “too great”. It was said that the military was banned indefinitely.

The action underscores the difficulty Facebook is facing in terms of what it allows on its website. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, has long advocated freedom of speech and merely positions the website as a platform and technology service that does not stand in the way of government or social disputes.

But Mr Zuckerberg has been increasingly scrutinized by lawmakers, regulators and users for this attitude and for allowing hate speech, misinformation and content that incites violence on Facebook.

Over time, Facebook has become more active, which is published on its platform, especially last year with the US election. Last year it hit pages and posts on the QAnon conspiracy theory movement. And last month, Facebook banned then-President Donald J. Trump from using the service for at least the remainder of his tenure after urging his supporters to oppose the election results, sparking a riot in the U.S. Capitol. Mr. Trump still cannot post on Facebook.

Critics have said that many of these steps were too little, too late.

Categories
Business

JetBlue scraps ticket-change charges however bans overhead bin entry for the most affordable fares

JetBlue scraps ticket-change fees but bans overhead bin access for the cheapest fares

JetBlue Airways planes are pictured at the departure gates of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Fred Prouser | Reuters

JetBlue Airways exempts ticket exchange fees on most of its tickets, but travelers buying the cheapest fares should take light bags.

The New York-based airline announced Tuesday that it will guarantee seats on its standard bus fares up to Mint Business Class starting July 20. However, travelers who have booked Blue Basic, the airline’s cheapest option, are banned from using baggage hold, a policy United Airlines introduced when it began selling simple, no-frills economy tickets in 2017.

If JetBlue fails to deliver on its promise, travelers are given a $ 25 loan. That’s a relatively easy task during the pandemic, when few people are traveling, but finding luggage space has been a “major pain point” for travelers when boarding, the airline said.

Airline executives have stated that these simple options are designed to compete better with discount airlines Spirit Airlines and Frontier, which derive much of their revenue from bag and seat selection additional fees. However, they have also said that they would like many travelers to avoid these most restrictive fares and pay more for the standard economy.

JetBlue wants to make these cheaper, more restrictive tariffs cheaper.

“Right now, our Blue and Blue Basic offerings are very similar,” said JetBlue President and COO Joanna Geraghty in a message to employees. “We need to better differentiate the two by making blue the gold standard and strategically focusing on lowering the price of Blue Basic.”

Categories
Business

U.S. Bans All Cotton and Tomatoes From Xinjiang Area of China

U.S. Bans All Cotton and Tomatoes From Xinjiang Region of China

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a ban on imports of cotton and tomatoes from China’s Xinjiang region, as well as all products made with these materials, citing human rights violations and the widespread use of forced labor in the region.

The move could have far-reaching implications for apparel and food manufacturers, many of whom have tried to distance themselves from the atrocities in Xinjiang but have struggled to ensure their supply chains are free of all raw materials from the region. The area is an important source of cotton, coal, chemicals, sugar, tomatoes and polysilicon, a component of solar panels, which are then fed to factories across China and around the world.

The ban allows customs officials to stop imports that they suspect are made with raw materials from Xinjiang, regardless of whether they are traveling to the US directly from China or any other country.

China has harshly attacked predominantly Muslim minority groups in far west of Xinjiang, including detaining a million or more Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other groups in camps and closely monitoring the rest of the population, human rights groups say.

Forced labor also appears to be widespread in the region. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said an investigation found numerous indicators of forced labor in Xinjiang, including debt bondage, restricted mobility, withheld wages and abusive living and working conditions. The Chinese government denies the existence of forced labor in Xinjiang and states that all agreements are voluntary.

Scott Nova, executive director of the Workers Rights Consortium, a labor rights group, described the ban as “a high decibel wake-up call for any clothing brand that continues to deny the proliferation and problem of forced labor cotton” in the region.

“This ban will redefine how the clothing industry – from Amazon to Nike to Zara – sources its materials and workers,” said Nova. “Any global clothing brand that is neither from Xinjiang nor planning a very quick exit is campaigning for a legal and reputational disaster.”

The Workers Rights Consortium estimates that American brands and retailers import more than 1.5 billion garments each year that use Xinjiang materials, representing more than $ 20 billion in retail sales. China is also the world’s largest tomato producer, with Xinjiang making up most of that production, the group said.

Independent researchers and media reports have linked dozens of the world’s best-known multinationals with workers or products from Xinjiang, including Apple, Nike, Kraft Heinz and Campbell Soup.

Some textile and clothing companies that used Xinjiang cotton or yarn have announced that they will separate ties, including Patagonia, Marks and Spencer, and H&M. However, many companies have found it difficult to identify the origin of all products used by their Chinese suppliers investigate, particularly given the lack of independent auditor access to facilities in Xinjiang.

The contract will “send a crystal clear message to the trading community: know your supply chains,” said Mark Morgan, acting commissioner for US Customs and Border Protection. Importers need to ensure that their own supply chains are free of forced labor, he added. “It’s the law.”

The Trump administration has added increasingly restrictive measures to Xinjiang, including sanctions against dozens of companies and individuals for alleged human rights abuses.

In December, customs officials announced a ban on cotton products from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, an economic and paramilitary group that produces much of the region’s cotton. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has already arrested 43 shipments worth more than $ 2 million under the ban, officials said on Wednesday.

Congress is also considering sweeping legislation that would block imports from Xinjiang unless companies can demonstrate that supply chains in the region are free from forced labor.

While the United States has taken the most vigorous action on this front, both Canada and Britain this week put rules in place to prevent Xinjiang-related goods from entering their countries.

Despite growing concerns about Chinese practices in the region, Xinjiang’s exports to the US and Europe increased significantly from 2019 to 2020, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

However, trade experts say the new measures will raise questions about whether customs officials will be able to fully enforce such a sweeping ban that requires tracing Xinjiang materials through supply chains around the world.

A report released in October by the US Government Accountability Office found that customs faced staff shortages and other problems despite a new department and new resources to block goods made using forced labor.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Brenda Smith, the deputy commissioner for the Trade and Border Protection Bureau, said it was “a challenge to relate what we see in a port of entry to the raw materials produced in Xinjiang. “The department is using new tracking methods to uncover products made using forced labor, she said.

The department is increasingly using new technologies such as pollen analysis to try to identify cotton and other materials from Xinjiang in overseas products.

Categories
World News

Twitter bans Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell and different QAnon accounts

Twitter bans Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell and other QAnon accounts

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, testifies via videoconference in this screenshot from a video taken during a Senate Judicial Committee hearing titled “Breaking the News: Censorship, Suppression, and the 2020 Election” on Facebook and Twitter regarding the Moderation of content was created on Capitol Hill in Washington, USA, November 17, 2020.

Reuters

Twitter announced on Friday that it was permanently banning accounts for sharing content related to the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory.

As part of this purge, the company suspended the accounts of Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell, supporters of President Donald Trump.

“The accounts have been blocked under our coordinated malicious activity policy,” the company said in a statement to NBC News. “We knew we were going to take strong enforcement measures against behavior that could lead to offline harm, and given the renewed potential for violence associated with this type of behavior in the coming days, we will only permanently lock accounts.” dedicated to sharing QAnon content. “

Former US National Security Advisor Michael Flynn shows as a supporter of US President Donald Trump’s rally to protest election results in front of the Supreme Court building in Washington, USA, on December 12, 2020.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Flynn, a retired Army Lieutenant General and former national security adviser to Trump, was pardoned by Trump in November. He pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the United States before Trump was inaugurated four years ago this month. Powell, a lawyer, assisted Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani in rejecting the presidential election results. She made a number of allegations of alleged election fraud, none of which have been recognized as legitimate by a court.

Both Flynn and Powell are active in the QAnon community. Twitter has also banned the account of Ron Watkins, who is the administrator of the 8kun website, formerly known as 8chan.

Attorney Sidney Powell speaks at a press conference on election results in Alpharetta, Georgia, the United States, on Dec. 2, 2020.

Elijah Nouvelage | Reuters

The suspensions come after the riot at the US Capitol on Wednesday.

Twitter’s coordinated malicious activity policy doesn’t allow groups to engage in activities that cause harm on Twitter or in the real world.

Twitter had previously taken action against thousands of QAnon-related accounts in July 2020. Though some accounts involved in the QAnon movement are hard to find, Flynn was a prominent player in the political arena and took an oath to QAnon in July on a publicly available video.

– CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.