– Spanish energy company Repsol SA said on Wednesday it rules out a new offshore oil spill in Peru, after the Peruvian environmental regulatory agency said it was investigating if the firm was responsible for a second oil spill in as many weeks. (Reporting by Anthony Esposito)
By Katanga Johnson WASHINGTON – The U.S. securities regulator is considering extending cyber risk management rules to third-party service providers, and beefing up public company disclosures when they experience a breach, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Monday. Gary Gensler, in an address to securities industry professionals, mapped out a sweeping overhaul of SEC cyber rules, including changes to how stock exchanges and clearinghouses mitigate and report on cyber risk under the Regulation “Systems Compliance and Integrity” (SCI) aimed at reducing systems issues and improving resilience. Gensler added that new cybersecurity rules could extend to
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted he was not warned that a garden party at his residence in May 2020 broke pandemic protocols during the country’s first lockdown, BBC News reported. “Nobody warned me that it was against the rules,” Johnson said, BBC News reported. “I would have remembered that.” A former aide, however, said that he warned Johnson the party violated COVID-19 restrictions and accused the prime minister of misleading other lawmakers about the event, BBC News reported. The aide, Dominic Cummings, said he would swear under oath that his statement was true, while two former Downing Street officials
The FBI is investigating the Texas synagogue hostage standoff as a terrorist incident in which the Jewish community was targeted after initially ruling out antisemitism as a motive. “This is a terrorism-related matter, in which the Jewish community was targeted, and is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force,” the FBI reportedly told The Washington Post. FBI Special Agent in Charge Matt DeSarno initially told reporters Saturday that the suspect was “singularly focused on one issue and it was not specifically related to the Jewish community,” the Fort-Worth Star Telegram reported. Hostage taker Malik Faisal Akram died after the
WILMINGTON, Del. – Governor John Carney on Monday signed a revision to the State of Emergency declaration, requiring Delawareans to wear masks in indoor public settings, including convenience stores, grocery stores, gyms, restaurants, bars, hair salons, malls, and casinos. The mask requirement takes effect at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, January 11. Also on Monday, Governor Carney announced plans to extend the school and child care facilities mask requirements, and deployed additional members of the Delaware National Guard to assist with non-clinical operations inside Delaware hospitals. Click here to read Monday’s revision to the State of Emergency. Click here to read the full State of Emergency declaration. “Our hospital
A New York federal judge ruled against Prince Andrew’s motion to dismiss Wednesday in a lawsuit in which the prince is accused of having sexually abused a minor, multiple sources reported. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York stated in a 46-page opinion that the 2009 settlement between Virginia Giuffre and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein would not prevent Giuffre’s 2021 suit against the Duke of York from going forward, BBC News reported. Prince Andrew has denied Giuffre’s allegations, BBC News reported. “[T]his is a motion to dismiss Ms. Giuffre’s complaint as
TRENTON, NJ – The CDC and New Jersey Department Of Health (DOH) have revised their general guidance on isolation and quarantine: If you tested positive for COVID-19 (regardless of vaccination status), you should stay home and isolate for 5 days. If you have no symptoms or your symptoms are resolving after 5 days, you can leave your house but should continue to wear a mask around others for 5 additional days. If you have a fever, continue to stay home until your fever resolves. If you have been exposed to COVID-19 and have received all recommended COVID-19 vaccine doses (received
Ailan Evans on January 6, 2022 Many hospitals are not complying with laws requiring them to make their healthcare prices publicly available, according to multiple reports, and the Biden administration has so far refrained from issuing penalties. The Hospital Price Transparency rule, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2021, is designed to promote competition in healthcare markets by requiring hospitals to post their prices, so that consumers can compare and shop between hospitals. The law mandates hospitals to post their pricing data “as a comprehensive machine-readable file with all items and services” as well as “in a display of shoppable services
A federal district court ruled that the state of New York can force a photographer to take pictures depicting same-sex weddings. In the decision issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr. dismissed the First Amendment claims of Emilee Carpenter, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Geraci was appointed to the federal bench in 2012 by former President Barack Obama. “Her photographs are a product of her personal ‘artistic discretion,’ ‘technical proficiency,’ and ‘moral standards,’ and it is her ‘faith and eye for beauty’ that ‘shape her photography—from first click to final edit,’” Geraci wrote, citing the U.S.
Facebook employees urged executives to exclude criticism directed towards white people and men from the company’s hate speech policies, according to internal documents reported on by The Washington Post. Facebook researchers tried to change the company’s content moderation algorithms that automatically delete hate speech, because they viewed the algorithms as inadequately protecting minority users, The Washington Post reported, citing internal memos and research. The effort came following a document from April 2020 which showed that around 90% of hate speech algorithms were detecting and removing content directed towards white people and men. Researchers argued that these figures indicated bias in
The University of North Carolina can continue using its “race-conscious admissions program,” a federal judge in the state ruled Monday. The nonprofit organization Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), founded by conservative anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, said it would appeal the judge’s ruling that the University of North Carolina (UNC) did not discriminate against white and Asian American applicants through its admissions process, which is supposed to promote diversity, Reuters reported. The SFFA has previously appealed to the Supreme Court over Harvard’s race-conscious admissions process. In the complaint, SFFA said UNC violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
Bryan Babb on October 12, 2021 A federal judge ruled Tuesday that New York state must recognize healthcare workers’ religious exemptions to the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to court documents. U.S. District Judge David Hurd ruled on Tuesday that the mandate conflicts with “individuals’ federally protected right to seek a religious accommodation from their individual employers,” granting a preliminary injunction to the plaintiffs, according to court documents. In response to the vaccination mandate, 17 anonymous healthcare workers filed a lawsuit challenging the New York State Department of Health. Hurd also placed limitations on the New York State Department of
Microsoft is loosening its restrictions on how consumers can repair the tech giant’s devices by sharing more information on its products and expanding consumer access to parts. Microsoft signed an agreement with investor advocacy group As You Sow to study how expanding who can repair its devices can improve climate and social goals, and the company promised to act on the study’s results, according to Grist. The tech giant will permit consumers and repair shops not on Microsoft’s list of authorized providers to access parts schematics for Surface computers and to repair its devices, according to Bloomberg. The company will
A high school girl in Wisconsin has been vindicated by a judge after the local sheriff threatened to put her in jail for posting on social media that she had COVID-19. Amyiah Cohoon went to Florida for spring break during her sophomore year of High School. While she was there, reports of COVID-19 outbreaks among spring breakers were rampant. When she returned home she posted on Instagram that she thought she had COVID-19. She went to the hospital and tested negative, but her doctor said there was a chance she had the potentially deadly virus while she was on spring
A cryptocurrency tax reporting requirement tucked inside the $1 trillion infrastructure bill threatens Americans’ financial privacy and constitutional rights, Rep. Warren Davidson warned. An amendment to section 6050I of the U.S. tax code, buried deep inside the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act currently pending in the House, would impose new surveillance and reporting requirements on individuals trading cryptocurrencies. The requirements would subject certain individuals transacting in “any digital asset” to a provision in the U.S. tax code requiring businesses that receive more than $10,000 in a single transaction to report the name, address, and taxpayer identification number of the person from whom