Thousands of seasonal agricultural workers arrive in Ontario
Story by The Canadian Press • 

Migrant workers hired under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program have started to arrive from the Caribbean and Mexico to help Niagara farmers.

About 3,000 seasonal workers from Mexico and the Caribbean began arriving this month at greenhouses in Niagara, Leamington and other parts of Ontario, said Ken Forth, president of Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services, better known as FARMS.

Thousands of workers come to Niagara-on-the-Lake through the eight-month program to help plant, pick and package fruits and vegetables.

The program has operated in Ontario for 56 years and helps fill labour shortages at farms and greenhouses throughout the province.

“We wouldn’t have the horticulture industry if we didn’t have these workers,” Forth told The Lake Report.

FARMS is a federally run operation that plays an administrative role in the seasonal workers program.

Many of the workers arriving this month are doing greenhouse work. Come spring, they’ll be pruning orchards and vineyards, said Forth.

About 20,000 workers will be coming to Ontario this year, he said, a few more than prior to the pandemic.

“What we’ve seen in the last few years, some people are changing over to the (agricultural) stream,” he said.

The agricultural stream is a one- to two-year program, whereas the seasonal program is only eight months.

“Some growers need people all year-round now and so some of them are slightly reducing their (seasonal) workers and bringing back (agricultural) stream workers,” he said.

He noted this could still be the same worker. Only the length of their contract will have changed.

“This program has kept the horticulture industry in place and has also given an opportunity to the workers to find a job that pays a lot more than they can make at home,” said Forth.

Somer Slobodian, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Lake Report

How can health data be used for public benefit? 3 uses that people agree on

 The Conversation,

Sunday

Health data can include information about health-care services, health status and behaviours, medications and genetic data, in addition to demographic information like age, education and neighbourhood.


Support for use of health data is conditional on whether the use has public benefits.

© (Brittany Datchko/Graphic Journeys)

These facts and statistics are valuable because they offer insights and information about population health and well-being. However, they can also be sensitive, and there are legitimate public concerns about how these data are used, and by whom. The term “social licence” describes uses of health data that have public support.

Studies performed in Canada, the United Kingdom and internationally have all found public support and social licence for uses of health data that produce public benefits.

However, this support is conditional. Public concerns related to privacy, commercial motives, equity and fairness must be addressed.


Public support for use of health data is conditional on things like public benefits, attention to privacy and fairness.© (Brittany Datchko/Graphic Journeys)

Our team of health policy researchers set out to build upon prior studies with actionable advice from a group of 20 experienced public and patient advisers. Studies have shown that health data use, sharing and reuse is a complex topic. So we recruited people who already had some knowledge of potential uses of health data through their roles advising research institutions, hospitals, community organizations and governments.

We asked these experienced advisers to exchange views about uses of health data that they supported or opposed. We also gathered participants’ views about requirements for social licence, such as privacy, security and transparency.

Consensus views

After hours of facilitated discussion and weeks of reflection, all 20 participants agreed on some applications and uses of health data that are within social licence, and some that are not.

Participants agreed it is within social licence for health data to be used by:

health-care practitioners — to directly improve the health-care decisions and services provided to a patient.

governments, health-care facilities and health-system administrators — to understand and improve health care and the health-care system.

university-based researchers — to understand the drivers of disease and well-being.

Participants agreed that it is not within social licence for:


an individual or organization to sell (or re-sell) another person’s identified health data.


health data to be used for a purpose that has no patient, public or societal benefit.

Points of disagreement


The participants also had different views about what constitutes an essential requirement for social licence.© (Brittany Datchko/Graphic Journeys)

Among other topics, the participants discussed uses of health data about systemically marginalized populations and companies using health data. Though some participants saw benefits from both practices, there was not consensus support for either.

For example, participants were concerned that vulnerable populations could be exploited, and that companies would put profit ahead of public benefits. Participants also worried that if harms were done by companies or to marginalized populations, they could not be “undone.” Several participants expressed skepticism about whether risks could be managed, even if additional safeguards are in place.

The participants also had different views about what constitutes an essential requirement for social licence. This included discussions about benefits, governance, patient consent and involvement, equity, privacy and transparency.

Collectively, they generated a list of 85 essential requirements, but 38 of those requirements were only seen as essential by one person. There were also cases where some participants actively opposed a requirement that another participant thought was essential.

Using the findings


Potential benefits of health data use include better patient care, better health system planning and better understanding of disease and wellness.© (Brittany Datchko/Graphic Journeys)

This work was funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada to inform the Pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy. In parallel, an expert advisory group for the strategy recommended that one or more public assemblies be established to provide advice and guidance.

We strongly agree with the expert advisory group’s recommendation to “give voice to people” as the Pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy is implemented.

The findings from our work may help focus the work of the Pan-Canadian Health Data Strategy and other initiatives aimed at expanding uses of health data. These initiatives should start by focusing on uses of health data that have clear public support.

We note that there could be many important benefits just from the users of health data that the 20 participants in our project supported: health-care practitioners; governments, health-care facilities and health system administrators; and university-based researchers. These benefits include better patient care, better health system planning, and better understanding of disease and wellness.

Our hope is that the work described in this article will be a step forward in a concerted and continuous effort to identify and act on increasing the uses of health data that members of the public support.

Read more:

Health data collected during the coronavirus pandemic needs to be managed responsibly

What the public hopes and fears about the use of AI in health care

Story by:

 Kimberlyn McGrail, Professor of Health Services and Policy Research, University of British Columbia, 

P. Alison Paprica, Professor (adjunct) and Senior Fellow, Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto,

 Julia Burt, Public Engagement Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 

Roxanne Dault, Research coordinator, Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire en informatique de la santé, Université de Sherbrooke , 

 Annabelle Cumyn, Professor of Medicine, Université de Sherbrooke • 

P. Alison Paprica receives funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada and national and provincial research funders.

Annabelle Cumyn participates in a research program that receives funding from CIHR. She is affiliated with the University of Sherbrooke and is a member on the Interagency advisory panel on research ethics.

Kimberlyn McGrail receives funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada and national and provincial research funders.

Julia Burt and Roxanne Dault do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

TORY THUGS SHOULD MOVE SOUTH
Large, angry protests target Trudeau government cabinet retreat

Story by Tristin Hopper • 

Hamilton has become the scene of large, chaotic demonstrations in recent days as protesters convened to target a retreat by the cabinet of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.


Protestors yell at the door of a hotel where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is staying during the Liberal Cabinet retreat, in downtown Hamilton, Ont., on January 24, 2023.

© Provided by National Post

From Monday to Wednesday, the 39-member cabinet gathered in the Ontario city in advance of the resumption of parliamentary sittings next week.

The ministers were met Monday by a “ slow roll ” of about 100 cars honking horns and flying flags on the street in front of the Sheraton Hotel hosting the retreat. A large crowd also flanked both sides of the street outside a Royal Canadian Legion in nearby Stoney Creek, where Trudeau had been rumoured to be planning an appearance.

And on Tuesday night, a crowd of several dozen carrying flags and air horns pressed against the windows of the Earth to Table Bread Bar, a downtown restaurant where cabinet members were inside eating dinner.

After the meal, RCMP security and Hamilton police formed a tight cordon around the prime minister as he walked into the crush of protesters and back towards the Sheraton Hotel.

A video of the chaos posted to social media by reporter Harrison Faulkner has now been viewed more than 1.2 million times. Trudeau can be seen smiling and waving as he’s barraged by obscenities and cries of “traitor.”

Related video: Canada’s Cabinet Swarmed by Protesters Calling On Justin Trudeau To Resign (Newsweek) Duration 0:58 View on Watch

Moving the prime minister out of the building had required a bit of sleight-of-hand on the part of security. Officers had moved the prime minister’s official motorcade to the restaurant’s back door to divert the main body of the protest crowd — and then slipped Trudeau out the front door on foot.

“We’re not going to let a handful of angry people interfere with the democratic process,” was Trudeau’s reaction at a Wednesday press event.

The demonstrators mainly identified as standard-bearers for the Freedom Convoy, the protest that began last year as a reaction to federal COVID-19 mandates, but has now morphed into an all-purpose anti-Trudeau political movement.

Tuesday night’s crowd could mostly be seen flying Canadian flags, although there was liberal collection of “F—k Trudeau” banners and the occasional U.S. flag. The centrepiece of the demonstration was a large inflatable sheep bearing a sign reading “99.8 per cent survival rate” — a reference to the infection fatality rate for COVID-19 (the figure is about accurate, although it varies wildly by age group ). On both Monday and Tuesday, there were incidents of fireworks bouncing off the windows of buildings containing the prime minister.

Incidentally, Sunday marked the first anniversary of the Freedom Convoy’s initial arrival into downtown Ottawa, where the group formed an intransigent blockade of the city’s core that would not be evicted until after Trudeau’s government has invoked the Emergencies Act.


Protestors yell at the door of a hotel where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is staying during the Liberal Cabinet retreat, in downtown Hamilton, Ont., on January 24, 2023.

© Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press

By raw poll numbers, Trudeau’s popularity is at its lowest in Western Canada. But it’s in Ontario where the prime minister has encountered the most volcanic displays of public anger.

During the 2021 election campaign, Trudeau was pelted with gravel at a campaign stop in London, Ont. Last summer, he had to cancel an appearance at an Ottawa-area microbrewery after RCMP deemed that the venue was too choked with protesters .

While Trudeau often appeared at townhalls and other public events in the early years of his government, since 2021 his appearances have mostly been limited to controlled venues, ostensibly for security reasons.

‘Angry’ protests must stay peaceful amid ‘tough times,’ Trudeau says

Story by Rachel Gilmore • Global News

Canadians are going through "tough times," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday — but "angry" protests, he added, should remain peaceful despite those difficulties.


A protestor walks past a police line in downtown Hamilton, Ont., where the Liberal Cabinet retreat is taking place, on Tuesday, January 24, 2023. 

He made the comment after footage emerged on social media of the prime minister being swarmed by a small but vocal group of demonstrators in Hamilton, Ont., on Tuesday night, where the Liberal cabinet retreat is taking place.

Security guards and police pushed away the demonstrators as they hurled insults at Trudeau, calling him a "tyrant," demanding his resignation, and shouting profanities.

The cause they were protesting was not made immediately clear in the footage.

"It's really, really important in our democracy that people can express their disagreement or displeasure or even anger with various governments. That's really important," Trudeau said when asked about the incident on Wednesday morning.

"At the same time, our police services and institutions will ensure that those protests remain peaceful and law-abiding. That's something that really matters."

Canada will "always ensure" people are "free to express" their perspectives, Trudeau added.

"A handful of angry people do not define what Hamilton is or what democracy is," he said.

Harassment and threats against public figures have become a growing problem across Canada.

Liberal cabinet retreat: Cost of living at forefront of discussions Duration 2:15  View on Watch

Newsweek Canada’s Cabinet Swarmed by Protesters Calling On Justin Trudeau To Resign
0:58

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino warned over the summer that the growing frequency of harassment against Canadian public figures poses a "threat to democracy" that needs to be taken seriously.

In late August, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was cornered outside an elevator in Grande Prairie, Alta., as a man hurled profanities at her while voicing his opposition to COVID-19 health measures.

In June, Mendicino revealed that Canadian members of Parliament will be getting panic buttons amid a rise in death threats, intimidation and verbal harassment.

When asked whether the increased threats and anger at protests have led Trudeau to step back from open public appearances, the prime minister said that is not the case.

"On the contrary, I'm continuing to be out there to meet with Canadians, to talk with them about their concerns. And I will continue to do that," he said.

"Staying connected, particularly after the tough years of the pandemic, where we all had to change the way we were doing things, remains really important."

Video: Final day of Liberal cabinet retreat

Canadians, Trudeau said, "are facing tough times right now."

The country has been grappling with the soaring cost-of-living as an economic downtown has caused skyrocketing inflation rates. Grocery prices have also soared, and multiple industries have been hit by layoffs.

In a year-end interview with Global News last month, Trudeau had warned Canadians that 2023 will be a difficult year as economic challenges brew.

“Global recession fears, slowing down in the global economy, interest rates continuing to be high, inflation still lingering — it’s going to be tough," he said.

Randy Boissonault, associate minister of finance, had also said on Tuesday at the cabinet retreat that the year ahead is looking "turbulent.

That came the day after a joint report from the Business Council of Canada and Bennett Jones warned that the fiscal forecast laid out in the last federal budget and the fall economic statement was likely too rosy.

The report, written by former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge and former Liberal finance policy adviser Robert Asselin, said the government’s forecast was based on a “plausible but optimistic” set of economic and interest-rate assumptions that are unlikely to come true.

They warn that there is a “high likelihood of a more severe recession” this year, and that the Liberal promises on everything from health-care funding and enhanced national defence spending to infrastructure improvements and climate change are going to cost a lot more than was projected.

“There’s lots of uncertainty,” Boissonnault said.

Despite these difficulties, Trudeau said, "most Canadians roll up their sleeves and say, 'You know what? This is tough, but we're going to be there for each other.'"

"We're going to see each other through this, and we're going to build a better future."

Trudeau is wrapping up his three-day cabinet retreat ahead of Parliament’s return. The retreat, his office said, had a focus on the cost of living and the economy.

— with files from The Canadian Press

NOW YOU SEE HIM, NOW YOU DON'T
Elon Musk's Twitter just reinstated the account of white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who previously said Hitler was 'cool'

Story by sbhaimiya@insider.com (Sawdah Bhaimiya)

Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist organizer, on November 14, 2020.

 Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto 

Elon Musk's Twitter has reinstated the account of white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

 
Fuentes is known for making antisemitic remarks and has praised Hitler, calling him "cool."

 
Numerous right-wing figures have been brought back to Twitter after Musk's takeover in October.



Nick Fuentes is well known as a white supremacist and anti-semite. That hasn't stopped Trump and at least 5 GOP lawmakers from associating with him since 2017.

White nationalist Nick Fuentes has associated with several MAGA stars who claim they don't know him.

Fuentes has spent time with Donald Trump, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar, among others.

GOP leaders like Kevin McCarthy and Mitt Romney have urged others to stay away from Fuentes.

Conservative firebrand Nick Fuentes has had dinner with, posed for pictures alongside, and welcomed on stage at least a half dozen Republicans since becoming a star of the white nationalist movement.

Interactions with the America First Foundation leader have also prompted GOP politicians to deny knowing who Fuentes is and what he stands for. Embattled former President Donald Trump is currently trying to distance himself from Fuentes following a Thanksgiving holiday sit-down at Mar-a-Lago that included the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.

The Anti-Defamation League describes Fuentes as a white supremacist, anti-semite, and 2020 election-denier "who seeks to forge a white nationalist alternative to the mainstream GOP." Fuentes, who has been similarly decried by the Department of Justice and Simon Wiesenthal Center, also founded the far-right America First Political Action Conference in 2020 as an alternative to the Conservative Political Action Conference.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow aired footage compiled by the Right Wing Watch project that shows Fuentes calling for a dictatorship to "force the people to believe what we believe."

"The white people got to make the right decision, and then Trump's got to get in there and never leave," Fuentes said. "It's time to shut up, elect Trump one more time and then stop having elections."
—Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 29, 2022

Trump's meeting last week with Fuentes blindsided Trump's 2024 campaign staff and rattled GOP leaders.

"I don't think it's a good idea for a leader that's setting an example for the country or the party to meet with [an] avowed racist or antisemite," outgoing Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson told CNN on Sunday.

Twitter has just reinstated the account of prominent white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who previously expressed his belief that Hitler was "cool."

Fuentes announced his return to Twitter on Tuesday after being banned from the platform in July 2021 for "repeated violations of the Twitter rules."

He celebrated his return by posting a meme from the cartoon "SpongeBob SquarePants."

Fuentes has a history of extremist behavior including attending a 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, denying the Holocaust, and making racist and antisemitic comments.

Fuentes has also praised Hitler in a video repeating that he is "cool" and "awesome."

Fuentes is just one of several right-wing figures to have their accounts have restored on Twitter since Elon Musk bought the company for $44 billion in October 2022. Figures including Donald Trump, Kanye West, Jordan Peterson, and Andrew Tate, as well as satirical conservative website The Babylon Bee, had their accounts restored.

Fuentes, who is helping Ye — formerly known as Kanye West — with his 2024 presidential campaign, was seen with him at Trump's Mar-a-Lago, and reportedly had dinner with the former president in November 2022. An anonymous source told Axios that Trump liked Fuentes at the dinner and said: "He gets me."

In a December interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Ye — who was joined by Fuentes — praised Hitler and made a number of overtly antisemitic remarks.

Musk suspended Ye's Twitter account after the interview over repeated antisemitism saying: "I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended."

Fuentes also has an online show called "America First with Nicholas Fuentes," where he has also repeatedly made antisemitic comments.

Elon Quickly Finds Out Nick Fuentes Is Just Too Hateful for Twitter

Story by Kyle Barr • 

The 24-year-old white supremacist Nick Fuentes has been at the center of multiple far right campaigns, including multiple stop the steal rallies. His online fan group have executed multiple digital harassment campaigns against critics.


Nick Fuentes wearing a Make America Great Again hat standing in front of an America First flag.© Photo: Nicole Hester/Ann Arbor News (AP)

After just one day after being reinstated back on Twitter thanks to owner Elon Musk’s blanket pardon of hate figures, white nationalist and anti-Semite Nick Fuentes has once again been kicked off the platform.

Twitter reinstated Fuentes on Tuesday without notice or fanfare. Fuentes is known for his live streams where he goes off about offering praise of Adolf Hitler, denying the holocaust, and promoting great replacement theory, all while complaining about how mainstream conservatives have not embraced his brand of hate politics fully enough. The hatemonger has gained even more prominence online as he’s been seen as wingman to disgraced rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West. His fans, a community called “groypers,” spread his messages on social media even though Fuentes has been exiled from most major platforms.

After getting his account back, Fuentes didn’t post too much to his main profile in the few hours he was active. However, Hannah Gais, a senior researcher with the Southern Poverty Law Center, wrote that overnight Fuentes hosted a Twitter Space where he praised both Hitler and domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski, AKA the Unabomber.

Twitter has not made any statement about Fuentes’ or any other far right accounts being reinstated or banned. Gizmodo reached out to the company for comment, but since the platform no longer has a communications team, we will likely not hear back.

Fuentes’ mistake was immediately going all in on his white nationalism. Other neo-Nazis have maintained their accounts long after the Musk-owned platform reinstated them over the last few months. Stop the Steal organizer and fellow far-right personality Ali Alexander also had his account banned on Wednesday. Alexander’s account was reinstated earlier this month.

Other far-right accounts on Twitter have already started stumping for Fuentes and Alexander’s profiles to be reinstated. Fuentes himself has taken to his own cloistered community on Telegram to also ask for his account back. Musk has been known to take advice directly from people on the right, like conspiracist writer Andy Ngo, about accounts to ban. This has included antifascist researchers and other folks who have extensively reported on the far-right.

There has been a rash of hate speech on Twitter ever since Musk took power, which researchers have linked to examples of real world violence. On Wednesday, a group of German Jewish students alongside anti-hate speech organization HateAID filed a lawsuit against Twitter Tuesday, complaining that the company had been failing to remove anti-Semitic content. The groups are arguing they have the legal right to force Twitter to comply with its own terms and conditions against allowing hate speech on the platform.

 Gizmodo

Nick Fuentes Twitter account suspended less than 24 hours after reinstatement

Story by Julia Shapero • 

Twitter has suspended the account of white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes less than 24 hours after his reinstatement on the platform.

Fuentes posted a picture of his suspended account on Telegram on Wednesday morning, with the caption, “Well it was fun while it lasted.”

The 24-year-old leader of the “America First” movement had his account reinstated on Tuesday, after being banned from the platform in July 2021.

In one of his first tweets back, Fuentes posted a short video advertising the 2024 presidential campaign of Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. The video included an apparent reference to a previous antisemitic tweet from Ye, in which he threatened to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”

Fuentes’s brief return to the platform was the latest in a series of efforts by Twitter CEO Elon Musk to bring back individuals who had previously been suspended, including former President Trump and Ye.

However, Musk has faced several setbacks on this front. Trump has so far declined to return to Twitter in favor of his own social media platform Truth Social, and Ye was suspended from Twitter once again in December for posting an image of a Star of David containing a swastika.

Fuentes received increased attention in recent months after he attended a dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort alongside Ye. Trump said at the time that he was not aware of Fuentes’s views prior to the dinner.

Twitter, the communications department of which was shut down following Musk’s takeover of the company in October 2022, did not respond to a request for comment on Fuentes’s suspension.

The Hill.

One of Elon Musk's top lieutenants at Twitter says she 'grew up in a cult'

Story by gkay@insider.com (Grace Kay) • 

Esther Crawford has become a leader at Elon Musk's Twitter 

Getty Images© Getty Images

Esther Crawford, a leader at Elon Musk's Twitter, said on social media that she "grew up in a cult."

Crawford has become a key player in Musk's takeover and went viral for sleeping in the office.

Some workers describer her as "bootlicking," while other say she's helped guide Musk.

Esther Crawford, one of Elon Musk's top lieutenants at Twitter, "grew up in a cult."

Before the billionaire bought Twitter in October, Crawford tweeted about the experience, saying it taught her a lot, including the importance of changing your mind when presented with new facts.

"We had lots of rules (can't cut hair, no makeup, no pants, no tv, no secular music, etc) and hierarchical leadership," Crawford wrote in a tweet on April 16, 2022. "We believed it was the 'end times' so I lived in fear of doing anything wrong & being left behind. I exited on my own when I was 19."

She also shared a photo of herself growing up and with a current picture.

Crawford and a spokesperson for Twitter did not respond to requests for comment from Insider ahead of publication.

Related video: Elon Musk defiantly defends himself in Tesla tweet trial (France 24)

Duration 1:49  View on Watch

DailymotionElon Musk defends himself in lawsuit over Tesla tweet
0:31

While Crawford did not specify exactly what "cult" she grew up in, she did say in an earlier tweet that it was a "very small/insular community" and a sect Christianity.

The Financial Times was the first to report on Crawford's history. She went on to get a bachelor's degree in philosophy at Oregon State University, and a master's in international relations and national securities studies at Durham University, per her LinkedIn.

Crawford worked at a startup in Silicon Valley that was acquired by Twitter in 2020, her LinkedIn profile shows. She also was a social media strategist for Weight Watchers between 2007 to 2012.

At Twitter, she serves as the director of product management and has quickly become one of Musk's top executives at the company. She first garnered public attention in the weeks after Musk took over the company when a picture of her sleeping in the office went viral. Since, she has survived multiple rounds of layoffs at the social media company.

While Crawford appears to have made a positive impression on Musk, some of her coworkers are less impressed. One current employee, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Financial Times that "the sleeping bag incident really bothered people."

A former staffer who said Crawford was "bootlicking" told the publication that "she was willing to sell her soul for her 15 mins of fame."

The FT reported that Crawford introduced herself to Musk on his first day in the office and set up a one-on-one meeting with the billionaire — a move she was later scolded for by a more senior employee.

Meanwhile, other current and former employees told the FT that Crawford is "diplomatic and empathetic" and has played a crucial role in guiding Musk, including by helping smooth tensions with Apple after the billionaire declared "war" on the tech giant and helping temper him behind the scenes.

Elon Musk thinks Twitter is real life

Story by Andrew J. Hawkins •  The Verge

This should come as no surprise, but Elon Musk doesn’t see a downside to being extremely online.




Asked whether his recent tweets — spreading tawdry conspiracy theories about the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband, embracing COVID misinformation, mocking trans people, making groan-inducing, jokes, and exposing himself as a right-wing troll — has harmed Tesla’s brand image, Musk responded with characteristic mocking defiance.
Okay, so I’ve got 127 million followers and it continues to grow very rapidly

“Let me check my Twitter account,” he said in a Tesla earnings call Wednesday evening. “Okay, so I’ve got 127 million followers and it continues to grow very rapidly.”

Apparently the steady growth of his own Twitter presence is all the evidence he needs that his tweets are right and good and his online antics are beyond reproach. No mention of the white supremacists he’s let back on the platform (and then kicked off again after they have reverted to type and said Nazi things) or the worrying rise in hate speech and harassment. No mention of his own declining reputation or the growing calls to ditch his post at Twitter and refocus on the company that actually matters, Tesla.

Related video: Elon Musk defiantly defends himself in Tesla tweet trial (France 24)

Duration 1:49 View on Watch

Just look at that scoreboard.

“That suggests that I’m reasonably popular,” Musk continued. “Might not be popular with some people. But for the vast majority of people, the follow account speaks for itself.”

It’s a bizarre statement from someone who is quite literally on trial on the basis that his tweets have caused measurable chaos, both for himself, his investors, and his company. Musk is facing potentially billions of dollars in damages from a class of Tesla investors who allege that Musk’s tweets misled them and said that relying on his statements to make trades cost them significant amounts of money.
“I’m reasonably popular”

That 2018 tweet has already cost him $40 million — $20 million from Tesla and $20 million from him personally — in order to settle a securities fraud lawsuit from the SEC. Twitter is free for most people to use, but for Elon Musk, the costs have been disproportionately high.

On the earnings call, Musk rattled off a quick pitch for Twitter, noting that it’s an “incredibly powerful tool” that drives demand for Tesla’s vehicles (the company just instituted a massive price cut to account for flagging demand) and suggesting that other automotive CEOs should tweet like him to drive sales. (Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess tried doing exactly that; he was out of a job a year later.)

It’s fair to say that Musk’s Twitter usage has been a disaster. His acquisition of the social media company has diminished his own net worth and left him saddled with debt. A growing number of Tesla owners who bought into his early claims of a more sustainable future are now embarrassed to be seen driving one of his cars. His investors are begging him to stop tweeting, but of course, Elon Musk will never stop.

Twitter, it is often said, is not real life. But to Musk, it’s all that and more.

UK

A striking Amazon warehouse worker says the company treats its robots better than its human staff

Story by bnolan@insider.com (Beatrice Nolan) • 

Amazon warehouse workers in Coventry, UK, are striking over pay. ane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images© ane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images

An Amazon warehouse worker told the BBC the company's robots are treated better than human staff.
More than 300 workers at a UK Amazon warehouse took part in a strike Wednesday, the GMB union said.

A spokesperson for Amazon said a "tiny proportion" of its workforce was involved in the strike.



"I wish we were treated like robots because the robots are treated better than us," Darren Westwood, who works at an Amazon warehouse in Coventry, UK, told BBC Breakfast in an interview that aired Wednesday.

Westwood and another Amazon worker, Garfield Hilton, told the BBC show that Amazon robots could rely on a team of technicians to help them when they broke down, whereas workers didn't receive the same support.

The strike at the Coventry warehouse, called by the GMB union, is the first for Amazon in the UK. The GMB said Wednesday that more than 300 workers walked out. Amazon said there are nearly 2,000 staff at the site.

The strike, over pay, came after Amazon raised hourly wages at the warehouse by 50 pence (60 cents) an hour.

A spokesperson for Amazon told Insider that a "tiny proportion" of its workforce was involved in the industrial action, adding that the company was "proud to offer competitive pay."

Stuart Richards, a GMB senior organizer, said in a statement shared with Insider: "After six months of ignoring all requests to listen to workers' concerns, GMB urges Amazon UK bosses to do the right thing and give workers a proper pay rise."

Westwood and Hilton told the BBC they were constantly monitored at work. Hilton said pausing work for bathroom trips could lead to questions from managers.

"The thing with stopping work is that they want to know why," Hilton said. "So if the time is beyond a couple of minutes they can see it on the system."

A spokesperson for Amazon told the BBC: "Performance is only measured when an employee is at their station and logged in to do their job. If an employee logs out, which they can do at any time, the performance management tool is paused."

Amazon has faced organized walkouts from staff around the world in recent months, with workers citing unfair pay and unsafe practices.

Oregon primate research facility under scrutiny after deaths

Story by The Canadian Press • 

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A state lawmaker in Oregon is using thousands of pages of redacted documents he sought for more than a year to launch legislation demanding more accountability and oversight of a primate research facility with a long history of complaints.



Incidents at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, associated with Oregon’s largest hospital, include one in which two monkeys died after being placed into a scalding cage-washing system. Other animals perished from neglect. Workers have low morale, some have been drinking on the job, and dozens have complained about dysfunctional leadership, the documents show.

The problems at the facility in suburban Portland, Oregon, have surfaced amid a sharp debate between animal rights activists who believe experimenting on animals is unethical and researchers who say the experiments save and improve human lives.

The U.S. moved a small step away from animal testing when Congress passed a bill, signed into law by President Joe Biden in December, that eliminated the requirement that drugs in development undergo testing on animals before being provided in human trials. Advocates want computer modeling and organ chip technology to be used instead, though the Food and Drug Agency Administration can still require animal tests.

“Reasonable people can disagree on whether using animals for medical research is scientifically valid or ethical," Oregon Rep. David Gomberg said in an interview. "But we have to agree that it’s not being done very well here in Oregon.”

After the scalding incident, Gomberg filed a public records request to learn more about the research center. He had to wait for 17 months and pay a $1,000 fee to obtain thousands of pages of redacted internal documents.

The documents revealed that dozens of center employees warned that a leadership culture which cuts corners, deflects responsibility and lacks accountability sets the stage for other tragedies.

Gomberg is now behind a bill in the Oregon Legislature calling for greater transparency, accountability and oversight of the center, which is run by Oregon Health & Science University.

Asked to comment on the issues raised by Gomberg, OHSU sent a statement from Peter Barr-Gillespie, the university’s chief research officer and executive vice president, in which he said faculty and staff at the primate center “understand and embrace the responsibility to provide compassionate and leading-edge veterinary care that comes with the privilege of working with animals.”

“While human error and the unpredictable behavior of undomesticated animals are impossible to completely eliminate, we strive to do everything in our power to employ best practices in engineering, training and supervision to protect against them,” Barr-Gillespie said.

The Oregon facility was cited for more violations between 2014 and 2022 — with 31 violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act — than any of the six other primate research centers funded by the National Institutes of Health, according to a Jan. 19 report from InvestigateWest, a Seattle-based investigative journalism nonprofit.

The other NIH-funded centers are run by the University of California-Davis, the University of Washington, Tulane University, the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Emory University.

In their petition, the Oregon employees — whose names were redacted in the version obtained by Gomberg — said they were devastated by the deaths of the two monkeys, named Earthquake and Whimsy, in August 2020. One of the monkeys died from the scalding water after the cage it was in was accidentally placed in an industrial washing machine. The other survived but had to be euthanized because of its injuries.

“Many of us now grapple with doubts about our purposes here and about our investments in our careers. Our love for these animals leaves us torn between a deep sense of responsibility for stewarding these animals’ welfare and a profound uncertainty of (leadership's) willingness to enact meaningful reform,” the employees wrote.

Gomberg said Oregon Health & Science University, or OHSU, has resisted outside scrutiny.

“My focus with this legislation is simply on accountability and transparency and letting the public know exactly what’s going on at this facility,” Gomberg said.

When People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals also sought public records, OHSU unreasonably withheld photos and video, a Multnomah County Circuit Court judge ruled last July.

Furthermore, university police used a contractor — Pennsylvania-based Information Network Associates, which was founded by a former FBI special agent — to provide information on the animal welfare group's activities and political and social views. Judge Andrew Lavin ordered the university to delete the information, saying the practice violated state law that bans police surveillance unrelated to criminal investigations.

In October, OHSU agreed to pay $37,900 to settle a federal fine for Animal Welfare Act violations between 2018 and 2021, including incidents in which a monkey was euthanized after its head got caught between two PVC pipes; voles who died of thirst; gerbils who died of starvation; and the scalding incident.

Barr-Gillespie said appropriate measures are taken to prevent a recurrence of incidents and that animal studies are conducted only when other methods are inadequate or too dangerous for human participants.

Research at the Oregon center has contributed to a compound that promotes the rebuilding of the protective sheath around nerve cells that is damaged in conditions such as multiple sclerosis, identification of a gene that could lead to development of medication to prevent and treat alcoholism and improved understanding of brain injury and repair, among many other advances, Barr-Gillespie said.

Gomberg, though, said "there are systemic problems within the institution that need to be addressed.”

“I haven’t seen anything that indicates to me that there aren’t more problems on the horizon," the lawmaker said.

Andrew Selsky, The Associated Press

PEI volunteers and communty groups say poverty rising as government remains hush on poverty plan progress.

Story by The Canadian Press • 

Catherine Boyles was always taught to look for people in need, that’s why she lept into action upon learning of a man sleeping in a Montague dumpster a tarp over it during a recent snow storm.

Though she had no vehicle herself, she contacted the RCMP who managed to find the man, who was given a place to sleep for the evening in Charlottetown.

Though only living in Montague since 2018, Ms Boyles began to notice some growing issues.

“We have homeless people in this little province of ours and the amount of people struggling is growing, that’s the part that really gets me.”

This motivated her and a friend to start preparing bagged lunches, containing a sandwich and snacks, and handing them out in front of St Mary’s Church in Montague on Thursdays.

As she is using her own money to help others, Ms Boyles is increasingly frustrated with the government’s lack of action. In Montague if it wasn’t for the nonprofit food bank and other citizens like her, people would be left without as there are no government-run support services in the community.

“On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday there are meals available for people, but what about Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, what are these people supposed to do on those days?”

She is also concerned because there is no emergency shelter for people struggling in the community, except during extreme weather events.

The lack of action and progress upsets Ms Boyles and she fears the worst.

“It’s going to take people dying in the street before anything happens.”

In order to reduce poverty in PEI the provincial government crafted a strategy in 2019, which featured a number of initiatives and programs to be completed by 2024.

The Department of Social Development and Housing was tasked with developing the strategy and created the Poverty Reduction Advisory Council to guide the work.

As part of the strategy, the province is responsible for tracking metrics, such as the number of Islanders experiencing poverty, attachment to employment and the number of Islanders with access to affordable housing.

The province is also supposed to track which projects and initiatives related to the plan it has started, is working on and which it has completed.

Despite that, when asked multiple times to provide that information, the Department of Social Development and Housing didn’t respond to The Graphic.

Karla Bernard is the opposition critic for Social Development and Housing and she isn’t surprised the province didn’t provide any information on the plan.

“I can’t get answers either. To me, if government is accomplishing goals you would think it would be something they would be thrilled to share, but this suggests to me the work is not being done at all.”

Ms Bernard said there is an overall lack of information being shared by the King government.

“This is what we tend to find with this government, they will boast about having the most aggressive plans in Canada toward something but in reality they have no idea how they are going to get there.”

“It is extremely infuriating, we have some really aggressive, important goals in the form of legislation, which is law, but then there are no benchmarks on how we are doing towards that goal.”

Ms Bernard said a prime example of the government’s lack of accountability and communication is in its ongoing Senior’s Food Pilot Program running in eastern PEI.

“I’ve been trying to get information on how it’s going, or if it is even still going, because I have no idea,” Ms Bernard said.

The strategy also claims the province looks to meet the federal government’s targets in reducing poverty by 20 per cent by 2020 and 50 per cent by 2030.

Federal Census Data shows PEI met that goal, dropping its poverty rate from 16.5 per cent in 2015 to 8.7 per cent in 2021, but conditions on the ground don’t necessarily reflect that improvement.

Norma Dingwell is the manager of the Southern Kings and Queens Food Bank in Lower Montague. She said there are still many people in need.

“It has grown considerably,” Ms Dingwell said when asked if traffic to the food bank has increased over the year.

“With the price of rent, food, gas, oil, people have to decide if they want to eat or get medicine or pay their rent, it’s not easy.”

Ms Dingwell said the demand at the food bank was always growing, but even more so over the last three months.

The food bank used to serve around 60 families a week, now it sees over 100.

She would love to see the government do more in eastern PEI and for existing supports to become more accessible.

“They say there are supports available all over the internet for struggling people, but if someone doesn’t know how to use the internet or doesn’t have access, the supports can’t help them.”

Ms Dingwell said a prime example of this is with the province’s 211 phone line, which connects Islanders to various types of support services.

“For the longest time, we at the food bank had no idea that the 211 number people can call for support was even available.”

She finds this frustrating because many of the clients at the food bank could have benefited if they had known the phone line had existed sooner.

Overall, Ms Dingwell said the government has a long way to go before all the needs of people in eastern PEI are met.

“We could have a couple of soup kitchens here, we could have a couple of homeless shelters, or shelters for abused or struggling people, we need programs that are accessible for everybody.”

Ms Boyles agrees with Ms Dingwell and went a step farther, saying maybe the politicians need a reality check.

“I think it would be really good if we all went to Dennis King and the other politicians and got them five or six tents and let them spend a night out in the cold woods. Maybe if they knew what that’s like we would see some changes.”

Dylan Desroche, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Graphic

A new partisan era of American education

Story by Zachary B. Wolf • 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he’s protecting kids from indoctrination and political agendas, but the zeal with which he has pushed expansive efforts to remake the Florida education system also represents an effort to influence young minds.

Changes coming to African American studies course

The College Board, the nonprofit organization that oversees the Advanced Placement program offered across high schools, said it would change a new AP African American studies course that DeSantis said violated a state law to restrict certain lessons about race in schools.

His state’s Department of Education complained the college-level course mentioned Black queer theory and the idea of intersectionality. Read more about why Florida rejected the course.

“Governor DeSantis, are you really trying to lead us into an era akin to communism that provides censorship of free thoughts?” the civil rights lawyer Ben Crump said at a press conference on Wednesday in Florida, where he announced he would sue DeSantis on behalf of three high school students if DeSantis would not negotiate with the College Board about the AP course.

A list of names at colleges and universities

DeSantis recently demanded a list of names of staff and programs related to diversity at public colleges and universities, part of a crackdown on “trendy ideology.”

Separately, he wants details on students who sought gender dysphoria treatment at state universities.

A conservative Christian model for a state school

DeSantis also wants to remake the New College of Florida, a small, public liberal arts school, as a sort of “Hillsdale of the South,” according to Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz.

Hillsdale, as USA Today points out, is a private, conservative Christian college in Michigan.

A new DeSantis appointee to the New College of Florida board of trustees has clashed with board officials over his request to open every meeting with a prayer.

This is a trend

Republicans across the country are focused on education. They want to guard against anything perceived as pushing equity rather than merit.

Virginia’s governor sees a conspiracy in how school districts recognize distinction in a scholarship program based on scores on the PSAT.


Related video: Students, officials plan to sue Florida over rejection of AP African American Studies course (WESH Orlando)   Duration 1:22  View on Watch

WESH  OrlandoFlorida to be sued over rejection of African American Studies course
1:37

CBS NewsFlorida Gov. Ron DeSantis sued over rejection of AP African American studies pilot program
5:28

WPTV West Palm Beach, FLProfessor: Teaching African American studies without discussing suffering is tough
1:54

‘Maniacal focus’ on equity

The state attorney general has launched a discrimination investigation into whether the Fairfax County Public Schools system – including Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a nationally recognized Virginia magnet school – discriminated against students by not informing them of recognition under the National Merit Scholarship program.

The students qualified for recognition but did not advance in the competition for a scholarship.

Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, according to CNN’s report, claimed these revelations were a result of the “maniacal focus on equal outcomes for all students at all costs.”

“The failure of numerous Fairfax County schools to inform students of their national merit awards could serve as a Virginia human rights violation,” the governor’s office said in a previous statement provided to CNN.

Fairfax County Public Schools superintendent Michelle Reid told CNN the recognitions should have come earlier, but cited a lack of a “division-wide protocol” rather than any kind of mania about equity. Read more about the controversy.

Targeting professors in Texas

Texas officials also have their eyes on the state’s colleges and universities, according to CNN’s Eric Bradner.

“Our public professors are accountable to the taxpayer because you pay their salary,” said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in an inauguration speech. Bradner notes Patrick has pushed to end tenure at Texas public colleges and universities.

“I don’t want teachers in our colleges saying, ‘America is evil and capitalism is bad and socialism is better,’” he said. “And if that means some of those professors that want to teach that don’t come to Texas, I’m OK with that.” Read Bradner’s full report.

Meanwhile, in South Dakota, lawmakers are looking to develop a social studies curriculum based on “American exceptionalism,” propelled by the governor’s desire to put more patriotism in the classroom.

Affirmative action at the Supreme Court

The focus by Republican politicians on issues of race in colleges and the classroom is mirrored by the potential for a court-mandated turnaround in how American students are viewed for admissions.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in October in two separate cases regarding affirmative action and seems poised to say colleges and universities cannot consider race in admissions.

Nine states have already outlawed affirmative action for public universities. Voters in California were the first to do so, and the end result was falling enrollment, in particular among Black students at top public schools in the University of California system and at the University of Michigan. Those states both encouraged the Supreme Court not to outlaw affirmative action.

Florida, which also ended the practice, encouraged the court to throw affirmative action out.

Education was a major focus for Republicans in the recent election. While it clearly worked for DeSantis in Florida and a year earlier for Youngkin in Virginia, the mixed results for Republicans writ large may call the strategy into question as the 2024 election looms.

A new era

I read on the education news website Chalkbeat about a new study that predicts more politics in the classroom as Americans increasingly sort themselves by political ideology.

In the working paper, David Houston, an education policy professor at George Mason University, argues that previous debates over desegregation, prayer and sex education in public schools were divisive but not inherently partisan.

He points to the moderate positions of previous presidents as proof. Then-President George W. Bush worked with then-Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy on education reform in 2001. Former President Barack Obama was praised by Republicans in 2012 for his work on education.

Those stories feel like they’re from a different universe when today’s Republican governors are looking to root out liberal extremism in schools.

Houston argues in his study, which is based on survey data, that the US may be on the cusp of a new and divisive era with “heightened partisan animosity across all aspects of education politics.”

CNN.com

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M

Sam Bankman-Fried gave $400 million to an obscure crypto-trading firm cofounded by a Jane Street trader just 2 years out of college, report says

Story by psyme@insider.com (Pete Syme) • 

Sam Bankman-Fried. 

Sam Bankman-Fried sent $400 million to Modulo Capital, an obscure crypto trading firm.

One of the founders was once romantically involved with Bankman-Fried, per the New York Times.

Another, the Times said, was just two years out of college.

The founders of an obscure crypto-trading firm given $400 million by Sam Bankman-Fried had close ties to the FTX founder, according to the New York Times.

Modulo Capital was founded in March 2022, before receiving one of Bankman-Fried's largest investments and drawing the attention of investigators.

A spreadsheet shared by the Financial Times in December 2022 showed that Alameda Research, the trading firm cofounded by Bankman-Fried, invested two separate sums in Modulo — $250 million and $150 million.

The $400 million was given in the third and fourth quarters of 2022, documents from lawyers handling FTX's bankruptcy reviewed by Insider show.

One of Modulo's founders, Xiaoyun "Lily" Zhang, used to be romantically involved with Bankman-Fried, according to four people familiar with their relationship who spoke to the Times.

Her cofounder, Duncan Rheingans-Yoo, had only graduated from Harvard two years before SBF's investment, the Times added.

CoinDesk first reported that Modulo's founders used to work at Jane Street Capital, the trading firm where Bankman-Fried began his career, but didn't publish their identities.

Zhang spent a decade at Jane Street, three years of which coincided with SBF's tenure, while Rheingans-Yoo joined in 2020, per the Times.

Modulo operated out of the Albany Resort, the same luxury complex where SBF lived, according to CoinDesk. Bankman-Fried lived in a $30 million penthouse at the resort, but other FTX employees stayed in condos or villas rented by the company.

Court documents reviewed by Insider show that FTX spent $5.8 million at the Albany in nine months up to September 2022. In 2021, one of the resort's founders told Fortune that, in high season, it could cost up to $60,000 a night to stay there.

Lawyers for FTX's new leadership are currently searching for assets which could be used to reimburse customers of the bankrupt exchange.

Federal prosecutors have already seized over $500 million from Bankman-Fried, including $50 million kept in the tiny Farmington State Bank, but they're still searching for more.

Modulo's founders have not been accused of any wrongdoing, but recently hired a criminal defense lawyer who is a former director of enforcement for the CFTC, the Times reported.

Representatives for Modulo and Bankman-Fried did not respond to Insider's request for comment.