Big Tech Companies Join Linux in Effort to Kill Google Maps

Kyle Barr
Thu, December 15, 2022 

A VR representation of a city showing a navigation screen in a 3d representation of a city.

Companies like TomTom have struggled for years to beat Google Map’s might in the world of navigation and geolocation, but a partnership facilitated by the Linux Foundation might offer them and the likes of Meta and Microsoft a new means of one-upping the current king.

Some of Google’s biggest rivals are coming together in a kind of rogues gallery with the hopes of creating new open source services to knock Google Maps from its mapping throne.

On Thursday, the nonprofit Linux Foundation announced its own open project that’s meant to collate new map projects through available datasets. And several other major companies have come out of the woodwork to support it in what seems like a bid to finally end Google’s domineering geolocation reign. Those companies include Meta, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and none other than Dutch geolocation company TomTom.

This Overture Maps Foundation is essentially an open source program for curating and collating map data across the globe from multiple different data sources. So in essence, the project promises it will use the massive amount of global data housed by these various companies and from outside to build up-to-date maps that developers can then use. Linux also promised this new project will essentially level the playing field for anybody looking to develop up-to-date geolocation services or maps without breaking the bank on expensive commercial data that may not even be accurate.

In the release, Linux Foundation’s Executive Director Jim Zemlin said “Mapping the physical environment and every community in the world, even as they grow and change, is a massively complex challenge that no one organization can manage.”

Of course, all the companies involved could have a major stake in such open services. AWS’ general manager Michael Kopenec said in the release that map data is “cost prohibitive and complex,” though it’s unclear if Amazon wants to break into the world of geolocation as well. Overture could also be a boon to its flagging “metaverse” ambitions, with applications in both VR and AR. The company has its own street view company called Mapillary, and it’s already worked alongside Microsoft on street mapping data.

While Google and its parent company Alphabet were combining its Maps and Waze teams, its street view and AR capabilities keep getting more sophisticated, leaving its potential competitors in the dust, even after it was cited for selling users’ location data. That domination is so great that Google Maps has mapped more than 220 countries and territories, according to the company. Maps is the most-downloaded GPS app by far, and it’s not even close.

Though TomTom’s market share has seriously depleted since highs in 2008, the company has survived against Google Maps with deals in countries where the top performing app wasn’t available. Last month, the company announced a new maps platform. TomTom’s Chief Technology Officer Eric Bowman said in an internal Q&A “The world of maps today is pretty siloed. Everyone who is making a commercial map—whether they admit it or not—is starting to see that there are limits to what any one company can do, no matter how big or powerful or well funded they are.”

TomTom’s CEO Harold Goddijn, said in a release “Overture’s standardization and interoperable base map is fundamental to bringing geospatial information from the world together.”

Meta, Microsoft, AWS and TomTom launch the Overture Maps Foundation to develop interoperable open map data

Paul Sawers
Thu, December 15, 2022 

The Linux Foundation has partnered with some of the world's biggest technology companies to develop interoperable and open map data, in what is a clear move to counter Google's dominance in the mapping realm.

The Overture Maps Foundation, as the new effort is called, is officially hosted by the Linux Foundation, but the program is driven by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Facebook's parent company Meta, Microsoft and Dutch mapping company TomTom.

The ultimate mission of the Overture Maps Foundation to power new map products through openly available datasets that can be used and reused across applications and businesses, with each member throwing their own data and resources into the mix.

"Mapping the physical environment and every community in the world, even as they grow and change, is a massively complex challenge that no one organization can manage," noted the Linux Foundation's executive director Jim Zemlin in a press release. "Industry needs to come together to do this for the benefit of all."


Map and location data plays such a fundamental role across society today, powering everything from IoT (Internet of Things) devices and self-driving cars, to logistics and big data visualization tools. Having all that data under the auspices of just one or two mega-firms can be hugely restrictive in terms of what companies can do with the data and what features they have at their disposal, not to mention the costs involved in licensing it.

Spatial mapping will also be vital to emerging technologies such as those required for the Metaverse, which Meta is heavily invested in.

"Immersive experiences, which understand and blend into your physical environment, are critical to the embodied internet of the future," added Jan Erik Solem, engineering director for Maps at Meta. "By delivering interoperable open map data, Overture provides the foundation for an open metaverse built by creators, developers, and businesses alike."

The anti-Google?

Google is a notable omission from the Overture Maps Foundation's founding members. Indeed, that such big names and rivals from the technology sphere are coming together in partnership is probably testament to the stranglehold Google has on the world of mapping, a position it has slowly garnered since launching its Android mobile operating system nearly fifteen years ago.

Moreover, with the iPhone arriving around the same time, a combination that brought maps and navigation into the pockets of millions of people globally, this had a monumental impact on incumbents such as TomTom, which had built a substantial business off the back of physical navigation devices plastered to car windshields.

This graph shows how TomTom's shares plummeted with the advent of the modern smartphone era.

TomTom's shares since the launch of Android and iOS 15 years ago

In the intervening years, TomTom has tried to evolve, striking map and data partnerships with the likes of Uber and Microsoft, while it has also targeted developers with SDKs and hit the acquisition trail to bolster its autonomous vehicle ambitions. But the fact remains, Google and its mapping empire still rule the roost for the most part, something that this new collaboration will go some way toward addressing.

“Collaborative mapmaking is central to TomTom’s strategy -- the Overture Maps Foundation provides the framework to accelerate our goals," TomTom CEO Harold Goddijn noted in a press release. "TomTom’s Maps Platform will leverage the combination of the Overture base map, a broad range of other data, and TomTom’s proprietary data in a continuously integrated and quality-controlled product that serves a broad range of use cases, including the most demanding applications like advanced navigation, search, and automated driving."
Open sesame

The emergence of this new foundation jibes with trends elsewhere across the technology spectrum, with a growing push toward decentralized and interoperable social networks driven by regulatory and societal pressures. Elsewhere, the Linux Foundation also recently announced the OpenWallet Foundation to develop interoperable digital wallets, pushing back against the closed payment ecosystems fostered by tech juggernauts including Google and Apple.

Today's announcement very much fits into that broader trend.

The founding companies are planning to engage in collaborative map-building programs, meshing data from myriad open data sources and knocking it into a format that's consistent, standardized, and fit for use in production systems and applications. This will include channeling data from long-established projects such as OpenStreetMap, in addition to open data provided by municipalities.

While there are only four member companies at launch, there are plans to expand things in the future to include any company with a direct vested interest in open map data.

For now, the Overture Maps Foundation said that it's working toward releasing its first datasets in the first half of 2023, and will include "basic" layers such as roads, buildings, and administrative information. Over time, this will expand to include more places, routing and navigation, and 3D building data.

House approves referendum to 'decolonize' Puerto Rico


Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., left, speaks with Del. Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, R-Puerto Rico, joined at right by Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., after a vote on the Puerto Rico Status Act that would lay out a process for the people of Puerto Rico to determine the future of their political status, in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022.

 (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FARNOUSH AMIRI and DÁNICA COTO
Thu, December 15, 2022 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House passed a bill Thursday that would allow Puerto Rico to hold the first-ever binding referendum on whether to become a state or gain some sort of independence, in a last-ditch effort that stands little chance of passing the Senate.

The bill, which passed 233-191 with some Republican support, would offer voters in the U.S. territory three options: statehood, independence or independence with free association.

“It is crucial to me that any proposal in Congress to decolonize Puerto Rico be informed and led by Puerto Ricans,” said Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees affairs in U.S. territories.

The proposal would commit Congress to accept Puerto Rico into the United States as the 51st state if voters on the island approved it. Voters also could choose outright independence or independence with free association, whose terms would be defined following negotiations over foreign affairs, U.S. citizenship and use of the U.S. dollar.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who has worked on the issue throughout his career, said it was “a long and torturous path” to get the proposal to the House floor.

“For far too long, the people of Puerto Rico have been excluded from the full promise of American democracy and self-determination that our nation has always championed,” the Maryland Democrat said.

After passing the Democrat-controlled House, the bill now goes to a split Senate where it faces a ticking clock before the end of the year and Republican lawmakers who have long opposed statehood.

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, traveled to Washington for the vote. He called it a historic day and said the 3.2 million U.S. citizens who live on the island lack equality, do not have fair representation in the federal government and cannot vote in general elections.

“This has not been an easy fight. We still have work to do,” he said. “Our quest to decolonize Puerto Rico is a civil rights issue.”

Members of his party, including Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González, cheered the approval of the bill, although reaction in the U.S. territory was largely muted and tinged with frustration since it is expected to be voted down in the Senate.

The proposal of a binding referendum has exasperated many on an island that already has held seven nonbinding referendums on its political status, with no overwhelming majority emerging. The last referendum was held in November 2020, with 53% of votes for statehood and 47% against, with only a little more than half of registered voters participating.

The proposed binding referendum would be the first time that Puerto Rico's current status as a U.S. commonwealth is not included as an option, a blow to the main opposition Popular Democratic Party, which upholds the status quo.

Pablo José Hernández Rivera, an attorney in Puerto Rico, said approval of the bill by the House would be “inconsequential” like the approval of previous bills in 1998 and 2010.

“We Puerto Ricans are tired of the fact that the New Progressive Party has spent 28 years in Washington spending resources on sterile and undemocratic status projects,” he said.

González, Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress, praised the bill and said it would provide the island with the self-determination it deserves.

“Many of us are not in agreement about how that future should be, but we all accept that the decision should belong to the people of Puerto Rico,” she said.

___

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

All but 16 House Republicans vote against bill to allow Puerto Rico to decide its future

Bryan Metzger
Thu, December 15, 2022

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other House Republicans at a press conference on Wednesday.Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

• The House passed a bill to allow Puerto Rico voters to choose independence, statehood, or free association.

• Only 16 Republicans joined all Democrats in supporting the bill.

• Republicans opposed the bill in part due to long-standing opposition to Puerto Rico's statehood.

The House of Representatives voted by a 233-191 margin on Thursday to pass the Puerto Rico Status Act, with all but 16 House Republicans voting against the measure. Every House Democrat voted for the bill.

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who worked on the bill and is of Puerto Rican descent, presided over the vote.

 

The bill would give voters in Puerto Rico the opportunity to vote in a plebiscite next November, allowing them to choose between statehood, independence, or to enter into a compact of free association with the United States.

Lawmakers had long been working on the bill, and its addition to the calendar this week was unexpected. A handful of Republicans had co-sponsored the legislation, including Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida and Don Bacon of Nebraska.

It also had the support of the territory's Republican Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón who serves as a non-voting representative for the island in Congress.

Despite House passage, the bill is unlikely to pass the Senate, where it would need at least 10 Republican supporters.

House Republicans on Thursday cited a number of reasons for opposing the bill, including a lack of debate and the possibility that it would lead to statehood, which they've long opposed.

"At this point in time I'm not, you know, interested in going down that road," Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas told Insider. "We didn't have a debate about it, I haven't been a part of any of the debates on this. They're trying to jam this through right before Christmas."

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia told Insider that she didn't think the bill was "the right way to go about something like that."

"I'm just not interested in Puerto Rico being a state," she said, adding that she didn't believe people living in Puerto Rico should get to vote on that.

Here are the 16 Republicans who voted for the bill:

• Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska

• Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming

• Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois

• Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania

• Rep. Mayra Flores of Texas

• Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York

• Rep. Tony Gonzalez of Ohio

• Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington

• Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan

• Rep. Dave Joyce of Ohio

• Rep. John Katko of New York

• Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington

• Rep. Bill Posey of Florida

• Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of New York

• Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania

• Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan

Experimental Shock-Absorbing Material Can Stop Projectiles Traveling Over 3,000 MPH


Andrew Liszewski
Thu, December 15, 2022 

Photo: Wikimedia - Nathan Boor & Kurt Groover of Aimed Research (Other)

A team of researchers from the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, have used a protein called talin, which functions as “the cell’s natural shock absorber,” to create a new shock-absorbing material capable of stopping projectiles traveling at supersonic speeds without destroying them in the process.

Developing materials to improve the efficacy of armor isn’t a pursuit exclusive to the militaries of the world. Shock-absorbing materials have benefits in other fields, too. In the aerospace industry, they’ll be essential as we continue to expand our presence in space, where even tiny particles moving at supersonic speeds can cause significant damage to spacecraft. Even other researchers can benefit from breakthroughs in this field, particularly those conducting experiments with high-speed projectiles that eventually need to be safely stopped.

The current design of projectile-stopping armors and materials uses a mix of ceramics and fiber-based components layered together, which are effective at stopping a high-speed object from passing straight through them, but end up transferring a lot of the projectile’s kinetic energy onto the armored vehicle or person, often resulting in non-fatal injuries. These materials also tend to get destroyed in the process, requiring them to be replaced after every use. This new research brings us one step closer to solving the unique challenges of developing shock-absorbing materials.

At the molecular level, talin has a structure that unfolds under tension to dissipate energy and then fold back up again afterwards, leaving it ready to absorb shocks again and again, keeping cells resilient against outside forces. When the protein was combined with other ingredients and polymerised into a TSAM (or Talin Shock Absorbing Material), those unique shock-absorbing properties were maintained.

To test the effectiveness of TSAMs, the researchers subjected them to impacts from basalt particles (around 60 µM in size, or roughly the diameter of a human hair) and later, larger aluminum shrapnel, traveling at 1.5 kilometers/second. That’s over 3,300 miles per hour, and three times faster than the speed of a nine-millimeter bullet fired from a hand gun. Not only was the impact of the particles completely absorbed by the TSAM material, but the particles themselves weren’t destroyed in the process.

The size of these test materials means the particles weren’t imparting as much energy into the TSAMs as a projectile fired from something like a tank would, but it does help demonstrate their potential. Eventually, the researchers are confident the hydrogel could be incorporated into lighter wearable armors for soldiers that do a better job of absorbing the energy of an impact, while retaining their shock-absorbing capabilities, even after saving a life.

It would potentially be even more useful for the aerospace industry, both for protecting spacecraft and for research involving space debris, dust, and micrometeoroids, which could be captured without being destroyed in the process. Of course, the captured micrometeroids would be easier to study than a handful of decimated dust. But far more important to regular readers of Gizmodo is how this new material can be incorporated into smartphone cases, making our expensive investments as durable and resilient as the nearly indestructible Nokia handsets from years ago.

Migrants tell of mass kidnappings in Mexico before crossing into the U.S.



Kidnapped migrants gather after a rescue operation, in Ciudad Lerdo

Wed, December 14, 2022 
By Jose Luis Gonzalez, Jackie Botts and Daina Beth Solomon

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Many of the hundreds of migrants who crossed the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juarez into El Paso this week were part of a group kidnapped in Mexico as they made their way to the United States, according to nine migrants interviewed by Reuters.

Testimony from the nine migrants suggests there were multiple kidnappings across several days in the northern state of Durango, with people taken to at least two main locations and held against their will while ransoms were demanded.

The kidnappings are a stark reminder of the dangers faced by migrants as they travel across Mexico, crisscrossing areas rife with drug violence and weak rule of law.

Most of the kidnapped migrants were Nicaraguans, who have been leaving their homeland in growing numbers to claim asylum and pursue better economic opportunities in the United States, encouraged by the knowledge they are unlikely to be immediately deported due to frosty relations between their government and Washington.

The incidents appear to comprise one of the biggest known mass kidnappings in Mexico in recent years, said Stephanie Leutert, an immigration expert at the University of Texas at Austin.

Four migrants said people in police uniforms stopped the buses they were traveling in and attempted to extort them for between 200 pesos ($10) and 5,000 pesos ($255), before entire busloads were taken by armed men to nearby properties where they were held against their will.

Durango's state security office said it had not received complaints of state police officers involved in the kidnapping and that municipalities were responsible for their own officers. The Durango prosecutor's office said it had not opened an investigation because it had not received any complaints but confirmed rescues had taken place on Dec. 5 and 7.

In one incident, Mexico's Migration Institute (INM) said that along with the Army and National Guard it had freed more than 250 people from a property in the Durango town of Ciudad Lerdo on Dec. 5. The National Guard confirmed the details in a separate statement.

In another incident, six migrants Reuters spoke to described being held captive for several days. Two of them specified that they were rescued along with hundreds of other migrants by Mexican federal law enforcement on Dec. 7, and then began walking north on highways.

Fernando Reverte, president of Mapimi, a municipality which the migrants passed through after their capture and release, said the group of kidnapped migrants totaled about 1,500.

Mario Rizo, one of the migrants who said he was kidnapped, said he believed his bus was stopped in the area of the adjacent cities of Gomez Palacio and Lerdo by people in a municipal police patrol truck. Two other migrants also said they had seen people in municipal police uniforms during the kidnapping.

The head of the public safety unit in Gomez Palacio, Ivan Torres, confirmed at least 300 people had been rescued on Dec. 7 from a rural site in the area but that his officers had not been involved in the kidnapping. The Lerdo mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reuters could not verify the total number of people who were kidnapped in the region last week. Migrant estimates of the different incidents, combined with the INM figure, suggests it was over 1,000.

Authorities have not announced anyone caught or charged with kidnapping.

'REACHED THE END'

Kidnappers rationed meager food and water, prioritizing women and children, the migrants told Reuters. They said they spent chilly nights sleeping on floors without blankets in what appeared to be an event hall. Kidnappers yelled at them to stay quiet.

"I sincerely felt I had reached the end ... that I wasn't going to survive," said Rizo, who is now in El Paso, Texas.

On Dec. 7, according to Rizo, the kidnappers departed quickly after they appeared to spot authorities outside. The migrants broke down the building's front door, and found members of the National Guard, the Army and the INM outside.

The Army and INM did not respond to requests for comment about the Dec. 7 rescue, while the National Guard said it participated as it did on Dec. 5.

Byron Montiel, a Nicaraguan migrant also now in El Paso, showed Reuters a receipt of a money transfer that he said a relative sent to the kidnappers, and text messages from a kidnapper to one of his relatives demanding money.

By Sunday, the group of migrants had traveled to Mexico's northern border, where they formed a long queue alongside the border wall, in one of the largest attempted group crossings in recent years.

Leutert said the incident was one example of what migrants went through in the long journey to reach the United States.

"This kidnapping and others show the risks that migrants face in Mexico and all the different groups trying to make money off of them," she said.

($1 = 19.5774 Mexican pesos)

(Reporting by Jose Luiz Gonzalez in Ciudad Juarez and Jimenez; Jackie Botts in Oaxaca City; and Daina Beth Solomon in Mexico City; Additional reporting by Kylie Madry, Lizbeth Diaz, Ted Hesson and Ismael Lopez; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Rosalba O'Brien)

Russians find asylum lifeline to US, but at a high price




A family from Ukraine arrive to a shelter at the Christian church Calvary San Diego, after crossing into the United States from Tijuana, Mexico, Friday, April 1, 2022, in Chula Vista, Calif. 

(AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

ELLIOT SPAGAT
Thu, December 15, 2022

CHULA VISTA, Calif. (AP) — Phil Metzger promises to arrange entry to the United States for Russian-speaking asylum-seekers through unmatched connections with U.S. border officials and people in Mexico who can guarantee safety while traveling. Though seeking asylum is free, the pastor of Calvary San Diego said his services are “not cheap.”

In an interview with a Russian-language YouTube channel, he touted director computer access to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to enroll migrants and was vague about “opportunists” in Mexico who ensure customers’ safety after they fly there on tourist visas and while they wait in Tijuana to cross.

“I just know there’s a lot of power on that side that I just don’t control,” the evangelical Christian pastor said. “But I do have one control. I control who goes across. So I have to negotiate. To keep those people safe, I have to negotiate with those in power (in Mexico).”

Asylum is supposed to be free and for those most in need; many have been unable to even ask for protection under COVID-19 restrictions that are set to expire Wednesday.

Yet Metzger’s service, as described in the 25-minute interview last month at his church in the San Diego suburb of Chula Vista, is a private money-generating enterprise that uses its government connections to bypass those restrictions. It’s part of an opaque, bewildering patchwork of exemptions CBP has developed. Immigration advocates select who gets in, though CBP has final say.

Asked about an outside group charging money, the Department of Homeland Security said there is no fee related to exemptions from asylum restrictions and that it will “look into any allegation of abuse.”

“DHS takes any allegations of fraud or abuse of our immigration systems very seriously,” it said in a written response to questions about the service.

The pastor did not respond to text, email and phone messages left over a week and his office was closed when a reporter went there on a recent weekday afternoon.

___

This story is part of an ongoing Associated Press series, “Migration Inc,” which investigates individuals and companies that profit from the movement of people who flee violence and civil strife in their homelands.

___

Migrants have been denied rights to seek asylum more than 2.5 million times since March 2020 on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19 under Trump-era restrictions known as Title 42.

Exemptions are supposed to be for migrants deemed most vulnerable in Mexico — perhaps for gender identity or sexual orientation, or for being specifically threatened with violence — but some partners say CBP doesn't question choices and that migrants selected often face no unusual danger. The agency doesn’t publicly identify its partners or how many slots are made available to each, leaving migrants guessing who they are and which ones are best connected to U.S. authorities.

In El Paso, Texas, CBP gives out 70 slots daily, half for the government of Mexico's Chihuahua state and the rest for attorneys and advocacy groups, said Nicolas Palazzo, an attorney for Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, which participates in the arrangement. He said some attorneys unaffiliated with his organization charge migrants for the service.

In Piedras Negras, Mexico, across from Eagle Pass, Texas, the city government chooses who escapes the reach of Title 42, according to a report last month from the University of Texas at Austin Strauss Center for International Security and Law. In Reynosa, across from McAllen, Texas, a migrant shelter picks who crosses, while in Laredo, Texas, there are no exemptions, the report says.

In San Diego, CBP exempts about 200 people daily, including 40 slots that are set aside for Russian speakers working through Calvary San Diego, said Enrique Lucero, the city of Tijuana's director of migrant affairs, who regularly communicates with U.S. officials.

Other slots in San Diego are for advocacy groups Al Otro Lado, which operates an online registration list, and Border Angels, which leans on migrant shelter directors to select who gets to cross, and the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a refugee resettlement organization.

CBP is allowing more Russians to enter the United States with Title 42 exemptions, with about 3 in 4 coming through California border crossings with Mexico. In October, it exempted 3,879 Russians, more than triple the same period a year earlier. It exempted 21,626 Russians in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, more than five times the previous year.

In the YouTube interview last month with Alex Moore, Metzger said his call center fields more than 1,000 inquiries a day. CBP tells him how many people can cross and “I control who crosses.”

“Honestly, we think it was God opening a door for us,” said Metzger, who grew up in Southern California but spent much of his adult life in Eastern Europe.

Metzger is unclear on who he pays to greet customers in Mexico and bring them to the border, saying he doesn’t know them.

Through a Telegram account called Most V USA, the cost for single adults paying cash was 1,800 (presumably U.S. dollars) Monday — a “price reduction.” For married couples paying cash, the cost was $3,500. Online payments were $300 less for individuals and $500 less for couples. Children were free.

“You pay not for the crossing, but for the consultation on the crossing,” Most V USA says on its website. “We use the only legal way available to our organization — making an appointment with a CBP officer at the border.”

The price includes crossing to the United States safely in groups from Tijuana to San Diego, with a bag containing water and protein bars.

Metzger opened his large church to Ukrainian refugees after Russia's invasion this year, working with volunteers on a smooth-running operation that deployed a mobile app used to track church attendance. Ukrainians who flew to Tijuana were told to report to a San Diego border crossing as their numbers approached, a system organizers likened to waiting for a restaurant table.

Metzger touts connections with CBP developed during that time and warns about falling for scammers who use his Most V USA brand.

“No, it’s not cheap. No, it’s not easy but we will make sure that it is safe and that you will get into the States,” he said.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Heintz in Moscow contributed.

Effort in U.S. Congress to protect 'Dreamer' immigrants stalling





More than 200 "Dreamers" and their supporters from across U.S.A. attempt to lobby members of U.S. Congress in Washington

Thu, December 15, 2022 
By Ted Hesson and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Over 200 advocates from around the United States converged on Capitol Hill this week with an 11th-hour mission: persuade lawmakers to provide citizenship to "Dreamer" immigrants who illegally entered the United States as children.

Addinelly Moreno Soto, a 31-year-old communications aide who came to the United States from Mexico at age 3, trekked to the Capitol from San Antonio with her husband on Wednesday hoping to meet with her state's U.S. Senator John Cornyn. The influential Republican's support could help advance a deal that has eluded Congress for more than a decade - and which appears likely to fail again this year.

Cornyn could not meet with her and other Dreamer supporters from Texas, she said. One of his staffers told them that Cornyn would need to review the text of any legislation before making a decision.


The end-of-year push comes as a window is nearly closed for Congress to find a compromise to protect Dreamers, many of whom speak English and have jobs, families and children in the United States but lack permanent status.

Supporters of the effort have pushed for Congress to pass the legislation now since Democrats - who overwhelmingly back Dreamers - will cede control of the U.S. House of Representatives to Republicans in January. Kevin McCarthy, the top House Republican, has said the border must be secured before other immigration issues can be addressed.

About 594,000 Dreamers are enrolled in a 2012 program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which grants protection from deportation and work permits, but is currently subject to a legal challenge brought by Texas and other U.S. states with Republican attorneys general.

U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat who came to office in 2021, promised during his campaign to protect Dreamers and their families after Republican former President Donald Trump tried to end DACA.

Both Moreno and her husband enrolled in DACA in 2012. They now have two U.S.-citizen boys ages two and three.

"How much longer do we have to prove ourselves - that we are worthy of being here permanently?" Moreno said. "That is the frustrating part. I have children. What about them?"

'NOT GOING ANYWHERE'

Senators Kyrsten Sinema, an independent from Arizona who recently left the Democratic Party, and Republican Thom Tillis of North Carolina, worked on a plan in recent weeks to combine border restrictions with a path to citizenship for an estimated 2 million Dreamers, according to a framework of possible legislation reviewed by Reuters.

But even some House Democrats have expressed reservations with the framework of the Senate bill.

The Senate is split 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote. At least 10 Republicans would need to join Democrats to overcome a procedural hurdle that requires 60 votes to advance legislation in the Senate.

Lawmakers have a narrow timeframe with a little more than a week before Congress is expected to pass a roughly $1.7 trillion spending bill that would serve as a vehicle for the immigration deal, but leading Republicans have said it will not happen.

"It’s not going anywhere," Cornyn told Reuters this week, offering a more blunt assessment than his staffer.

On Thursday, a Senate aide and three other people familiar with the matter said the Dreamer effort would not advance before the end of the year. The offices of Sinema and Tillis did not respond to requests for comment.

Democratic Senator Alex Padilla of California said it was frustrating and disappointing that the talks had not even progressed into legislation for senators to review.

Senator John Kennedy, a conservative Republican from Louisiana, said his party had lost trust in the president's willingness to secure the border amid record illegal crossings.

"President Biden's administration is perfectly content to have the border open," Kennedy said. "They're happy to have all those people coming in and everybody knows that."

A Biden administration official criticized Republicans for "finger-pointing" and attacking Biden's record "when they themselves refuse to take the actual steps we need from Congress to fix our broken immigration system."

For Raul Perez, a 33-year-old from Austin, Texas, who came to Washington, the prolonged uncertainty over his and other Dreamers futures was deeply frustrating.

"It's been over a decade now since DACA came out and we're still in the same spot," said Perez, who is part of the immigrant-youth led advocacy group United We Dream. "We need something to pass now. We can't keep waiting."


(Reporting by Ted Hesson and Richard Cowan in Washington; Editing by Mary Milliken, Aurora Ellis and Lisa Shumaker)

Activists: Survey of Black people in US in its homestretch


 Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza attends the Glamour Women of the Year Awards at the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021, in New York. More than 100 racial justice groups, led by Garza, are making a last push on a large-scale survey that will be the basis for a public policy agenda focused on the needs of Black people who aren’t as often engaged through conventional public polling and opinion research.

(Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)More


AARON MORRISON
Fri, December 16, 2022 

More than 100 racial justice groups, led by a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, are making a last push on a large-scale survey that will be the basis for a public policy agenda focused on the needs of Black people who often are not as engaged in conventional public polling and opinion research.

It's called the Black Census Project, but the activists working on it say it’s not meant to duplicate the once-a-decade federal population count from a couple years ago.

“We’re often the subject of symbolic engagement, whether that’s plates of soul food or the latest dance craze, but very rarely do our communities get asked what it is that we’re dealing with every day, as it relates to the economy, our democracy, our society,” said Alicia Garza, a BLM co-founder who is principal and founder of the Black Futures Lab, a public policy nonprofit.

Since February, when Garza’s organization launched the project, canvassers have gone into Black communities in nearly every U.S. state to conduct the confidential, self-reporting survey, which is also available online. The survey, which takes about 10 minutes, asks participants their views on political representation in both parties, racial justice issues and the coronavirus pandemic, among other topics.

If the goal of 250,000 survey responses is reached by the Dec. 31 deadline, it would be the largest surveying of Black people of any kind in U.S. history, Garza said.

“For us, the Black census was a way to just be really scientific when we’re talking about what Black people care about, what Black people want, and even who Black people are going to vote for and why,” she said.

As part of the last push of the survey, organizers said they have engaged with interfaith leaders for what they’re calling Black Census Sunday. Faith leaders will include Black census information in their sermons and offer opportunities for people to complete the surveys during services.

Early next year, Black Futures Lab plans to share findings with the Biden administration and other elected officials to offer insight into the needs of Black people and how to address them.

In 2018, the inaugural Black Census Project surveyed over 30,000 Black people from around the U.S. The survey findings were revealed in a report, which highlighted the experiences and viewpoints of the Black LGBTQ community.

This year, organizers aimed to garner at least six times that number, aided by partnerships with dozens of well-known and legacy social justice organizations, including the NAACP, Color of Change, the National Action Network, Black Voters Matter and the Black Women’s Roundtable.

Bridgette Simpson, co-founder of Barred Business, a nonprofit that helps formerly incarcerated Black women and girls find stable housing, employment and educational opportunities, is a Black Census Project partner. Having served 10 years in prison herself, Simpson said the project has been intentional about reaching people who have experienced incarceration.

“(Black people) are not a monolith,” she said. “We all are different and we all have different experiences. But in order for us to really be able to get the changes that we need in our community, we need to be able to know who we are, to see the gamut, and then be able to transfer this into true political power.”

Simpson’s hope is that the survey increases the profile of formerly incarcerated people, so that politicians and elected leaders see them as a constituency worth courting.

“Without a process like this, it is impossible for us to have any seat at the table,” she said.

“We can bring all the seats that we want, but it won’t be at the right table. So with the census and other data efforts, we’re able to set a table where we can properly eat.”

The Black Census Project launched just before the U.S. Census Bureau revealed in March that Black, Hispanic and American Indian residents were missed at higher rates during the 2020 census than they were a decade ago. The federal census figures help determine the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending each year, which can be especially critical in Black and Latino communities that historically contend with underinvestment and underfunding of public resources such as education and infrastructure.

Garza said her project has always been about empowering Black communities by providing an alternative to the data sources that governments rely on.

“One way for us to decolonize data and decolonize polling is to decenter white people and their opinions about it,” she said. “This project is about us, by us and for us. It’s more important for us that Black people are talking to each other about what we are going to do to flex our power.”

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Aaron Morrison is a New York City-based member of the AP's Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.

Reports of Musk forcing tracking ads on Twitter put him on a costly collision course with EU privacy laws



Natasha Lomas
Wed, December 14, 2022 at 7:19 AM MST·8 min read

Twitter's lead privacy regulator in the European Union is being kept very busy indeed by Elon Musk's erratic piloting of the bird site.

Following a report by Platformer, which suggests Musk is planning to force users to accept personalized advertising unless they pay for a subscription service that will include an opt-out for ads, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) told us it is reviewing the matter.

This adds to a growing pile of data protection concerns piling up on its desk -- let's call these the real 'Twitter Files' -- such as Musk providing access to Twitter systems to non-staff reporters (um, security and privacy anyone?); the status of Twitter's main establishment in Ireland (and, therefore, the streamlined situation it currently enjoys with the DPC leading oversight of its compliance with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, aka the GDPR); and whether Twitter has adequate compliance staff and appropriate resources to deal with all the inbound enquiries from regulators and users (such as requests for deletion of data) since Musk took an axe to halve company headcount, to name a small portion of the regulatory chaos he's kicked up in very short order.

Twitter’s lead EU watchdog for data protection has fresh questions for Musk

Under the GDPR Twitter needs a valid legal basis to process personal data, such as tracking and profiling users to target them with ads.

Consent is one of the legal bases that can be possible under the GDPR -- but you can't force users to consent; consent must be freely given if it's to meet the legal bar. Ergo, forcing users to pay up or else be tracked and targeted looks unlikely to pass muster with EU regulators.

Another legal bases permitted in the GDPR is contractual necessity. And it's worth noting that this is the legal basis currently claimed by Facebook-owner Meta for the 'personalized' ads it forces on users of its social networking services.

However in a blow to Musk's ambitions to follow Zuck and force microtargeted ads into Europeans eyeballs whether they like it or not (or else, in Musk's case, force Europeans to pay him not to profile them for ad targeting), the European Data Protection Board recently issued a decision on a long running complaint against Meta's controversial choice of legal basis -- which, per press reports, appears to rule out using a claim of performance of a contract to run behavioral advertising.

Meta’s behavioral ads will finally face GDPR privacy reckoning in January

There is also legitimate interest (LI) -- another legal basis that exists in the GDPR. But, again, it's a sad trombone for Musk on this front as TikTok was forced to abort a planned switch of legal basis for its personalized ads, from consent to LI, this summer -- after warnings from Italy's DPA that this would not be legit.

The DPC also stepped in to 'engage' with TikTok on the matter -- in its capacity as TikTok's lead supervisor for GDPR. But it's not just the GDPR that's likely to apply here if Twitter similarly tries to force tracking ads on users in Europe: The EU's ePrivacy Directive, which governs online tracking, also likely comes into play -- and, as Italy's DPA warned TikTok a few months ago, you can't do tracking without asking for consent. Ergo LI won't fly for Twitter tracking ads.

Additionally, and unhappily for Musk -- who is famously not a fan of regulators -- the ePrivacy Directive does not have a one-stop-shop mechanism streamlining regulatory oversight (and oftentimes shrinking risk) via a lead DPA, as is the case with the GDPR. So if he tries to force tracking ads on EU users he's opening the company up to enforcement by privacy watchdogs across the bloc, from Italy to France, and on through as many of the 27 EU Member States that have DPAs with an appetite for enforcement.

France's privacy watchdog, the CNIL, has been very active on enforcing ePrivacy against tech giants in recent years -- fining Google $120 million two years ago for dropping tracking cookies without consent, for instance, and hitting the adtech giant a second time with a further $170 million penalty this January over cookie consent dark patterns. It has also spanked Amazon and Facebook with multimillion dollar penalties for ePrivacy breaches over the same time frame. So there's little reason to think the French would turn a blind eye to a swashbuckling Muskian forced-tracking-ads adventure.

It's worth noting there are examples in some EU Member States (notably Germany) of certain news media websites putting up paywalls that offer users a choice between subscribing to view their content (i.e. journalism) or getting free access to it but with the stipulation that they agree to be tracked as the 'price' for this freebie.

Their approach remains controversial with data protection law experts and may not survive legal challenges. But, in the meanwhile, it doesn't necessarily offer much succour to Musk's ambitions to force ads on unwilling Europeans, either, since there is a clear difference between pay-or-be-tracked-gating of journalism (i.e. profession content that the paywalling company is paying to produce) vs pay-or-be-tracked-gating of user generated content which Musk is getting for free for some crazy reason, even as he yells at Twitter users to pay him ~$8pm or else.

So a pay-me-or-else paywall in the microblogging platform case doesn't look like it would be smooth sailing either.

So what penalties might Musk face if he goes ahead and tries to force ads on European users?

Under the GDPR, penalties can scale up to 4% of global annual turnover -- so, on paper, the cost of breaking the law can certainly get expensive (though Twitter has escaped major sanction to date). But GDPR penalties against tech giants have been getting bigger in recent years (even if the bill may take years to arrive). And flagrant/wilful breaches typically invite bigger fines than one-off incidents like a security slip up.

ePrivacy also allows EU regulators to levy dissuasive sanctions for breaches -- and these can, demonstrably, exceed a hundred million dollars apiece (i.e. from a single regulator), so costs could stack up quickly here too if multiple watchdogs wade in.

ePrivacy enforcement is also not slowed down by a one-stop-shop mechanism funnelling cross-border complaints through a single lead regulator (as happens with the GDPR). So fines could arrive in fairly short order if Musk pushes ahead with forced tracking despite the lack of a legal path for such processing.

Both privacy laws also enable EU regulators to issue corrective orders against infringing practices. And failure to comply with such orders invites -- you guessed it! -- further sanction. So if Musk refuses to correct course he is walking into an ongoing world of costly regulatory pain in Europe.

He has more regulatory trouble brewing in the region, too.

Looming on the horizon is application of the EU's new Digital Services Act (DSA), the bloc's rebooted Internet rulebook, which concerns itself with content governance issues, so how platforms tackle problems like terrorism, hate speech, disinformation etc. Here again Musk's 'free the bird' approach has quickly thrown regulatory expectations into a spin that has led (already) to closer scrutiny by EU lawmakers than would likely have occurred without the Tesla CEO at the helm of Twitter.

The European Commission itself will oversee larger platforms' compliance with the DSA, rather than national authorities. And just last month it warned Twitter over the need to have adequate resourcing for compliance in place -- saying it would carry out a stress test of its approach at its Dublin HQ early next year. So it's already putting Twitter on DSA watch.

It remains to be seen whether or not the Commission will classify Twitter as a so-called VLOP -- meaning it would take on the burden of regulating Musk's erratic rule itself. But he is essentially inviting that increased level of EU scrutiny (and regulatory risk) by playing so fast and loose with existing governance and compliance structures. Ergo, Twitter's DSA compliance being regulated by the Commission looks rather more possible than it probably should, based on an assessment of the platform's size alone. And that's all down to Musk's hard work ripping up existing governance structures and driving out compliance expertise.

Penalties under the DSA can scale up to 6% of global annual turnover. The regulation also contains powers for regulators to ban infringing services if they repeatedly fail to correct governance -- so if Musk keeps on trolling the region's regulators a complete loss of Twitter's EU revenue cannot be entirely ruled out... Buckle up!


Musk at Twitter has ‘huge work’ ahead to comply with EU rules, warns bloc

Europe seals a deal on tighter rules for digital services

Trump's (STEPHEN MILLER'S) Immigrant Crackdown Left A Critical Shortage Of Workers In U.S. Economy

Mary Papenfuss

Thu, December 15, 2022 

Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration while president — along with the effect of the COVID pandemic — has left the U.S. economy in critical need of workers, significantly hobbling growth, according to economists.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has estimated that the economy is short an astonishing 3.5 million workers, and economists estimate half of those workers would typically be migrants allowed into the country, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

“There is no question: We need more immigration,” Adam Ozimek, chief economist at the Economic Innovation Group, a bipartisan public policy organization, told the Post.

“Immigrants aren’t just workers, they are particularly flexible, mobile workers who help address acute labor shortages wherever they emerge,” he added. “And that’s particularly important in this constrained economy we’re facing right now.”

During his 2016 presidential campaign and while in office, Trump typically characterized immigrants as a detriment to the nation and specifically referred to Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and criminals. While president, he complained about migrants coming from “shithole” nations.

But immigrants are tremendously valuable in national economies, according to data. They provide a flexible workforce and are often willing to do jobs Americans turn down, such as low-paying, physically demanding work in the hospitality, agriculture, construction and health care industries.

Worker shortages can lead to higher prices as employers raise wages to lure workers to jobs.

Immigration has “rebounded somewhat” in the last six months, the Post noted, but major shortages remain while the nation also grapples with worker losses caused by retirements and health issues, the newspaper reported.

The “crisis” had triggered a bipartisan push to increase legal immigration, but efforts went nowhere, according to the Post.

Giovanni Peri, director of the Global Migration Center at the University of California, Davis, estimates it could be another four years before the country makes up for current shortfalls through more legal immigration. Even then, he told the Post, it won’t be enough to catch up to the aging American workforce, which will leave millions of more positions unfilled.

Check out the full Washington Post report here.

Private Space Firm Blows up Space Station Module—and That's a Good Thing


Kevin Hurler
Wed, December 14, 2022 

Private space company Sierra Space announced yesterday that it successfully completed a stress test last month on an in-development astronaut habitat—a test that involved the pumping of gas into the inflatable module until it blew apart. This is the second successful test, following one earlier this year in July.

Sierra Space has been developing the Large Integrated Flexible Environment, or LIFE, habitat to continue its foray into long-term commercial spaceflight. The company says that the LIFE habitat is a three-story platform designed for both low Earth orbit and long-duration missions that can house habitation and science efforts. The company, along with Blue Origin, is seeking to place a private space station, called Orbital Reef, into Earth orbit, onto which the LIFE modules would be attached.


Conceptual image of Orbital Reef.

To test the strength of the LIFE habitat in space, Sierra Space performed a successful Ultimate Burst Pressure (UBP) test. The team took a one-third scale version of the habitat and pumped it full of nitrogen gas until the point of failure—explosion—to determine its stress limits. Given how violent the explosion threatened to be, the Sierra Space team performed the test on the same launch pad that NASA used to test rockets during the Apollo program. This is the second UBP stress test of LIFE, following one in July. Both have proven successful.

“This second successful UBP test proves we can demonstrate design, manufacturing and assembly repeatability, all of which are key areas for certification,” said LIFE chief engineer Shawn Buckley in a company press release. Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice also said: “The LIFE habitat module is essential technology for enabling humans to safely and comfortably begin to develop new civilizations in space.”

Sierra Space’s LIFE Habitat Successfully Completes Second Ultimate Burst Pressure Test

The LIFE module is a large, round habitat made out of woven fabric, primarily consisting of Vectran, which is a synthetic fiber made from a liquid crystal polymer. Vectran is commonly used in spaceflight application, including the airbags that helped land the Pathfinder on Mars in 1997. This second test was performed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and the first was performed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Sierra Space says that this most recent test saw LIFE withstanding pressures of 204 psi, exceeding the safety threshold of 182.4 psi.

Theoretically, the LIFE habitat will launch on a conventional rocket and will then be inflated while in orbit, providing astronauts with a spherical habitat that is 27 feet (8.2 meters) in diameter to live and work in. Sierra Space says it will conduct a full scale UBP tests of the LIFE habitat in 2023 to complete NASA’s certification.