Texas says Meta to pay $1.4 bn to settle photo-tagging lawsuit

ACTING LIKE THE EU

By AFP
July 30, 2024


Meta has been steadily ramping up defenses for young users of its apps in the aftermath of accusations it put profit over their well-being - Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP Patrick Smith

Meta has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit accusing it of violating a Texas state privacy law with a feature for “tagging” friends in Facebook photos, according to a deal finalized Tuesday.

Meta agreed to pay the money over five years to settle the claims accusing the social networking giant of unlawfully capturing biometric data of Facebook users in Texas.

The lawsuit said Meta did not get users’ permission before enabling its software to recognize and “tag” people in pictures, according to a court filing.

“I’m proud to announce that we have reached the largest settlement ever obtained from an action brought by a single state,” State Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement, calling the settlement “historic.”

The lawsuit, filed in early 2022, was the first time Texas had gone to court to accuse a tech firm of violating its “Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act”, according to Paxton.

“We are pleased to resolve this matter and look forward to exploring future opportunities to deepen our business investments in Texas, including potentially developing data centers,” a Meta spokesperson told AFP, noting the settlement includes an agreement that there was no wrongdoing.

Meta rolled out the photo tagging feature in 2011, running facial recognition on photos uploaded to Facebook without asking users for consent, according to the suit.

Spain watchdog fines Booking.com 413 mn euros


By AFP
July 30, 2024


Online travel agency Booking.com is estimated to have a market share above 60 percent in Europe and between 70 and 90 percent in Spain - Copyright AFP Jade GAO

Spain’s competition watchdog said Tuesday it had slapped online travel agency Booking.com with a record 413-million-euro fine for “abusing its dominant position” during the past five years.

“These practices have affected hotels located in Spain and other online travel agencies that compete with the platform. Its terms and conditions create an inequitable imbalance in the commercial relationship with hotels located in Spain,” the authority, known by its acronym CNMC, said in a statement.

“By better positioning hotels with more bookings on Booking.com, other online agencies have been prevented from entering the market or expanding,” it added.

This is the largest fine ever imposed by the CNMC, a spokeswoman for the authority told AFP.

The regulator said Booking.com’s market share in Spain, the world’s second most visited country after France, during the period under investigation was between 70 percent and 90 percent.

Booking.com said it “strongly disagreed” with the CNMC’s findings.

The platform said it would appeal the authority’s “unprecedented decision”, adding that it did not take into account programs it offers its “accommodation partners” to help them boost their business.

The online travel agency, whose parent company Booking Holdings is headquartered in the United States, is a dominant player with a market share in Europe of more than 60 percent.

In May, the European Union added Booking.com to its list of digital companies big enough to fall under tougher competition rules, giving the firm six months to prepare for compliance with the landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The rules aim to level the playing field in the digital market, ensuring EU users have more options when choosing products.

Brussels said that tougher regulation of Booking.com would mean that holidaymakers would “start benefiting from more choice” and hotels would “have more business opportunities”.

Hungary’s competition watchdog earlier this month slapped Booking.com with a second fine for failing to cease its “unfair” business practices, including putting psychological pressure on customers.

In 2020, the firm was fined 2.5 billion forint ($7 million) by the Hungarian Competition Authority for aggressive sales tactics.

And on July 15 the authority hit Booking.com with an additional penalty of 382.5 million forint after a follow-up investigation showed the company had continued its unfair practices.

'Genuinely hard to imagine': Internet stunned over report that top Hamas leader killed

Daniel Hampton
July 30, 2024

(Photo by NurPhoto/Corbis via Getty Images)

A top Hamas leader was reportedly killed Tuesday in Tehran.

Ismail Haniyeh was in the city for the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president, The New York Times reported.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that he and an Iranian security guard were the target of an attack at their residence, the Times reported.

Haniyeh was the leader of Hamas’s political office and was reportedly killed in an Israeli raid.

Israel vowed to kill Haniyeh and other leaders of the group following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw some 250 others taken hostage.

Reaction to the news was swift on social media.

John Spencer, chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, wrote on the social media app X: "If all true (reports pointing that way) Hamas #1 leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah #2 Fuad Shukr 'Sayyid Muhsan' killed in the same day. Huge."

"It's one thing to assassinate Haniyeh; it's another to do it specifically in Tehran," remarked political analyst Omar Baddar. "It's genuinely hard to imagine, let alone put into words, the seriousness of what comes next."

Hamas says leader killed in Israel strike in Iran

By AFP
July 31, 2024

Hamas said its political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli strike in Iran - Copyright AFP Mohammed ABED

Hamas said Wednesday its political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in an Israeli strike in Iran, where he had been attending the inauguration of the country’s new president.

Haniyeh’s killing came after Israel on Tuesday struck a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut, killing a senior commander of the Iran-backed group it said was responsible for a weekend rocket attack on the Israel-annexed Golan Heights.

“Brother, leader, mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, died in a Zionist strike on his headquarters in Tehran after he participated in the inauguration of the new (Iranian) president,” the Palestinian militant group said in a statement.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also announced the death, saying Haniyeh’s residence in Tehran was “hit” and he was killed along with a bodyguard.

“The residence of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political office of Hamas Islamic Resistance, was hit in Tehran, and as a result of this incident, him and one of his bodyguards were martyred,” said a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s Sepah news website.

The Guards said the cause of the incident was not immediately clear but it was “being investigated.”

Haniyeh had travelled to Tehran to attend Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

The Israeli army declined to comment on foreign media reports.

– ‘Axis of resistance’ –

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and bring back all hostages taken during the October 7 attack, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.

The attack launched by Hamas on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Militants also seized 251 hostages, 111 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,400 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.

Regional tensions have soared since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October, drawing in Iran-backed militant groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.

Haniyeh was elected head of the Hamas political bureau in 2017 to succeed Khaled Meshaal.

He was already a well-known figure having become Palestinian prime minister in 2006 following an upset victory by Hamas in that year’s parliamentary election.

Considered a pragmatist, Haniyeh lived in exile and split his time between Turkey and Qatar.

He had travelled on diplomatic missions to Iran and Turkey during the war, meeting both the Turkish and Iranian presidents.

Haniyeh was said to maintain good relations with the heads of the various Palestinian factions, including rivals to Hamas.

He joined Hamas in 1987 when the militant group was founded amid the outbreak of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation, which lasted until 1993.

Hamas is part of the “axis of resistance”, Tehran-aligned groups such Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Huthis in Yemen arrayed against arch-foe Israel.

Iran has made support for the Palestinian cause a centrepiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

It has hailed Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel but denied any involvement.

Australian airline Rex enters administration as finances sag


By AFP
July 30, 2024

Australian regional airline Rex has suspended flights between major cities as it enters voluntary administration - Copyright AFP William WEST

The Australian regional airline Rex cancelled flights as it entered voluntary administration Wednesday, leaving the fate of the country’s third-largest carrier in serious doubt.

The decades-old airline has called in administrators from Ernst & Young in a bid to avoid liquidation.

Administrators said flights between major cities –- including Sydney, Perth and Melbourne — would be scrapped, but flights to regional communities would continue for now.

The regional airline, which started in 2002, has prioritised connecting remote areas of the country to capital cities with its 123 planes.

Like many airlines, Rex has struggled with supply chain challenges — including a global pilot shortage — for several months and reduced its routes before the announcement.

Australia’s second-largest airline, Virgin, offered to assist Rex customers hit by flight cancellations, the administrators said.

Transport minister Catherine King said the government was not considering a blanket financial bailout for the airline.

“We know they will be seeking some support from the government, and we will take some time to work our way through that with the administrators,” she told the national broadcaster.

“We understand how important Rex is, particularly to the regions — there are some areas where this is the only, only option in terms of transport.”

Rex reported a loss of US$2 million (Aus$3.2 million) for the first half of the 2023-24 financial year, compared with a US$10.7 million loss for the previous six months.

Australia’s domestic airline market is dominated by Qantas and Virgin Australia –- together they have a 93.1 percent market share while Rex has five percent, data from the national regulator shows.

Aviation expert Keith Tonkin said while passenger numbers had returned to pre-pandemic levels, airlines globally had struggled to rebuild maintenance and operation crews they had been forced to lay off.

He added many airlines had received government funding to stay afloat during the pandemic which, in most cases, had expired.

“The smaller airlines have managed to date, but now everyone wants to get paid and that cash flow isn’t happening anymore. They can’t be supported or sustained anymore,” Tonkin added.

“That is a natural consequence of being underwritten or supported, and that support is now running out.”

Earlier this year, Australian budget airline Bonza was forced into liquidation and its 300-plus staff were told their employment would be terminated.

Bonza made a splash when it launched in January 2023, promising a down-to-earth Aussie experience with onboard craft beer, snags (sausages) and a relaxed approach to crew uniforms.

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY
Blinken says US to provide $500 mn in military funding to Philippines

By AFP
July 30, 2024

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos (C) welcomes US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin - Copyright Taiwan's Presidential Office/AFP Handout
Léon BRUNEAU

The United States will provide $500 million in military funding to the Philippines, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday, as Washington boosts ties with Manila in the face of China’s growing assertiveness.

Blinken was in Manila with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin as part of an Asia-Pacific tour to strengthen Washington’s latticework of alliances aimed at countering Beijing.

“We’re now allocating an additional $500 million in foreign military financing to the Philippines to boost security collaboration with our oldest treaty ally in this region,” Blinken told a joint news conference.

Blinken described it as a “once in a generation investment” to help modernise the Philippine armed forces and coast guard.

Blinken and Austin met with President Ferdinand Marcos, who has taken a strong stand against Chinese actions in the South China Sea, before holding “2+2” talks with their Philippine counterparts Enrique Manalo and Gilberto Teodoro.

The latest high-level US visit follows a series of escalating confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels in the disputed waterway that have raised concern that Washington could be dragged into a conflict due to its mutual defence treaty with Manila.

The additional funding is part of the $2 billion in foreign military financing approved by the United States in April.

It comes as the Philippine modernises its armed forces, one of the weakest in Asia, and bolsters its coast guard.

The Philippines’ proximity to the hotly contested South China Sea, as well as self-ruled Taiwan, would make it a key partner for the United States if a conflict were to break out in the region.

Beijing claims almost the entire waterway, despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, and considers democratic Taiwan to be part of its territory.

There has been a revolving door of top US officials passing through the Philippines since Marcos took office in 2022 and adopted a more US-friendly foreign policy.

Marcos expanded an agreement giving American troops access to nine Philippine military bases, including in the far north of the country, which has infuriated Chinese leaders.

The agreement allows US troops to rotate through the bases and also store defence equipment and supplies at them.

Marcos told Austin and Blinken on Tuesday that he was “very happy” about the open lines of communication with the United States, which helped Manila be “agile in terms of our responses” on issues including the South China Sea.

Blinken and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi sparred on Saturday over the South China Sea when they met on the sidelines of the foreign ministers meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos.

Wang told Blinken the United States should “refrain from fanning the flames, stirring up trouble and undermining stability at sea,” according to a foreign ministry statement.

“The risks and challenges facing China-US relations are still rising,” he said.

Bot-like accounts on X fuel US political conspiracies, watchdog says


By AFP
July 31, 2024

Bot-like accounts remain entrenched on X, previously known as Twitter, researchers say. 

- Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP JUSTIN SULLIVAN

Anuj CHOPRA

Bot-like accounts on social media platform X that spread misinformation and hate ahead of Britain’s election are now amplifying conspiracy theories around US politics, a watchdog investigation revealed Tuesday, as the race to the White House kicks into high gear.

Forty-five accounts analyzed by Global Witness, which collectively generated more than four billion impressions since late May, were active in the run-up to the British polls earlier this month.

Some of them subsequently pivoted to other high-profile events ahead of the US presidential election in November, including the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump and President Joe Biden pulling out from the race, the watchdog said in a report.

The findings demonstrate how apparent bot activity continues to plague X, previously called Twitter, despite pledges by Elon Musk to crack down on the digital manipulation when he purchased the influential social media platform in 2022 for $44 billion.

The bot-like accounts, which collectively produced around 610,000 posts and amplified racist and sexualized abuse, also focused on climate disinformation and other global events, including anti-migrant protests in Ireland.

“In a moment when everyone is worried about democracy, it is shocking how easy it has been to find accounts that appear to be bots spreading division around the UK vote, and then to watch them jump straight into political discussions in the US and Ireland, frequently responding with hate and conspiracy,” said Ava Lee, campaign leader at Global Witness.

“Access to timely, accurate and reliable information is crucial for all democracies, and it’s needed now more than ever in the run up to the US presidential election.”

The platform did not reply to AFP’s request for comment.

An automated response from the platform’s press team said: “Busy now, please check back later.”

– ‘Flood’ of manipulation –

It was unclear who was behind the bot-like activity uncovered by the watchdog.

Global Witness said it did not find evidence that any British political parties were paying for, using or promoting the bot-like accounts as part of their campaigns.

After the assassination attempt on Trump at a Pennsylvania rally earlier this month, some accounts — which previously supported the right-wing party Reform UK — were found sharing unfounded theories holding Biden responsible, the watchdog said.

Other accounts supporting Britain’s Labour party questioned whether the incident was staged by Trump, it added.

After Biden announced he was pulling out from the race, a number of accounts increased their discussions of US Vice President Kamala Harris — the presumptive Democratic nominee — including sharing “gendered disinformation tropes” and racist comments, the report said.

Ahead of his purchase of the platform, Musk pledged to “defeat the spam bots or die trying.”

But bot activity remains entrenched on the platform, a report from Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT) said last year after an analysis of about one million posts.

“X is flooded with platform manipulation of various kinds, is not doing enough to moderate content, and has no clear strategy for dealing with political disinformation,” the QUT report said.

Lee, in light of Global Witness’s findings, called on X to “increase its moderation efforts and get better at enforcing its own policies against inauthentic activity.”

“We’re relying on them to protect our democracies from interference,” Lee said.

The platform has gutted trust and safety teams and scaled back content moderation efforts once used to tame misinformation, making it what researchers call a haven for disinformation.

Last week, Musk — who recently endorsed Trump — himself faced a firehose of criticism for sharing a deepfake video featuring Harris on X, which tech campaigners said violated the platform’s own policies.

‘Bending of reality’: US liberals stoke political conspiracies

PATHETIC ATTEMPT AT RED BAITING

By AFP
July 30, 2024

The United States confronts 'liberal' conspiracy theorists. - Copyright National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)/AFP -
Daniel Funke and Anuj Chopra

From false claims of a “staged” assassination attempt on Donald Trump to a viral joke about his running mate having sex with a couch, American liberals have taken a page from the far-right’s playbook in pushing wild conspiracy theories ahead of US elections.

The liberal and left-wing warping of reality — a trend some call “BlueAnon,” a play on the QAnon conspiracy cult — is fueling information chaos on social media platforms that are already a cesspool of right-wing falsehoods.

The trend underscores how Americans on both sides of the political divide are prone to outlandish conspiracy theories, as many turn to partisan influencers for information amid mistrust of mainstream media, researchers say.

Just moments after former president Trump was whisked off stage with blood on his ear following a shooting at a Pennsylvania rally earlier this month, unsubstantiated claims surfaced online that the incident was “staged.”

Some on the Elon Musk-owned platform X cast doubt on the injuries by sharing an image that appeared to show a burst ketchup packet tucked into his shirt collar.

“It’s always a con and a grift,” an X user named “Liberal Lisa in Oklahoma” wrote, using the hashtag “Trump is not fit to be president.”

But the image was digitally altered to include the packet, AFP’s fact-checkers reported.

Other posts baselessly accused the Republican, who narrowly survived a volley of gunshots that killed a bystander and wounded two other people, of staging the assassination attempt with fake blood capsules.

– ‘Off-the-rails noise’ –

The claims appeared to resonate with voters despite being debunked.

Roughly one in five voters -– including some Trump supporters — said they found it “credible that the shooting was staged and not intended to kill” the former president, according to a recent poll by the business intelligence company Morning Consult.

“It’s definitely dark that many leftists are clinging to the idea that the shooting was fake,” Mike Rothschild, an expert on conspiracy theories, told AFP.

“It’s a bending of reality,” he said. “It means that nothing that comes out in social media in the first minutes can be trusted.”

Misinformation has also ensnared Trump’s vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance, with many social media users falsely claiming he wrote about having sex with a couch in his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”

Last month, President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in a prime-time debate with Trump sparked unsubstantiated claims that the 81-year-old Democrat had been secretly drugged before the show.

Many also lambasted the mainstream press over what they called tough coverage of the president’s struggles with his age, with some going as far as calling it an “internal coup” in favor of Trump.

“The left-leaning conspiracy theories and misinformation have always been there, but they’ve been drowned out by the off-the-rails noise on the right,” Timothy Caulfield, a misinformation expert from the University of Alberta in Canada, told AFP.

“The recent debate debacle and assassination attempt created space –- and a perceived need -– for explanations that satisfy the liberal narrative. And the algorithms that control social media feeds amplify the segregation.”

– ‘Mental gymnastics’ –

The unfounded theories, which continue to circulate in liberal circles even after being widely debunked, are making it harder for ordinary users to decipher fact from fiction.

Many platforms have gutted trust and safety teams and scaled back content moderation efforts once used to tame misinformation.

That includes X, where Musk — who recently endorsed Trump — reinstated hundreds of right-wing campaigners and conspiracy theorists after he purchased the site in 2022.

Democrats — who have a far more negative view of X, according to surveys — are increasingly migrating to Threads, a platform launched by Meta to compete with X.

While Threads appears to have more robust content moderation policies, conspiracy theories have still gained traction among liberals on the platform ahead of the election.

“The general disposition toward conspiratorial thinking is not a particularly partisan phenomenon. It’s something that sort of afflicts everybody,” Adam Enders, associate political science professor at the University of Louisville, told AFP.

“It’s all just mental gymnastics to bring your beliefs in conformity with the world. And a reasonable way to do that would be to change your beliefs in light of evidence.”

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/bending-of-reality-us-liberals-stoke-political-conspiracies/article#ixzz8hYAiPLVR

Australia launches landmark peanut allergy treatment for babies

By AFP
July 31, 2024

Children with peanut allergies must avoid eating peanuts and have self-injectable adrenaline available to fight allergic shocks, which can be fatal if they are accidentally exposed - Copyright AFP/File Issouf SANOGO

Australian children with potentially deadly peanut allergies will be offered life-saving treatment in a nationwide programme touted as a world first.

Eligible babies will receive daily doses of peanut powder for two years to build up their tolerance, said officials announcing the initiative on Wednesday.

Over time, the infants will be given increasing doses in the hope of reducing their sensitivity to peanuts, under the supervision of doctors at 10 paediatric hospitals around the country.

It is the first national peanut allergy treatment programme offered in hospitals outside of a clinical trial setting, said Kirsten Perrett, head of oral immunotherapy at the National Allergy Centre of Excellence.

At the end of the two years, a food allergy test will determine if the treatment has led to a remission.

“Ultimately we want to change the trajectory of allergic disease in Australia so that more children can go to school without the risk of a life-threatening peanut reaction,” Perrett said.

Previously, families have been told to ensure their children strictly avoid foods with peanuts.

Australian children have some of the highest rates of food allergies in the world.

Peanut allergies affect three percent of Australian children by the time they are 12 months old, government data shows.

Of those, only 20 percent will outgrow their allergy by the time they are teenagers.

Nine-month-old Hunter Chatwin, who is among those in the free treatment programme, started developing hives after eating peanut butter.

“We are taking part in the programme to try and improve his chance of being able to safely eat peanut in the future,” Hunter’s mother Kirsten said.

“Many families are desperate to protect their children from allergic reactions and anaphylaxis,” she said.

“To have this programme available and free at public hospitals is a game-changer.”

If successful, the programme will be rolled out more broadly, including in regional and remote areas.

Deaths from peanut allergies are rare in Australia, but almost 20 percent of the population has an allergic disease, data from Australia’s leading allergy institute found.

This figure is estimated to grow by 70 percent by 2050, impacting 7.7 million Australians.

Number 1: How an AFP photographer grabbed the perfect surf shot


By AFP
July 30, 2024

This picture of Brazil's Gabriel Medina exiting a wave in Tahiti on his way to Olympic gold has won high praise for AFP photographer Jerome Brouillet

 - Copyright AFP Jerome BROUILLET

AFP photographer Jerome Brouillet knew to expect fireworks when he saw Brazilian Olympic surfer Gabriel Medina paddle into one of the day’s biggest waves at one of the world’s heaviest surf breaks.

What he didn’t know was that his picture of Medina kicking out of the wave after a ride that earned a record Olympics score in Tahiti would become a global sensation, and likely a defining image of the sport and the Games.

Brouillet was on a boat in the channel — an area of deeper, calmer water to the side of the wave but without a clear line of sight of the initial action.

But it was exactly where he wanted to be.

Brouillet was in a prime spot waiting for Medina to “kick out” — exit the wave face at the end of his run.

“Every photographer is waiting for that. You know Gabriel Medina, especially at Teahupo’o will kick off and do something,” said Brouillet.

“You know something is going to happen. The only tricky moment is where he is going to kick out? Because I’m blind!

“Sometimes he makes an acrobatic gesture and this time he did that and so I pushed the button.”

Brouillet caught Medina soaring ramrod-straight above the waves pointing one finger in the sky, his surfboard pointing skyward at his side.

“I think that when he was in the tube he knew that he was in one of the biggest waves of the day. He is jumping out of the water like ‘man, I think this is a 10’,” said Brouillet.

Brouillet suspected he had also captured something special but wasn’t 100 percent sure.

“When I’m shooting at Teahupo’o I don’t shoot in such a high burst mode, because at the end of the day, if you push too hard on the button you come back with 5,000 shots in a day, and I don’t like that!”

“I got four shots of him out of the water and one of the four shots was this photo.”

The picture has been used by scores of publications around the world and shared or liked millions of times online.

“This may well be the greatest sports photo of all time,” Australian media conglomerate News.com.au posted on its Facebook page.

TIME magazine described it as “the defining image of triumph of the 2024 Summer Games”.

Medina posted the image on his own Instagram account, quickly attracting more than 2.4 million likes.

Despite the accolades, Brouillet said celebrations would have to wait because he still had the rest of the competition to shoot.

“I’m sleeping at a friend’s house near Teahupo’o and we’ll have a quiet one because if tomorrow the event is on, I have to wake up at five in the morning!”

Musk’s superhuman vision promise is dangerous: researchers

By AFP
July 30, 2024

Musk has long promised that his Neuralink company was working on implants that could restore sight to blind people -

 Copyright GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File Apu Gomes

Researchers have criticised billionaire Elon Musk for promising that his brain implant technology could eventually provide patients with vision superior to normal human sight.

Musk has long promised that his Neuralink company was working on implants that could restore sight to blind people, telling his 190 million followers on X in March that the product would be called “Blindsight”.

He said the product was already working in monkeys, adding: “Resolution will be low at first, like early Nintendo graphics, but ultimately may exceed normal human vision.”

But Ione Fine, psychology professor at the University of Washington, said it was “a dangerous thing to say.”

Fine co-authored a paper published Monday in the journal Scientific Reports that used models known as “virtual patients” to simulate how such implants could work.

The article argues that the impact of novel implants including Musk’s are likely to be limited by human biology.

Fine said Musk’s idea rested on a flawed premise that high-resolution vision could be created by implanting millions of tiny electrodes into the visual cortex, the region of the brain that processes information received from the eye.

“Engineers often think of electrodes as producing pixels, but that is simply not how biology works,” she said in a statement.

Creating an image in the brain involves not only stimulating individual cells in the way an implant can do, but also then generating a “neural code” that fires across thousands of cells.

She said scientists were not even close to finding the correct neural code in a blind person — meaning the impact of implants would be limited.

“Blindness doesn’t make people vulnerable, but becoming blind late in life can make some people vulnerable,” she said.

“So, when Elon Musk says things like ‘this is going to better than human vision’, that is a dangerous thing to say.”

Hot in the city: When is it too warm to work


By Dr. Tim Sandle
DIGITAL JOURNAL
July 30, 2024

Offices in London. Image by © Tim Sandle

The UK is experiencing a heat-wave, one of many over the past few years as the climate continues to change. Temperatures have topped 30 degrees Celsius. Perhaps not super-hot by the standards of many countries, but hot for a country that has relatively poor infrastructure to cope with warm weather.

This includes the design of many offices, retail outlets and factories, many of which are warming-up. This leads to the question ‘when is it too hot to work?’

Will Walsh is a partner in the employment team at law firm DMH Stallard has explained to Digital Journal what the legal requirements are for UK workers. This applies for people in the office or working from home.

Walsh begins by outlining the duties of the employer: “All employers have an obligation to ensure the health and safety of their employees in the workplace so far as reasonably practicable.”

This leads to penalties if appropriate measures are not taken: “Failure to do so can not only result in sanctions against the organisation, but also criminal liabilities for directors and managers.”

However, there is a vagueness with the law, as Walsh points out: “When it comes to working in hot conditions, there is no maximum working temperature specified in the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. This would be impractical, as some work environments will always involve exposure to high heat, for example those working in glass works.

”

Blooming flower in the summer. Image by Tim Sandle.

The issue is therefore best approached using risk management. Here Walsh observes: “From a risk perspective, there will also be a difference between those undertaking very physical tasks in the heat, compared to those with more sedentary roles.”

Employers still have duty of acre: “While there is no specified maximum temperature, this does not mean that heat can be ignored. The legal responsibilities in respect of health and safety in the workplace still apply and this means carrying out a risk assessment and ensuring that employees work in temperatures that are reasonable and do not place their health and safety at risk.”

In assessing the situation, context matters says Walsh: “The nature of the work will be relevant, as will factors such as whether employees need to wear protective clothing as part of their job that may make it harder still for employees to keep cool.”

As an example of adapting to different scenarios, Walsh suggests: “For office workers, employers should also consider dress codes, particularly if the normal requirement is that employees wear long trousers, shirts and ties. Employers need to be aware of the health risks and the warning signs of an employee suffering from heat exhaustion or other physical effects caused by the heat.”

Employer responsibilities also apply to home working: “Employers need to remember that, if employees are working from home, the health and safety obligations still apply to that working environment.” Yet even here the risk management concept applies: “The risks should be much lower, as home workers are unlikely to be undertaking physical tasks and, even if they were told to stop working, those individuals would still be in their same home environment. But the issue should not be discounted altogether. If, for example, it was known that an employee was working from their home office set up in a small box room up in a loft conversion, where it could get uncomfortably hot, they should be encouraged to move and, if necessary, given flexibility around their tasks to allow them to do so.”

Value for money? Healthcare differences across the US revealed


ByDr. Tim Sandle
DIGITAL JOURNAL
July 30, 2024

File photo: British nurses demonstrated in London for higher pay. - © AFP

The US healthcare system differs to many around the world, with very little state provision. The market-based system mean that the typical citizen spends nearly $13,500 per year on health care.

Do those who spend this level get value for money? The personal-finance website WalletHub has released a report on the States With the Best & Worst Health Care in 2024, to identify where people receive the highest-quality services at the best prices.

To derive at the statistics, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 44 key measures of healthcare cost, accessibility and outcomes.

The data set ranged from the average monthly insurance premium to physicians per capita to the share of the population with health insurance.

This reveals the best states for healthcare to be:

1. Minnesota

2. Rhode Island

3. South Dakota

4. Iowa

5. New Hampshire

6. Massachusetts

7. Utah

8. Vermont

9. Maine

10. ColoradoThe surrge in flu, RSV and corona virus cases has many pediatric healthcare workers concerned. Sourse – SPS-JHSV 14, Public Domain (CC0 1.0)

At the other end of the scale, the worst performing states for healthcare are:

42. Florida

43. Louisiana

44. Arkansas

45. Texas

46. Alaska

47. Oklahoma

48. Georgia

49. West Virginia

50. Alabama

51. Mississippi

There are some interesting variances across the fifty-one outcomes. For instance, New Hampshire has the lowest average monthly health-insurance premium, which is 2.5 times lower than in West Virginia, the highest.

Looking at another measure, California has the highest retention rate for medical residents, which is 4.5 times higher than in the District of Columbia, the lowest.

Taking the tragedy of infant death, North Dakota has the lowest number of infant mortalities (per 1,000 live births), which is 3.4 times lower than in Mississippi, the highest.

On the subject of self-harm and suicide, West Virginia has the lowest share of at-risk adults without a routine doctor visit in the past two years, which is 1.9 times lower than in New Mexico, the highest.

These measures show how health-related outcomes vary by both state and by topic, illustrating the complexity as well as the challenges for healthcare provision across the 250 million people living in the U.S.