World News
Putin signs law allowing him 2 more terms as Russia’s leader
The 68-year-old Russian president, who has been in power longer than any other Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, said he would decide later whether to run again in 2024.
NBC – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a law allowing him to potentially hold onto power until 2036, a move that formalizes constitutional changes endorsed in a vote last year.
The July 1 constitutional vote included a provision that reset Putin’s previous term limits, allowing him to run for president two more times. The change was rubber-stamped by the Kremlin-controlled legislature and the relevant law signed by Putin was posted Monday on an official portal of legal information.
The 68-year-old Russian president, who has been in power for more than two decades — longer than any other Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin — said he would decide later whether to run again in 2024 when his current six-year term ends.
He has argued that resetting the term count was necessary to keep his lieutenants focused on their work instead of “darting their eyes in search for possible successors.”
Breitbart – The British government has claimed that immunity certificates will be a “feature of our lives” until the threat of Chinese coronavirus has passed and admitted that vaccine passports may still be required to go to pubs and restaurants in the future.
On Monday night, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the nation that the country was on track for its phased reopening, but played down the controversial proposal for vaccine passports for domestic use, discussions of which had been widely leaked to the press in recent weeks.
Outdoor hospitality venues will be reopening on Monday, April 12th. Following reports that Johnson had backed down on planned vaccine passports for pubs and restaurants to prevent a party rebellion, he told the nation last night: “There is absolutely no question of people being asked to produce certification, or covid status report, when they go to the shops or to the pub garden, or to the hairdressers or whatever on Monday.
He continued that the government was “not planning that for stage three either”, when indoor hospitality opens on May 17th, and “we’re not planning for anything like that, at that stage.”
However, that does leave the door open for covid certification for pubs and restaurants at ‘stage four’, with the government’s updated Roadmap Review released last night admitting: “It is possible that COVID-status certification could also play a role in reducing social distancing requirements in other settings which people tend to visit more frequently, for example in hospitality settings.”
The document continued that “the Government recognises this has significant implications for businesses and their customers, so this will be further considered in consultation with industry, as part of the review of social distancing rules and taking into account the equalities and other impacts.
“For now, businesses should continue to plan to reopen in a way that follows the latest COVID-Secure guidance, and certification will not be required for reopening as part of step 2 or step 3.”
As reported last weekend, the covid certification app is said to be months away from being ready, possibly until the Autumn.
Further, the government document claimed that “COVID-status certification is likely to become a feature of our lives until the threat from the pandemic recedes”.
The Roadmap Review also said that banning businesses from demanding immunity passports from customers would be “an unjustified intrusion on how businesses choose to make their premises safe”, so “long as they are compliant with equalities legislation”. It added that there would “be exceptions where the Government needs to intervene to ensure equitable access to essential services”.
In appearing to justify the government possibly opening Pandora’s Box on domestic immunity IDs, the Review added: “It is therefore right that the Government provides a means of easily demonstrating COVID-status, in order to ensure UK citizens and residents are not denied opportunities to travel or attend certain venues or events.”
It is now clear vaccine passports to do simple things like go to the pub or eat a meal out have been merely delayed, not defeated.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today and Sky News on Tuesday, Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi would not rule out vaccine passports for hospitality beyond June 21st, when all restrictions are supposed to be lifted — despite the prime minister saying on Monday that the Summer would see an “irreversible” return to normalcy.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove, who is heading the review on vaccine certification, has allegedly privately promised MPs a vote on the measures if Johnson gives them the go-ahead. Around 41 Tories have already voiced their descent on the matter, but it would take an estimated 60 Conservative MPs and all opposition parties to stop the bill in the House of Commons; however, Labour has so far not settled its position on the scheme.
RT – Germany’s western region of Saarland has relaxed some of its Covid-19 lockdown rules in exchange for people getting tested more often. Officials hope the new model will bring Germany more freedom and help it beat the virus.
The new approach – dubbed ‘the Saarland model’ – relies on replacing some lockdown measures with heavier testing requirements.
Starting from Tuesday, outdoor gatherings of up to 10 people are allowed if each person tests negative for the coronavirus at least 24 hours before the event, and local authorities are notified in advance.
A rapid-negative Covid-19 test is also required for playing sports, visiting gyms, cinemas and theaters, as well as for dining outdoors in groups of up to 10 people per table if the place is booked in advance.
The tests must be certified by test centers, pharmacies, schools, companies or authorities. Alternatively, a person can get a rapid test under supervision.
Officials warned they will roll back the partial reopening should the number of new infections per 100,000 people rise above 100.
Saarland Minister-President Tobias Hans said last week that the model will help the Saarland “contain the pandemic just as effectively and with fewer restrictions on fundamental rights,” adding that the virus will not go undetected.
Hans said that the change can become “a recipe for success” in fighting pandemics if everyone abides by the rules.
W.H.O. Rejects Vaccine Passports: Cites Lack of Fairness, Medical Doubts
Breitbart – The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) on Tuesday said it rejects coronavirus vaccine passports for travel “at this stage” because of doubts over the efficacy of the injections as well as equity concerns.
“We as W.H.O. are saying at this stage we would not like to see the vaccination passport as a requirement for entry or exit because we are not certain at this stage that the vaccine prevents transmission,” W.H.O. spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a news conference in Geneva, Reuters reports.
“There are all those other questions, apart from the question of discrimination against the people who are not able to have the vaccine for one reason or another,” Harris added, echoing an argument already gaining momentum in the U.S. and beyond.
The W.H.O. previously rejected coronavirus passports as recently as last month, with Breitbart News reporting then it would be unfair to nations with limited vaccination capabilities.
“Vaccination is just not available enough around the world and is not available certainly on an equitable basis,” Dr. Michael Ryan, director of the W.H.O. Health Emergencies Program, said at a press briefing on March 8.
Ryan said the W.H.O., the United Nations’ (U.N.) official health body, advises against the use of coronavirus vaccine passports while there are still “real practical and ethical considerations” surrounding their implementation.
The issue of coronavirus passports has sparked heated globally but especially in the UK where Prime Minister Boris Johnson has hinted at their introduction over the past few weeks.
The British government is understood to want Britons to have the option of displaying either their vaccination status or test results, ensuring those who cannot be vaccinated for health reasons are not penalised.
Johnson addressed the subject directly last month, saying: “There are deep and complex issues that we need to explore, and ethical issues about what the role is for government in mandating or
U.S. News, Politics & Government
Texas Governor Bans Vaccine Passports with Executive Order
Breitbart – Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order Tuesday morning banning the creation or use of a “vaccine passport.” It prohibits state agencies or political subdivisions in Texas from creating a “vaccine passport” or conditioning services on a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status.
“Everyday, Texans are returning to normal life as more people get the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine. But, as I’ve said all along, these vaccines are always voluntary and never forced,” Governor Abbott said in a video announcing the order. “Government should not require any Texan to show proof of vaccination and reveal private health information just to go about their daily lives.”
“That is why I have issued an Executive Order that prohibits government-mandated vaccine passports in Texas,” the Texas governor continued. “We will continue to vaccinate more Texans and protect public health — and we will do so without treading on Texans’ personal freedoms.”
Abbott stressed the importance of vaccines in reducing the spread of COVID-19 and the reduction of serious illness resulting in hospitalizations and fatalities.
The Lone Star State is on pace to have administered more than 13 million vaccine doses by the end of this week, the governor explained.
“We will continue to vaccinate more Texans and protect public health,” Abbott concluded, “and we will do so without treading on Texans’ personal freedoms.”
In addition to impacting state agencies and local governments, the executive order also applies to any public or private entity that is receiving or will receive public funds through any means from requiring the presentation of vaccination status from consumers before rendering services.
Nursing homes, state-supported living centers, assisted living facilities, and long-term care facilities are allowed to continue requiring documentation of vaccination status.
Arkansas Senate Passes Emergency Clause to Immediately and Permanently End Mask Mandates
The Western Journal – The Arkansas Senate voted to permanently block the state’s governor from ever imposing another mask mandate.
The bill now moves to the state’s House of Representatives.
The measure was approved by the Senate on Wednesday, one day after Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson allowed the statewide mask mandate to expire after it was initially put in place in July 2020.
Hutchinson said it was unlikely he’d reimpose the mandate, but he did not rule it out.
To make sure a government-mandated mask edict can never be imposed again, the Senate voted 20-9 to ban all mandatory face-covering requirements, citing the undue burden they place on the public.
“The requirement of face coverings is no longer necessary to protect the health and safety of the citizens of Arkansas and is a burden on the public peace, health, and safety of the citizens of this state,” the bill declared.
Republican Sen. Trent Garner, who sponsored the bill, said it was necessary to prevent government overreach on the civil liberties of Arkansas residents.
“What this bill does is make sure we don’t have that happen again, by executive order or by government fiat,” Garner said, according to The Associated Press.
Garner said the legislation would not affect the ability of private businesses to make their own rules about requiring masks inside their establishments. His main concern was preventing government overreach.
However, Hutchinson said he would veto the bill because he believes it would prevent private businesses from being allowed to impose their own rules about mask usage.
“The bill is pointless, except it would prohibit private businesses, schools and hospitals from requirements for face coverings,” Hutchinson said in a statement, according to the AP.
“This is not a good idea, and I would veto the bill in its current form.”
There’s a growing movement of lawmakers around the country who have rejected mask mandates, saying they’re unconstitutional and do little to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Last week, Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, essentially told President Joe Biden to take a hike in response to the Democrat’s insistence on a one-size-fits-all mask mandate.
RT – A prominent Black Lives Matter activist has said that “all hell is going to break loose” if former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin is acquitted of George Floyd’s killing. Amid a wave of condemnation, she deleted her post.
“If George Floyd’s murderer is not sentenced, just know that all hell is gonna break loose,” model and activist Maya Echols said in a now-removed video. “Don’t be surprised when buildings are on fire. Just sayin’.”
Echols is a model represented by IMG Models Worldwide, and she regularly posts pro-BLM vlogs for her 484,000 followers on TikTok. Her latest post triggered a torrent of condemnation from conservatives online, with some accusing her of threatening “domestic terrorism.”
Echols deleted her video sometime before Tuesday morning, without posting any further explanation.
Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. Prosecutors say he killed Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than eight minutes, while his defense has argued, based on a toxicology report, that Floyd had consumed a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl and methamphetamine before encountering Chauvin. Floyd’s defense refutes the claim that drugs alone led to his death.
When video footage of Floyd’s final moments went viral last year, cities across the US burned. Riots spread beyond Minneapolis, and nationwide protests against police brutality devolved into looting and arson.
As the nation awaits a verdict in Chauvin’s trial, Echols is not the only commentator predicting violence. Conservative pundits have warned that should Chauvin be acquitted, the ensuing riots would “almost certainly make last year’s riots look like a dress rehearsal.”
Breitbart – Monday on FNC’s “The Story,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) suggested Republicans and other conservatives that take issue with punitive actions taken by corporate America against Georgia for the passage of a law by the Georgia Assembly to shore up election integrity take on those companies with their own boycott.
The Kentucky Republican argued going “woke” should come at a price for publicly traded businesses that get involved in politics.
“They started it,” he said. “Major League Baseball wants to boycott the whole state of Georgia, including Atlanta. They have already gotten rid of the All-Star Game and the draft. And they’re doing it because they don’t like a Republican law, a law that actually expands voting. It doesn’t contract voting. Georgia now has more early voting than New York has. So, it’s kind of ridiculous. Even the facts don’t meet what they’re trying to do. But my point is, yes, if they want to boycott us, why don’t we boycott them? This is the only thing that will teach them a lesson. If Coca-Cola wants to only operate in Democrat states and wants only Democrats to drink Coca-Cola, God love them.”
“We will see how well they do when half of the country quits drinking Coca-Cola, when half the country quit using Delta,” Paul continued. “So, the thing is, is, they’re all woke, but they’re really doing something that is against the financial interests of every business. Publicly traded businesses usually don’t get involved with politics because it hurts their bottom line to make half the country unhappy.”
With 1.3m backlog at US border, migrants released without papers
CS Monitor – Last week, the Border Patrol began the unusual practice of releasing migrants with no court notices, and at times, no paperwork as people flock to the Mexico-U.S. border. For many seeking asylum, getting sent back to Mexico “would be a nightmare.”
Overwhelmed and underprepared, United States authorities are releasing migrant families on the Mexican border without notices to appear in immigration court or sometimes without any paperwork at all – time-saving moves that have left some migrants confused.
The rapid releases ease pressure on the Border Patrol and its badly overcrowded holding facilities but shifts work to Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE), the agency that enforces immigration laws within the U.S. Families are released with booking records; only parents are photographed and fingerprinted.
The Border Patrol began the unusual practice last week in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, which has seen the biggest increase in the number of migrant families and unaccompanied minors crossing the border. Last week, the agency added instructions to report to an ICE office within 60 days to adults’ booking documents.
State Defies Feds, Passes Law Letting Residents Buy & Carry Guns With NO Permit
Free Thought Project – As the Federal government continues to wage its war on the second amendment, states across the country are taking pre-emptive measures to protect the rights of their residents. Iowa just added their name to the list of states making such moves by passing a law to lift restrictions on firearms purchases — instead of cracking down.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed legislation into law over the weekend which removes previous restrictions on the purchase of guns in their state. The legislation, named “House File 756,” will take effect on July 1 and eliminates the requirement for law-abiding Iowans to obtain a permit to purchase a handgun from private unlicensed sources. Additionally, people will no longer need a permit in order to carry a gun.
House File 756 “protects the Second Amendment rights of Iowa’s law-abiding citizens while still preventing the sale of firearms to criminals and other dangerous individuals,” the governor said in a statement Friday afternoon.
The law also takes “greater steps to inform law enforcement about an individual’s mental illness helping ensure firearms don’t end up in the wrong hands,” she said.
It does this by making it a felony for a private individual to transfer or sell a firearm if they “know or reasonably should know that the other person is ineligible to possess dangerous weapons” and would face a penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine up of to $7,500.
“We will never be able to outlaw or prevent every single bad actor from getting a gun, but what we can do is ensure law-abiding citizens have full access to their constitutional rights while keeping Iowans safe,” the governor said.
The permit-less constitutional carry part of the legislation is similar to that of legislation in 18 other states that doesn’t require citizens ask the government for the ability to protect themselves. The bill’s sponsor Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison, called the previous law which required a permit to buy and carry a gun, a “permission slip from the government” to protect one’s self.
Though there was some outspoken opposition to the bill, it largely passed with bipartisan support, showing that the right to self-defense is a top priority for those on both sides of the aisle.
What’s more, as Mark Houser pointed out, gun control can’t solve our problems. Especially with the widespread adoption of 3D printing and other means of self-manufacture, gun control will increasingly be relegated to irrelevance. Gun control policies will burden only the upstanding citizens who, in good faith, try to abide by them, and are nonetheless ensnared. If we want to get serious about addressing violence in America, there are many more promising areas to focus on like why people commit it, not the tool they use to do so.
Fortunately, the federal anti-gun tidal wave has grown so big it has caused multiple states to take protective measures to ensure the rights of their citizens to defend themselves are not infringed.
While Iowa took to lifting restrictions, other states are moving to protect their borders from the gun grabbing hands of the feds by promising to fine or arrest cops who participate in federal gun control programs.
In more than a dozen states, lawmakers proposed or passed bills to nullify federal attacks on gun rights. In Alabama, Arkansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Wyoming, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia and Iowa bills have been proposed to nullify federal gun laws. In Texas, the governor has called for the state to become a Second Amendment sanctuary.
n Arizona, the Senate proposed a bill to sue officers who take guns from citizens at the request of federal agents. According to the legislation, officers who comply with gun control measures could also face charges.
In Utah, the house passes a similar measure, forbidding officers employed in the state to enforce federal gun control laws.
“We really feel the need to protect those rights,” Republican Rep. Cory Maloy said.
Last month, Missouri passed a bill which also bans cops from enforcing any new federal gun laws pushed by the Biden administration. The measure would penalize local police departments if their officers enforce federal gun laws and they would face minimum $50,000 fines for an infraction.
The Missouri bill is causing a stir among Democrat lawmakers who erroneously claim this bill would give money to criminals.
“We’re literally defunding our law enforcement agencies to give that money to criminals,” St. Louis Democratic Rep. Peter Meredith said before asking the House to vote against the bill. “This is not hyperbole.”
Energy & Environment
Nation Puts a Stop to Bill Gates-Backed Plan to Dim the Sun By Spraying Particles into Sky
Free Thought Project – As TFTP reported last year, it was reported that the top climate change scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration received $4 million in funding from Congress along with permission to study two highly controversial geoengineering methods in an attempt to cool the Earth. According to Science Magazine, David Fahey, director of the Chemical Sciences Division of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory, told his staff last week that the federal government is ready to examine the science behind “geoengineering”—or what he dubbed a “Plan B” for climate change.
This plan is in congruence with the plan backed by billionaire Bill Gates in which plans have been made to spray dust into the atmosphere to dim the sun that would potentially reflect sunlight out of Earth’s atmosphere, triggering a global cooling effect.
The Stratospheric Controlled Perturbation Experiment (SCoPEx), launched by Harvard University scientists, aims to examine this solution by spraying non-toxic calcium carbonate (CaCO3) dust into the atmosphere — a sun-reflecting aerosol that may offset the effects of global warming.
What could possibly go wrong?
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After years of planning, it was announced earlier this year that SCoPEx is about to go live. However, some countries — namely the ones it was going to start in — are having second thoughts.
According to a report out of Forbes Magazine in January, SCoPEx was going to take a small step in its early research this June near the town of Kiruna, Sweden, where the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) has agreed to help launch a balloon carrying scientific equipment 12 miles (20 km) high.
However, that may not take place now as the SSC has decided it may be a bad idea. According to a statement from the SSC, they have decided not to move forward with dimming the sun.
Climate change and its consequences is one of the greatest challenges we face on our planet. Research within this field is therefore important, and many of the experiments that are being conducted onboard balloons and rockets from Esrange Space Center contribute to such research.
To that end, the purpose of the SCoPEx project as such fits well into SSC services and mission to help earth benefit from Space.
However, the scientific community is divided regarding geoengineering, including any related technology tests such as the planned technical balloon test flight from Esrange this summer.
SSC has had dialogues this spring with both leading experts on geo-engineering and with other stakeholders, as well as with the SCoPEx Advisory Board. As a result of these dialogues and in agreement with Harvard, SSC has decided not to conduct the technical test flight planned for this summer.
Whether or not research on geoengineering should be conducted is an important discussion that should continue within the scientific community, as well as with other stakeholders and the general public. SSC welcomes such a broad societal discussion on this important matter.
As TFT has reported, Harvard announced in July of 2019 that it has created an external advisory panel to examine the potential ethical, environmental and geopolitical impacts of this geoengineering project, which has been developed by the university’s researchers.
The experiment will spray calcium carbonate particles high above the earth to mimic the effects of volcanic ash blocking out the sun to produce a cooling effect. This appears to be the same as NOAA’s “Plan B.”
Naturally, there are many critics of geoengineering and it is concerning to many people, including environmental groups, who say such efforts are a dangerous distraction from addressing the only permanent solution to climate change: reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
David Keith, a professor of applied physics and public policy at Harvard University, recognizes the “very many real concerns” of geoengineering, according to Forbes. To offset these risks he has proposed the creation of a “risk pool” to collect funds for the risks associated with playing mother nature — up to and including cooling an area so much that inhabitants are unable to grow food.
As Forbes reports:
Again, these temperature decreases bring with them serious risks. Freezing temperatures in 1815 led to failed crops in near-famine conditions. British scientists have cited stratospheric aerosols from volcanic eruptions in Alaska and Mexico as the potential cause of drought in Africa’s Sahel region. Major disruption of the global climate could bring unintended consequences, negatively impacting highly populated regions and engineering another refugee crisis.
David Keith has proposed the creation of a “risk pool” to compensate smaller nations for collateral damage caused by such tests, but such a payout might be little comfort to those displaced by unlivable conditions.
Indeed. No amount of money would compensate for a family losing all of their land to freezing temperatures and being forced to relocate to another country. But these are some of the risks involved in weather modification.
This is likely one of the reasons Sweden decided to pull out of the tests.
Science & Technology
Lawsuit Accuses Northwestern University of Unlawfully Collecting Students’ Biometric Data
Campus Reform – An anonymous student is suing Northwestern University for unlawfully collecting students’ biometric data through online test proctoring tools according to a class action lawsuit filed in late January.
According to The Daily Northwestern, the suit claims the school is violating Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act by not giving students a choice to opt out of the data collection.
The privacy act, known as the Biometric Information Privacy Act, was created in 2008 to protect Illinois citizens from the collection of fingerprints, retina scans and other personal data without consent. This is exactly what Northwestern is doing according to the lawsuit which describes the proctoring tools as “akin to spyware.”
“Through online proctoring tools, Northwestern collects, captures, and stores everything from a student’s facial features to their voice through a web portal accessed through the student’s personal device. Using these tools, Northwestern is able to collect and aggregate information on all aspects of a student’s life,” reads the suit in part.
Many student exams at Northwestern are proctored through services such as Respondus Monitor and Examity which use the camera and microphone on a student’s personal device to uphold academic integrity during exams. Should the software detect a violation of testing protocol, students are locked out of their exam and are failed for cheating. Students have no other option but to submit to these monitoring rules during online exams.
he suit is the latest in a wider trend in higher education as students and faculty alike are fighting back against unwanted exam proctoring. Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Texas at Dallas and, Miami University have all petitioned for the end to online proctoring for similar privacy concerns. In March 2020, the faculty associate board at UC Santa Barbara also sent a letter to the school’s chancellors advocating for the refusal of ProctorU on campus.
Northwestern University did not respond to a request for comment from Campus Reform, but told The Daily Northwestern that it does not comment on pending litigation.
Clarence Thomas pushes brilliant way to control social-media giants
WND – Thomas said a few private companies, such as Twitter and Facebook, have the power to “cut” free speech, warning that the Supreme Court will soon need to address the issue.
The high court ruled the case against Trump is moot because he is no longer president and Twitter permanently banned his account.
“This is not the first or only case to raise issues about digital platforms,” Thomas wrote. “While this case involves a suit against a public official, the court properly rejects today a separate petition alleging that digital platforms, not individuals on those platforms, violated public accommodations laws, the First Amendment, and antitrust laws.”
Thomas said the petitions highlight two important facts.
“Today’s digital platforms provide avenues for historically unprecedented amounts of speech, including speech by government actors. Also unprecedented, however, is the concentrated control of so much speech in the hands of a few private parties,” he said.
“We will soon have no choice but to address how our legal doctrines apply to highly concentrated, private owned information infrastructure such as digital platforms.”
The “separate petition” cited by Thomas was another case addressing the issue brought by Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch and later joined by conservative activist and political candidate Laura Loomer, alleging Big Tech companies are discriminating against conservatives in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The antitrust case was distributed for conference for weeks but ultimately was not accepted by the high court. It argued the social media companies’ platforms are a “place of public accommodation,” meaning they are not allowed to censor conservative content.
In his opinion, Thomas explained that while a Twitter user can remove a few people from a conversation, “Twitter can remove any person from the platform – including the president of the United States – ‘at any time for any or no reason.'”
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled against Trump, claiming that while he was president he used his Twitter account to discuss political matters, meaning anyone who commented on his tweets was engaging in a public forum protected by the First Amendment. The court reasoned, therefore, that Trump’s blocking of any opinions was unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.
Thomas acknowledged that “some aspects of Mr. Trump’s account resemble a constitutionally protected public forum.”
“But it seems rather odd to say that something is a government forum when a private company has unrestricted authority to do away with it,” he said.
Thomas pointed out that the First Amendment frequently does not apply to times and places under the control of a “private party.”
“If part of the problem is private, concentrated control over online content and platforms available to the public, then part of the solution may be found in doctrines that limit the right of a private company to exclude.”
He said a solution could be to determine that the platforms are “common carriers,” like a telephone network.
“This court long ago suggested that regulations like those placed on common carries may be justified, even for industries not historically recognized as common carriers, when ‘a business, by circumstances and its nature … rise[s] from private to be of public concern.'”
Some companies, he said, carry out functions “that the state has traditionally undertaken” and are in a category “distinct from other companies,”
“In many ways, digital platforms that hold themselves out to the public resemble traditional common carriers.”
He said the fact that there are “no comparable competitors” to Facebook and Google means “the industries may have substantial barriers to entry.”
“Although both companies are public, one person controls Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg), and just two control Google (Larry Page and Sergey Brin).”
Because of that, they have “enormous control over speech.”
Health
CNN – President Joe Biden plans to announce Tuesday that he is moving up his deadline for states to make all American adults eligible for a coronavirus vaccine by almost two weeks.
With all states having opened eligibility to the public or at least having announced when they plan to do so, Biden will announce that every adult in the country will be eligible to be vaccinated by April 19, according to an administration official, instead of Biden’s original deadline of May 1.
Biden announced last week that 90% of adults will be eligible to get a coronavirus vaccine by April 19, as well as have a vaccination site within five miles of where they live. Biden said the number of pharmacies participating in the federal pharmacy vaccination program was increasing from the current 17,000 locations to 40,000.
CNN has previously reported that all 50 states have announced when they plan to open vaccinations to everyone who is eligible, if they haven’t done so already. New Jersey, South Dakota and Nebraska have announced plans to expand eligibility to those 16 years and older before Biden’s new deadline, and other states currently plan to open eligibility by May 1. Biden is expected to credit the governors’ effort to meet his May 1 deadline for this change.
On Tuesday, the President is scheduled to visit a vaccination site in Alexandria, Virginia, and then give remarks on the state of vaccinations from the White House. That’s when he is expected to say that 150 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered within his first 75 days in office, in line with a stated goal of 200 million shots by his 100th day in office.
Biden will tout how the US reported more than 4 million doses of coronavirus vaccine administered in a single 24-hour period last weekend. That record came at the same time federal officials put Johnson & Johnson officials in charge of a Baltimore facility and stopped it from making another vaccine by AstraZeneca after an ingredient error ruined potentially 15 million one-shot doses.
CNN – The highly contagious Covid-19 variant first identified in the UK has now been reported in every state in the US, and experts are concerned spreading variants could send cases surging.
“America appears to be done with the pandemic,” Dr. Michael Osterholm, director for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said Monday evening. “The virus is not done with us.”
More than 15,000 cases of the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant, which also appears to be more deadly, have been reported in the US. While the US races to get Americans vaccinated in time, many experts are asking the public to hold onto precautions for just a little while longer.
The good news, Osterholm said, is that existing vaccines are very effective against the variants. The bad news is that the US may not be able to administer them fast enough to avoid another surge.
“We are not going to have enough vaccines, the way we are going, into the arms of enough Americans over the course of the next six to 10 weeks with this surge that we are going to stop it,” Osterholm told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “It’s just simply not going to happen.”
And though the US is vaccinating nearly five times faster than the global average, with 40% of adults having received at least one shot, lower income countries with limited vaccine access could become a site for variants to spin out of control, Osterholm said.
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