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☆ An airline was fined for imposing strict rules about high heels and makeup on female cabin crew, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A Spanish airline was fined for enforcing a strict makeup and high heel policy on female crew. Vueling requires female crew to wear high heels and enforces makeup rules, per El Periódico. Catalonia's labor department fined the airline 30,000 euros (about $32,000) after a union complaint. The publication said Vueling's female cabin crew were required to wear high heels of between five and eight inches, and foundation that matches their skin tone. A Vueling representative said it was considering its options following the ruling but there was now "no gender distinction or obligation to wear make-up."

☆ Texts from the Dominion lawsuit reveal the real Fox News
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | Rebecca Zisser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Among the messages is a thread where Tucker Carlson privately bashes Trump. Dominion captured a number of texts that show Fox employees' apprehension about the growing conspiracy claims about the company's voting machines in the wake of the election. Top Fox News hosts, including Tucker Carlson, privately insulted Chris Wallace and hatched a plot for a rebellion — November, 16, 2020. In a group chat between the three biggest hosts, Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham, few colleagues, including then-"Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace, were spared. In a group chat between the three biggest hosts, Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham, few colleagues such as then-"Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace were spared.

The draft needs to be thrashed out between EU countries and EU lawmakers, called a trilogue, before the rules can become law. This led to different AI tools being classified according to their perceived risk level: from minimal through to limited, high, and unacceptable. Almost all of the big tech players have stakes in the sector, including Microsoft (MSFT.O), Alphabet (GOOGL.O) and Meta (META.O). BIG TECH, BIG PROBLEMSThe EU discussions have raised concerns for companies -- from small startups to Big Tech -- on how regulations might affect their business and whether they would be at a competitive disadvantage against rivals from other continents. A recent survey by industry body appliedAI showed that 51% of the respondents expect a slowdown of AI development activities as a result of the AI Act.

☆ Italy pushing IMF to help Tunisia and avoid instability, minister says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Crispian Balmer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

However, Tajani has spoken to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and urged her to show flexibility to stave off possible financial collapse. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is also "working the phones", one official said, warning that Italy faced an "invasion of migrants" in the coming months if Tunisia did not get the money. "Uncontrolled irregular migration can only be reduced by improving the conditions of security and economic stability," Tajani said, adding that Italy was looking to boost training opportunities for Tunisians as an alternative to migration. Of the arrivals this year to Italy, the top country of origin is Ivory Coast (3,223), followed by Guinea (2,906). "The stability and prosperity of Tunisia, with respect for fundamental rights and freedoms, are crucial for the stability of the entire Mediterranean region," Tajani said.

☆ Israel's 'Handmaids' become a defining image of the mass protests against Netanyahu's judicial reforms
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Women dressed as "Handmaids" are at the forefront of mass protests against the Netanyahu government. Netanyahu's plans to lessen the power of the Israeli supreme court. The protests in Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities oppose Prime Minister Netanyahu's plans to lessen the power of the Israeli Supreme Court in favor of elected officials. Israeli protesters wearing costumes from ''The Handmaid's Tale'' particiapte in a rally against Israeli Goverment's judicial overhaul bills at Haogen Junctions on March 16, 2023. Gili Yaari/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesPeople around the world are also voicing concerns about Netanyahu's plans.

WASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) - Forty of the 100 U.S. senators co-sponsored a resolution on Wednesday urging a strong U.S. government response to any Chinese efforts to clamp down on dissent in Hong Kong, including the use of sanctions and other tools. The resolution is non-binding, but is intended to convey a strong sense that lawmakers are closely watching events in China and will respond. China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 outlawing acts including subversion with up to life in prison. The law has been criticized by some Western governments as a tool to crush dissent, but the Chinese and Hong Kong governments say it has restored stability to the city after protracted pro-democracy protests in 2019. Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Stephen CoatesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Hungary vows to fight in EU court to defend anti-LGBT law
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BUDAPEST, March 9 (Reuters) - Hungary's Justice Minister said late on Wednesday that Budapest would fight in the Court of Justice of the EU to defend an education law that Brussels says discriminates against people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The government has said the law aimed to protect children, not target the LGBT community. "Just as we have done so far, we will go to the wall if it's about protecting our children," Varga said, adding that uphold the legislation was necessary and further measures would be taken. The European Commission referred Hungary to the Court of Justice of the EU over the anti-LGBT law in mid-2022. The commission has said it considers that the law violates the EU's internal market rules, the fundamental rights of individuals and EU values.

The government said the BBC had failed to respond to repeated requests to clarify its tax affairs related to the profits and remittances from its Indian operations. The documentary, which was only broadcast in Britain, accused Modi of fostering a climate of impunity that fuelled the violence. Reuters spoke to eight Indian journalists, industry executives and media analysts who said that some media which reported critically on the government have been targeted with inspections by government agencies, the suspension of state advertising, and the arrest of reporters. Modi's government has vigorously denied the BBC tax inspection - the first against an international news organisation in decades - was a response to the film. Gupta said there had been complaints after the government reduced its advertising spending but that was not an assault on media freedom.

☆ Top Fox News anchor says the company has banned coverage of the Dominion lawsuit that revealed how Tucker Carlson and other Fox stars privately dismissed election conspiracy theories while peddling th
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Internal messages show how Fox News anchors privately mocked 2020 election conspiracy theories. Dominion, an elections technology company, filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News in March 2021, accusing the media company of spreading conspiracy theories that claimed Dominion helped rig the 2020 election results. "It's dangerously insane these conspiracy theories," Fox reporter Lucas Tomlinson said to Bret Baier, host of Special Report. A search through FoxNews.com turns up zero recent stories regarding the Dominion lawsuit. "That is an actual threat to democracy and it points up the core problem which is we're not really very serious about democracy if we're using electronic voting machines," Carlson said.

In a text message with his producer, Alex Pfeiffer, Mr. Carlson appeared livid that viewers were turning against the network. On Nov. 7, 2020, Mr. Carlson told Mr. Pfeiffer that claims about manipulated software were “absurd.” Mr. Pfeiffer replied later that there was not enough evidence of fraud to swing the election. A video of Carlson from “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” Said publicly on Nov. 19, 2020 Carlson: “We did not dismiss any of it. It aired on the programs hosted by Mr. Dobbs, Ms. Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro. On Feb. 5, 2021, one day after Smartmatic filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox, Fox Business canceled “Lou Dobbs Tonight.” At the time, Fox said it regularly reviewed its lineup.

☆ ‘It’s a major blow’: Dominion has uncovered ‘smoking gun’ evidence in case against Fox News, legal experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

While the legal experts cautioned that they would like to see Fox News’ formal legal response to the filing, they all indicated in no uncertain terms that the evidence compiled in Dominion’s legal filing represents a serious threat to the channel. On one occasion, Carlson demanded that Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich be fired after she fact-checked a Trump tweet pushing election fraud claims. Tushnet said that in all of her years practicing and teaching law, she had never seen such damning evidence collected in the pre-trial phase of a defamation suit. “Donald Trump seems to be very good at generating unprecedented situations.”David Korzenik, an attorney who teaches First Amendment law and represents a number of media organizations, said that the filing showed Dominion’s case against Fox News has serious teeth. “Their motion for summary judgment takes an extreme and unsupported view of defamation law and rests on an accounting of the facts that has no basis in the record.”But the attorneys said Dominion’s filing showed it had built a powerful case against Fox.

☆ Tucker Carlson called Trump a 'demonic force' in a text on January 6, filing reveals
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Tucker Carlson called Donald Trump a "demonic force" in a text to his producer on January 6. Fox hosts privately accepted Trump's election loss but continued to air conspiracy theories, texts show. Lindell spouted election fraud theories on air after voicing them for Carlson's staff in a pre-interview. In another text exchange, Carlson spoke critically of pro-Trump guests who promoted election fraud conspiracy theories on Fox News. In separate texts, he told Pfieffer and Laura Ingraham that Sidney Powell, the pro-Trump lawyer who championed outlandish election fraud conspiracy theories, was "a fucking nutcase" and "lying."

The documents were publicly released for the first time this week as part of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox Corp and its cable TV networks. Dominion, Fox Corp and Fox News filed their motions for summary judgment this week, which unveiled evidence from months of discovery and depositions that had been private until this point. Fox News anchors, as well as top Fox Corp brass including Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch, were questioned in recent months. In court papers Thursday, Fox Corp said it had "no role in the creation and publication of the challenged statements – all of which aired on either Fox Business Network or Fox News Channel." But he's not going to destroy us," court papers show.

☆ Analysis: Fox News has been exposed as a dishonest organization terrified of its own audience
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Trump was enraged that Fox News was the first network to call the critical swing state of Arizona for now-president Joe Biden. In the days and weeks after the presidential contest had been called, Fox News’ audience listened to Trump and rebelled against the channel. Behind the scenes, Fox News executives and hosts were in panic. Did I mention Cavuto?”The fear that Fox News’ audience would abandon it for good also appeared to drive programming decisions. When Lindell appeared on Newsmax and criticized Fox News, executives at Fox News “exchanged worried emails about alienating him,” the legal filing said.

☆ Fox News exec said 'the North Koreans do a more nuanced show' than the now-fired host Lou Dobbs: lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Cheryl Teh | Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Fox News president Jay Wallace said North Korean propaganda has more nuance than Lou Dobbs. Wallace's comments about Dobbs were cited in a court filing by Dominion Voting Systems. Wallace said in September 2020 that "the North Koreans do a more nuanced show" than Dobbs, per a filing from Dominion Voting Systems released on Thursday. This filing was part of Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit against Fox News. Dominion Voting Systems has alleged that Fox defamed it by pushing a false conspiracy theory that it manipulated election results.

☆ Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity discussed wanting a Fox News reporter fired after she pushed back on Trump's election lies
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity discussed trying to have a Fox reporter fired for a fact-checking tweet. The Fox News commentators took issue with the reporter's rejection of Trump's 2020 election lies. A new court filing in Dominion Voting Systems' lawsuit again Fox includes troves of text messages. Carlson and Hannity apparently did not take kindly to her public rejection of Trump's messaging. Hannity responded saying he had already sent Heinrich's tweet to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott with a "really?"

☆ Fox News stars and executives privately trashed Trump’s election fraud claims, court document reveal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —The most prominent stars and highest-ranking executives at Fox News privately ridiculed claims of election fraud in the 2020 election despite the right-wing channel allowing lies about the presidential contest to be promoted on its air, damning messages contained in a Thursday court filing revealed. In one set of messages revealed in the court filing, Carlson texted Ingraham, saying that Sidney Powell, an attorney who was representing the Trump campaign, was “lying” and that he had “caught her” doing so. Ingraham responded, “Sidney is a complete nut. Ditto with Rudy [Giuliani].”The messages also revealed that Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corporation, did not believe Trump’s election lies and even floated the idea of having Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham appear together in prime time to declare Joe Biden as the rightful winner of the election. In a statement, Fox News argued that the Thursday court filing contained cherry-picked quotes lacking context.

☆ Fox News producer said Laura Ingraham's interest in false Dominion voter fraud claims 'is going to give me a fucking aneurysm'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Charles R. Davis | Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

In a text message, a Fox News producer complained about Laura Ingraham promoting election conspiracy theories. "This dominion shit is going to give me a fucking aneurysm," Tommy Firth texted a Fox News colleague. The message was revealed in a court filing from Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing Fox for defamation. "This is the Bill Gates/microchip angle to voter fraud," Mitchell responded. Numerous audits and investigations have failed to uncover any evidence of mass voter fraud in any state.

☆ Tucker Carlson told his producer Trump is 'the undisputed world champion' of destroying things and could ruin Fox News if it didn't back his election lies
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Sonam Sheth | Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Tucker Carlson called Trump the "undisputed world champion" of destroying things, per a new court filing. Carlson texted his producer after the 2020 election that Trump could "easily destroy" Fox News if "we play it wrong." "We worked really hard to build what we have," Carlson texted his producer, Alex Pfeiffer, on November 5, 2020, according to the filing. At another point the same day, Carlson texted that "we've got to be incredibly careful right now. Dominion became a focal point for Trumpworld's election-related conspiracy theories shortly after Election Day 2020.

“From the top down, Fox knew ‘the dominion stuff’ was ‘total bs,’” Dominion wrote in its filing for summary judgment in its favor. Dominion must prove that the network either knew the statements it aired were false or recklessly disregarded their accuracy. Dominion said in its brief that Murdoch internally described the election claims as “really crazy” and “damaging,” but declined to wield his editorial power to stop them. In its summary judgment filing, Fox argued that Trump’s claims about the election were “undeniably newsworthy” and that viewers understood they were merely being reported as allegations. Fox also argued that Dominion’s suit advances overbroad interpretations of defamation law, takes quotes from its coverage out of context and ignores its reporting of Dominion’s rebuttals to the false claims.

The bloc's highly-anticipated AI Act is widely expected to be put to a vote at the European Parliament at the end of March, at which point individual nations will begin negotiating final terms of the legislation. Following a crunch five-hour meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, however, MEPs had yet to agree to a set of basic principles. One of the most controversial areas of debate is deciding which AI systems would be categorised as "high risk", such as those affecting a person's safety or infringing fundamental rights. “The obvious tension here is between the focus on fundamental rights, on the one hand, and those who say these necessarily conflict with innovation,” said Greens MEP Sergey Lagodinsky. A source at the European Parliament said negotiations were ongoing with a view to agreeing a strong text.

☆ India's Gen Z grapples with Modi's dark past in clashes over new documentary
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Yashraj Sharma | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Modi denies being complicit in the attacks, and India’s Supreme Court upheld a ruling last year that he should be cleared of all charges. The first part of the documentary is about Modi’s political career before he became prime minister. The second half of the BBC documentary, which aired in Britain this week, focuses on his leadership since then. Critics say Modi has promoted discrimination against India’s Muslim minority and quashed dissent, especially since his re-election in 2019. Students at Jamia Millia Islamia defied university warnings not to screen the BBC film.

The assailants had been monitoring the property and may have observed that she often shares flowers with her neighbors, she said. Omarov then sent those details to Mehdiyev, who lived in Yonkers, New York, prosecutors said. Amirov and Omarov then arranged for Mehdiyev to get $30,000 in cash, which he used to buy an assault rifle and ammunition, prosecutors said. Omarov, 38, was arrested in the Czech Republic earlier this month, and the United States is seeking his extradition. Iran accuses Western powers of fomenting the unrest, which security forces have met with deadly violence.

“We spoke with a clear voice in November,” Whitmer said in her annual State of the State speech, which she delivered in person for the first time since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. Whitmer, who was on President Joe Biden’s shortlist for vice president, is seen as a rising national star. “I know we might have different perspectives here, but I sure hope we can all get around supporting 4-year-olds across Michigan,” she said. “But the truth is that she set a record during her first term for vetoing bills, many which Republicans and Democrats worked together to pass.”In several policy areas, Whitmer spoke more defiantly or struck more partisan tones. I’m looking at you, Ohio and Indiana.”Those remarks drew a rebuke on social media from the Michigan Republican Party, which during the speech tweeted: “No.

“Around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms,” Mr. Biden said, using Mr. Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan to describe the former president’s allies. While he had repeatedly and consistently said he intended to run, Mr. Biden stoked renewed speculation by delaying his kickoff for months. Mr. Biden tapped Julie Chávez Rodríguez, a senior White House adviser and granddaughter of the iconic labor leader Cesar Chávez, as his campaign manager. But the operation is expected to be overseen from the White House by top presidential aides. While polls show that most Democrats have favorable opinions about Mr. Biden, a majority of them would still rather he not run again.

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