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Disney Employees Suing Company Over Vaccine Exemption Refusals

The Epoch Times reported:

The Walt Disney Company punished and then fired three long-time employees because they refused the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds, according to a new lawsuit against the company.

On July 30, 2021, Disney announced that its employees would have to take one of the several COVID-19 vaccines to continue working with the company.

When Florida’s government forbade “vaccinate or terminate” policies, the company began a relentless push to vaccinate all employees, including those who had requested religious exemptions, the lawsuit states.

According to the plaintiffs, Disney burdened religious vaccine objectors with restrictions that went beyond its original pandemic policy.

TikTok Wants ‘Psychographic Analysis’ of Your Kids, GETTR CEO Warns

FOX Business reported:

As the Senate Intelligence Committee calls on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate TikTok’s data practices, one social media exec is also raising a red flag on the popular app’s true intentions.

“The real concern here when we talk about consumer information, it’s not the email address, it’s not even a credit card,” GETTR CEO Jason Miller said on “Mornings with Maria” Thursday. “Assume that the CCP already has that. It’s the psychographic analysis of our kids.”

Miller’s comments come after Chinese-owed TikTok admitted it had access to American users’ data for months while U.S. employees did not have access themselves, according to leaked audio obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The CEO told FOX Business’s Maria Bartiromo that, eventually, China will know the thoughts of young Americans better than U.S. intelligence. Miller further argued that TikTok’s data algorithm was built to predict users’ behaviors and actions.

San Diego Loses 22% of Its Police Force Due to Vax Mandates

ZeroHedge reported:

San Diego is witnessing the largest exodus of police officers from the city since 2009 and the majority of them are quitting because of the city’s continued obsession with COVID vaccine mandates.

More than 230 San Diego police officers have left city employment in the 2022 fiscal year alone (252 sworn deputies in 2021), totaling around 22% of all deputies in active service.

City officials are scrambling to increase incentives to lure new officers into the ranks, including the approval of a 10% pay raise, but many within the department were well aware that this outcome was looming.  Officials now say replacing deputies as fast as they exit will be impossible.

Meanwhile, the lack of officers has led to horrendous wait times for emergencies, according to anonymous SDPD officer the_disgruntled_po3.

California Backs off of Previously Strict School COVID Guidelines, Won’t Require Masks in Schools

The Daily Wire reported:

California is backing down on its previously strict COVID protocols, specifically for students and faculty in schools across the state.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) released new guidance last week that mostly went into effect on July 1. The mask mandate for K-12 schools and childcare locations ended after March 11, but the new guidance applies to the 2022-2023 school year.

The guidance states that no one can be “prevented from wearing a mask as a condition of participation in an activity or entry into a school unless wearing a mask would pose a safety hazard,” and schools must provide masks to students who do not bring their own mask to school and want to wear one.

As NBC Bay Area reported, students in California won’t be forced to get vaccinated against COVID until at least July 1, 2023, depending on if the vaccine receives full approval from federal groups for every age.

Proposed Ohio Amendment Would Limit Vaccine Mandates

Associated Press reported:

A proposed amendment to the Ohio Constitution that would limit vaccine mandates imposed by businesses, healthcare providers and governments is a step closer to the statewide ballot.

The proposal would prohibit those entities from discriminating against people based on vaccination status or mandating any vaccine, medical procedure, treatment or medical device.

The Ohio Ballot Board unanimously approved the language Tuesday.

Supporters must next collect thousands of valid signatures from registered voters, equal to at least 10% of votes that are cast in the 2022 gubernatorial election. It wouldn’t appear on a statewide ballot until 2023 at the earliest.

New Mexico Governor Withstands Lawsuits Over Pandemic Orders

Associated Press reported:

New Mexico residents who say they endured constitutional rights violations, depression and anxiety under aggressive public health restrictions during the coronavirus outbreak have abandoned a lawsuit against Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham after most allegations were dismissed by a judge.

The move came after a string of adverse rulings in state and federal courts for plaintiffs in several lawsuits that challenged the authority of the Democratic governor and state health officials to impose public health restrictions, such as mask mandates, that were phased out earlier this year.

Attorney Jonathan Diener said Tuesday that a dozen plaintiffs dropped their lawsuit against Lujan Grisham and state health officials after a federal magistrate judge last week dismissed most of their claims.

COVID Czar Says Health Officials Weighing Return of Indoor Mask Mandate

The Times of Israel reported:

COVID czar Salman Zarka urged the public on Wednesday to wear face masks when indoors and said that officials will meet in the coming days to consider making the practice mandatory as new virus cases continue to tick upward.

Zarka said if the number of seriously ill and hospitalized patients continues to go up, it will be necessary to make face masks compulsory in enclosed spaces. He said officials will discuss the matter in the coming days.

But Zarka noted that in his professional opinion, face masks should already be mandatory indoors. Israel canceled its indoor face mask requirement in April after having made them mandatory for close to two years, barring a two-week period in 2021.

Zarka said that the sixth wave of infections the country has experienced since the pandemic began in early 2020 is being driven by an Omicron variant.

Norwegian Cruise Line to Drop Requirement for COVID Test

Associated Press reported:

Norwegian Cruise Line is dropping a requirement that passengers test negative for COVID-19 before sailing unless it is required by local rules.

The company said Wednesday that it will drop the testing requirement on Aug. 1 except on ships sailing from places with local testing rules, including in the United States, Canada, Bermuda and Greece.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) requires pre-trip testing for passengers on 94 ships taking part in CDC’s voluntary COVID-19 program, including Norwegian ships that sail in the U.S.

Norwegian requires vaccinated passengers in the U.S. to show a negative antigen test for COVID-19 within two days of their trip or a negative PCR test within three days of sailing. Unvaccinated children under 12 are subject to more testing when they board and leave the ship.

Europe Faces Facebook Blackout

Politico reported:

Europeans risk seeing social media services Facebook and Instagram shut down this summer, as Ireland’s privacy regulator doubled down on its order to stop the firm’s data flows to the United States.

The Irish Data Protection Commission on Thursday informed its counterparts in Europe that it will block Facebook-owner Meta from sending user data from Europe to the U.S. The Irish regulator’s draft decision cracks down on Meta’s last legal resort to transfer large chunks of data to the U.S., after years of fierce court battles between the U.S. tech giant and European privacy activists.

The European Court of Justice in 2020 annulled an EU-U.S. data flows pact called Privacy Shield because of fears over U.S. surveillance practices. In its ruling, it also made it harder to use another legal tool that Meta and many other U.S. firms use to transfer personal data to the U.S., called standard contractual clauses (SCCs). This week’s decision out of Ireland means Facebook is forced to stop relying on SCCs too.

Meta has repeatedly warned that such a decision would shutter many of its services in Europe, including Facebook and Instagram.

VMO2 and Nokia Help Create U.K.’s ‘First 5G-Connected Hospital’

Telecoms reported:

Virgin Media O2 and the NHS have collaborated to build the U.K.’s ‘first 5G-connected hospital,’ which they claim will transform healthcare.

The Maudsley Smart Hospital and Maudsley Smart Pharmacy trials are funded by NHS digital with tech provided by VMO2 and Nokia, and are designed to explore the efficiency, safety and security benefits of using 5G-connected technologies in hospitals, across the usual catch-all 5G-adjacent sectors of IoT, AR and artificial intelligence (AI).

Two wards at Bethlem Royal Hospital in South London are now using ‘dedicated, near-real-time connectivity to power e-Observations, where clinicians use handheld devices to update patient records, saving valuable time and improving accuracy.’

Elon Musk Queries Journalist Over Allegations of Government-Driven Censorship on Twitter

The Epoch Times reported:

Elon Musk has called on an independent journalist to provide information on how the U.S. government is allegedly pressuring Twitter to suspend the journalist’s account for posting anti-vaccination content.

Musk asked Substack writer, Alex Berenson, in a July 6 post on Twitter, about Berenson’s allegation that the U.S. government had pressured Twitter to censor him for posting his opinion questioning the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.

“Can you say more about this: ‘… pressures that the government may have placed on Twitter …’,” Musk said, referencing Berenson’s blog post about being suspended by Twitter. “I wish I could,” Berenson said minutes later, responding to Musk, “but the settlement with [Twitter] prevents me from doing so. However, in the near future, I hope and expect to have more to report.”

Berenson’s Twitter account was reinstated on July 6 after the social media platform “permanently” banned him over purportedly violating its COVID “misinformation” policy. This follows Berenson filing a lawsuit against Twitter in April.

An Air Force Vet Who Worked at Facebook Is Suing the Company Saying It Accessed Deleted User Data and Shared It With Law Enforcement

Insider reported:

A former Facebook staffer and Air Force veteran is suing Meta saying he was fired in retaliation for raising concerns about a protocol that let Facebook employees access deleted user data.

Brennan Lawson filed his lawsuit with a California court on Tuesday. Insider has viewed the lawsuit, in which Lawson said he was hired in July 2018 to work on Facebook’s escalations team.

Lawson says in 2019 Facebook introduced a protocol that allowed people on his team to access Facebook Messenger data even if it had been deleted by a user.

This is at odds with what Facebook told users, per the lawsuit. “Facebook had represented to users for years that once content was deleted by its users, it would not remain on any Facebook servers and would be permanently removed,” Lawson’s lawsuit states.

The Danger of License Plate Readers in Post-Roe America

Wired reported:

Since the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, America’s extensive surveillance state could soon be turned against those seeking abortions or providing abortion care.

One of the key technologies that could be deployed to track people trying to cross state lines is automated license plate readers (ALPRs). They’re employed heavily by police forces across the U.S., but they’re also used by private actors.

ALPRs are cameras that are mounted on street poles, overpasses, and elsewhere that can identify and capture license plate numbers on passing cars for the purpose of issuing speeding tickets and tolls, locating stolen cars, and more. State and local police maintain databases of captured license plates and frequently use those databases in criminal investigations.