After months of investigation into misuse of user data, the Federal Trade Commission announced it would fine Facebook the sum of $5 billion on Friday. The result of the announcement, however, was an increase in the company’s value. Facebook’s stock hit its highest price in nearly a year by the end of the trading day on which the fine was announced. With Facebook having annual profits of $22 billion to its name, the amount of the fine has been decried as a slap on the wrist after repeated privacy violations.…
A series of scandals in the Japanese entertainment community have centered on comedians performing off-the-books shows for groups tied to organized crime. Japanese entertainment company Yoshimoto Kogyo Co. suspended several of its comedians in June due to their receiving pay from such groups without involving the agency. Many comedians, however, rely on these sometimes-shady performances to make a living, as the fees taken by the entertainment agency for arranging ‘legitimate’ performances is exorbitant. Once a comedian has become widely-known, it is impossible to take side jobs in the public eye…
In Philadelphia, a carjacker and kidnapper was pronounced dead Thursday after being attacked by a crowd while fleeing the scene. 54-year-old Eric Hood took the car from a mother who was traveling with three children, after the mother had stopped to speak to the childrens’ father at a pizza shop and left the car running with the children inside. The children were still in the car as Hood drove away. The father chased after the car until traffic at a red light forced Hood to stop, at which point he…
The Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled on Tuesday that it is a violation of free speech for President Trump to block his critics on Twitter. The ruling which the 2nd Circuit upheld would require Trump, as well as other government officials who use their social media presence to deliver official statements, to allow open access for all users to view such statements. In particular, the ruling applies to critics of the president, whom he has been known to block from viewing or commenting on his Twitter postings.…
An Italian court has sentenced 24 people to life in prison for their involvement in Operation Condor, in which the dictatorships of six South American countries conspired to kidnap and assassinate political opponents in each other’s territories. In the 1970s and ’80s in South America, six countries – Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, and Argentina – conspired to help each other kill and kidnap an estimated hundreds to thousands of people. 23 Italians were included among the dead. These countries wanted to crack down on left-wing activists and political opponents, so…
A certain video which went viral on the 28th of June showed a woman opening a container of Blue Bell ice cream in a Walmart, licking it, then closing the container and putting it back in the freezer. What might be seen as little more than a disgusting prank has developed into a much more serious situation, as authorities in Lufkin, Texas now seek to press charges that could lead to a maximum of 20 years in prison. Product tampering laws are very strict on both the state and federal…
A report by POLITICO that the State Department may plan to grant new waivers to China allowing for current sanctions on Iranian oil to be bypassed. The current US maximum-pressure policy has been to end all waivers and insist on zero importation of Iranian oil by all of its trade partners. However, this tactic may have reached the limits of what US soft pressure can coerce other nations to accept. China has received Iranian oil tankers as recently as June, despite the Trump administration ending sanctions waivers in May. Likewise,…
Streaming service Twitch, well-known for making millionaires out of various gaming personalities, has launched a new feature that would allow streamers to restrict access only to subscribers who pay a monthly fee towards that specific streamer. However, the policy has created much controversy surrounding everything from community divides to ToS violations. The subscriber-only streams are only available to those streamers officially recognized by Twitch as affiliates or partners, and furthermore only to those partners in good standing. For those who make a living on of Twitch subscriptions and donations, the…
Jeremy Hunt, the UK foreign secretary and one of two contenders to be the next Tory leader and Prime Minister, announced in a BBC interview that he would pursue a no-deal Brexit even if it meant telling businesses to prepare for collapse. According to Hunt, “At the beginning of October, if there is no prospect of a deal that can get through parliament, then I will leave at the end of October because that is our democratic promise to the British people.” Questioned whether he would be willing to tell…
On Friday, a statement from the European Union announced that a new system to bypass US sanctions on trade with Iran had been launched. INSTEX, the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges, is now operational for all member states of the EU. The system functions as a clearing house for trade between EU businesses and Iran, allowing trade to be conducted without direct flow of euros to Iran or rials to the EU. Initially, INSTEX will only process trade in non-sanctioned goods such as food and medical supplies. However, future…