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36 states, DC sue Google for alleged antitrust violations in app store

Carrie Mihalcik
CNET
Thu, 08 Jul 2021 19:07 UTC
google android phone antitrust
© James Martin/CNET
Google is facing more antitrust trouble.
The web giant calls the suit "meritless."

A group of state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Google on Wednesday, alleging the company's Play store for Android apps violates antitrust laws.

The suit focuses on the 30% fee Google charges developers for selling digital goods and services via the Play store. As of July 1, that fee dropped to 15% until developers hit $1 million in revenue for the year. The new lawsuit, reported earlier by Politico, mirrors one filed last year against Google by Epic Games, developer of the popular battle royale game Fortnite.

Comment: The tech giant's woes extend far beyond the U.S.:

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Bad Guys

Not playing well in Utah: Black Lives Matter draws backlash for post calling American flag 'symbol of hatred'

Caroline Vaki
The Hill
Wed, 07 Jul 2021 18:57 UTC
American flag
A post by Black Lives Matter Utah on the Fourth of July called the American flag a "symbol of hatred," drawing strong reactions from conservatives on social media by several state Republicans.

"When we Black Americans see this flag we know the person flying it is not safe to be around. When we see this flag we know the person flying it is a racist," the post read.

"When we see this flag we know that the person flying it lives in a different America than we do. When we see this flag, we question your intelligence. We know to avoid you. It is a symbol of hatred," it continued.
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Star of David

Yale students approve statement denouncing Israeli 'apartheid' and 'ethnic cleansing'


Middle East Monitor
Thu, 01 Jul 2021 08:36 UTC
Old Campus at Yale University
© REUTERS
Old Campus at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, November 28, 2012.
Yale University students label Israel an apartheid state guilty of ethnic cleansing

The student council in one of America's most prestigious universities has approved a statement denouncing Israel for "genocide", "ethnic cleansing" and "apartheid" in occupied Palestine. The Yale College Council, the undergraduate student government, approved the statement earlier this week. The vote was 8-3 in favour, with four abstentions.
"As students at one of the most privileged academic institutions in the world, we must call out injustice wherever it may occur," said the students. "We stand against the discriminatory application of the law that strips Palestinians of basic rights. We stand against the violent expulsions of those living under occupation in Sheikh Jarrah."
The statement also connected legitimate Palestinian resistance to Israel's occupation with the civil rights movements in the US which saw Black Americans work to dismantle racial segregation during the 1950s and 60s. Many see a clear parallel in racialised segregation between Jews and non-Jews in Israel and the then legal racism in the American south. The recent release of reports by prominent human rights groups declaring Israel to be an apartheid state has reinforced this view.

Comment: See also:

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Black Magic

Critical Race Theory invades classrooms: US public schools are poised to teach students the new 3Rs - 'racism, racism, racism'

Robert Bridge
RT
Thu, 08 Jul 2021 18:16 UTC
school children masks
© Frederic J. Brown / AFP
A students adjusts her facemask at St. Joseph Catholic School in La Puente, California on November 16, 2020
Public opinion in America is decidedly opposed to critical race theory. Yet the nation's largest teachers union is advancing the ideology, threatening to turn schools into hotbeds of activism, as opposed to centers of learning.

Riding on a wave of the "fiery but mostly peaceful protests" that accompanied the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer, students in the US public school system are about to receive a noxious dose of what critics call "state-sanctioned racism" mixed into their regular curriculum.

This week, the National Education Association (NEA), which represents some three million public-school employees, voted to push Critical Race Theory (CRT), which teaches that America is plagued by "systemic racism" and that white people enjoy advantages in life due to their inborn "privilege," in 14,000 local school districts across all 50 states. The move has enraged Americans on both sides of the political aisle, who say the race-based ideology, grounded in Cultural Marxism, has no place in the classroom or the country.

Comment: This father said it best:

'How do I have two medical degrees if I'm oppressed?': Father blasts CRT in a passionate speech



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Light Saber

Caitlin Johnstone: The empire depends on your psychological compartmentalization

Caitlin Johnstone
RT
Wed, 07 Jul 2021 18:02 UTC
Assange arrest van
© Reuters / Henry Nicholls
WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange in a police van after his arrest in London, on April 11, 2019.
Britain's High Court has granted the US government limited permission to appeal the denial of Washington's request to the UK for the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

This means that the acclaimed journalist will continue to languish in prison for exposing US war crimes while the appeals process plays out.

If the western media were what it purports to be, every member of the public will be acutely aware of the fact that a journalist is being imprisoned by the most powerful government on earth for exposing inconvenient facts about its war machine. Because the western media are propaganda institutions designed to protect the powerful, this fact is far from the forefront of public attention. Most people are more aware of the smears about Assange being a Russian agent or an alleged rapist than they are of his victimization by a tyrannical assault on world press freedoms.
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Syringe

No: 'Alarmed' Arizona rejects Biden's door-to-door search for unvaccinated

Paul Bedard
Washington Examiner
Wed, 07 Jul 2021 13:58 UTC
vaccine close up
Arizona's attorney general has rejected the Biden administration's plan to go door-to-door to seek out the unvaccinated and encourage them to get the anti-COVID-19 shot.

A day after the president and spokeswoman Jen Psaki issued the plan, Attorney General Mark Brnovich said that he was "greatly alarmed" by the idea.

In a letter to Biden provided to Secrets, he said, "I, along with many Arizonans, was greatly alarmed by your White House indicating that it might be in possession of medical records revealing the contact information for Americans who have not been vaccinated. If this is the case, this is a severe breach of privacy, and I will not tolerate such intrusions within Arizona."
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NPC

Parents concerned about critical race theory indoctrination are now 'QAnon' according to NBC

Libby Emmons
The Post Millennial
Thu, 08 Jul 2021 15:58 UTC
joy reid
Joy Reid has been vocal of late in discussing critical race theory, the divisive concept that demands that all events both current and historical be first viewed through the lens of race and racism. Now Reid claims that parents who are concerned about critical race theory indoctrination are QAnon, Trump supporting, white nationalist, evangelical Christians.


Comment: It's a well-worn tactic to tie a newly emerging group to an existing, already smeared group in order to make the two one in the same in the minds of the public. If people who are against critical race theory, or "race conscious education," are perceived as Qanon followers, no one will take them seriously (which is the entire point).

See also:

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Vader

China's gaming giant Tencent starts scanning nighttime players' faces to bust curfew-breaking kids


RT
Thu, 08 Jul 2021 16:44 UTC
gamer
© Getty Images / wonry
People playing popular mobile games during nighttime in China are now required to prove they are adults. Tencent has started using its face ID system to catch minors violating a government-mandated curfew.

The feature was launched on Tuesday for over 60 games owned by Tencent, the biggest player in the mobile game industry in China. Dubbed "Midnight Patrol," it will occasionally ask adult players playing at night to verify their identity through a facial scan. The verification database is linked with the central public security system.

The measure enforces a government ban on gaming between 10pm and 8am, which was introduced for minors in 2019, along with other restrictions. The prohibition was meant to curb gaming addiction among children, which, the authorities argue, leads to health problems like short-sightedness and to harmful behavior in kids, like stealing money to top their accounts, and to downward sliding in school grades.
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Red Flag

'We're all vaxxed!' Teletubbies announce Covid 'vaccination,' bewildering fans and angering anti-jab activists


RT
Thu, 08 Jul 2021 16:40 UTC
Teletubbies
© Ferdaus Shamim/WireImage
Children's television stars the Teletubbies announced on Wednesday that they had been fully 'vaccinated' against Covid-19 - drawing mixed reactions from current and former fans of the show.

"We're all vaxxed! Just in time for a Tubby hot summer," announced the Teletubbies on their official Twitter account on Wednesday, along with four photos showing the vaccination cards of the four characters: Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po.

All four received their first dose on July 1 and their second dose on July 22, according to the cards, despite July 22 still being two weeks away. Tinky-Winky and Laa-Laa received "Noo-nson & Noo-nson" vaccines - a play on Johnson & Johnson - while Dipsy and Po received "AstraTubbica."
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Light Sabers

Chinese gene tech firm rejects 'factually incorrect' Reuters claims about providing prenatal test kit customer data to military


RT
Thu, 08 Jul 2021 16:37 UTC
pregnant
© Getty Images / Trendsetter Images / EyeEm
China's largest genomics firm has hit back at assertions it shares data from a popular prenatal test kit with the country's military, branding the claims raised in a Reuters report "deeply disappointing" and "factually incorrect."

In the article published on Wednesday, Reuters contended that Shenzhen-based BGI Group could be sharing data collected from its NIFTY (or non-invasive fetal trisomy) test - used by more than eight million women worldwide - with Chinese authorities when it was "directly relevant to national security or national defense security."

Citing a number of "publicly available documents," the agency also reported that the company had "collaborated with the People's Liberation Army (PLA)" to develop and improve the non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT), which screens early pregnancy blood samples for fetal abnormalities.
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