Policy

Encrypted messenger services have been quick to condemn the Commission’s proposal. Julia Weiss, a spokesperson for the Swiss messenger app Threema, says the company was not willing to undermine its users’ privacy in any way. “Building a surveillance system to proactively scan all private content was a terrible idea when Apple proposed it, and it's a terrible idea now,” added Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp, in a Twitter post. In August 2021, Apple announced a proposal to scan its users’ photos for child sexual abuse…

China has shown signs of easing its crackdown on the technology sector which has wiped billions of dollars of value from its most prominent companies.But analysts said Beijing's recent positive rhetoric should not be mistaken for a reversal of policy."I think the big tech companies will have a grace period for maybe the next six months," Linghao Bao, tech analyst at Trivium China, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday."However, this is a really not a U-turn on the tech crackdown, the long-term outlook hasn't changed…

This story originally appeared on Mother Jones and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration.The saga of the United States Postal Service’s planned gas-guzzling fleet continues.Sixteen states and two environmental activist groups—Earthjustice and the Natural Resources Defense Council—are suing the USPS to halt its purchase of a fleet of of gas-guzzling mail trucks. Postmaster general Louis DeJoy has come under fire in recent months for his decision to move forward with a contract for 165,000 new postal trucks—90 percent…

Within minutes of the leaking of the draft opinion from the US Supreme Court calling for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Elizabeth Constance, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Heartland Center for Reproductive Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska, was inundated with messages on social media from concerned patients. What does this mean for the embryos I have frozen, they asked her. What does it mean for the egg retrieval I have planned? “Our patients are really afraid,” says Constance. Should Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case which…

International humanitarian law—rules that apply during a conflict between nations—state that one can’t attack civilians or civilian infrastructure. That could matter in space too. “You cannot target a civilian object. You can only target military objectives, and then you have to identify what those things are. A hospital or a school is always protected, but a bridge or a communication center might sometimes be military and sometimes civilian,” says Cassandra Steer, an expert on space law and space security at the…

This spring, Missouri considered, but did not pass, a measure that would have criminalized out-of-state travel for an abortion, creating a bounty-hunter incentive similar to Texas’ new anti-abortion law to enforce it. Exercising “extraterritoriality,” or trying to enforce one state’s laws inside the jurisdiction of another state, would be a new frontier in abortion restriction, but in a post-Roe world, legal scholars can’t rule it out. In New York, which has declared itself a safe-harbor state for abortion, legislators…

When we think of things that need fixing in the British state, it’s natural to think of institutions that are struggling: from the government’s powerlessness in the face of the rocketing cost of living, to the perennial crises of the NHS, to revelations of rule-breaking at No 10. But one powerful way to fix many of the UK’s problems is the radical reform of one of our most effective institutions: Her Majesty’s Treasury.Sign up to our Inside Saturday newsletter for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of the…

Giant online retailer Amazon.com will end its paid time-off policy for employees with COVID-19 from May 2, the company told US-based staff on Saturday.The change follows the availability of COVID-19 vaccines and revised guidance from the USA's Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, it said.The US-based staff will now get five days of excused, unpaid leave following a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis, Amazon told workers in a message it provided to Reuters."We can continue to safely adjust to our pre-COVID policies," the…

Facebook parent Meta Platforms said on Wednesday it has withdrawn a request for policy guidance from its Oversight Board about the content moderation of posts related to Russia's ongoing war with Ukraine."This decision was not made lightly — the PAO (policy advisory opinion) was withdrawn due to ongoing safety and security concerns," the company said in a blog post.The board, which can make binding decisions on specific thorny content moderation appeals and give policy recommendations, said it was "disappointed" by the…

Win McNamee | Getty ImagesAs spring warmth takes hold, homeowners may want to make sure they're prepared for the severe weather that will likely soon follow.That preparation should include checking your insurance coverage.Whether you live in an area prone to hurricanes, tornados, flooding, hail, wildfires or severe storms — all of which are becoming more prevalent amid a warming climate — it's important to know which types of weather-related damage your homeowners insurance covers, excludes or charges a separate (and…