Davos economic forum exposes fake right-wing populists - The Mehdi Hasan Show

Seattle schools sue tech giants over social media harm

(Missed the LBN Forum deadline)

AP News

Seattle schools sue tech giants over social media harm

SEATTLE (AP) — The public school district in Seattle has filed a novel lawsuit against the tech giants behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, seeking to hold them accountable for the mental health crisis among youth.

Seattle Public Schools filed the lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court. The 91-page complaint says the social media companies have created a public nuisance by targeting their products to children.

It blames them for worsening mental health and behavioral disorders including anxiety, depression, disordered eating and cyberbullying; making it more difficult to educate students; and forcing schools to take steps such as hiring additional mental health professionals, developing lesson plans about the effects of social media, and providing additional training to teachers.

“Defendants have successfully exploited the vulnerable brains of youth, hooking tens of millions of students across the country into positive feedback loops of excessive use and abuse of Defendants’ social media platforms,” the complaint said. “Worse, the content Defendants curate and direct to youth is too often harmful and exploitive ....”





Make 'em pay the costs of their unlimited greed.

Bolsonaro has been holed up thousands of miles away in Florida.

Source: New York Times

Before departing Brazil, the former president had urged his supporters to avoid violence.

When his supporters stormed Brazil’s Congress and presidential offices on Sunday to protest what they falsely claim was a stolen election, Jair Bolsonaro was believed to be thousands of miles away.

Facing various investigations from his time in office, Mr. Bolsonaro flew to Florida in late December with plans to stay for at least a month. He has been in Orlando, living in a rented house owned by a professional mixed-martial-arts fighter a few miles from Disney World.

Mr. Bolsonaro has long questioned the reliability of Brazil’s election systems — without evidence — and he refused to concede unequivocally when he lost in October to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office on Jan. 1.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/08/world/americas/bolsonaro-florida-brazil-protests.html

Steve Hackett Foxtrot Live

Rep. Raskin On Newly-Released 1/6 Transcripts (and Hutchinson facing mob-like threats)

One day after the January 6th committee unveiled its final report, the panel is out with dozens of newly-released transcripts. Congressman Jamie Raskin helps us unpack it all.

FTX Co-Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Charged With Fraud

Deadline White House 11/28/22

The Rachel Maddow Show 11/28/22

Election denier Mark Finchem loses secretary of state race in Arizona

Source: NBC News

Republican Mark Finchem, a prominent election denier, has lost to Democrat Adrian Fontes in the race for Arizona secretary of state race, NBC News projects.

Fontes, a former top elections official for Maricopa County, will succeed Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the Democratic nominee for governor.

Finchem was among a host of GOP candidates for statewide office who have repeatedly cast doubt over Joe Biden’s presidential victory or falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump in Arizona.

Last year, Trump backed Finchem's candidacy and highlighted his record of defending the stolen election claims. “Mark was willing to say what few others had the courage to say” about the 2020 election, Trump said in offering his public support.


Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/election-denier-mark-finchem-loses-secretary-state-race-arizona-rcna56880

Tropical Storm Nicole intensifying as it heads towards the Bahamas and Florida

Source: Yale Climate Connections

Tropical Storm Nicole intensifying as it heads towards the Bahamas and Florida

The large storm will bring impacts far to the north of its center, with coastal flooding expected all the way to North Carolina.

Nicole made the transition from a subtropical storm to a tropical storm Tuesday morning, and this change in structure has allowed it to begin an intensification phase. Nicole has made a turn to the west toward the northwestern Bahamas and Florida and is expected to make landfall early Thursday morning in Florida as a category 1 hurricane. Because of Nicole’s large size, impacts from the storm will extend far to the north, and a damaging storm surge is likely along most of the Southeast U.S. coast from central Florida to North Carolina.

Nicole is a large storm – and that means widespread coastal flooding

At 1 p.m. EST Tuesday, Nicole was centered about 420 miles east of West Palm Beach, Florida, headed west at 9 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph and a central pressure of 992 mb. Satellite images showed that Nicole still had somewhat of a subtropical appearance, with heavy thunderstorm activity in wide bands arcing to the west, north, and east of the center. However, Nicole had developed a concentrated area of intensifying heavy thunderstorms near its circulation center, and this change in structure prompted the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to define Nicole as a tropical storm rather than a subtropical storm on Tuesday morning. Thunderstorm coverage was thin on the south side, though, where dry air was present.

Nicole was a large storm, with tropical-storm-force winds that covered a region of ocean larger than the state of Florida. The breadth of Nicole’s tropical-storm-force winds is remarkable; less than 2% of all 6-hourly named storm “fixes” since 2004 showed such a large wind field, according to Michael Lowry.


Read more: https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2022/11/tropical-storm-nicole-intensifying-as-it-heads-towards-the-bahamas-and-florida/