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Facebook parent Meta hit with record fine for transferring European user data to US

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:38 GMT

LONDON (AP) — The European Union slapped Meta with a record $1.3 billion privacy fine Monday and ordered it to stop transferring user data across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decadelong case sparked by U.S. cybersnooping fears.The penalty fine of 1.2 billion euros from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission is the biggest since the EU’s strict data privacy regime took effect five years ago, surpassing Amazon’s 746 million euro penalty in 2021 for data protection violations. The Irish watchdog is Meta’s lead privacy regulator in the 27-nation bloc because the Silicon Valley tech giant’s European headquarters is based in Dublin. Meta, which had previously warned that services for its users in Europe could be cut off, vowed to appeal and ask courts to immediately put the decision on hold. “There is no immediate disruption to Facebook in Europe,” the company said. “This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the c...

French Open offers players protection against online harassment

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:38 GMT

PARIS (AP) — French Open organizers are giving all players access to an online tool meant to protect them from cyberbullying and harassment on social media. The French tennis federation said Monday the technology developed by a French company will be made available to all players taking part in this year’s clay-court Grand Slam tournament. The software uses artificial intelligence to filter comments posted to social media accounts and block those that are deemed toxic or abusive. It said the tool “aims to preserve the players, their mental health, the values of sport and tennis and to banish people who come to spread their aggression and hatred on social networks.” “Tennis being one of the sports most affected by this scourge, athletes can thus be victims in a direct or indirect way,” the federation added.Players and tennis officials can opt to connect their social networks to the technology, developed by the Bodyguard.ai company, before the tournament and keep it in pla...

Australian prime minister says he is working effectively to free WikiLeaks founder

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:38 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia: (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was working in the “most effective way possible” to secure the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but declined an invitation Monday to meet the Australian citizen’s wife.Independent lawmaker Andrew Wilkie asked Albanese if he would meet Assange’s wife Stella Assange, who was watching Parliament from the public gallery. Albanese said a meeting with Stella Assange wouldn’t help her 51-year-old husband who is in a London prison fighting extradition to the United States.“A priority for us isn’t doing something that is a demonstration, it’s actually doing something that produces an outcome,” Albanese told Parliament. “And that’s my focus, not grandstanding.”Albanese was with U.S. President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Japan over the weekend for the Group of Seven leading industrial nations summit. Albanese did not say whether he had raised with either leader Australia’s positio...

European Union hits Facebook parent Meta with record $1.3 billion fine over transfers of user data to US

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:38 GMT

LONDON (AP) — European Union hits Facebook parent Meta with record $1.3 billion fine over transfers of user data to US.Source

Stock market today: Global shares mostly rise despite worries about US debt talks

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:38 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Global shares mostly drifted higher Monday as investors fretted over whether the United States government will be able to reach a deal to avoid a federal default.France’s CAC 40 inched down less than 0.1% in early trading to 7,489.72, while Germany’s DAX slipped 0.1% to 16,261.45. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.3% to 7,780.30. U.S. shares drifted higher with Dow futures up less than 0.1% at 33,512.00. S&P 500 futures rose less than 0.1% to 4,206.00. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.9% to finish at 31,086.82. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slid 0.2% to 7,263.30. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.8% to 2,557.08. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.2% to 19,678.17, while the Shanghai Composite edged up 0.4% to 3,296.47. Markets are closely watching a pivotal meeting set for later in the day at the White House between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the debt ceiling. A default on the U.S. debt would almost surely ca...

Wet & Unsettled Stretch

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:38 GMT

A typical day with morning sun and mainly dry conditions. By the afternoon, inland storms form. Late evening, some of that activity could build into the Metro areas of Miami-Dade and Broward.Today in the Tropics: We are watching a broad area low pressure (disturbance) located a couple of hundred miles Northeast of the Central Bahamas remains poorly organized. Conditions are expected to become hostile, preventing development while it moves North-Northeast 5-10 mph over the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean during the next few days. NHC giving it a low chance to form during the next 48 hours.  It is not coming to South Florida… It will merge with a slowly approaching front.So, what can we expect?On Tuesday, a turn of winds is expected out of the South-Southeast which will draw up moisture from the tropics. As for the broad low, it will have a merging effect with a slow-moving front to keep deeper moisture around causing a stretch of wet and unsettled days.Have a wonderful week South F...

Miami PD searching for missing 12-year-old giril

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:38 GMT

The Miami Police Department is asking for the public’s help in searching for a missing 12-year-old girl.According to detectives, Isabela V. Zea was last seen in a Wynwood neighborhood on Sunday.She stands at 4 feet, 5 inches and weighs 100 pounds. She has light brown eyes, and black hair and was last seen wearing a black shirt with a white Jordan logo on the front, black sweatpants, black socks, and black shoes.Anyone with information on her whereabouts is urged to call 305-603-6300 or 305-579-6111.

Denmark wants to host Ukraine peace summit in July

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:38 GMT

Denmark is willing to host peace talks between Ukraine and Russia next July, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Monday according to media reports.“If Ukraine finds that the time has come to have such a meeting, that would be fantastic,” Rasmussen said upon arriving at the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, Reuters reported.“Then Denmark would obviously like to host the meeting” which would need engagement from “countries like India, Brazil and China,” the foreign minister said, adding that it was “hard for [him] to see” Russia attending.Although Moscow and Kyiv have said they were open to peace talks, they hold diverging views on what the starting point of negotiations should be.Ukraine has set the restoration of its territorial integrity, as well as “building security architecture in the Euro-Atlantic space, including guarantees for Ukraine” as preconditions for peace talks.Russia has said Ukraine needed t...

US pumps the brakes on EU clean car deal

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:38 GMT

Washington and Brussels are at odds over a deal to make European automakers eligible for U.S. electric vehicle tax credits.The European Union has been pressing for a more flexible agreement on the critical minerals used in electric car batteries that won’t require the time-consuming approval of its 27 member countries.But that doesn’t work for the Biden administration, which is under immense pressure from lawmakers to broker a binding pact. The U.S. wants Europe to make commitments that boost the supply of those minerals in exchange for the tax perks, which were part of the historic climate law Democrats passed last year.The impasse, described to POLITICO by a dozen officials on both sides of the Atlantic, is likely to drag out negotiations into the summer, leaving European automakers at a disadvantage in the U.S. car market in the meantime. And it threatens to exacerbate the rift over U.S. efforts to promote domestic EV manufacturing at a time when the longtime allies aim to presen...

Ireland signs law requiring cancer warnings on all alcoholic beverages

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:54:38 GMT

DUBLIN – Ireland will become the first country in the world to require alcoholic beverages to display health warnings that they could potentially cause cancer, a long-awaited decision welcomed by health advocates but vociferously opposed by drinks producers worldwide.Health Minister Stephen Donnelly on Monday signed into law the Public Health (Alcohol) (Labelling) Regulations 2023 and confirmed that the new rules would come into effect three years from now — May 22, 2026.Ireland moved once its plans cleared two key hurdles at the European Union and World Trade Organization, which fielded complaints from winemakers, brewers and distillers worldwide but declined to block the proposed measure on competition or other grounds.“I welcome that we are the first country in the world to take this step and introduce comprehensive health labelling of alcohol products,” Donnelly said in a written statement, noting that Ireland was also the first nation to ban smoking in enclosed public...