Business
Google Agrees To First-In-The-Nation Deal To Fund California Newsrooms Over 5 Years, But Journalists Are Calling It A Disaster
Google reached a first-in-the-nation agreement with California lawmakers on Wednesday to subsidize newsrooms in the state and end proposed legislation that would have required technology companies to pay for the right to distribute news content. However, the pact was immediately criticized by journalist unions, who labelled it “disastrous.”
The plan asks for a $250 million contribution from Google and the state over five years, with the bulk going to fund California newsrooms, as well as the development of an artificial intelligence “accelerator” to help journalists do their jobs.
According to the proposed cooperation, Google will donate up to $15 million to a media fund in the first year, while California will commit $30 million. During the next four years, California’s contribution will be reduced to $10 million per year, while Google will contribute at least $20 million to the fund and existing journalism programs.
Google Agrees To First-In-The-Nation Deal To Fund California Newsrooms, But Journalists Are Calling It A Disaster
The agreement kills a high-profile bill known as the California Journalism Preservation Act, which would have required technology companies such as Google (GOOGL) and Meta (META) to pay news organizations to distribute their content online. The initiative, supported by state assemblymember Buffy Wicks, is modeled after similar legislation passed in Australia and Canada. It provides financing to local news organizations whose business models have collapsed due to the rise of giant tech platforms.
“As technology and innovation advance, it is critical that California continues to champion the vital role of journalism in our democracy,” Wicks said in a statement announcing the collaboration with Google. “This alliance demonstrates a cross-sector commitment to supporting a free and thriving press, allowing local news outlets across the state to continue their critical work. This is only the beginning. I remain dedicated to finding new ways to support journalism in our state for many years to come.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had not publicly weighed in on the bill, praised the deal as “a major breakthrough in ensuring the survival of newsrooms and bolstering local journalism across California — leveraging substantial tech industry resources without imposing new taxes on Californians.”
News publishers have struggled immensely in recent years, losing thousands of jobs and forcing the closure of some venues entirely as advertising budgets and viewers switched away from traditional media.
Ironically, the deal announced Wednesday also promoted a so-called “National AI Innovation Accelerator,” which includes funding for the development of artificial intelligence. Some journalist groups have warned that artificial intelligence poses a threat to the future of their industry and threatens to further erode trust in news reporting.
The agreement was supported by the California News Publishers Association, which represents hundreds of news organizations, Google’s parent company, and OpenAI. However, it was strongly criticized by unions representing the state’s journalists, who had supported Wicks’ measure to subsidize newsrooms but were not included in the agreement.
“The future of journalism should not be decided in backroom deals,” a joint statement from the Media Guild of the West, The NewsGuild-CWA, and others said. “The Legislature tried unsuccessfully to regulate monopolies. We now ask whether the state has done more harm than good. California’s journalists and news workers strongly oppose this terrible arrangement with Google and condemn the news executives who approved it in our name.”
The deal also faced blowback from other Democrats in the California legislature, including state Sen. Steve Glazer, who had proposed a bill to provide tax credits to news outlets employing full-time journalists.
“Despite the good intentions of the parties involved, this proposal does not provide sufficient resources to bring independent news gathering in California out of its death spiral,” Glazer said Wednesday during a press conference. “Google’s offer is completely inadequate and massively short of matching their settlement agreement in Canada in supporting on-the-ground local news reporting.”
California State Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire also criticized the agreement, stating, “Newsrooms have been hollowed out across this state while tech companies have made multibillion-dollar profits. We are concerned that this proposal does not provide adequate money for newspapers and local media or address the industry’s imbalances.
The agreement comes months after Google decided to ban news content in California due to Wicks’ planned rule, prompting a rapid outcry from the state’s press outlets.
Google Agrees To First-In-The-Nation Deal To Fund California Newsrooms, But Journalists Are Calling It A Disaster
The News/Media Alliance, representing US newspapers and online publishers, said it has written to the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and the California Attorney General, requesting an investigation into whether Google violated any laws by limiting access to news sites.
Google previously threatened to take similar action in Canada ahead of the country’s new law requiring digital platforms to compensate news publishers for their work but eventually backed down. Under Canada’s Online News Act, Google will pay $74 million per year into a fund that will be dispersed to publishers.
“Google is the biggest source of referral traffic on the internet. When you are conducting journalism on the internet, you have to do business with Google,” Media Guild of the West President Matt Pearce said after Wednesday’s announcement. “The premise of these bills is that if we are going to be dominated by a monopolist whose product we cannot escape, except at enormous cost to our own business, that monopoly needs to pay its fair share for our journalism.”
SOURCE | CNN
Business
Canadian Port Workers Back Trudeau Government Into a Corner
Business groups are urging Justin Trudeau’s government to stop labor unrest at Canada’s main ports, as it did with railways in August, to avoid supply chain disruptions.
Hundreds of dock foremen in British Columbia ports have been on strike for a week. On Sunday, employers at Montreal’s port locked out 1,200 unionized workers after they rejected a contract offer that promised a 20% salary raise over six years.
Businesses report that the work disruptions are harming ports that handle approximately C$1.2 billion ($860 million) of products daily. They want Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon to refer the case to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, which can send the parties to arbitration to settle the disagreement.
He used that technique over two months ago to halt labor stoppages at Canada’s two main railways. However, the government’s use has sparked resentment among some unions.
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference has filed a court challenge, claiming that the government’s actions in the railway conflict set a dangerous precedent by breaching workers’ constitutional rights.
Soon after, the pro-union New Democratic Party ripped up a legislative arrangement in which it committed to vote with Trudeau’s Liberals to advance critical legislation.
It’s unclear whether the government currently has enough support to enact a back-to-work law, which would be required to end the port issue.
According to Michel Murray, a Montreal Longshoremen’s Union representative, the port employers “act as bullies,” and refusing to talk indicates that “they clearly want the federal government to intervene.”
“Nearly C$6 billion worth of goods are expected to arrive at the port over the next two weeks,” Michel Leblanc, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, said in a statement. “The urgency is real.”
Goldy Hyder, CEO of the Business Council of Canada, stated that the conflicts “continue to weaken Canada’s economy and tarnish its reputation as a reliable trading partner.”
“Canada’s ports will continue to lose market share if the country’s reputation for labor instability is not corrected soon,” Hyder wrote in a letter to MacKinnon and Transport Minister Anita Anand on November 9.
According to a group of port employers, the Montreal offer would have increased the average dockworker’s pay by more than C$200,000 annually.
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Business
Amazon Says a Hacker Breached MOVEIT, Stealing Employee Data. Employee data.
(VOR News) – Amazon has verified that employee data was stolen to the extent that it was compromised as a result of a “security event” that took place at a third-party vendor. The event brought about the compromise of data.
According to a statement that was provided to TechCrunch on Monday, the information that pertains to Amazon employees was revealed as a result of a data breach. This information related to Amazon employees was disclosed.
Amazon spokesman Adam Montgomery issued the statement.
When it comes to Amazon’s or Amazon Web Services (AWS) systems, there have been no security breaches that have taken place, and we have not encountered any security problems. An incident that occurred at one of our property management providers and included security was brought to our attention over the course of the investigation.
This problem had an effect on a number of the company’s customers, including Amazon, and we were informed about it. Other customers were also affected. Montgomery asserts that the only information that was disclosed was that of the work contact information of Amazon workers. As far as Montgomery is concerned, there was no further breach of security.
Among the things that were listed in this category were things like work email addresses, desk phone numbers, and the locations of buildings.
The number of employees who were affected by the security vulnerability has not been acknowledged by Amazon, nor has the total number of employees who were affected been released.
Additionally, it was stated that the third-party vendor, which was not named, does not have access to sensitive data such as Social Security numbers or financial information. This information was described as being kept confidential. The information in question was not made public. The vendor has reportedly fixed the security flaw that was responsible for the data breach that took place, according to reports that were received.
Hackers said they posted Amazon data on Breach Forums. It has been determined that the information in question is accurate as a consequence of this declaration. Additionally, the individual alleges that they have more than 2.8 million lines of data, which they allege was stolen during the mass-exploitation of MOVEit Transfer that took place the previous year.
Using the alias “Nam3L3ss,” the threat actor claims that they have disclosed information that was purportedly taken from twenty-five big corporations, as indicated in a study that was carried out by the cybersecurity company Hudson Rock. The analysis was done by Hudson Rock.
The assumption that the threat actor makes is that “the data that you have seen up to this point is less than .001% of the total data that I possess.”
This is the Amazon assertion that they make.
The public will have access to one thousand releases that have never been seen before in the history of record releases. The journal TechCrunch has attempted to get in touch with the other firms that were identified by the threat actor; however, the magazine has not yet received any additional responses to the inquiries that it has made.
It was the MOVEit breach, which took place in 2023, that was the most catastrophic breach that ever took place. The file-transfer software that was developed by Progress Software was vulnerable to a zero-day vulnerability, which allowed attackers to take advantage of the weakness and cause this breach.
More than one thousand businesses were impacted by these incursions, and it is believed that the notorious Clop ransomware and extortion ring was responsible for them. Through the utilization of ransomware, hacks were successfully carried out.
Not only did the data breach affect the Oregon Department of Transportation, which had 3.5 million pieces of information stolen, but it also affected the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which had four million pieces of information stolen, and Maximus, which is a giant in the United States government services contracting market, which had 11 million pieces of information stolen.
SOURCE: TC
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Business
Bitcoin Goes Over $80,000 As Buyers Guess Whether Trump Will Run For President.
(VOR News) – The following day, Bitcoin achieved a new record high as a consequence of traders’ wagers on the potential benefits of Donald Trump’s return to the White House for the cryptocurrency.
This was an additional factor contributing to Bitcoin’s recent record-breaking performance.
This resulted in Bitcoin’s first-ever record-breaking high.
The digital currency’s inaugural transaction, valued at eighty thousand dollars, was executed one hundred twenty minutes after twelve o’clock in the afternoon (1200 GMT). This occurred shortly after the timepiece reached twelve.
The conviction that President Trump may reduce laws on digital currencies has increased as a result of his victory in the presidential election that occurred in the United States on Tuesday. This conviction has been bolstered by his election victory. Since the election was won by the Republican nominee, Trump, this mentality has been gradually cultivated.
On Wednesday, the price of bitcoin achieved a new all-time high of $75,000, surpassing the previous all-time high of $73,797.98, which was achieved in March. This item has attained the highest price to date.
It was widely believed that Trump was the politician who embraced Bitcoin during his campaign against Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party candidate. Harris was a candidate for the Democratic Party in the Senate campaign.
Donald Trump employed the term “hoax” to describe cryptocurrencies during his inaugural tenure as president of the United States. However, in the time that has passed since then, he has experienced a substantial change in his viewpoints, which has even resulted in the creation of his own committee platform.
In addition to his pledge to establish the United States of America as the “bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world,” he has also committed to appointing Elon Musk, a tech entrepreneur and right-wing conspiracy theorist, to the role of overseeing a comprehensive investigation into the government’s wasteful practices.
Both of these commitments are components of his strategy to enhance the prosperity of the United States of America. It is crucial to acknowledge that he has made a commitment to both of these.
The administration of President Trump was responsible for the reduction of corporation taxes, which resulted in an increase in market liquidity and facilitated the investment in high-growth assets, such as cryptocurrencies. Through the administration of President Trump’s predecessor, this was accomplished.
The previous administration benefited from a decrease in the tax rate for Bitcoin companies.
In September, President Trump announced that he, his sons, and other organizations would be creating a digital currency platform known as World Liberty Financial. The development of this platform would also incorporate the participation of other businesses. The network would facilitate the conversion of digital currency into corporeal currency.
Nevertheless, it experienced an unsuccessful sales launch earlier this month, with only a small percentage of the tokens that were placed on the market being purchased by consumers. This incident transpired earlier this month. From this, it is possible to infer that the launch was unsuccessful.
Cryptocurrencies have been the subject of numerous news articles since their inception. The FTX exchange platform is the most notable of the numerous industry stalwarts that have fallen, and these stories have covered a wide variety of subjects, including the immense volatility of their pricing. Numerous topics have been addressed in these narratives.
According to reports that circulated in the days preceding the election, he made history by becoming the first former president to utilize bitcoin to conduct a transaction. Donald Trump achieved historical significance by conducting a transaction using bitcoin. This could be considered a significant accomplishment.
He accomplished this by purchasing hamburgers from a restaurant in New York City, which characterized the transaction as “historic.” He succeeded in achieving these objectives. Because of this opportunity, he capitalized on it.
Bitcoin, a digital currency, is transacted on the market every day of the week, including Sundays.
SOURCE: TET
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Chewy Slides After Filing Shows 3rd-Biggest Shareholder, ‘Roaring Kitty,’ Sold His Stake
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