A proposed bill in the Australian parliament that would require Facebook and Google to pay news outlets for content has cleared its final hurdle, and Facebook has agreed to restore access to news pages in the country after the government agreed to small changes to the legislation. The Wall Street Journal reports that Australian legislation that would require Facebook and Google to pay news publishers for access to their content has cleared its final .major parliamentary hurdle. Breitbart News recently reported that Simon Birmingham, Australia’s Minister for Finance, discussed the bill with Australian Broadcasting Corp Radio, stating: “The bill as it stands … meets the right balance.” Now it seems the government of Australia and the Masters of the Universe have agreed to minor amendments to the legislation and Facebook has dropped its blanket censorship of the Australian news media. Birmingham added that the bill ensures “Australian-generated news content by Australian-generated news organizations can and should be paid for and done so in a fair and legitimate way”. While the tech giants have protested the bill, last week Google signed a deal with top Australian outlets including a global deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Birmingham commented: “There’s no reason Facebook can’t do and achieve what Google already has.” A Facebook representative declined to comment on Monday on the legislation which passed the lower house last week and has majority support in the Senate. The Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook has agreed to restore access to news pages in the country after the government agreed to small changes to the legislation. The amendments include requiring an additional round of negotiation before binding arbitration takes effect as well as more acknowledgment of any deals Facebook reaches with publishers independently. The Australian Senate passed the legislation with the Facebook amendments late on Wednesday. It will now return ...
Online dating sign up
Exclusive: After 2020 Gains, Kevin McCarthy Eyes House GOP Majority, Speaker’s Gavel in Midterms
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has a fresh spring in his step after the Republicans defied the odds and professional political prognosticators by picking up 15 seats in the 2020 congressional elections. McCarthy, who has his eyes on the majority in November 2022, approached the 2020 congressional elections differently than Republicans in recent history have traditionally targeted congressional electoral efforts, and his moves paid off—and not only infuriated but befuddled the beltway pundit class. For the first time since 1994, in 2020 no GOP incumbent running for reelection lost. Meanwhile, McCarthy blew away fundraising records previously set by former House Speaker Paul Ryan—astonishing since he did it from the minority. Usually, House political leaders do better raising money from the majority. That’s not to mention the most significant development which is a freshman class entering Congress in 2021 that represents perhaps the most diverse in party history with the most women to boot. “First of all, put it in perspective, this is the first time since 1994 that no Republican incumbent lost,” McCarthy told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview when asked how the GOP did it. “We won in 2010 and that didn’t happen. No Republican incumbent lost. It was about the quality of the candidates and the message. Remember, we ended up picking up four new seats in California. We defeated four Democrats [in California], Trump lost all four districts and three of them he lost by double digits. We won in Miami. We won in New York. The quality of the candidates, the contrast—remember what we did with the Commitment to America? Rebuild, restore, and renew versus their defund, dismantle, and destroy, which they were doing. It was a very clear message. But think of the candidates we had from Young Kim to Carlos Gimenez to Ashley Hinson to Michelle Fishbach to Nicole Malliotakis in New York. We just took it to them.” For the last three months, since the Nov. 3, 2020, ...
The Hill’s 12:30 Report – Presented by Facebook – Lawmakers investigate Jan. 6 security failures
Presented by Facebook To view past editions of The Hill's 12:30 Report, click here: http://bit.ly/1M1mIfw To receive The Hill's 12:30 Report in your inbox, please sign up here: http://bit.ly/1Tt4hqN --> A midday take on what's happening in politics and how to have a sense of humor about it.* *Ha. Haha. Hahah. Sniff. Haha. Sniff. Ha--breaks down crying hysterically. The Hill’s 12:30 Report: Lawmakers investigate Jan. 6 security failures | Former Capitol Police chief blames lack of shared intelligence | Haaland’s contentious confirmation hearing | GOP, Dems meet with Senate parliamentarian | Make their cases for $15 minimum wage debate | House vote on COVID relief potentially Friday | Trump in legal jeopardy after financial disclosure ruling | Pending investigations affected | Biden meets with Trudeau | NASA releases new Jupiter photo HAPPENING TODAY Care to explain what happened…?: Two Senate committees are holding a joint hearing to investigate the security failures that led to the Capitol attacks on Jan. 6. Who is testifying : Paul Irving, the former House sergeant at arms, Steven Sund , the former Capitol Police chief, and Michael Stenger , the former Senate sergeant-at-arms. ^ Keep in mind : All three were either fired or stepped down after the insurrection. WATCH LIVE: Here’s the C-SPAN livestream: https://bit.ly/3bBcV6g HEARING HIGHLIGHTS: Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund blamed a lack of intelligence shared : “There has been much conflicting information presented by various officials and the media regarding the preparations for and actions taken at the Capitol that day, and I would like to set the record straight from my perspective. Contrary to some of the reporting, the USCP had an effective plan in place to handle the First Amendment demonstrations and possible pockets of violence that were anticipated for January 6, based upon the available intelligence.” More on his ...
China Tries to Cancel Korean Pop Stars BTS Again — This Time for Map of India
The Chinese state propaganda outlet Global Times attacked Korean pop (K-pop) superstars BTS on Wednesday in response to a report that Big Hit Entertainment, the band’s record label, used a map in a corporate report that did not show parts of India as parts of China. The Global Times and other Communist Party media arms have repeatedly attacked BTS, or Bangtan Sonyeondan, for similar alleged insults to the Chinese people. While the latest example is an indirect attack on the group, Beijing condemned BTS itself in October for thanking the American people for their contributions in the Korean War. BTS is arguably the most popular musical act in the world. Late last year, the group became the first Korean artists to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the first receive a Grammy Award nomination . Their single “Dynamite” has spent 26 weeks on the Hot 100 chart; they sold over 9 million albums in 2020. China has not escaped BTS’s global popularity, even though China banned most South Korean entertainment from entering the country amid a dispute with Seoul over the U.S. military placing anti-missile assets in the country to protect from a potential North Korean attack. Their return to the airwaves last year prompted a surge in interest and enthusiasm for the group that also fueled sales of BTS branded products to such a point that, while initial rumors claimed that Beijing had banned the items, the companies making them admitted they had merely sold out. Failing to stop the band’s momentum, Chinese media have taken to promoting a Party-approved reality television program that will create what Beijing hopes to be the world’s most popular boy band. The program, Chuang 2021 , has attracted no international interest. The Global Times claimed that “netizens” — the Communist Party’s term for social media users who spread Party-approved opinions online — were outraged at Big Hit Entertainment for not properly recognizing “South Tibet,” a region of ...
The truly shocking failures on the day rioters stormed the Capitol
Jill Filipovic is a journalist based in New York and author of the book "OK Boomer, Let's Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind." Follow her on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely her own. View more opinion articles on CNN. (CNN) On Tuesday , three of the Capitol police's former top leaders and the acting chief of the Washington, DC police testified before the Senate about the cascading law enforcement failures that occurred on January 6 as rioters stormed the Capitol complex. There was no shortage of finger-pointing and blame-passing, but one big takeaway was clear: We've barely scratched the surface of what happened on one of the most ignominious days in American history. Jill Filipovic Republicans have tried to cast the January 6 attacks as an unfortunate incident, a moment when emotions ran high, many otherwise decent people were swept up in the fervor and things simply got out of hand. Rep. Kevin McCarthy argued that "everybody across the country has some responsibility" for the deadly violence on January 6. Several House Republicans blamed Nancy Pelosi . Others equated an attack on the Capitol done in the name of the former president with sporadic violence and property destruction during Black Lives Matter protests. When Democrats tried to hold Donald Trump accountable in impeachment hearings, Republican Sen. Mike Lee opined that "everyone makes mistakes, everyone is entitled to a mulligan once in a while." Many rioters and their friends and family have made this same defense in court: That they were simply very passionate, if very stupid . Read More But stupid people caught in the heat of the moment don't typically find that Tasers and zip ties materialize in their hands out of thin air. JUST WATCHED Ex-Capitol police chief contradicts GOP senator Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH ...
