Good morning,
Cuomo
Former New York Gov Andrew Cuomo has now been formally charged with groping a female aids breast inside the executive mansion. Cuomo resigned in August after about a dozen women complained of unwanted sexual advances from Cuomo.
He will now appear in court Nov 17 to be arraigned on a charge of forcible touching.
Meta
Facebook under intense International pressure over charges the platform promotes hate to increase profits, is remaking its identity and that of its other social media platform Instagram. Founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced “the metaverse” and rebranded his platforms Meta (with a pretzel like symbol).
This metaverse is somehow the next digital frontier, which as explained is the unification of digital worlds combining online, virtual and augmented worlds. (Yes I just wrote that, but my brain is asking me what the heck am I talking about.)
Is this is a corporate rebrand to distance Facebook from a toxic reputation as a whistleblower has testified in Europe and in America about Facebooks failings tantamount to dividing Nations and encouraging suicide in young girls?
Zuckerberg has likened the metaverse to being a successor to the mobile internet and said mobile devices would no longer be or main focus, soon to be eclipsed by avatars transported to different digital worlds.
U.S. Politicians accosted Facebook’s new meta, with New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez calling the company “a cancer to democracy” and “a global surveillance and propaganda machine for boosting authoritarian regimes and destroying civil society.”
US Senators Richard Blumenthal and Ed Markey piled on;
Blumenthal, a former Attorney General of Connecticut, alleged the name change was nothing more than an effort to “confuse” and “distract” but ultimately “won’t erase years of devious practices & disregard for privacy, kids’ wellbeing, spreading hate, & genocide.”
Markey refused to acknowledge the name change. “Facebook wants us to start calling it Meta, but we’re just going to keep calling it what it is, a threat to privacy, democracy, and children,” he said.
French/British Fishing “War”
Brexit, Britains departure to leave the EU has been full of miscalculations. And along the way fishing was a major stumbling block as France demanded continued access to British waters.
Overnight Wednesday, the French seized a British trawler and fined a second vessel. Thursday Britain responded by summoning the French Ambassador, and the Royal Navy put several gunboats on high readiness to tackle potential port blockages by French fishing boats. British papers are calling it a “Fishing War”.
The escalating drama includes French threats to clog British exports in red tape over a lack of fishing licenses for their fishing vessels. France said it would adopt a zero-tolerance attitude towards Britain and block access to virtually all its boats until it awards licences to French fishermen.
“I stand by the fact we pursued dialogue until now, we got half of the fishing licences today, but that’s not enough and not acceptable,” Clément Beaune, France’s Europe minister said.
“So now, we need to speak the language of strength since that seems to be the only thing this British government understands,” Beaune added.
Bidens Gamble
President Biden gambled with his own party calling a news conference and describing live his 1.85 Trillion dollar social safety and environmental spending plan hoping the Democrats would end their squabbling and pass the bill. But Democrats say they want the infrastructure bill also passed and that is been stuck in debate since August.
The Build Back Better Bill would provide preschool for more than six million 3- and 4-year-olds, child care and health care subsidies, monthly payments for families with children and $555 billion for programs to wean Americans from fossil fuels.
In a meeting at the Capitol Biden told the group “we have a framework that will get 50 votes in the United States Senate,” “I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that the House and Senate majorities and my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week.”
But Biden seems short of the votes he needs to pass the Bill. “What I would say is you have the outline of a very significant piece of legislation — I want us to make it better,” said Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent and Budget Committee chairman.
President Biden is now in Europe, visiting Italy including meeting Pope Francis, and then will attend the COP26 environmental conference Sunday night in Glasgow, Scotland.
Climate and Security
On this Back Story podcast the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow is expected to fail to deliver real climate temperature targets to save the planet. The looming climate catastrophe changes the discussion in security circles as Intelligence agencies and even armies have to anticipate unrest and disruption and even war over climate issues.
Environmental disasters will pit Nations against Nations, and a lack of water and food, and record heat and flooding will be THE security challenge of the century.
Back Story host Dana Lewis interviews Erin Sikorsky, the Director at the Center for Climate and Security in Washington.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/9448649
Have a good weekend everyone. Your choice to take out a paid subscription supports my independent journalism. Thanks for your continued reading!
Dana
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/nyregion/cuomo-forcible-touching-complaint.html
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/28/facebook-name-change-rebrand-meta
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/29/mocking-meta-facebooks-virtual-reality-name-change-prompts-backlash
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20211028-france-to-block-access-to-british-fishing-boats-as-post-brexit-licence-row-heats-up