safety

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Following CDC Guidance, Face Coverings Made Optional for Fully Vaccinated Individuals Inside Publix Stores

The Telegraph

Who is Edwin Poots? Fundamentalist Christian and former farmer elected leader of the DUP[1]

Edwin Poots, the newly elected leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, is a conviction politician. One of those convictions includes a belief that the Earth is just 6,000 years old and was created by God in about 4,000 BC. A fundamentalist Christian, Mr Poots, 55, is a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, the religious church founded in 1951 by The Reverend Dr Ian Paisley 20 years before he set up the DUP. Not surprisingly, Dr Paisley, one of the towering figures of Northern Ireland politics up until his death in 2014, was Mr Poots’ great childhood inspiration. In 2007, Mr Poots had been asked on a radio programme about his creationist beliefs. “My view on the Earth is that it’s a young Earth. My view is 4000BC,” he explained. Asked if that meant he dismissed the science of evolution, he was clear. “Yes, absolutely. And you’re telling me that all of this evolution took place over billions of years, and yet it’s only in the last few thousand years that man could actually learn to write? You’re telling me that cosmic balls of dust gathered and there was an explosion? We’ve had lots of explosions in Northern Ireland and I’ve never seen anything come out of that that was good.” His father, Charles Poots, was a founding member of the DUP and Mr Poots junior joined up at the age of 16. He has been in the party all his adult life. His Christian conservatism makes him a popular choice among DUP die-hards, but his views will go down far less well with Sinn Fein, the political wing of the now defunct Provisional IRA, with whom the DUP must do business if Stormont is to survive under its power-sharing agreements. Gay men blood donation debacle As a health minister in Stormont, he tried to maintain a ban on gay men giving blood; a rule imposed across the UK at the height of the AIDS epidemic and only lifted in England, Scotland and Wales in 2011. However, Mr Poots, who was health minister up until 2014, tried to keep the ban in place and the prohibition was only overturned in the law courts, which ruled that his decision-making was “infected by apparent bias”. Mr Poots, a father-of-four, had insisted his stance was based on the need to be certain of the “safety” of blood supplies. He was dismayed by the court’s interference in the matter, telling members of the Northern Ireland Assembly in belligerent fashion: “There is a continual battering of Christian principles, and I have to say this – shame on the courts for going down the route of constantly attacking Christian principles, Christian ethics and Christian morals, on which this society was based and which have given us a very good foundation.”

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COVID-19: Calls for Monday’s lockdown easing to be delayed, as SAGE warns variant could pressure hospitals

The Telegraph

Ministers ‘stand ready’ to jail social media bosses if they fail to combat online harms, MPs told[1]

Ministers “stand ready” to jail social media bosses if they fail to clean up their act and protect children from online harms, Oliver Dowden said yesterday. The Culture Secretary told MPs he was taking powers to impose criminal sanctions – including jail sentences – because he was prepared to uaw them if the tech giants failed to comply with the Government’s new duty of care regime. The Government’s draft online harms bill proposes the regulator Ofcom should have powers to impose fines of up to 10 per cent of global turnover (£6 billion for Facebook) or £18 million, whichever is higher, if they breach the duty of care laws. But Mr Dowden said: “If it’s the case that fines don’t work, we stand ready to impose those criminal sanctions.” Under the “reserve” criminal powers being taken by ministers, social media giants would have to name a senior manager who would be responsible for ensuring that the company complied with its legal duty of care responsibilities. Failure to do so would lead to the executive facing criminal sanctions including jail sentences of up to two years. Mr Dowden told the culture select committee he hoped the tech giants would comply with fines but he added: “The final step which I am willing to take – and I am willing to take because we will legislate for that power but we won’t enforce it – is criminal sanctions. “I would rather we didn’t impose new criminal law and I think we should have a very high bar for the imposition of new criminal law but if it is the case that fines don’t work, we stand ready to impose criminal sanctions.” Andy Burrows, Head of Child Safety Online at the NSPCC, said: “If the threshold for enacting criminal sanctions is regulation failing, the reality will be further years of children facing grooming and abuse that could have been avoided. “This is a unique chance to move beyond the status quo that sees action taken only after serious harm has occurred, but deferring liability for senior managers misses the opportunity to finally put children first. “The Culture Secretary should learn from other regulated sectors that hold named managers responsible for the safety of their products, with the threat of fines, censure and, as a last resort, criminal sanctions leading to a culture of compliance.”

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The Telegraph

Who is Edwin Poots? Fundamentalist Christian and former farmer elected leader of the DUP[1]

Edwin Poots, the newly elected leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, is a conviction politician. One of those convictions includes a belief that the Earth is just 6,000 years old and was created by God in about 4,000 BC. A fundamentalist Christian, Mr Poots, 55, is a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, the religious church founded in 1951 by The Reverend Dr Ian Paisley 20 years before he set up the DUP. Not surprisingly, Dr Paisley, one of the towering figures of Northern Ireland politics up until his death in 2014, was Mr Poots’ great childhood inspiration. In 2007, Mr Poots had been asked on a radio programme about his creationist beliefs. “My view on the Earth is that it’s a young Earth. My view is 4000BC,” he explained. Asked if that meant he dismissed the science of evolution, he was clear. “Yes, absolutely. And you’re telling me that all of this evolution took place over billions of years, and yet it’s only in the last few thousand years that man could actually learn to write? You’re telling me that cosmic balls of dust gathered and there was an explosion? We’ve had lots of explosions in Northern Ireland and I’ve never seen anything come out of that that was good.” His father, Charles Poots, was a founding member of the DUP and Mr Poots junior joined up at the age of 16. He has been in the party all his adult life. His Christian conservatism makes him a popular choice among DUP die-hards, but his views will go down far less well with Sinn Fein, the political wing of the now defunct Provisional IRA, with whom the DUP must do business if Stormont is to survive under its power-sharing agreements. Gay men blood donation debacle As a health minister in Stormont, he tried to maintain a ban on gay men giving blood; a rule imposed across the UK at the height of the AIDS epidemic and only lifted in England, Scotland and Wales in 2011. However, Mr Poots, who was health minister up until 2014, tried to keep the ban in place and the prohibition was only overturned in the law courts, which ruled that his decision-making was “infected by apparent bias”. Mr Poots, a father-of-four, had insisted his stance was based on the need to be certain of the “safety” of blood supplies. He was dismayed by the court’s interference in the matter, telling members of the Northern Ireland Assembly in belligerent fashion: “There is a continual battering of Christian principles, and I have to say this – shame on the courts for going down the route of constantly attacking Christian principles, Christian ethics and Christian morals, on which this society was based and which have given us a very good foundation.”

News Desk

CDC’s new guidance for fully vaccinated people: Yahoo News Explains

The Telegraph

Ministers ‘stand ready’ to jail social media bosses if they fail to combat online harms, MPs told[1]

Ministers “stand ready” to jail social media bosses if they fail to clean up their act and protect children from online harms, Oliver Dowden said yesterday. The Culture Secretary told MPs he was taking powers to impose criminal sanctions – including jail sentences – because he was prepared to uaw them if the tech giants failed to comply with the Government’s new duty of care regime. The Government’s draft online harms bill proposes the regulator Ofcom should have powers to impose fines of up to 10 per cent of global turnover (£6 billion for Facebook) or £18 million, whichever is higher, if they breach the duty of care laws. But Mr Dowden said: “If it’s the case that fines don’t work, we stand ready to impose those criminal sanctions.” Under the “reserve” criminal powers being taken by ministers, social media giants would have to name a senior manager who would be responsible for ensuring that the company complied with its legal duty of care responsibilities. Failure to do so would lead to the executive facing criminal sanctions including jail sentences of up to two years. Mr Dowden told the culture select committee he hoped the tech giants would comply with fines but he added: “The final step which I am willing to take – and I am willing to take because we will legislate for that power but we won’t enforce it – is criminal sanctions. “I would rather we didn’t impose new criminal law and I think we should have a very high bar for the imposition of new criminal law but if it is the case that fines don’t work, we stand ready to impose criminal sanctions.” Andy Burrows, Head of Child Safety Online at the NSPCC, said: “If the threshold for enacting criminal sanctions is regulation failing, the reality will be further years of children facing grooming and abuse that could have been avoided. “This is a unique chance to move beyond the status quo that sees action taken only after serious harm has occurred, but deferring liability for senior managers misses the opportunity to finally put children first. “The Culture Secretary should learn from other regulated sectors that hold named managers responsible for the safety of their products, with the threat of fines, censure and, as a last resort, criminal sanctions leading to a culture of compliance.”

News Desk

UK’s Johnson warns Indian variant could impact lockdown easement

The Telegraph

Who is Edwin Poots? Fundamentalist Christian and former farmer elected leader of the DUP[1]

Edwin Poots, the newly elected leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, is a conviction politician. One of those convictions includes a belief that the Earth is just 6,000 years old and was created by God in about 4,000 BC. A fundamentalist Christian, Mr Poots, 55, is a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, the religious church founded in 1951 by The Reverend Dr Ian Paisley 20 years before he set up the DUP. Not surprisingly, Dr Paisley, one of the towering figures of Northern Ireland politics up until his death in 2014, was Mr Poots’ great childhood inspiration. In 2007, Mr Poots had been asked on a radio programme about his creationist beliefs. “My view on the Earth is that it’s a young Earth. My view is 4000BC,” he explained. Asked if that meant he dismissed the science of evolution, he was clear. “Yes, absolutely. And you’re telling me that all of this evolution took place over billions of years, and yet it’s only in the last few thousand years that man could actually learn to write? You’re telling me that cosmic balls of dust gathered and there was an explosion? We’ve had lots of explosions in Northern Ireland and I’ve never seen anything come out of that that was good.” His father, Charles Poots, was a founding member of the DUP and Mr Poots junior joined up at the age of 16. He has been in the party all his adult life. His Christian conservatism makes him a popular choice among DUP die-hards, but his views will go down far less well with Sinn Fein, the political wing of the now defunct Provisional IRA, with whom the DUP must do business if Stormont is to survive under its power-sharing agreements. Gay men blood donation debacle As a health minister in Stormont, he tried to maintain a ban on gay men giving blood; a rule imposed across the UK at the height of the AIDS epidemic and only lifted in England, Scotland and Wales in 2011. However, Mr Poots, who was health minister up until 2014, tried to keep the ban in place and the prohibition was only overturned in the law courts, which ruled that his decision-making was “infected by apparent bias”. Mr Poots, a father-of-four, had insisted his stance was based on the need to be certain of the “safety” of blood supplies. He was dismayed by the court’s interference in the matter, telling members of the Northern Ireland Assembly in belligerent fashion: “There is a continual battering of Christian principles, and I have to say this – shame on the courts for going down the route of constantly attacking Christian principles, Christian ethics and Christian morals, on which this society was based and which have given us a very good foundation.”

News Desk

Datz highlights fun brunch menu items | Morning Blend

The Telegraph

Who is Edwin Poots? Fundamentalist Christian and former farmer elected leader of the DUP[1]

Edwin Poots, the newly elected leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, is a conviction politician. One of those convictions includes a belief that the Earth is just 6,000 years old and was created by God in about 4,000 BC. A fundamentalist Christian, Mr Poots, 55, is a member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, the religious church founded in 1951 by The Reverend Dr Ian Paisley 20 years before he set up the DUP. Not surprisingly, Dr Paisley, one of the towering figures of Northern Ireland politics up until his death in 2014, was Mr Poots’ great childhood inspiration. In 2007, Mr Poots had been asked on a radio programme about his creationist beliefs. “My view on the Earth is that it’s a young Earth. My view is 4000BC,” he explained. Asked if that meant he dismissed the science of evolution, he was clear. “Yes, absolutely. And you’re telling me that all of this evolution took place over billions of years, and yet it’s only in the last few thousand years that man could actually learn to write? You’re telling me that cosmic balls of dust gathered and there was an explosion? We’ve had lots of explosions in Northern Ireland and I’ve never seen anything come out of that that was good.” His father, Charles Poots, was a founding member of the DUP and Mr Poots junior joined up at the age of 16. He has been in the party all his adult life. His Christian conservatism makes him a popular choice among DUP die-hards, but his views will go down far less well with Sinn Fein, the political wing of the now defunct Provisional IRA, with whom the DUP must do business if Stormont is to survive under its power-sharing agreements. Gay men blood donation debacle As a health minister in Stormont, he tried to maintain a ban on gay men giving blood; a rule imposed across the UK at the height of the AIDS epidemic and only lifted in England, Scotland and Wales in 2011. However, Mr Poots, who was health minister up until 2014, tried to keep the ban in place and the prohibition was only overturned in the law courts, which ruled that his decision-making was “infected by apparent bias”. Mr Poots, a father-of-four, had insisted his stance was based on the need to be certain of the “safety” of blood supplies. He was dismayed by the court’s interference in the matter, telling members of the Northern Ireland Assembly in belligerent fashion: “There is a continual battering of Christian principles, and I have to say this – shame on the courts for going down the route of constantly attacking Christian principles, Christian ethics and Christian morals, on which this society was based and which have given us a very good foundation.”

News Desk

Tesla in fatal California crash ‘was on autopilot’

A Tesla involved in a fatal crash on a southern California freeway last week was operating on autopilot at the time, authorities said.

The May 5 crash in Fontana, a city 50 miles east of Los Angeles, is under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The probe is the 29th case involving a Tesla that the agency has responded to.

Tesla Model 3
A Tesla Model 3 (Tesla)

A 35-year-old man was killed when his Tesla Model 3 struck an overturned lorry on a freeway at about 2:30am.

The victim’s name has not yet been made public. Another man was seriously injured when the electric vehicle hit him as he was helping the lorry driver out of the wreck.

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) announced on Thursday that the car had been operating Tesla’s partially automated driving system called Autopilot, which has been involved in multiple crashes.

The Fontana crash marks at least the fourth US death involving Autopilot.

“While the CHP does not normally comment on on-going investigations, the Department recognizes the high-level of interest centred around crashes involving Tesla vehicles,” the agency said in a statement.

“We felt this information provides an opportunity to remind the public that driving is a complex task that requires a driver’s full attention.”

The federal safety investigation comes just after the CHP arrested another man who authorities have said was in the back seat of a Tesla that was driving this week on Interstate 80 near Oakland with no-one behind the wheel.

CHP has not said if officials have determined whether the Tesla in the I-80 incident was operating on Autopilot, which can keep a car centred in its lane and a safe distance behind vehicles in front of it.

But it is likely that either Autopilot or “Full Self-Driving” were in operation for the driver to be in the back seat. Tesla is allowing a limited number of owners to test its self-driving system.