Month: July 2022

Enlarge / A negative stain electron micrograph of a monkeypox virus virion in human vesicular fluid. (credit: Getty | BSIP)

Update 7/23/2022 11:00am ET: The World Health Organization on Saturday declared the multinational monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), the agency's highest level of alert.

On Thursday, the WHO convened an emergency committee of experts to assess the situation. The committee was unable to reach a consensus on whether to declare a PHEIC, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a Saturday morning press briefing.

But Tedros, describing himself as a "tie-breaker," noted that under the International Health Regulations he had to consider several elements in deciding whether to declare a PHEIC, in addition to the emergency committee's assessment. Those elements included the scientific unknowns, risks to human health, and risks of further international spread.

Enlarge / Screenshot from One America News Network's press kit. (credit: One America News Network)

One America News Network is about to lose its last major TV distributor. After being removed from DirecTV in early April, the right-wing network was still aired on Verizon Fios. But with a channel-carriage contract expiring at the end of July, Verizon confirmed that the sides won't reach a deal.

"Our negotiation with OAN has been a typical, business-as-usual carriage negotiation like those that routinely happen between content distributors and content providers. These negotiations were focused on economics, as they always are, but OAN failed to agree to fair terms," Verizon said in a statement provided to Ars last night. "Since we were unable to reach an agreement, effective July 31, 2022, we will no longer have the rights to provide our customers with this programming, and it will be removed from the Fios TV lineup."

Verizon also confirmed the July 31 removal in an update posted to its website, which notes that "sometimes broadcasters and cable networks demand unacceptable price increases" that can increase customers' monthly TV bills. We contacted OAN about its removal from Verizon last night and will update this article if we get a response.

Enlarge / Amazon Echo Show 15. (credit: Scharon Harding)

Amazon will begin selling ads to developers to promote their Alexa skills and apps on the platform, according to a report from Bloomberg on Wednesday.

According to Bloomberg, Amazon is "inviting developers to advertise their apps" on Alexa in the form of pop-up ads on the screens of the company's Echo Show smart displays. The goal is to hold developer interest, which gravitates more toward smartphone apps, while making a new revenue stream. Bloomberg said the former is the priority.

Amazon VP Aaron Rubenson, who works on developer tools, told Bloomberg that paid ads are “something that developers have asked us for." But it's likely not something customers have asked for—at least not directly.

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  Scroll down on a Google Play app listing and you'll soon see this new privacy section. [credit: Google ]

Last week, Google started more widely rolling out the new "Data Safety" screen in the Play Store, and it made waves in the tech world when we found out that the new section was a replacement for the normal app permissions display, not a new screen in addition to it. After the negative public reaction to the news, the official Android Developers Twitter account promised to revert the change and let the permissions screen display side by side with the new Data Safety display.

"Data Safety" is a new Play Store section that lets developers list what data an app collects, how that data is stored, and who the data is shared with. You can see how Google came to the conclusion that Data Safety was an acceptable replacement for an app permissions list. The two sections have a lot of overlap—for instance, you'll probably see "location" on both screens if an app requests your location. The problem is with Google's implementation of these two screens. The app permissions list is a factual, computer-generated record of what permissions an app can request, while the Data Safety section is written by the developer. You can't cheat the app permissions list, while Data Safety runs on the honor system.

Here's Google's full statement:

Enlarge / Some of the reported 450 employees that walked off the job at Activision Blizzard Thursday. (credit: CWA / Twitter)

Hundreds of Activision Blizzard employees walked off the job on Thursday in an effort to get company support for employees living in "locations which are passing anti-abortion, anti lgbtq+, or any other discriminatory legislation," a note from the group said.

Participants in the "Walkout to End Gender Inequity" were demanding that Activision Blizzard provide assistance to employees who want to avoid such legislation by moving to and working from "safe states," organizers said. That would mean the company allowing fully remote work for nearly all employees and paying for relocation costs and cost-of-living adjustments for employees who move to such "safe states," among other changes.

The walkout—which had been publicly planned for weeks and was supported by a donation-based strike fund—was joined by 450 employees, according to a Washington Post report. Participants came from multiple Activision Blizzard offices, including the Irvine, California, headquarters of Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Publishing offices in Austin, Texas, among others.