The head of the U.S. agency charged with enforcing civil rights in the workplace says artificial intelligence-driven “bossware” tools that closely track the whereabouts, keystrokes and productivity of workers can also run afoul of discrimination laws

The BBC has announced a review into Russell Brand’s time at the corporation amid the rape and sexual assault allegations made against the comedian. The broadcaster also said on Tuesday that it was removing some content featuring the 48-year-old from its iPlayer and Sounds apps which “now falls below public expectations”. An episode of comedy panel show QI and a Joe Wicks podcast, both featuring Brand as a guest, have been removed, the PA news agency understands. YouTube had earlier announced that the Google-owned company has stopped Brand making money on its platform because he was “violating” its “creator responsibility policy”. Brand has strongly denied the allegations, which also include claims of controlling, abusive and predatory behaviour. A spokesperson for podcasting platform Acast confirmed to PA on Tuesday that advertisements were turned off “immediately” for Brand’s Under The Skin podcast following the allegations. In a long-arranged Q and A with BBC staff on Tuesday, the corporation’s director general Tim Davie was quizzed about how it was responding following accusations about Brand’s time on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music between 2006 and 2008. The Times reported on Monday that a woman claims Brand used the BBC’s car service to pick her up from school when she was 16 so she could visit his home. Mr Davie said he hopes a review, led by BBC’s director of editorial complaints Peter Johnston, will give an “initial report in weeks, not months” and added that “the objective is to be totally transparent”. He also said: “The review will also look at the position regarding any cars used by the BBC at that time – because that was obviously something that, again, in a powerful testimony, was mentioned.” The news comes after the remaining shows of Brand’s Bipolarisation tour were postponed and the Metropolitan Police said it had received a report of an alleged sexual assault in the wake of media allegations. According to Companies House, Brand on Tuesday resigned as a director of both performing arts business One Arm Bandit and filming company Mayfair Film Partnership. Mr Davie has said the broadcasting industry needs to be “very vigilant” following questions being raised about the wider TV industry – which he also said had “faced significant” power imbalance issues in the past. It comes as the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee chairwoman Dame Caroline Dinenage has written to the BBC, Channel 4 and TikTok to request further details on what actions they are taking in response to the allegations – and to GB News in relation to their coverage of the claims. The letters also requested updates on the investigation being conducted by Banijay UK, which bought Endemol, the company commissioned by Channel 4 to produce the Big Brother spin-off shows Brand hosted, into his behaviour while he was working on its programmes. Mr Davie also said: “I do think we’re in a different place, over 15 years. When I listened back, frankly, to some of those broadcasts I think, that is just completely unacceptable. What led to that being on air? “I just look at that stuff and I say there is no way I will listen to that, there’s no way I accept it. We have to be clear about that together, that we will not accept that.” Brand has been accused of rape, assault and emotional abuse between 2006 and 2013, when he was at the height of his fame and working for the BBC, Channel 4 and starring in Hollywood films, following a joint investigation by The Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches. In the documentary, footage was shown of the actor making comments about female BBC staff on his radio show. Brand’s YouTube account, which has 6.6 million subscribers, has been suspended from YouTube’s Partner account “following serious allegations against the creator”, meaning the channel is no longer able to make money from advertising on the platform. In a statement, YouTube said the decision applied to all channels that may be “owned or operated” by Brand, adding: “If a creator’s off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community.” Brand still has a presence on video platform Rumble, where his channel has 1.4 million followers and he hosts a weekly live show at 5pm BST, but there was no new episode on Monday. His most recent video on Rumble is the short clip from Friday denying the allegations and saying he has been “promiscuous” but that all of his relationships have been “consensual”. Dame Caroline has asked TikTok’s director of government relations, Theo Bertram, whether Brand could monetise his posts on the video sharing platform, where he has 2.3 million followers. The committee chairwoman also asked “what the platform is doing to ensure that creators are not able to use the platform to undermine the welfare of victims of inappropriate and potentially illegal behaviour”. Dame Caroline also wrote to GB News chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos over presenter Beverley Turner supporting Brand in a tweet over the weekend and defending him on her show on Monday morning. She acknowledged Turner was challenged on the programme but remained “concerned that having a presenter so clearly supporting an individual who is the subject of intense media coverage, including seeking their appearance on the show, undermines any perception of due impartiality in the broadcasting”. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live BBC removes some Russell Brand content as monetisation suspended on YouTube Google Bard can now link to Gmail and other apps to help with responses How does Russell Brand make money online?

NEW YORK & TEL AVIV--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 6, 2023--

This comes after YouTuber iDubbbz stated that he was no longer associated with his troublesome and edgy fans

In cryptocurrency markets, liquidity is uber-concentrated and has become more so over time, with nearly all of it

Everybody hurts sometimes – even the most basic worms in the animal kingdom which have no eyes, spine or brain. That’s what scientists have found out about nematode species Caenorhabditis elegans, which possesses basic emotions such as fear. Researchers zapped the worms to see if they would display negative reactions, and the worms continued to “flee” at high speeds for minutes after. The scientists at Nagoya City University in Japan and Northeastern University in the US said the response shows a brain state which is comparable to fear in humans. "These properties have been recently regarded as essential features of emotion, suggesting that C. elegans response to electric shock may reflect a form of emotion, akin to fear," the researchers wrote. The findings are the most recent in a debate over which animals can experience primitive versions of our own emotions. Crayfish and bumblebees have all shown animals can have lasting positive and negative mental states. C. elegans is one of the most basic worms in the animal kingdom. At about 1mm in length it is also tiny and transparent, with no brain, sight or smell. Nonetheless, worms which sensed an electric current for 45 seconds “ran away” for more than two minutes. During this state, they ignored food which was placed nearby, instead scurrying at high speeds. This suggests that the emotional response could be triggered by different stimuli and that one stimulus could inhibit responses to others. When the shock was just five seconds long, the worms fled for a minute and a half before calming down. And when the researchers repeated the experiments with worms that were not to produce neuropeptides – which are the equivalent to human hormones – the worms stayed in a state of fear for longer. "Because the requirement of neuropeptide signaling [in worms] is reminiscent of neuropeptide regulation of fear in mammals including humans, the fear-like brain state may be regulated by evolutionarily conserved molecular mechanisms," the authors of the study wrote. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

ESports tickets costing up to $137 are like gold dust at the Asian Games with desperate fans signing up multiple times through a lottery system in hope...

Nasa has revealed chunks of a distant asteroid that were transported back down to Earth. The dark, dusty sample comes from a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid, and might include the “building blocks of life”, the space agency said. Already, the material from the asteroid Bennu has been found to include high-carbon content and water, the space agency said. But it will be distributed around the world with a view to finding out everything from the history of our solar system to how life came about. Scientists and space agency leaders showed photos and video of the asteroid material - returned to Earth last month - at a live streamed event at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas. The display came after a capsule containing an estimated 250g of rocks and dust collected from asteroid Bennu, touched down in the Utah desert near Salt Lake City on September 24. Nasa has said it was “the biggest, carbon-rich asteroid sample ever delivered to Earth”, and its contents have now been hailed as “scientific treasure”. Nasa administrator Bill Nelson said the sample will “help scientists investigate the origins of life on our own planet for generations to come”. He added: “Almost everything we do at Nasa seeks to answer questions about who we are and where we come from. “Nasa missions like Osiris-Rex will improve our understanding of asteroids that could threaten Earth while giving us a glimpse into what lies beyond. “The sample has made it back to Earth, but there is still so much science to come - science like we’ve never seen before.” Almost 60 million miles away, asteroid Bennu is a 4.5-billion-year-old remnant of our early solar system and scientists believe it can help shed light on how planets formed and evolved. The spacecraft launched on September 8 2016 and arrived at Bennu in December 2018. It dropped the samples off sealed in a capsule last month. “Already this is scientific treasure,” said the mission’s lead scientist, Professor Dante Lauretta, of the University of Arizona on Wednesday. In a statement, he added: “As we peer into the ancient secrets preserved within the dust and rocks of asteroid Bennu, we are unlocking a time capsule that offers us profound insights into the origins of our solar system. “The bounty of carbon-rich material and the abundant presence of water-bearing clay minerals are just the tip of the cosmic iceberg. “These discoveries, made possible through years of dedicated collaboration and cutting-edge science, propel us on a journey to understand not only our celestial neighbourhood but also the potential for life’s beginnings. “With each revelation from Bennu, we draw closer to unravelling the mysteries of our cosmic heritage.” Nasa‘s mission goal was to collect was 60 grams of asteroid sample. But when the canister lid was opened, Nasa said scientists discovered “bonus material” covering the outside of the collector head, canister lid, and base. There was so much extra material it slowed down the process of collecting and containing the primary sample, Nasa said. Scientists are not sure exactly how much of Bennu they brought back because the main sample chamber has not yet been opened. Mr Lauretta said: “It’s been going slow and meticulous, but the science is already starting.” He said there is “a whole treasure chest of extraterrestrial material” still to be examined. During Wednesday’s press conference, Osiris-Rex sample analyst Daniel Glavin added: “This stuff is an astrobiologist’s dream, I just can’t wait to get at it. “We’re going to learn so much about the origin of the solar system, the evolution and potentially how even life started here on Earth.” Additional reporting by agencies Read More ‘Ring of fire’ solar eclipse this month will be last until 2046 Prada to design Nasa’s next-gen space suits for Artemis astronauts 1.2 mile-high ‘dust devil’ spotted on Mars by Nasa’s Perseverance rover Rover captures one-mile-high whirlwind on Mars Earth hit by a huge solar storm that would devastate civilisation, trees show Scientists see afterglow from huge planets crashing into each other for first time

By Nia Williams Wildfires are common in Canada's western provinces, but this year the eastern province of Nova

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By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed NEW YORK Options on the newly listed shares of SoftBank's Arm Holdings, the year's

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 13, 2023--