Amazon workers in southern California's industrial heartland say the company's policies are forcing sick employees to work and that warehouses are refusing to comply with a state paid sick leave law meant to prevent Covid-19 outbreaks. From a report: In the Inland Empire region outside Los Angeles, Amazon workers told the Guardian they fear losing their jobs if they are ill and stay home. At least four Amazon warehouses in the region have recorded Covid-19 cases. On 1 May, Amazon ended a policy allowing unlimited unpaid time off, a measure adopted at the start of the coronavirus crisis that allowed workers to take time off for any reason. They would forgo wages, but if they were concerned about their safety or had new childcare responsibilities due to lockdowns, they could stay home without losing their jobs. Without the policy, workers say they could now be fired if they miss shifts. They worry the reversal will result in sick and vulnerable people showing up for shifts because they can't risk termination. The health concerns are particularly serious in the Inland Empire, which has some of the worst air quality in the US and disproportionately high rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Employees also shared emails showing that Amazon has dismissed some paid sick leave requests by claiming a California law intended to provide supplemental sick leave during the pandemic does not apply to the warehouses.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: As President Trump rushes to reopen the economy, a battle has erupted between the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the agency's detailed guidelines to help schools, restaurants, churches and other establishments safely reopen. A copy of the C.D.C. guidance obtained by The New York Times includes sections for child care programs, schools and day camps, churches and other "communities of faith," employers with vulnerable workers, restaurants and bars, and mass transit administrators. The recommendations include using disposable dishes and utensils at restaurants, closing every other row of seats in buses and subways while restricting transit routes between areas experiencing different coronavirus infection levels, and separating children at school and camps into groups that should not mix throughout the day. But White House and other administration officials rejected the recommendations over concerns that they were overly prescriptive, infringed on religious rights and risked further damaging an economy that Mr. Trump was banking on to recover quickly. A spokesman for the C.D.C. said the guidance was still under discussion with the White House and a revised version could be published soon. [...] The mixed signals extend to reopening guidelines: On April 16, Mr. Trump's coronavirus task force released broad guidance for states to reopen in three phases, based on case levels and hospital capacity. But the more detailed C.D.C. guidance was seen by some members of the task force and other aides as a document that could slow down the reopening effort, according to several people with knowledge of the deliberations inside the West Wing. "Protections against religious discrimination aren't suspended during an emergency. This means the federal government cannot single out religious conduct as somehow being more dangerous or worthy of scrutiny than comparable secular behavior," said Roger Severino, the director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services and a social conservative who once headed the DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation. "Governments have a duty to instruct the public on how to stay safe during this crisis and can absolutely do so without dictating to people how they should worship God." Several federal agencies that reviewed the guidance in draft form, including the Department of Labor and the Office for Civil Rights at H.H.S., protested, saying it would be harmful to businesses and the economy and too burdensome for houses of worship.

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Jeff Grubb, writing for VentureBeat: One of the tidbits revealed during the first Xbox 20/20 event today is that Dirt 5 supports 120 frames per second on Xbox Series X. Publisher Codemasters' racing game is coming in October, but it supports Smart Delivery. So if you get it for Xbox One, you'll get the Xbox Series X version at no additional cost. And what does the Xbox Series X-optimized version of Dirt 5 get you? In an interview with the Xbox team, Codemasters confirmed that Dirt 5 supports the next-gen console's high-framerate feature. This means you can drive around the rally racer at 4K and 120 frames per second. High framerate is one of a number of key features for the next-gen consoles. And that makes sense. Racing games already have nearly photorealistic visuals. More graphical effects are not going to make much of a difference to the presentation of a Dirt 5. So this enables Codemasters to put that extra horsepower toward running the game faster. OK, so the Xbox Series X can run Dirt 5 at up to 120fps, but that's not going to matter if you don't have the right display. High-refreshrate content is common on the PC, but consoles have primarily topped out at 60fps. Because of this it hasn't matter that most TVs top out at 60Hz. But it is a problem for the next-gen consoles. To actually see Dirt 5 running at 120fps, you'll need a TV that runs at 120Hz or faster. That means the TV updates its frames 120 times every second. The good news here is that a lot of TVs already have this feature. The bad news is that even if you have an HFR panel, support is a lot more complicated than that. The issue comes down to the audio/video interface running between your TV and the Xbox Series X.

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Cloudflare Chief Executive Officer Matthew Prince became a billionaire Thursday as the stock climbed to a record hours before the company's scheduled earnings report. From a report: Shares of the San Francisco-based firm advanced 14% to $28.52 at 1 p.m. in New York, giving Prince a net worth of $1.08 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. "Cloudflare has been aided by the surge in streaming, gaming and e-commerce as people stay at home," said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh. The firm, whose stock has soared about 90% since its September initial public offering, provides services such as firewalls, network routing and traffic management that allow cloud-based sites to operate more effectively. Prince, who helped launch Cloudflare in 2009, owns about 12.5% of the company, according to its latest proxy filing. Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Michelle Zatlyn controls a 4.8% stake.

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A hacker claims to have stolen over 500GB of data from Microsoft's private GitHub repositories, BleepingComputer reports. From the report: This evening, a hacker going by the name Shiny Hunters contacted BleepingComputer to tell us they had hacked into the Microsoft GitHub account, gaining full access to the software giant's 'Private' repositories. The individual told us that they then downloaded 500GB of private projects and initially planned on selling it, but has now decided to leak it for free. Based on the file stamps in the leaked files, the breach may have occurred on March 28th, 2020.

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Google has added a very useful feature to Google Lens, its multipurpose object recognition tool. From a report: You can now copy and paste handwritten notes from your phone to your computer with Lens, though it only works if your handwriting is neat enough. In order to use the new feature, you need to have the latest version of Google Chrome as well as the standalone Google Lens app on Android or the Google app on iOS (where Lens can be accessed through a button next to the search bar). You'll also need to be logged in to the same Google account on both devices. That done, simply point your camera at any handwritten text, highlight it on-screen, and select copy. You can then go to any document in Google Docs, hit Edit, and then Paste to paste the text. And voila -- or, viola, depending on your handwriting.

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New submitter Bradmont shares a report: Sidewalk Labs, a Google-affiliated company, is abandoning its plan to build a high-tech neighbourhood on Toronto's waterfront, citing what it calls unprecedented economic uncertainty. The project, dubbed Quayside, still didn't have all of the government approvals it needed to go ahead. Many had raised concerns about the privacy implications of the project and how much of the city's developing waterfront Sidewalk Labs wanted to control. The so-called "smart city" was set to feature a range of cutting edge technology, from residential towers made of timber to the use of autonomous cars and heated sidewalks. "As unprecedented economic uncertainty has set in around the world and in the Toronto real estate market, it has become too difficult to make the 12-acre project financially viable without sacrificing core parts of the plan we had developed," company CEO Dan Doctoroff said in a statement. Toronto Mayor John Tory was quick to issue a statement saying he regrets the company's decision, but anticipates others will step in to develop the area. "Toronto's economy will come back strong after COVID-19 and we will continue to be a magnet for smart people and smart companies," he said in an email. Tory also said he plans to push Waterfront Toronto and both the provincial and federal governments to make sure any new development in the area will create new jobs and a "carbon-neutral neighbourhood" with affordable housing units and "better transportation and sustainability features."

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A study has identified a mutation that its authors say could make the coronavirus more infectious.

WeChat, the Chinese messaging app, is systematically monitoring the content sent by international users to build up its censorship algorithms applied against accounts registered in China, a new study has found. From a report: Researchers at Citizen Lab, an academic research lab at the University of Toronto, determined that WeChat screens images and documents shared by accounts registered outside China after they are sent, then adds the digital signature -- or "hash" -- of any files deemed sensitive to a blacklist. Those files then cannot be sent or received by China-registered users. Numerous studies have identified WeChat's use of censorship tools against China-linked accounts, but this research provides proof for the first time that non-China registered users are also swept up in its surveillance apparatus. Published Thursday in a report called "We Chat, They Watch," the Citizen Lab findings are likely to add fuel to existing concerns, particularly in Washington, about data security and the international reach of information control tools used by Chinese tech companies.

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The former Bank of England governor says countries should invest in a cleaner economic recovery.

Twitch, the online video site popular among gamers, is looking for its version of "The Bachelor." From a report: The company plans to fund a slate of original, unscripted series that would be live and interactive, airing two to three times a week, according to an internal document seen by Bloomberg. Its preferred genres are game shows, dating shows, sports, music and talk -- many of the cornerstones of reality TV. The global health crisis has provided Twitch, owned by Amazon.com Inc., a rare opportunity to broaden its audience and experiment with new kinds of programming. While many TV networks have struggled to produce shows during the pandemic, Twitch's most popular personalities have always filmed themselves from home.

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Science fiction version of today's news. First the air pollution was gone. Then there was the spring that never came. Snow in May. Next up, the coral reefs come back to life, occupied by alien beings. It's the first we learn that we aren't alone. They would like to speak to our leader.

Neiman Marcus on Thursday became the first major department store group to file for bankruptcy protection during the coronavirus pandemic. It's a stunning fall that follows the collapse of Barneys New York late last year and comes as shadows gather over chains like Lord & Taylor and J.C. Penney. From a report: At the end of March the coronavirus pandemic temporarily forced the closure of all 43 Neiman Marcus stores, as well as its two Bergdorf Goodman stores and Last Call outlets, all but stopping sales and crushing revenue. But while that may have been the immediate cause of Neiman's filing, its problems had been building for years. The company took on an untenable amount of debt as part of two leveraged buyouts by private-equity firms, and Neiman's did not respond quickly enough to changes in shopping habits. Together, those developments left the group in a precarious position even before the virus hit. The pandemic has been disastrous for the already weakened retail industry. Last month, sales of clothing and accessories fell by more than half. Those numbers are only expected to get worse in April, because many stores were open for at least some of March (e-commerce, a relatively small contributor to total sales for most store chains, is not enough to save them). Earlier this week, J. Crew filed for bankruptcy. Retailers have furloughed employees, slashed corporate salaries and hoarded cash in a desperate attempt to make it to the end of the shutdown. But there is widespread acknowledgment that Neiman Marcus is not likely to be the last retailer to face the brink.

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Google Authenticator, the company's code-based authentication app, has received its first update in three years, updating the app's interface for larger screens with more modern aspect ratios and delivering one of the platform's most-needed features. From a report: The Android version was last updated on August 22nd, 2017, while the iOS one was updated around a year ago to adjust it for iPhone X screens. Now, for the first time, Authenticator users will be able to easily transfer their account from one device to another without needing to manually transfer each code or disable and reenable two-factor authentication (2FA) on each account. The update introduces this feature through an import / export tool that lets you choose which accounts to include and transfer using a single QR code scan. It's a feature that competitor Authy has provided for quite some time, so it's refreshing to see it come to Authenticator, even if it's years late.

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Zoom announced this morning that it has acquired Keybase, a startup with encryption expertise. From a report: Keybase, which has been building encryption products for several years including secure file sharing and collaboration tools, should give Zoom some security credibility as it goes through pandemic demand growing pains. The company has faced a number of security issues in the last couple of months as demand as soared and exposed some security weaknesses in the platform. As the company has moved to address these issues, having a team of encryption experts on staff should help the company build a more secure product. In a blog post announcing the deal, CEO Eric Yuan said they acquired Keybase to give customers a higher level of security, something that's increasingly important to enterprise customers as more operations are relying on the platform, working from home during the pandemic.

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