UPS workers edge towards strike after talks fail

UPS workers edge towards strike after talks fail.

Judge bars federal officials from talking to social media companies.

US Navy says it stopped Iran from seizing two oil tankers.

NATIONAL NEWS

About 340,000 drivers, package-handlers and loaders working for UPS may soon be on strike. The workers are represented by the Teamsters Union, whose leader Sean O’Brien claims that UPS bosses walked away from contract negotiations. UPS denies O’Brien’s allegation and blamed the other side.

UPS workers chugged on with no pay raise throughout the pandemic, despite the labor crunch, risk of sickness and a huge workload as the number of parcels shipped across the US skyrocketed. Workers say they are fed up with deteriorating working conditions at the company and believe they deserve a greater share of UPS’ profits, which have soared. Last month, the workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if there was no contract by July 31, when the current contract expires.

If a strike does occur, it will deal a major blow to UPS’ profits and market share as competitors like FedEx swoop in. But there may be plenty of pain to go around since UPS is a key link in the US supply chain. Merchants and businesses are likely to see delivery times lengthen and shipping costs rise.

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Judge bars federal officials from talking to social media companies

A federal judge in Louisiana has ordered federal agencies and members of the Biden administration stop communicating with the management of several social media firms. The only exceptions are in cases of criminal activity or national security threats. The order came in response to a lawsuit filed by Republican Attorneys General from Louisiana and Missouri.

Conservatives have alleged that the Biden administration conspired with social media companies to repress conservative viewpoints on the platforms. Government officials says they’ve worked with social media companies to limit disinformation. In the last several years, social media platforms have been on the frontline of the fight against disinformation on everything from public health crises to supposed election fraud. While a lot of this comes from people in the US political sphere, a large amount of it has also been traced back to foreign adversaries.

In this case, Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump-appointee, sided with the conservatives. Doughty specifically barred officials in the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice, the State Department and the CDC from direct communications with platform runners. Not only that, Doughty barred these agencies from “collaborating” with professional and academic groups that track online disinformation.

This is a tricky case from a First Amendment point of view. Previous suits against social media companies for “censorship” have failed when the firms asserted their First Amendment privilege to publish as they see fit on their own platforms. The government and the professional and academic groups could argue that Doughty’s ruling violates their First Amendment rights.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

US Navy says it stopped Iran from seizing two oil tankers

In the pre-dawn hours this morning, US Navy ships blocked two separate attempts by Iranian naval vessels to seize oil tankers. Around 1 am, an Iranian naval vessel approached a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker in the Gulf of Oman. In response, the US Navy dispatched the USS McFaul, a guided-missile destroyer, as well as as MQ-9 Reaper drone and a P-8 Poseidon patrol plane. The Iranian vessel immediately backed off and the tanker continued on its way.

Just 3 hours later, the US Navy received a distress call from a Bahamian-flagged tanker. An Iranian vessel had approached within a mile of the tanker and ordered it to stop. The Iranian vessel then fired weapons but did not strike the tanker. The McFaul raced to the scene “at maximum speed” and the Iranian vessels promptly backed off. There were no injuries and no direct exchanges of fire between the Iranian and US vessels.

Such showdowns in the Persian Gulf, and especially the Strait of Hormuz, are becoming increasingly common.

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