Jan 20 (Reuters) – Google’s parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) is eliminating about 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce, the company said Friday, in the latest cuts to shake the technology sector.
Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s CEO, said in a staff memo shared with Reuters that the company had rapidly expanded headcount in recent years “for a different economic reality than the one we face today.”
“I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,” he said.
The cuts come days after rival Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) said it would lay off 10,000 workers.
Alphabet’s job losses affect teams across the company including recruiting and some corporate functions, as well as some engineering and products teams.
The layoffs are global and impact U.S. staff immediately.
Alphabet has already emailed affected employees, the memo said, while the process will take longer in other countries due to local employment laws and practices.
The news comes during a period of economic uncertainty as well as technological promise, in which Google and Microsoft have been investing in a burgeoning area of software known as generative artificial intelligence.
“I am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in AI,” Pichai said in the note.
Reuters was first to report the news.
Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin in Davos, Switzerland; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Alexander Smith
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Dec 23 (Reuters) – Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) has agreed to pay $725 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit accusing the social media giant of allowing third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, to access users’ personal information.
The proposed settlement, which was disclosed in a court filing late on Thursday, would resolve a long-running lawsuit prompted by revelations in 2018 that Facebook had allowed the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access data of as many as 87 million users.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs called the proposed settlement the largest to ever be achieved in a U.S. data privacy class action and the most that Meta has ever paid to resolve a class action lawsuit.
“This historic settlement will provide meaningful relief to the class in this complex and novel privacy case,” the lead lawyers for the plaintiffs, Derek Loeser and Lesley Weaver, said in a joint statement.
Meta did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which is subject to the approval of a federal judge in San Francisco. The company said in a statement settling was “in the best interest of our community and shareholders.”
“Over the last three years we revamped our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy program,” Meta said.
Cambridge Analytica, now defunct, worked for Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign in 2016, and gained access to the personal information from millions of Facebook accounts for the purposes of voter profiling and targeting.
Cambridge Analytica obtained that information without users’ consent from a researcher who had been allowed by Facebook to deploy an app on its social media network that harvested data from millions of its users.
The ensuing Cambridge Analytica scandal fueled government investigations into its privacy practices, lawsuits and a high-profile U.S. congressional hearing where Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by lawmakers.
In 2019, Facebook agreed to pay $5 billion to resolve a Federal Trade Commission probe into its privacy practices and $100 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims that it misled investors about the misuse of users’ data.
Investigations by state attorneys general are ongoing, and the company is fighting a lawsuit by the attorney general for Washington, D.C.
Thursday’s settlement resolved claims by Facebook users that the company violated various federal and state laws by letting app developers and business partners harvest their personal data without their consent on a widespread basis.
The users’ lawyers alleged that Facebook misled them into thinking they could keep control over personal data, when in fact it let thousands of preferred outsiders gain access.
Facebook argued its users have no legitimate privacy interest in information they shared with friends on social media. But U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria called that view “so wrong” and in 2019 largely allowed the case to move forward.
Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Nate Raymond
Thomson Reuters
Nate Raymond reports on the federal judiciary and litigation. He can be reached at nate.raymond@thomsonreuters.com.
Dec 23 (Reuters) – Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) has agreed to pay $725 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit accusing the social media giant of allowing third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, to access users’ personal information.
The proposed settlement, which was disclosed in a court filing late on Thursday, would resolve a long-running lawsuit prompted by revelations in 2018 that Facebook had allowed the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access data of as many as 87 million users.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs called the proposed settlement the largest to ever be achieved in a U.S. data privacy class action and the most that Meta has ever paid to resolve a class action lawsuit.
“This historic settlement will provide meaningful relief to the class in this complex and novel privacy case,” the lead lawyers for the plaintiffs, Derek Loeser and Lesley Weaver, said in a joint statement.
Meta did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which is subject to the approval of a federal judge in San Francisco. The company said in a statement settling was “in the best interest of our community and shareholders.”
“Over the last three years we revamped our approach to privacy and implemented a comprehensive privacy program,” Meta said.
Cambridge Analytica, now defunct, worked for Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign in 2016, and gained access to the personal information from millions of Facebook accounts for the purposes of voter profiling and targeting.
Cambridge Analytica obtained that information without users’ consent from a researcher who had been allowed by Facebook to deploy an app on its social media network that harvested data from millions of its users.
The ensuing Cambridge Analytica scandal fueled government investigations into its privacy practices, lawsuits and a high-profile U.S. congressional hearing where Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by lawmakers.
In 2019, Facebook agreed to pay $5 billion to resolve a Federal Trade Commission probe into its privacy practices and $100 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims that it misled investors about the misuse of users’ data.
Investigations by state attorneys general are ongoing, and the company is fighting a lawsuit by the attorney general for Washington, D.C.
Thursday’s settlement resolved claims by Facebook users that the company violated various federal and state laws by letting app developers and business partners harvest their personal data without their consent on a widespread basis.
The users’ lawyers alleged that Facebook misled them into thinking they could keep control over personal data, when in fact it let thousands of preferred outsiders gain access.
Facebook argued its users have no legitimate privacy interest in information they shared with friends on social media. But U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria called that view “so wrong” and in 2019 largely allowed the case to move forward.
Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Nate Raymond
Thomson Reuters
Nate Raymond reports on the federal judiciary and litigation. He can be reached at nate.raymond@thomsonreuters.com.
is planning to begin large-scale layoffs this week, according to people familiar with the matter, in what could be among the largest round in a recent spate of tech job cuts after the industry’s rapid growth during the pandemic.
The layoffs are expected to affect many thousands of employees and an announcement is planned to come as soon as Wednesday, according to the people. Meta reported more than 87,000 employees at the end of September. Company officials already told employees to cancel nonessential travel beginning this week, the people said.
The planned layoffs would be the first broad head-count reductions to occur in the company’s 18-year history. While smaller on a percentage basis than the cuts at Twitter Inc. this past week, which hit about half of that company’s staff, the number of Meta employees expected to lose their jobs could be the largest to date at a major technology corporation in a year that has seen a tech industry retrenchment.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said recently that ‘some teams will grow meaningfully, but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year.’
Photo:
Michael Nagle/Bloomberg News
A spokesman for Meta declined to comment, referring to Chief Executive
Mark Zuckerberg’s
recent statement that the company would “focus our investments on a small number of high priority growth areas.”
“So that means some teams will grow meaningfully, but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year,” he said on the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Oct. 26. “In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size, or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.”
The Wall Street Journal reported in September that Meta was planning to cut expenses by at least 10% in the coming months, in part through staff reductions.
The cuts expected to be announced this week follow several months of more targeted staffing reductions in which employees were managed out or saw their roles eliminated.
“Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here,” Mr. Zuckerberg told employees at a companywide meeting at the end of June.
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Meta, like other tech giants, went on a hiring spree during the pandemic as life and business shifted more online. It added more than 27,000 employees in 2020 and 2021, and added an additional 15,344 in the first nine months of this year—about a fourth of that in the most recent quarter.
Meta’s stock has fallen by more than 70% this year. The company has highlighted deteriorating macroeconomic trends, but investors have also been spooked by its high spending and threats to the company’s core social-media business. Growth for that business in many markets has stalled amid stiff competition from TikTok, and
Apple Inc.’s
requirement that users opt-in to the tracking of their devices has curtailed the ability of social-media platforms to target ads.
Last month, investment firm Altimeter Capital said in an open letter to Mr. Zuckerberg that Meta should slash staff and pare back its metaverse ambitions, reflecting the rising discontent among shareholders.
Meta’s expenses have also risen sharply, causing its free cash flow to decline by 98% in the most recent quarter. Some of the company’s spending stems from heavy investments in the additional computing power and artificial intelligence needed to further develop Reels, Meta’s TikTok-like short-form video platform on Instagram, and to target ads with less data.
But much of Meta’s ballooning costs stem from Mr. Zuckerberg’s commitment to Reality Labs, a division of the company responsible for both virtual and augmented reality headsets as well as the creation of the metaverse. Mr. Zuckerberg has billed the metaverse as a constellation of interlocking virtual worlds in which people will eventually work, play, live and shop.
Meta has invested heavily in promoting its virtual-reality platform, but users have been largely unimpressed.
Photo:
Guillermo Gutierrez/Zuma Press
The effort has cost the company $15 billion since the beginning of last year. But despite investing heavily in promoting its virtual-reality platform, Horizon Worlds, users have been largely unimpressed. Last month, the Journal reported that visitors to Horizon Worlds had fallen over the course of the year to well under 200,000 users, about the size of Sioux Falls.
“I get that a lot of people might disagree with this investment,” Mr. Zuckerberg told analysts on the company’s earnings call last month before reaffirming his commitment. “I think people are going to look back on decades from now and talk about the importance of the work that was done here.”
Following the call, analysts downgraded their rating of Meta’s stock and slashed price targets.
“Management’s road map & justification for this strategy continue to not resonate with investors,” analysts at RBC Capital Markets said in a note last month.
Write to Jeff Horwitz at jeff.horwitz@wsj.com and Salvador Rodriguez at salvador.rodriguez@wsj.com
Kanye West isn’t just starting fights on social media.
West was seen getting into an argument with a parent at his son Saint’s soccer game in Los Angeles over the weekend — and the whole thing was caught on camera.
In footage obtained by TMZ, the controversial rapper, 45 — who has faced public backlash and professional repercussions for his onslaught of anti-Semitic remarks — was spotted having a heated exchange with an unidentified individual on the sideline of the 6-year-old’s game.
West’s ex-wife, Kim Kardashian — with whom he also shares daughters North, 9, and Chicago, 4, and son Psalm, 3 — sat nearby in a lawn chair flanked by security, but did not visibly react as the disgraced designer stood about 30 feet away, waving his arms in seeming frustration.
Another woman — who appeared to be a family friend — then approached West and said something that prompted the “Heartless” musician to storm off the field.
A witness told TMZ that West took a few minutes to cool off and eventually returned to watch the rest of Saint’s game without any further drama.
The outlet notes that Kardashian, 42, and West did not interact during their son’s sporting event.
West’s ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, sat nearby in a lawn chair. @CelebCandidly/ Snorlax / MEGA
Weeks ago, West doubled down on his series of anti-Semitic threats during an interview with Piers Morgan.
The British broadcaster, 57, asked West if he regretted writing a specific tweet in which he vowed to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” He told Morgan that he is “absolutely not” sorry for the message.
West eventually returned to watch the rest of Saint’s game. @CelebCandidly/ Snorlax / MEGA
“You should be,” Morgan responded, slamming West for his insensitivity.
The 57-year-old talk show host equated anti-Semitism to racism, prompting a smug reply from West.
West has faced major backlash for his recent barrage of anti-Semitic attacks.
GC Images
West has faced major backlash for his recent barrage of anti-Semitic attacks.
ShotbyNYP / BACKGRID
Up Next
The Boston-born yoga instructor, 38, and her actor hubby, 64,…
“Yeah, that’s why I said it.”
In the wake of West’s anti-Semitism, he lost a succession of business partnerships, including GAP, Balenciaga and Adidas, who dropped him as a partner, manufacturer and distributor of the rapper’s Yeezy shoe brand.
West and Kardashian share four children: North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm.
Instagram/ Kimkardashian
West and Kardashian share four children: North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm.
Instagram/ Kimkardashian
Up Next
The Boston-born yoga instructor, 38, and her actor hubby, 64,…
Prior to his unapologetic display of anti-Semitism, West faced backlash for his “White Lives Matter” apparel that he unveiled at his Yeezy Season 9 show during Paris Fashion Week.
A press representative of the RSG Group of gym outlets, including Gold’s Gym and McFit, confirmed Monday that founder and CEO Rainer Schaller, family and friends were aboard a small plane that disappeared from radar just off Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. (Chris D Swabb, Shutterstock)
Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — A press representative of the RSG Group of gym outlets, including Gold’s Gym and McFit, confirmed Monday that founder and CEO Rainer Schaller, family and friends were aboard a small plane that disappeared from radar just off Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast.
Company spokeswoman Kristen Kauffman distributed a message Monday confirming that Rainer Schaller, “his family, and two other people were on board the aircraft at the time of the crash.”
The company did not confirm Schaller’s death, despite the fact searchers have found two bodies, luggage and pieces of the aircraft in the sea.
“We are shocked, stunned, and full of grief about this tragic accident,” the RSG statement read. “The news during the last few days has shaken us deeply, and our thoughts are with the family in these difficult hours.”
“As the situation is currently still being investigated on-site, we cannot comment further at this time and ask for your understanding.”
Schaller is listed as “Founder, Owner and CEO of the RSG Group,” a conglomerate of 21 fitness, lifestyle and fashion brands that operates in 48 countries and has 41,000 employees, either directly or through franchises.
On Sunday, Costa Rica’s Security Ministry said the bodies of one adult and one child had been found at a site about 17 miles off the coast from the Limon airport, but said the bodies had not yet been identified.
Searchers also turned up backpacks and bags, and pieces of the plane.
All five passengers were German citizens. The plane’s pilot was Swiss.
Costa Rican authorities said pieces of the twin-engine turboprop aircraft were found in the water Saturday, after the flight went missing Friday.
The plane was a nine-seat Italian-made Piaggio P180 Avanti, known for its distinctive profile. It disappeared from radar as it was heading to Limon, a resort town on the coast.
The security ministry said the flight had set out from Mexico.
Schaller was in the news in 2010 for his role as organizer of the Berlin Love Parade techno festival. A crush at the event killed 21 people and injured more than 500. Authorities at the time said Schaller’s security failed to stop the flow of people into a tunnel when the situation was already tense at the entrance to the festival grounds.
Schaller fought back against the accusations of wrongdoing, noting that his security concept received official city approval.
I knew I wanted to medically transition but was putting it off, in part because I was chestfeeding.
But after complications from my IUD placement, I stopped chestfeeding and started my transition.
Here’s everything I’ve learned about parenting — and myself — since then.
When I got pregnant in March 2020, I was still trying to understand my gender. I knew I would eventually start medically transitioning via hormone-replacement therapy and was considering chest-masculinization surgery — or top surgery — but I was still worrying about what others would think. How would my relationship with my partner change? What would his parents think of someone like me raising their grandchild?
I felt trapped as a woman as I went through pregnancy and continued to feel that way through the 10 months I chose to chestfeed. Then, something happened that forced me to stop. About six months postpartum, I decided to get an IUD placed. I couldn’t have known how drastically this small decision would change the trajectory of my transition.
A surgery complication ended up setting off a chain of events that helped me give myself permission to start my transition
I remember my doctor saying, “Don’t worry, only one of my patients has ever had their IUD perforate their uterus.” It turns out, I was her second patient to experience this. It not only perforated it but also went all the way through my uterine wall. I required laparoscopic surgery to get it removed.
With this unexpected surgery, I was given anesthesia and pain medication that I did not want to pass down to my child through milk and ended up discontinuing chestfeeding the day of my surgery. My anxiety told me this was the worst thing I could do, that I needed to continue giving everything I had for the sake of my baby’s well-being.
This wasn’t true. They were already eating three meals a day and drinking plenty of water, and I was able to transition them off my milk just fine, without even supplementing with formula. They were completely fine without chestfeeding.
That was the first time I realized that parenthood didn’t need to be nonstop sacrificing. The thought of transitioning was becoming louder every day, and now I didn’t have the excuse of chestfeeding to hold me back. When my child was 11 months old, on my 27th birthday, I took my first dose of testosterone.
Over this past year of transitioning, everything has shifted. It turned out, my relationship with my partner did change, drastically so. In thinking about how to be the best parents for our curious toddler, we decided to live separately. We also talked about polyamory and both started dating additional people; we feel hopeful of the possibilities this new path holds for our child, the potential for being raised by a community of people who love and care for them as parents. Becoming a parent pushed me to be unapologetic about what I needed from my relationships, and transitioning pushed me to be unapologetic about what I needed as an individual.
So much has changed in my life since then, and I’ve learned that my shame is not mine to hold
As a queer, trans, and disabled person, I’ve spent years trying to hide from shame, and I’m still working to understand that it’s something placed onto me by others. I am not what many think of when they imagine the perfect parent; those people often arrive at judgments about how my identity influences the health of my child, but those conclusions don’t have anything to do with my relationship with my child.
During my pregnancy and first year of having an infant, I really let the judgment of others affect me. Eventually, I reached out to a therapist who shared many of the identities that I felt so much shame around. Through talking with him every week and finding friends with similar experiences, I’ve been able to work through some of these feelings. I’ve realized that what I am often experiencing is an internalization of the hateful messages and transphobia in Westernized culture.
I also learned how to find the source of these feelings. For example, I can trace the shame of using government-funded food programs to the food scarcity I felt as a kid and the comments kids made when they found out I received free lunches and food from food pantries. The shame was never mine to begin with, and it’s too heavy to hold.
Agee and their child.
Courtesy of Sage Agee
I’ve built a community for myself by creating found family and setting boundaries
Finding resources created by parents like me has been so important, as has reading books where I can see transness represented in parenthood. Additionally, found family has gotten me through the worst of it all. As is the case for many people, I’ve spent the past few years largely interacting with folks online. When I started sharing my story of going through pregnancy and parenthood, I found many other queer and trans parents going through similar struggles.
Creating the family I want has also meant cutting off those in my life who aren’t willing to respect boundaries and show up in ways that feel supportive. This has happened in a number of ways: I’ve had family members blatantly refuse to correctly gender me, disregard my parenting choices such as using gender-neutral language to refer to my child until they’re capable of communicating their experience, and put me in unsafe situations near people who are harmful to me.
When I started intentionally cutting off those family members, I was made to feel bad for upholding those necessary boundaries. But now I know that not setting them causes harm to me.
I’m working on accepting the limits of what I can control
Still, I think about how living in a small, rural town may negatively affect my kid as they grow up and wonder sometimes whether we should move to nearby Portland, Oregon, which is more liberal. Already, I have been shouted at by teenagers for “looking gay” with my then-infant in my arms. I worry about how these small-town teachers will interact with me and whether their nervousness will show in how they care for my child, especially when I’m not around.
At this point, all I can do is advocate for myself and others and try to always choose the safest, best options for my family. Sometimes this means talking in a more traditionally masculine way as my voice deepens when I’m at the grocery store so I’m not as easily read as queer. Sometimes it means finding safe spaces around town where folks will be respectful and excited about our queer family, like the local library.
It’s odd to be simultaneously validated as masculine and invalidated as the parent who grew and delivered my child. I move through the world now with almost accidental confidence, like I have something to prove. I sometimes wonder whether I get too defensive, whether my boundaries are inconvenient for others, or whether I am overprotective of my kid’s right to self-expression.
At almost 2 years old, they are toilet-trained but haven’t said any words. Family, friends, and medical professionals worry about their development, but I see a kid who is learning how to express themself despite the invisible social guidelines that aim to funnel their self-expression into a neat, docile box. Instead, they perfectly mimic the dog growling at a suspicious noise, and they exclaim the most satisfied “mmm” when we eat fresh melon together.
I know what it feels like to be raised in forced roles, and it’s become a core value in my parenting to actively deconstruct them. I don’t know yet how we will navigate school when it comes time, but I see so much eagerness and confidence in how they already move through the world and interact with others.
Ultimately, what I have learned is that owning my decision to transition will show my kid what it means to be authentic and liberated. It’s taken time to pull apart what I’m willing to dedicate to their growth and what I save for myself, but when I am able to find moments of joy, they are right there smiling with me.
Enlarge / First spotted by astronomers in May 1999, Ryugu is essentially a large collection of loose rubble.
JAXA
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 returned to Earth in December 2020 bearing soil samples collected from a nearby asteroid, 162173 Ryugu. Those samples were divided between six scientific teams around the world for cutting-edge analysis to determine their composition in hopes of learning more about how such bodies form. The results of the first year of analysis of those samples appeared in a new paper published in the journal Science and included the detection of a precious drop of water embedded in a crystal.
These findings suggest that Ryugu was once part of a much larger asteroid that formed out of various materials some two million years after our Solar System (some 4.5 billion years ago). Over the next 3 million years, the parent body’s carbon dioxide ice melted, resulting in a water-rich interior and a drier surface. When another space rock hit the parent body about a billion years ago, it broke apart, and some of the resulting debris formed Ryugu. An accompanying computer simulation supports this formation history, backed by the results of the sample analyses.
First spotted by astronomers in May 1999, Ryugu is essentially a large collection of loose rubble. As much as 50 percent of its volume could be empty space. Like the asteroid Bennu, Ryugu is shaped a bit like a spinning top: a round shape with a sharp equatorial ridge. Its name derives from a Japanese folktale in which a fisherman travels to an underwater palace called Ryūgū-jō (“dragon palace”) on the back of a turtle.
Enlarge / Scientists recovered a capsule containing samples from Ryugu after it landed in Australia.
JAXA
Hayabusa2 has been in space since 2014, and it slowly made its way to an orbit 20 km above the surface of the asteroid Ryugu. In late 2018, the spacecraft made a close approach to the asteroid and released two small, solar-powered robots that hopped around on the surface. One of those was called MASCOT, the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout. Despite landing upside-down, the robot eventually jumped into the right orientation. MASCOT’s camera, a magnetometer, a radiometer, and an infrared spectrometer also sent back images to give scientists some sense of the materials around it and associate their properties with specific rocks. As Ars Science Editor John Timmer reported in 2019:
The first was darker and rough, with a surface appearance the researchers describe as “cauliflower-like.” The second was brighter and had smoother surfaces and more angular shapes…. The Hyabusa2 team suspects that the features of the two different materials are the product of the heating/cooling cycles that take place as the rocks are exposed first to sunlight and then to the darkness of space. In some cases, this leads to the shattering of the rock, producing the smoother surfaces seen among some of the materials. In others, the rock slowly disintegrates, losing its internal structure and producing the other rocks observed by MASCOT.
The weird thing about that, however, is that crumbling and shattering rocks typically produce dust and sand-like materials. Yet there were no signs of any of this… They assume the smaller grains are either lost to space or end up working their way into the interior of the rubble. But the rocks that could be seen by MASCOT were all tens of centimeters across or larger (some were tens of meters).
Hayabusa2 collected surface samples by snuggling up to the asteroid and shooting it. The probe had a sample-gathering “horn,” which was placed against the asteroid’s surface. Then Hayabusa2 fired a bullet into the asteroid’s surface, blasting material loose that was gathered by the horn and stored for return to Earth. Hayabusa2 also carried a heavier bullet intended to blast off the surface material to expose material that has remained protected for billions of years. A capsule containing the capsules landed in Australia in December 2020.
Last month, one team of researchers published the results of their analysis of dust samples from Ryugu in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, concluding that some of those grains of dust are older than our Solar System. The age of the grains in their dust can be identified and dated by their isotopic signatures, and the team compared the Ryugu dust samples to grains found in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites that have been found on Earth. The Ryugu dust sample held grains identical to others that have been seen in some of those meteorites that predate our Solar System.
A paramedic and mother has shared a ‘little-known’ choking hazard to be mindful of after you’ve hosted a party, calling it something that is ‘easily missed’
Advanced life support paramedic and CEO of the Australian parenting organisation Tiny Hearts Education, Nikki Jurcutz, said choking is the number one thing she gets asked about by new parents.
In one of her latest TikTok videos Nikki pointed out how dangerous leftover balloon rubber is and how easily it can become trapped in your child’s throat.
Advanced life support paramedic and CEO of the Australian parenting organisation Tiny Hearts Education , Nikki Jurcutz, said choking is the number one thing she gets asked about by new parents
‘I hosted a birthday party recently and I was cleaning up and found this part of a balloon… these are massive choking hazards and you need to be super careful around balloons,’ she said.
‘As you can imagine trying to do back blows to get this up when it’s stuck would be near impossible. So be super vigilant.’
While choking is dangerous and can be deadly, you can get on top of what to do and how to prevent it with a few simple rules.
A paramedic and mother has shared her simple ‘squish test’ for identifying choking hazards, and she promises being familiar with it could save your child’s life (Nikki Jurcutz pictured)
The first thing Nikki said you need to know about with choking is the ‘squish test’, which basically determines whether a finger food you’re about to give your child is safe (pictured)
1. The ‘squish test’
The first thing Nikki said you need to know about with choking is the ‘squish test’, which basically determines whether a finger food you’re about to give your child is safe.
To try the squish test for yourself, Nikki recommends you simply ‘pinch the food between your pointer fingers and thumb’.
‘This mimics the pressure of a toothless little one’s gums,’ Nikki said on the Tiny Hearts website.
‘If the food squishes easily, it means it’s safe and bub will be able to chew.
‘If it doesn’t squish easily, you should cook, grate or mash it, so that it becomes soft enough to pass the test.’
Nikki demonstrated how the test works in reality, with common foods you might want to try with your baby, including avocado, cheese, boiled egg, apple and cucumber.
While softer items like banana, egg and avocado mash easily to the touch, foods like apple and cucumber do not break down no matter how hard you press.
‘This is such great information for helping with solids,’ one person commented underneath Nikki’s video.
The second hack Nikki swears by is the ‘choke check hack’, which is another good way to see if something is suitable for your child aged 0-3 to eat (pictured)
2. The ‘choke check hack’
The second hack Nikki swears by is the ‘choke check hack’, which is another good way to see if something is suitable for your child aged 0-3 to eat.
To try this, Nikki recommends you drop various items through a hole that you create with your index finger and thumb.
The foods she drops down through the hole include a cherry, popcorn, a grape, a $1 coin and other toys.
‘This is how I check to see if food or small items may potentially be a choking hazard for my bubs,’ Nikki wrote.
‘The circle is approximately the size of a child’s airway aged 0-3. If anything can fit in this hole, then it’s a choking hazard.’
Nikki said there are three food types that are more likely to cause choking than others: round, slippery and firm items, and these need to be modified so they are safe (pictured)
3. The ‘consistency test’
Finally, the paramedic likes to use something often called the ‘consistency test’.
Nikki said there are three food types that are more likely to cause choking than others: round, slippery and firm items.
If you have something that isn’t right, you can grate it (pictured) or put it in quarters
‘Think grapes, cherry tomatoes, blueberries, nuts, raw carrot, apple, popcorn, chewing gum, coins, marbles and batteries,’ she said.
‘The greater the roundness, firmness or slipperiness of an object, the greater the choking risk.’
To prevent a risk of choking, Nikki said you can modify foods by making items that are round less round and foods that are slippery less slippery.
For example, you could cut grapes into quarters or lengthways or roll slippery food like avocado in fine breadcrumbs and cook carrot to make it less firm.
You should also always make sure your child is in a safe eating environment, so that they are seated safely and securely in a highchair within arm’s reach at all times.
The facts on choking and what to do revealed
Choking is what happens when something gets stuck in a person’s throat or windpipe, partially or totally blocking the flow of air to their lungs.
In adults, choking usually occurs when a piece of food enters the windpipe instead of the food pipe. Babies and young children can choke on anything smaller than a D-size battery.
Sometimes the windpipe is only partially blocked. If the person can still breathe, they will probably be able to push out the object by coughing forcefully. Be careful not to do anything that will push the blockage further into the windpipe, like banging on the person’s back while they are upright.
If the object cuts off the airway completely and the person cannot breathe, it’s now a medical emergency. The brain can only survive for a few minutes without oxygen.
The symptoms include clutching the throat, difficulty breathing and blue lips.
With children and adults over one year and choking, you should try to keep the person calm. Ask them to cough to remove the object and if this doesn’t work, call triple zero (000). Bend the person forward and give them up to 5 sharp blows on the back between the shoulder blades with the heel of one hand. After each blow, check if the blockage has been cleared.
If the blockage still hasn’t cleared after 5 blows, place one hand in the middle of the person’s back for support. Place the heel of the other hand on the lower half of the breastbone (in the central part of the chest). Press hard into the chest with a quick upward thrust, as if you’re trying to lift the person up. After each thrust, check if the blockage has been cleared. If the blockage has not cleared after 5 thrusts, continue alternating 5 back blows with 5 chest thrusts until medical help arrives.
The logo of Meta Platforms is seen in Davos, Switzerland, May 22, 2022. Picture taken May 22, 2022. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann//File Photo
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Aug 4 (Reuters) – Facebook-parent Meta Platforms (META.O) said on Thursday it would make its first-ever bond offering, at a time when the social media company is making massive investments to fund its virtual reality projects.
While Meta did not disclose the size of the offering, IFR News reported the bond sale could fetch between $8.5 billion and $10 billion, citing a source familiar with the matter.
The company said it would use the proceeds for capital expenditures, share repurchases, acquisitions or investments.
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Meta received an ‘A1’ rating from Moody’s and an ‘AA- rating’ and a ‘stable’ outlook from S&P. Meta is selling four tranches of bonds with maturities ranging from five years to 40 years.
Among big technology companies, Meta is the only one that does not have any debt on its books. Tapping the market now would give it more financial room as it tries to fund some expensive overhauls, including a bet on augmented and virtual reality technology, investors who heard its presentation for the bond offering on Tuesday said.
It might also be a rare opportunity to do so relatively cheaply in the current market environment. Corporate bonds rebounded in the past month after a rout earlier this year, as investors hoped the U.S. Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation through rapid rate increases was starting to have some impact.
This week the U.S. investment grade primary bond market rebounded, with companies raising more than $38 billion, making it the eighth busiest week of the year, according to Informa Global Markets data.
Other tech giants such as Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Intel Corp (INTC.O) also issued bonds earlier this week, raising $5.5 billion and $6 billion, respectively.
Bankers and investors said such issuance windows may be rare in coming months. One banker in charge of a bond syndicate desk at a U.S. bank said credit spreads could widen later this year, increasing funding costs. read more
Meta’s bond issuance will come after the company issued a gloomy forecast and recorded its first-ever quarterly drop in revenue, with recession fears and competitive pressures weighing on its digital ads sales. read more
Its free-cash flow has been depleting as it charges ahead with its metaverse plans, which led the change in its name to Meta Platforms from Facebook last year.
In the second quarter ended June 30, Meta had $4.45 billion in free cash flow, compared with $8.51 billion a year ago and $8.53 billion in the prior quarter.
Chief Financial Officer Dave Wehner said on its most recent earnings conference call that company had a “substantial amount” in its buyback program and expects to continue with share repurchases as part of its capital allocation strategy.
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Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru and Shankar Ramakrishnan; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Paritosh Bansal
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
