Image: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images

Change, inspired by the #MeToo movement, appears to be contagious.

Facebook will suspend its policy of forcing employees to present sexual misconduct claims at a secret legal proceeding known as arbitration, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Now, employees will be able to file public lawsuits against the company and accusers instead of settling the matters internally.

The new policy from Facebook comes one day after the same announcement from Google. CEO Sundar Pichai announced a host of new changes regarding the way it handles sexual misconduct complaints in an email to employees. That came one week after 20,000 Google employees walked out to protest Google’s history with sexual misconduct cases, including giving Android creator Andy Rubin a $90 million payout after he was accused of sexual harassment.

Facebook has also changed its “workplace relationships policy”. Now, all senior employees will have to disclose if they are dating a fellow Facebook employee, whether or not they’re within the same chain of command. Facebook first made its harassment policy public in 2017 as discussions about sexual misconduct at tech companies took center stage.

“We believe that the more companies are open about their policies, the more we can all learn from one another,” a Facebook representative told Mashable over email. “Today, we are publishing our updated Workplace Relationships policy and amending our arbitration agreements to make arbitration a choice rather than a requirement in sexual harassment claims. Sexual harassment is something that we take very seriously and there is no place for it at Facebook.”

In 2015, a former Facebook employee sued Facebook for wrongful termination after she said she was fired for reporting sexual harassment. She subsequently settled out of court, according to CNN. Facebook has not recently faced high-profile sexual misconduct accusations in the same way that Google, Tinder, or Uber have. Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler, who blew the whistle over sexual harassment at the company, has been an influential figure in the push to get rid of forced arbitration. Uber and Lyft both did away with forced arbitration in cases of sexual misconduct by their drivers in May of this year.

However, forced arbitration is still very much alive and well within the tech industry for settling other complaints. In 2015, a former WeWork employee sued because she claimed she was fired for refusing to sign an arbitration clause, and for talking to contractors about overtime and other workers’ rights. 

As the #MeToo movement shakes the tech industry, some companies seem to want to be on the side of change. 

Which tech titan will be next?

Head coach Eddie Jones wants his England team to “make the movie” rather than sit and watch it when they host New Zealand at Twickenham on Saturday.

England face the All Blacks for the first time in four years, looking for a first victory since 2012 and having won only seven of their 40 meetings.

Jones says the back-to-back world champions are “one of the greatest sporting teams in the world”.

“We want to make the movie, we want to be film directors,” he added.

Jones’ victory over South Africa as Japan coach at the 2015 World Cup was made into a film called The Brighton Miracle, and the Australian says his England players do not want to just be extras in Saturday’s ‘film’.

“You can either make the movie or be in the movie, and we want to make the movie,” he said. “We don’t want to sit there and watch it.

“Sometimes when you play New Zealand, you sit there and you watch and you think ‘they’re the best team in the world, we can’t compete against them’.

“You sit there, eat popcorn, have a can of Pepsi and watch the movie. Then you realise ‘we can be in this’, but by then it’s too late.”

Jones says his England side will head into the Test with the belief they can win it, adding: “We don’t think we’re underdogs. We don’t look at the bookmakers.

“They’re the greatest rugby team in the world. They’re one of the greatest sporting teams in the world. So to get an opportunity to try and knock them off is fantastic.”

Bigger than the Lions series?

All Blacks head coach Steve Hansen says Saturday’s match will be “even bigger” than last year’s tied series between the British and Irish Lions in New Zealand.

England hooker Jamie George was part of the Lions side that won the second Test in Wellington and called it “probably the best feeling of my rugby career so far”.

“It makes us aware of where their heads are at for the game,” he said about Hansen’s comments. “The way they’ve spoken this week is exciting and we’re ready to rip into it.

“We want to measure ourselves against those guys and see how far away we are.”

‘England win would be truly epic’

Former England scrum-half Matt Dawson believes an England win at Twickenham would be “truly epic”.

“It doesn’t happen very often, so you have those historical rugby markers in your mind,” he said on Matt Dawson’s Rugby Show.

“Going back to ’93, when I was on the bench and Kyran Bracken played the game of his life with virtually a broken leg – didn’t let me on, the so and so – and they won the game.

“Then you had ’97 and I was involved in that one and it was a draw, 2002 we managed to win that game – they are big time differences between those games. They stand out.

“Then you’ve got 2012, maybe the greatest game England have ever played at Twickenham when they beat New Zealand.

“They are highlights, they are standout moments in your career, and you’ve somehow got to put yourself in a position where mentally you can say to yourself ‘I want one of those memories, I want to be part of a team that goes down in history and beats the All Blacks’.

“For an England team, that doesn’t happen very often. On this occasion England are not the favourites, so to win it would be truly epic, it really would.”

England fly-half Owen Farrell, who kicked 14 points during the 38-21 victory in 2012, says the hosts will have to perform consistently if they are to beat an All Blacks side with a 91% win record since the World Cup.

“They are certainly a brilliant team,” Farrell told BBC Sport. “To be at the top for that long with the win percentage they’ve got is pretty remarkable, really.

“We’ve got to make sure we are throwing ourselves into it and are pretty constant throughout the game .”

Team news & line-ups

England wing Chris Ashton makes his first start in four years as one of three changes to the starting XV.

Sam Underhill comes in for injured back-row forward Tom Curry, while in the front row Ben Moon replaces Exeter Chiefs team-mate Alec Hepburn.

Sonny Bill Williams starts at inside centre in a near full-strength All Blacks side, while Karl Tu’inukuafe replaces prop Joe Moody who has an eye injury.

Williams will line up alongside Crusaders team-mate Jack Goodhue for only the second time in a backline featuring two playmakers, full-back Damian McKenzie and fly-half Beauden Barrett.

England: 15-Daly, 14-Ashton, 13-Slade, 12-Te’o, 11-May, 10-Farrell, 9-Youngs; 1-Moon, 2-Hartley, 3-Sinckler, 4-Itoje, 5-Kruis, 6-Shields, 7-Underhill, 8-Wilson

Replacements: 16-George, 17-Hepburn, 18-Williams, 19-Ewels, 20-Lawes, 21-Care, 22-Ford, 23-Nowell

New Zealand: 15-McKenzie; 14-Smith, 13-Goodhue, 12-Williams, 11-Ioane; 10-B Barrett, 9-A Smith; 1-K Tu’inukuafe, 2-Taylor, 3-Franks, 4-Whitelock, 5-Retallick, 6-Squire, 7-Savea, 8-Read

Replacements: 16-Coles, 17-Tu’ungafasi, 18-Laulala, 19-S Barrett, 20-Todd, 21-Perenara, 22-Mo’unga, 23-Crotty

Commentator’s notes

Andrew Cotter: “There’s no doubt that this is the most eagerly-anticipated Test of England’s series – even more so when you consider that they haven’t played the All Blacks in four years.

“Perhaps fittingly, Chris Ashton – who hasn’t made a start for England in the same period – is one of the minor tweaks made by Eddie Jones.

“The All Blacks are in fine form – when are they not? – having won the Rugby Championship again and scored four or more tries in their last 12 Tests.

“But there have also been curious signs of defensive weakness, most notably in two Tests against the Springboks.

“But really it’s England’s defence, drilled by former All Blacks coach John Mitchell, which will have to be at its very best to give England any chance of victory.

Match facts

Head-to-head

• This is the first meeting since November 2014 – a 24-21 defeat at Twickenham.
• England have lost the last five meetings since their 38-21 win over New Zealand in December 2012.
• England have only won seven of the 40 all-time meetings, drawing one and losing 32.

England

• England have won their last two Tests, having lost the previous five.
• They have won 15 of their 16 home Tests under Eddie Jones. Their only defeat was a 24-15 reverse against Ireland on 17 March.
• Chris Ashton’s last Test try came off the bench against New Zealand on 14 June 2014.

New Zealand

• New Zealand have won 10 of their 11 Tests in 2018, averaging six tries and 42 points per game. Their average winning margin across 2018 has been 24 points.
• They have scored four tries or more in all 11 of their Tests this year – England have only done so on two occasions and average just 2.4 tries per match in 2018.
• Rieko Ioane has scored 13 tries in his last 11 Tests, including six in his last four. His tally of 11 tries in 2018 is half England’s combined tally of 22.

Match officials

Referee: Jerome Garces (France)

Touch judges: Jaco Peyper (South Africa) & Marius Mitrea (Italy)

TMO: Marius Jonker (South Africa)

It was the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – and became a pivotal moment in world history. It marked the armistice agreement that officially ended the First World War in 1918.

This weekend, 100 years later, leaders from more than 50 countries are gathering in France for various commemorative events.

But the solemn occasion is overshadowed by deep divisions between trans-Atlantic allies.

This week, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a “European army” to defend itself from potential threats from nations such as Russia, China and, remarkably, the United States.

Macron’s global philosophy is at odds with US Preident Donald Trump’s nationalist America First agenda.

A century after what is also called the Great War, there’s another conflict looming over world visions.

How stark are the divisions between the ideologies of Trump and Macron?

Presenter: Richelle Carey

Guests:

Theresa Fallon – director, Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies (CREAS)

David Lees – lecturer in French Studies at Warwick University, co-editor of “Contemporary France”

Thorsten Benner – director, Global Public Policy Institute

Source: Al Jazeera News

“Love to see you shine in the night, like the diamond you are.” So begins Khalid‘s smooth single “Better,” as well as its accompanying video, which centers around the R&B crooner holding a late-night dance party in a vacant parking lot — while also casually dodging a multi-car collision.

Against a backdrop of downtown L.A., Khalid shows off some swaggering moves while a vintage BMW sails around him. As the song builds, the lot becomes overrun with a fleet of multi-colored cruisers, which whip around Khalid’s every move at high speed, like so:

It’s a nail-biter of a scene, but he somehow appears totally unfazed — maybe it has something to do with the girl he’s singing about, who appears via haunting, hazy images. In any case, the fastness and furiousness definitely adds a flair of ~danger~ to an otherwise straightforward visual.

This has been a productive week for Khalid, who also appeared in the video for Shawn Mendes’s empowering “Youth.” The 20-year-old is fresh off the release of a 7-track EP, Suncity, which marks his first project since last year’s debut album, American Teen. Upon its release, he said the EP is ushering in the “start of a new era,” which is sounding mighty fine so far.

Scottish Premiership: Reaction after Mackay-Steven gives Aberdeen win over Hibs – Live – BBC Sport

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Apple-heads and Amazon stans have cause for celebration, as the two most valuable companies in the world announced a plan to come together and solve the global problem of not being able to buy the latest iPhone models on the e-retailer’s site. 

That’s right, according to Bloomberg, soon you’ll no longer have to head over to apple.com to purchase a whole host of Apple products including the iPhone XR, the iPad, the Apple Watch, the Mac, or even the Apple TV. Instead, you can keep your browser forever parked at amazon.com for all your online shopping needs. Well, unless you’re one of the several people in the market for a HomePod, that is. 

That’s because Amazon, which of course has its own home speaker and smart-assistant device, will not make Apple’s version available for sale. 

And what a shame, really. We were oh so close to a moment of pure corporate harmony. 

That’s not the only incidental little fact to rain on this otherwise joyous occasion. As Motherboard reports, Amazon has also taken this opportunity to boot any Apple reseller off the platform who isn’t authorized by Apple. This is bad for many reasons, one of which being the fact that many of those resellers are buying up otherwise discarded or broken Apple products, fixing them, and only then reselling them — postponing those goods’ junkyard and toxic fate.  

Kyle Wiens, the founder of iFixit, summed the move up nicely. 

“This is unconscionable,” he tweeted along with a link to the above Motherboard story. 

But hey, it’s all in the name of customer experience! And Amazon most certainly values the experiences of its customers (assuming they also don’t work for the company in any capacity). 

“Amazon is constantly working to enhance the customer experience, and one of the ways we do this is by increasing selection of the products we know customers want,” reads an Amazon statement provided to Bloomberg. “We look forward to expanding our assortment of Apple and Beats products globally.”

We can only hold our collective breath. 

 

Mexico City – Jairo Mauricio Ramirez did not have to say many goodbyes in Honduras. A 16-year-old orphan, he joined thousands of US-bound migrants and refugees last month when they came through Ocotepeque, his hometown.

Ramirez hopes to make it to the US to find work and continue his schooling beyond the Grade 7 level he was able to complete. He would like to be a doctor or an engineer.

“I always liked studying, but I could not afford to continue,” Ramirez told Al Jazeera.

When Ramirez was eight years old, his father died in an accident. When he was 12, his mother died of a heart attack. He has no siblings.

Ramirez lived with an uncle, but his uncle left Honduras a few months ago to migrate to the US. Ramirez has not heard from him since. He had a job at a local hardware store for a while, but was let go.

“There is no work these days,” he said.

When Al Jazeera spoke with Ramirez, he was waiting in line for a donated blanket to stay warm during the cold Mexico City nights. He and several thousand other Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty were staying in a stadium that had been transformed into a makeshift refugee camp.

Managed by the Mexico City government and the city human rights commission, the camp was abuzz with activity all week, as groups large and small trickled into the capital city.

Migrants and refugees rested in the stadium bleachers, large tents in the field, and grassy areas outside the stadium. Others received medical attention, watched their kids being entertained by clowns, or waited in line for food, clothing and blankets. Little cheering circles formed around impromptu dance and song performances here and there on the sports complex grounds.

An estimated 5,000 Central Americans stayed at the stadium this week, and thousands more are slowly making their way up through southern Mexico in subsequent caravans from Honduras and El Salvador. Preparations for more caravans are in the works. Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, and other Latin Americans have also joined the various waves of the ongoing exodus.

Ramirez made it the first 1,650km through Guatemala and up to Mexico City. Like most of the thousands of migrants and refugees, he wants to make it the next 2,700km to the US border.

At an assembly Thursday evening, the migrants and refugees voted to choose a route to the Tijuana border crossing. It is more than 1,000km further away than the closest points of entry to the US, but it is a safer route. It avoids parts of northeastern Mexico with high rates of homicides and forced disappearances, including of migrants and refugees.

The assembly chose to depart at 5am local time (11:00 GMT) Friday, but plans changed overnight and the majority of migrants and refugees at the stadium chose to stay in the hopes of obtaining bus transport to the border.

Many people chose not to wait, however, and hundreds of people set out Friday morning towards Queretaro, along the route to Tijuana. The remaining thousands plan to leave before dawn on Saturday, migrant and refugee caravan spokespeople said at a press conference on Friday.

‘Asylum not a loophole, it’s a lifeline’

The migrant and refugee caravans have not yet reached their halfway point to the US border, but the administration of US President Donald Trumphas been reinforcing the border with concertina wire and a heavy military presence. 

More than 5,000 active duty troops have been deployed to border areas in California, Arizona and Texas, and thousands more may be on the way in the near future. Last week, US President Donald Trump announced that any rocks thrown at troops along the border will be considered firearms.

Trump also announced plans to indefinitely detain asylum seekers in makeshift tent camps in the desert while their asylum claims are processed. 

The administration went further on Thursday and announced plans to restrict asylum claims to official points of entry into the US. An Interim Final Rule granted Trump broad authority to block or restrict asylum claims “if he determines it is in the national interest to do so”, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said in a joint statement Thursday.

“Our asylum system is overwhelmed with too many meritless asylum claims from aliens who place a tremendous burden on our resources, preventing us from being able to expeditiously grant asylum to those who truly deserve it,” according to Nielsen and Whitaker.

Trump signed an presidential proclamation on Friday that puts those regulations into practice.

Migrant and human rights groups quickly condemned the measure as illegal. US legislation and international law state that any person can seek asylum whether or not they cross the border at an official point of entry, they pointed out.

“Asylum is not a loophole, it is a lifeline. This policy needlessly places the lives of thousands of people in danger,” Amnesty International’s Secretary General Kami Naidoo said Thursday in a statement.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit Friday to challenge the asylum restrictions.

“Neither the president nor his cabinet can override the clear commands of our law, but that’s exactly what they’re trying to do. We’ll see him in court,” the group tweeted.

BREAKING: We just filed a lawsuit to challenge the president’s new asylum ban.

Neither the president nor his cabinet can override the clear commands of our law, but that’s exactly what they’re trying to do. We’ll see him in court.

— ACLU (@ACLU) November 9, 2018

‘We were all threatened’

The drastic measures along the southern border of the US have not deterred the thousands of northbound migrants and refugees. Their plan all along has been to present themselves at official points of entry to claim asylum.

Fatima del Carmen was already on her way when she joined the caravan. Last month, del Carmen, her 20-year-old daughter and her 21-year-old son-in-law fled their home in La Libertad, a small city in southern El Salvador, on the Pacific coast.

After making their way through Guatemala, the trio crossed the Suchiate River into Mexico on a raft. They stayed in Tapachula, in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, for a week, after a local man offered them a room.

There they joined the caravan after a relative alerted them to the thousands of Hondruans on their way.  

Del Carmen and her relatives fled after receiving death threats from gang members. She and her daughter lived in a neighbourhood controlled by the Barrio 18 gang, but her son-in-law lived in another area of the city controlled by the MS-13 gang.

Both gangs originated in Los Angeles, California, and only also set down roots and spread in Central America following a wave of deportations of Salvadorans from the US.

The problems started after the family went to the beach to swim. Del Carmen’s son-in-law was from MS-13 controlled territory but that particular beachfront area is controlled by Barrio 18, and crossing the gang divide can have serious consequences even for unaffiliated residents, del Carmen said

In many neighbourhoods in cities around El Salvador, people are stuck in the territory of whichever gang controls where they live, said del Carmen. Her son-in-law was threatened with violence, and when del Carmen and her daughter stepped in to stand up for him, they all received death threats.

“They threatened all three of us,” said del Carmen.

The threats were the final straw, but the challenges and risks presented by violence and extortion in their neighbourhood were far from new.

Del Carmen made a living baking bread and selling it while walking through the city streets. Usually gang members left street vendors alone, opting to target stationary businesses for extortion, but sometimes when they were drunk or high, they would also demand money from local street vendors, she said.

“I would have to give $10 or $20. I would always give it,” said del Carmen.

That is approximately the same range as her daily earnings from bread sales, but paying was preferable to losing all the bread and cash she carried at any given moment, said del Carmen.

Al Jazeera spoke with del Carmen and her relatives earlier this week while they rested at the Mexico City stadium, nestled together in a spot between sets of stairs halfway up the stadium bleachers. Having had a chance to rest between long stretches on foot and hitchhiking, the family was in good spirits.

Del Carmen’s original plan was to gradually head north up through Mexico, working along the way. But she and her daughter and son-in-law were relieved to be able to join the thousands of mainly Hondurans for safety and company.

Between the three of them, they have an uncle, an aunt, and some friends in the US, and making it across the border is their goal. Del Carmen had heard about some of Trump’s drastic border measures, such as sending troops, but still holds out a bit of hope the US president may alter his plans before the group makes it to Tijuana.

“Maybe he will have a change of heart,” said del Carmen.

Women’s autumn international live: England v United States – BBC Sport

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Image: Andrew Lichtenstein/ Corbis via Getty Images

PayPal isn’t quite done kicking problematic accounts off its platform.

The far-right group known as the Proud Boys and its founder, Gavin McInnes, just had their PayPal accounts cancelled today, Mashable can confirm.

Just 24 hours ago, the online payment processor banned the former leader of the anti-Muslim group English Defence League (EDL), UK far-right provocateur Tommy Robinson from using its platform to raise funds.

Proud Boys and McInnes — also a co-founder of Vice and far-right provocateur right here in the U.S. — are no strangers to being banned from online platforms.

Over the summer, both McInnes and his group found their accounts suspended from Twitter. Just last month, Facebook followed suit, closing their pages and banning them from the platform. Twitter cited a violation of its “policy prohibiting violent extremist groups” whereas Facebook deemed the group a “hate organization” when explaining the reason for the bans.

PayPal also cancelled accounts belonging to groups on the opposite side of the ideological spectrum today as well. Atlanta Antifa, Antifa Sacramento, and Anti-Fascist Network’s PayPal accounts were banned too. 

PayPal had previously banned antifa related accounts from raising money via its platform. Between 2017 and 2018, PayPal cancelled accounts belonging to Antifa Philadelphia, Antifa Arkansas, Belfast Antifa, and Rose City Antifa

Antifa, or antifascists, can usually be found protesting Proud Boys gatherings. In October, one such event was thrust into the national spotlight when Proud Boys attacked antifascists protesting McInnes appearance at the Metropolitan Republican Club in Manhattan.

A PayPal spokesperson provided Mashable with the following statement 

“Striking the necessary balance between upholding free expression and open dialogue and protecting principles of tolerance, diversity and respect for all people is a challenge that many companies are grappling with today. We work hard to achieve the right balance and to ensure that our decisions are values-driven and not political. We carefully review accounts and take action as appropriate. We do not allow PayPal services to be used to promote hate, violence, or other forms of intolerance that is discriminatory.”

It will be interesting to see what online fundraising platforms, if any, both the far-right and antifa groups land.