Month: April 2024

Google confirmed it has fired 20 additional workers that it says were involved in protests last week in NYC and Sunnyvale, CA, denouncing the tech giant’s cloud computing deal with the Israeli government, bringing the total number of workers fired to 50 (per CNN).

The group organizing the demonstrations, No Tech for Apartheid, told The Washington Post that Google had fired an additional 20 workers, on top of the 30 workers terminated last week, claiming that some of the workers fired were “non-participating bystanders” during last Tuesday’s sit-in protests at Google’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, and not actively involved in the workplace activism. The statement decried the mass firings as “an aggressive and desperate act of retaliation” by the tech giant. Jane Chung, a spokesperson for No Tech for Apartheid, charged Google with trying to quash dissent within the company. The group has led demonstrations over Google and Amazon’s contracts with the Israeli government since 2021.

Google did not give specific numbers of how many were fired, it accused them of being involved in “disruptive activity,” with a spokesperson telling The Hill: “To reiterate, every single one of those whose employment was terminated was personally and definitively involved in disruptive activity inside our buildings. We carefully confirmed and reconfirmed this .. Google values its profits, and its $1.2 billion contract with the Israel government and military more than people.”  Google said it took longer to learn about others participating in the protests because masks partially concealed their identities and they were not wearing badges.

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The Department of Justice (‘DOJ’) announced on Wednesday said that a civil settlement had been reached with the victims of ex-Team USA doctor Larry Nassar, who was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for sexually assaulting gymnasts — resolving their claims of wrongdoing against the FBI in its failures to investigate allegations of sexual abuse.

ABC News reported that the claims were filed after the department said it was declining to pursue criminal charges against agents whom the DOJ’s inspector general found failed to properly investigate allegations of abuse by Nassar. The watchdog report found the FBI was notified of Nassar’s behavior but failed to act for more than 14 months, a period where Nassar is alleged to have abused at least 40 more girls and women.

Nassar had sexually abused hundreds of victims under the guise of performing medical treatments over the course of nearly two decades, ending in 2016. Once the settlement is finalized, it will resolve 139 tort claims filed against the DOJ and the FBI in 2022 by the long list of athletes and patients who reported abuse by Nassar, including Maggie Nichols, Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney.

Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said in a press release: “for decades, Lawrence Nassar abused his position, betraying the trust of those under his care and medical supervision while skirting accountability. These allegations should have been taken seriously from the outset. While these settlements won’t undo the harm Nassar inflicted, our hope is that they will help give the victims of his crimes some of the critical support they need to continue healing.”

Nassar, 61, pleaded guilty in 2017 in connection with crimes against several victims and was sentenced to 60 years behind bars for child pornography and other charges, and again pleaded guilty in 2018 and was sentenced to an additional 40 to 175 years.  He is currently serving a prison term of between 40-175 years for multiple cases of sexual assault involving gymnasts at the school, as well as with USA Gymnastics.

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