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(NEW YORK) — Google is cracking down on ads that deny climate change science after advertisers and digital creators complained about them running alongside their own content.

The company also said it’s no longer going to allow content with false claims about climate change to be monetized, and that the new policy also applies to YouTube, likely part of a larger effort to curb the spread of misinformation.

The move, announced in a company blogpost late Thursday, comes amid mounting public pressure on the private sector to take action on climate change.

It also comes in the wake of a recent report from a United Nations panel — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called it a “code red for humanity” — that warned of dire consequences should immediate action not be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Advertisers simply don’t want their ads to appear next to this content,” the blogpost stated. “And publishers and creators don’t want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos.”

The new monetization policy for advertisers, publishers and YouTube creators will “prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change,” the blogpost added.

This includes content that refers to climate change as a hoax or a scam, claims that deny that long-term trends show the global climate is warming, and claims that deny that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change, according to the company.

“When evaluating content against this new policy, we’ll look carefully at the context in which claims are made, differentiating between content that states a false claim as fact, versus content that reports on or discusses that claim,” the blogpost added. “We will also continue to allow ads and monetization on other climate-related topics, including public debates on climate policy, the varying impacts of climate change, new research and more.”

Google said it consulted experts who have contributed to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Reports when creating the new policy.

Consumers and shareholders have been putting more pressure on firms to address climate change as scientists and activists ring alarm bells. “Industry” accounted for a whopping 23% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, behind only transportation (29%) and electricity production (25%) — data many advocates have said highlights the need for large-scale industry changes rather than the onus to tackle climate change falling on individuals.

Climate activist organizations welcomed Google’s new policy, but highlighted that there’s still much more to do.

“Good news but nowhere near good enough,” Greenpeace said in Tweet responding to the Google news. “It’s time to take the microphone away from big polluters and their slick propaganda, and get on with the real climate action that we so desperately need.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Hiring in the U.S. fell far below expectations last month, with employers adding just 194,000 jobs versus the expected 500,000, the Department of Labor said Friday.

The unemployment rate dipped slightly to 4.8%, the DOL added, but the latest hiring data comes after dismal job growth seen in August as well. Some 366,000 jobs were added in August, according to revised data released on Friday, and over a million jobs were added in July.

The more-contagious delta variant’s impact on the recovery is likely reflected in the disappointing figures, as the labor market still finds itself at the mercy of the virus. The unemployment rate still remains elevated compared to the pre-pandemic 3.5% seen in February 2020.

Notable job gains last month occurred in the hard-hit leisure and hospitality industry, which added some 74,000 jobs. Employment in leisure and hospitality is still down by some 1.6 million jobs, or 9.4%, compared to data before the COVID-19 shock.

Job growth in September was also seen in professional and business services (where hiring rose by some 60,000), retail trade (which saw an increase of 56,000 jobs), and transportation and warehousing (which gained 47,000 jobs).

Some labor economists say that despite the disappointing top line numbers in the latest employment report, there is still reason to have optimism about the recovery going forward.

“Despite the weak growth in September, today’s report is a glimpse in the rearview mirror,” Daniel Zhao, a senior economist at hiring site Glassdoor, said in a commentary shared with ABC News on Friday. “With the Delta variant wave receding, the worst of the Delta wave may be behind us.”

Disparities in the pandemic’s impact is still reflected in the latest data. The unemployment rate for white workers was 4.2% last month compared to 7.9% for Black workers and 6.3% for Hispanic workers.

Zhao also noted that the latest report from the Labor Market is the first to reflect the expiration of federal enhanced unemployment benefits, yet the unemployment rate fell only slightly to 4.8%.

“The decelerating jobs growth in September is likely to disappoint employers and policymakers that hoped the expiration of enhanced UI benefits would push Americans back into the labor force,” he said. “Ultimately, the September report will not be the final word in the debate over the impact of UI benefits.”

“As we head into the fall, the resumption of school reopenings and expiration of UI benefits may push some workers back into the labor force, but red-hot labor demand is likely to keep labor shortages top of mind for employers,” Zhao added.

The demand for labor is reflected in part in the rise in wages seen in recent months. In September, hourly earnings for all employees rose by 19 cents to some $30.85, and average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory employees rose by 14 cents to $26.15.

Meanwhile, approximately 13.2% of workers teleworked last month due to the pandemic, the DOL said, reflecting a trend that economists predict is likely here to stay even when the virus threat recedes.

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(WASHINGTON) — United Airlines expects travel to surge in December as more people look to get away for the holidays.

“We’re seeing a lot of pent-up demand in our data and are offering a December schedule that centers on the two things people want most for the holidays: warm sunshine and fresh snow,” Ankit Gupta, vice president of network planning and scheduling at United, said in a press release.

To meet the demand, United plans to fly 3,500 daily domestic flights in the last month of the year — making it the airline’s largest schedule since the start of the pandemic. In comparison, United flew just 649 flights in a single day in April 2020.

“We know families and friends are eager to reunite this holiday season, which is why we’re thrilled to add new flights that will help them connect and celebrate together,” Gupta said.

In December, United will begin offering new direct flights to Las Vegas and Phoenix from Cleveland, and to Orlando from Indianapolis. United will offer up to 195 daily flights to 12 destinations in Florida this winter, the most flights to the state in company history. The carrier will also have 66 daily flights to over a dozen ski destinations across the U.S. in its schedule.

The airline expects the busiest travel days for the Thanksgiving holiday to be Wednesday, Nov. 24 and Sunday, Nov. 28. United said popular days for winter holiday travel are expected to be Thursday, Dec. 23 and Sunday, Jan. 2.

If you’re looking to travel over the holidays and have not booked yet, experts say now is the time.

“We expect that prices will remain relatively low until about Halloween, so that’s kind of the day where if you know you get to Halloween, that’s when you should definitely book if you haven’t booked yet,” Adit Damodaran, an economist at Hopper, said in an interview with ABC News. “Because after Halloween, we’re expecting prices for Thanksgiving to start rising about 40% for domestic and international flights for Christmas.”

After Halloween, Hopper said travelers should expect domestic fares to spike 40% leading up to Thanksgiving week, and an additional 25% for any last-minute flights.

ABC News’ Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Americans will soon be seeing new, empowering faces on some U.S. quarters.

On Wednesday, the United States Mint announced its quarter designs for 2022, which feature five trailblazing American women.

The five women featured are Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood; Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman to soar into space; award-winning writer and civil rights activist Maya Angelou; Wilma Mankiller, the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation and an activist for Native American and women’s rights; and Nina Otero-Warren, a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement and the first female superintendent of Santa Fe public schools.

“These inspiring coin designs tell the stories of five extraordinary women whose contributions are indelibly etched in American culture,” the United States Mint’s acting director, Alison L. Doone, said in a statement.

The designs are part of the American Women Quarters Program, a four year program featuring coins with reverse (tails) designs of women who have made their mark in American history.

For each year until 2025, the Mint will issue five quarters honoring individuals with a wide range of accomplishments and fields, including suffrage, civil rights, abolition, government, humanities, science, space and the arts.

“Generations to come will look at coins bearing these designs and be reminded of what can be accomplished with vision, determination and a desire to improve opportunities for all,” Doone said.

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(NEW YORK) — As Americans continue to cook, do laundry and use more electricity at home amid the pandemic, utility bill prices are predicted to rise this winter.

Ken Gurny, a homeowner in New York told Good Morning America their family has tried to conserve energy since the pandemic sent their utility bill sky high.

But even as residents work to lower electricity consumption, the cost to heat homes is going up.

The National Energy Assistance Directors Association predicts gas bills in the U.S. could rise up to 30% this winter.

“Going forward this year, there are no signs of these prices coming down,” executive director Mark Wolfe told GMA.

The Natural Gas Association of America told GMA in a statement that while it does not expect shortages, “natural gas market prices are higher due to the economic recovery, strong natural gas demand from last winter, and slower than anticipated production.”

From January to March last winter, the Gurney family said they paid roughly $2,300 to heat their home which means this year, that number could go up by $700 for a total of $3,000 in the same time period.

Beyond putting on a sweater inside and lowering the thermostat, there are other savings strategies to consider.

A smart thermostat like the Nest lets people program a lowered temperature at specific times of day via a smartphone app. The company estimates it saves users 10-12% on heating costs each year.

Amazon has entered the market with its Alexa-compatible smart thermostat due on the market in November.

The U.S. Energy Department suggests a simpler fix: Swap out an old, dirty filter on the furnace to save between 5 to 15% on a heating bill.

The Natural Gas Association suggests: “if customers have trouble paying their natural gas bills, there are programs that can help.”

Wolfe said the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is a “federal program that helps people pay their energy bills, they have enough money to do so — but it’s not just for poor people, a family can have to $40,000 a year and still qualify.”

Additionally, experts suggest heat loss can be prevented by checking for cold spots with a thermal gun. Point the device at the ceiling, wall and doors to see where weatherstripping could help, replace insulation or patch up cracks.

More heating and cooling units will also run off electricity rather than gas or oil, providing greater energy efficiency and serving as better options for the environment.

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(SAN JOSE, Calif.) — A juror was excused from Elizabeth Holmes’ trial Wednesday, citing religious beliefs.

“I am a Buddhist, and so I practice for compassion, you know, for loving and forgiveness,” juror No. 4 told U.S. District Judge Edward Davila.

She told the court that she had become anxious anticipating how Holmes would be “punished by the government” if she were to find Holmes guilty.

“I keep thinking about this every day,” she added. She was excused per prosecution’s request; the defense did not object.

The alternate juror slated to replace juror No. 4, however, also expressed anxiety. “She’s so young,” the alternate told Davila, referring to Holmes.

“It’s my first time in this situation and it’s her future,” she said. “I don’t know if I’m 100% ready to participate in something like this.”

Davila elaborated on how the process would work, and how jurors would have no part in Holmes’ sentencing — adding that “punishment” should not be at all considered as the jury deliberates. Neither lawyers objected to her remaining on the jury, and the judge ruled she was fit to take juror No. 4’s place. She took the place of juror No. 4 Wednesday morning.

Now that juror No. 4 is excused, there are 15 jurors remaining: 12 active and three alternates.

Wednesday marked only the 12th day of Holmes’ trial — which was previously delayed multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Holmes’ pregnancy. Davila expects the trial will conclude in December, but the schedule is already delayed a day, due to a false alarm coronavirus scare amongst the jury in the trial’s first week.

Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 and claimed the company was developing blood testing technology that could perform hundreds of blood tests using only a few drops of blood. Holmes and former Theranos COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, also Holmes’ ex-boyfriend, face a dozen charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with what prosecutors call a multi-million-dollar scheme to defraud investors and patients.

Originally, the pair were to be tried together, but in December of 2019, the trials were severed due to allegations of abuse by Balwani against Holmes, which Balwani has denied.

Both this week and last, jurors heard from former Theranos lab director Dr. Adam Rosendorff, who claims he warned Holmes about Theranos device failings. He told the court he attempted to delay the company’s Walgreens launch, pleading with a “nervous” Holmes, who went forward nonetheless. In cross-examination, defense attorney Lance Wade attempted to discredit Rosendorff.

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(NEW YORK) — Owen Diaz, the former Tesla employee who sued the electric car company over allegations of racism, is opening up about his experience.

“[Tesla] decided not to follow through, they decided to kill investigations,” Diaz said on “Good Morning America” Wednesday. “Tesla, as a company, as a whole, needs to wake up. You know you can’t keep treating workers like this.”

Diaz was hired as a contract elevator operator at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California. He worked there from June 2015 to July 2016. Diaz claimed fellow workers called him the “n-word,” was told to “go back to Africa” and saw racist and derogatory images in the factory’s bathroom stalls.

Diaz said he complained to Tesla about his treatment but his supervisors failed to stop the abuse. He left the company four years ago, filing a lawsuit in October 2017 that claimed “Tesla’s progressive image was a facade papering over its regressive, demeaning treatment of African-American employees.”

Now, after receiving one of the largest awards in a racial harassment case in the history of the United States, Diaz said he feels justice was served. A San Francisco federal jury awarded him $137 million on Monday.

“It’s God’s justice that this happened, you know, and allowed me to talk for people who can’t talk for themselves. A lot of people are living paycheck to paycheck to paycheck. They have to take choose to either take the abuse that these billion-dollar companies are putting out or feed their families,” Diaz said.

Mr. Diaz’s attorney, Lawrence Organ of the California Civil Rights Law Group, spoke to “Good Morning America” as well and said the verdict “makes Tesla take notice of these horrid conditions, and hopefully it will make them change and make other companies change and realize, racist conduct has no place in the workplace.”

In an internal email to employees, Valerie Capers Workman, Tesla’s vice president of people, said Tesla of 2015 and 2016 “is not the same as the Tesla of today.” Tesla published Workman’s email in a blog post on its website following the verdict.

“While we strongly believe that these facts don’t justify the verdict reached by the jury in San Francisco, we do recognize that in 2015 and 2016, we were not perfect. We’re still not perfect. But we have come a long way from 5 years ago,” Workman said in her email.

Tesla had responded to Diaz’s complaints of harassment by firing two contractors and suspending a third contractor, according to Workman.

This is not the first time Tesla faced claims of a hostile, racist work environment. The company had to contend in court with similar lawsuits, including a class-action civil rights lawsuit filed in 2017 in Alameda County Superior Court. That case is still pending.

In August, a court ruled that Tesla must pay a million-dollar fine in the case of Melvin Berry, a former black employee, who was allegedly subjected for years to racial insults from his colleagues. Tesla has denied all claims.

Tesla employees are bound by mandatory arbitration contracts when they start their jobs, preventing them from suing the company. Diaz was a contract worker.

Diaz said he knows that his case is “bigger than him.”

“This is not really about me. This is about a verdict that a jury made to let Tesla know that they’re being put on notice to clean up their factories,” he said.

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(NEW YORK) — Holiday shopping season has kicked off earlier than ever.

Amazon announced Monday it is offering “Black Friday-worthy deals” and early access to deep discounts across every category.

Target launched its own “Deal Days” promotion from Oct. 10 – 12 that boasts savings on thousands of items online, through their app and in nearly 2,000 stores. The major retailer also launched a holiday price match guarantee, according to its website.

Jennifer Smith, a logistics and supply chain reporter for the Wall Street Journal said retailers are in a unique position this holiday shopping season.

“They’re balancing, on the one hand, the need to make sure they have items in stock when people do start shopping with wanting to make sure that they have plenty of time to get them because it could take a little bit longer, particularly for e-commerce, for things to arrive at your home,” she told Good Morning America.

October typically marks the busiest shopping month of the year as retailers stock up for Black Friday, but with just three months ahead of Christmas, the supply chain in the U.S. has faced massive pandemic-related shipping issues, shortages and delays.

Microsoft reported issues getting parts needed to build its new Xbox consoles.

“There are multiple kind of pinch points in that process. And I think regretfully it’s going to be with us for months and months, definitely through the end of this calendar year,” XBOX’s head of gaming Phil Spencer said in a statement.

Nike has felt the recent supply crunch and as first reported by NBC, is working to shift footwear production out of Vietnam where factories remain closed due to COVID restrictions to places like China and Indonesia in an attempt to prevent further delays.

Fast fashion clothing companies like H&M and BooHoo said their profits are likely to suffer because of rising supply chain costs and bottlenecks in major ports coast to coast.

Other retailers have attempted to alleviate product shortages by flying in goods by air freight, while Target, Walmart and Home Depot have chartered their own ships to avoid backlogged ports and to make sure they’re stocked for holidays.

The CEO of MGA Entertainment Inc., one of the world’s largest toymakers, said supply issues are the worst he’s seen in over 40 years.

“You have the jams you have all the backlog, logistic problems and inflation, they’re all gathered up,” Isaac Larian told GMA. “So it’s going to be a tough couple of years, in my opinion.”

Like many other experts have urged, Larian added, “my kind of advice is — please shop early.”

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(NEW YORK) — On Monday, the crash of Facebook and the company’s apps threw the Internet into disarray and plunged billions of users into digital darkness. The outage illustrated how essential Facebook’s services have become as well as the risks of its dominance, particularly in developing countries.

Facebook said in a blog post on Tuesday the crash was caused by an error during routine maintenance, which took down global data servers.

During the outage, Facebook’s website and app were inaccessible, as were WhatsApp and Instagram, two of the company’s most popular acquisitions.

While the outage was relatively brief — around six hours — some researchers said it points to the downsides of a growing reliance on a single company’s services.

“I think it speaks to the vulnerability of our dependence on these platforms,” said Philip Roessler, a professor at William & Mary, at which he co-directs the Digital Inclusion and Governance Lab.

Roessler said that in countries where he does his research — places like Kenya and Malawi — WhatsApp is an essential part of the communications infrastructure, especially as mobile customers take advantage of WhatsApp-dedicated bundles that are much cheaper than standard mobile data.

“It’s become this kind of backbone of these emerging economies,” he said, highlighting how businesses use WhatsApp to communicate with customers and suppliers alike, while workers use it to find jobs.

WhatsApp is also valuable in places without universal literacy, Roessler said, because the platform allows users to send voice-based messages.

In Brazil, local broadcaster Globo reported that the outage temporarily crippled some small businesses, rendering them unable to fill orders.

The implications of a growing dependence on Facebook’s services go beyond the economic, according to Ryan Shandler, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford who highlighted the role played by social media platforms in aiding free speech and assembly.

“People have become dependent on this platform to realize basic civil and human rights,” he said.

In 2014, Facebook paid $19 billion to acquire WhatsApp. The messaging app’s rise to prominence, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Jon Callas, was due in part to cost. The data required to use the service, Callas said, could be cheaper than a traditional text message, also known as SMS.

“It was fantastically cheap and it was certainly as good as SMS, so lots and lots of people started using it as a replacement for that,” Callas said.

According to data from the digital analytics company Similarweb, Whatsapp is the most popular mobile messaging app in several of the world’s most populous countries, including India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Brazil.

In July, Facebook said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that its apps had around 3.51 billion users.

While the crash sparked a range of humorous responses — Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey joked on his own platform about buying Facebook.com, which was erroneously listed as for sale during the outage — its consequences could have been more serious, said Roessler, adding: “If it had lasted much longer, you know, the effects would have been quite deep and severe.”

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(NEW YORK) — Volvo is recalling over 460,000 cars due to an air bag defect that could result in passenger injury.

The recall affects older sedans, including 2001-2009 S60s and 2001-2006 S80s.

According to documents from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the driver’s air bag inflator “may explode during deployment,” which could result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants. There has been at least one death due to the defect, according to the documents.

“Our investigations have identified an issue where driver airbag inflators may under certain circumstances be subjected to excessive pressures during deployment potentially resulting in an inflator rupture,” a Volvo spokesperson said. “The excessive pressure can occur if the inflator has been subjected to elevated levels of moisture and high inflator temperatures frequently during its lifetime.”

To remedy the issue, Volvo will contact owners of cars subject to the recall. Dealerships will replace the driver’s air bag for free.

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