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A civil lawsuit between For Forest Forever GmbH and a Klagenfurt nursery about trees bought but not picked up for the art project “For Forest” has now ended with a verdict. On Saturday, the law firm of the nursery confirmed a report by the “Kleine Zeitung” in response to an APA request, according to which the GmbH had to pay a space rent for the trees that had not been picked up: a total of 22,545.60 euros. The judgment is not final.

Image: APA

The “For Forest” organizers bought and paid for around 100 trees from a nursery, but they were not used in the art project in autumn 2019 in the Wörthersee Stadium. They were still standing on the grounds of the nursery – a space rent was agreed for this, but after a while it was no longer paid. For this reason, civil proceedings had taken place at the Klagenfurt district court.

This case was not the only civil case after “For Forest”. For example, three more were done with comparisons. In a legal dispute with a former employee, it was about a termination compensation. At another, the initiator of the project, Klaus Littmann, demanded 39,000 euros from his former business partner Herbert Waldner. And a transport company had sued 12,000 euros, which the organizers had not paid.

Instagram has changed its guidelines and allows nude pictures under certain conditions.

Facebook wants to adjust the guidelines for nude pictures on Instagram. The social media platform is thus reacting to the recommendations of the new supervisory body. It was used last year to rule on contentious content. The panel had recommended that certain photos be allowed, for example when they deal with health issues.

The updated Instagram guidelines now state that nudity, in particular depictions of female nipples, is forbidden “unless these women are used to raise awareness during breastfeeding, after childbirth and in the moments afterwards, in health-related contexts (e.g. after a mastectomy for breast cancer or during sex reassignment surgery) or as a result of a protest. Nudity in photos of paintings and sculptures is also permitted. “

more transparency

Of the committee's 17 recommendations, Facebook approved 11, and 5 are being examined for feasibility. It is primarily about transparency, for example how Facebook decides on false information regarding the coronavirus and how humor and satire should be dealt with. To this end, a “Transparency Center” is to be developed to provide information on community standards.

The panel had also suggested applying less stringent measures regarding COVID-19 misinformation. That is the only recommendation that Facebook strongly declined: “In consultation with global health authorities, we continue to believe that our approach to eradicating COVID-19 misinformation that could lead to immediate harm during a global pandemic is the right one,” it says it in a statement.

The British said goodbye to their pandemic hero Tom Moore (“Captain Tom”) in an emotional ceremony. Because of the measures taken to contain the corona virus, only eight family members were present at the memorial service with military honors in Bedford, East England. The BBC broadcast the event live on television. Thousands of people also expressed their condolences in an online book of condolences.

Image: APA

The World War II veteran, who died in early February at the age of 100 after a coronavirus infection, had collected the equivalent of almost 37 million euros in donations for the NHS health service, which had come under pressure in the pandemic. He had walked 100 laps through his backyard with his rollator. Almost overnight he became a national hero. Queen Elizabeth II (94) knighted him last summer.

At the funeral service on Saturday, the coffin, wrapped in a Union Jack flag, was carried by six soldiers into the funeral hall of the crematorium in Bedford. At the same time, gun salutes were fired. A WWII military aircraft thundered over the grounds.

At the beginning of the non-religious funeral service, “Captain Toms” version of the soccer anthem “You'll Never Walk Alone” was played, with which he stormed the charts last year – just one of the many triumphs of the late hero. He had recorded the song with the British singer and actor Michael Ball and an NHS choir.

Several family members paid tribute to Moore as a caring and exemplary father and grandfather. His daughter Lucy Teixeira said that he always encouraged his relatives to do their best. “This is what you did last year when you raised a fortune for the NHS by walking into the hearts of the nation.”

“My sister and I planned the funeral my father wanted,” Teixeira told the British PA news agency before the ceremony. Your father made it very clear how he envisioned his funeral. But she was unable to fulfill one wish: “If it could have been put in a cardboard box instead of a tree being felled, then it would have done that,” said Teixeira. But it is planned that several trees will be planted in his honor, she said.

At the end of the ceremony, a trumpeter said goodbye to Moore with the military signal “Last Post”. His ashes are said to be buried in a family grave in the northeastern English county of Yorkshire.

The HPI cloud system had a data leak. Videos from students and teachers were openly available.

Anything that distracts doesn't belong in the workplace

During the pandemic, many schools had to switch to learning platforms to enable teaching from a distance. One such service is the cloud system of the German Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI). As heise has now revealed, confidential content could be accessed from outside due to a data leak.

The platform has been offered as an open source solution since 2016 and is mainly used by schools that have not yet operated their own system. With the data that is available for development at GitHub, attackers could have easily gained access to the systems.

Barrier-free access

All that was needed was the forgotten demo account “[email protected]”. This allowed you to log into the Thuringian instance of the platform. The software code also contained an object with the ending “/ teachersOfSchool”. A list of hundreds with the names and IDs of hundreds of teachers and the associated schools could be called up.

With the ending “// metrics” you could call up data about the server in the browser without having to be logged in. There was also a list of accessed URLs. These resulted in files uploaded by students and teachers.

Videos and sheet music

These could easily be downloaded via the links. You received tests including handwritten assessments and the grades of individual students as well as videos in which poems were recited or children danced. The data leak has now been resolved.

The sums that Google is said to have spent on individual top games “shocked” industry insiders.

Cloud gaming should be the big hit in 2019. Games are streamed and therefore run on any hardware with good internet access – whether smartphone or high-end PC. Google's cloud gaming service Stadia (here in the futurezone test) only started in Austria in December 2020. A few weeks later, all in-house game studios that were supposed to develop exclusive titles for the platform were closed.

The game journalist Jason Schreier has now written a report for Bloomberg in which he analyzes why the great success did not materialize, even though Stadia looked promising. One reason he named was the enormous sums that Google paid for certain games.

“Shocking” buzz

For example, Red Dead Redemption 2 ended up in the Stadia catalog, two-digit million amounts should have flowed. The high sums were “shocking” even for industry insiders.

Schreier also identified problems launching the service. Above all, the lack of subscription model, which, like that, offers an entire catalog of games for a monthly fee, is said to have dampened interest. In addition, only 80 games were available at the launch. The target for monthly users and sales of the associated controller was missed by hundreds of thousands.

Dozens of projects canceled

According to Schreier, employees had warned of a disappointing 2019 launch and suggested communicating it for beta testing. Those responsible decided against it.

Some industry insiders already expect the service to be discontinued in the near future. As VGC reports, the development of dozens of exclusive projects has been canceled.

Margaret Zhang Vogue

From Insta-Fame to editor-in-chief: Margaret Zhang can now look forward to a new job. And that is prestigious.

As the daughter of Chinese immigrants to Australia, Zhang was at the forefront of the country's fashion blogger front. At the age of 16 she started her first blog, which became very popular within a very short time. Later known as the protagonist of the reality show “Fashion Blogger TV”, this was achieved on her Insta channel with 1.1 million followers. Now the influencer's career has experienced a major boost: She got the position of editor-in-chief of “Vogue China”. This makes her the youngest editor-in-chief of a “Vogue” worldwide. The publisher Condé Nast, owner of “Vogue”, has been following this strategy for some time. The Austrian Alexandra Bondi di Antoni became Executive Editor of “Vogue.de” at 29.

In any case, US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is happy about the breath of fresh air: “Her outstanding cross-platform digital expertise paired with a broad spectrum of interests is the perfect combination to lead 'VOGUE China' into the future.”

SPÖ boss Pamela Rendi-Wagner spoke out clearly against further easing on Saturday in view of the increasing number of infections. “I warn against further opening steps. I am in favor of a way of security, control and caution. I don't want a situation like we had in Austria in November,” she said. Openings must be sustainable and should not result in further lockdowns, she said at a press conference.

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In the run-up to the deliberations of the federal government planned for Monday, during which the further procedure is to be fixed, Rendi-Wagner also recalled the disturbing images from Italy a year ago: “I don't want a situation like the one in hospitals in Italy a year ago in Bergamo. We have all obviously already forgotten these pictures. I don't want a situation like the one that is happening these days in the Czech Republic, where the health care hospitals are also collapsing. Patients dangerous “- but ultimately for the care of all patients, she warned.

About three weeks ago, when the federal government decided to open the door easily, the number of new infections every day was “just over 1,000”, she recalled. “Today's figures show a high for February with almost 2,500 new infections”, this development is “highly risky”. Because one has a very unstable situation due to the “opening too early, due to the strongly spreading virus mutations”.

The numbers have “doubled in the last two weeks” and one can “assume that the doubling of the past two weeks will continue”. Because the current infections will only be seen in the statistics in ten days. Any further opening step will “further accelerate the loss of control over the infection process that can already be observed.”

The turquoise-green government is now called upon to stop this development. However, opening steps at this point in time would mean a “surrender” to the virus and a threat to both human health and economic development.

The approach of mass testing is “correct, important and also necessary”, but she herself has been calling for it for twelve months. “But one thing has to be clear: With the high number of cases that are already taking place in Austria, with the ever increasing number of mutations, testing alone cannot prevent an increase 100 percent.”

“My goal is not only to open, but to open permanently, to open sustainably, to prevent further lockdowns until we have reached a time with a higher vaccination rate, at least in the area of risk patients.” This is also the answer to the calls of the provincial governors, she gave to understand – for example to those of her party colleague Hans-Peter Doskozil. The Burgenland governor had only proposed a change of course from lockdowns to mass tests the day before.

She was cautious about any further tightening of measures – such as the renewed closure of trade. She referred to the responsibilities of the federal government, which had not followed its suggestion three weeks ago that the openings should only be opened at a later date. When asked about the situations in schools, Rendi-Wagner said: “School closings should always be the very last resort”.

The SPÖ leader described vaccination as the “central key to freedom,” because more speed is needed here. In the medium term, vaccine production in Austria should also be considered, because the virus will remain for a long time.

The Corona special care period has existed since mid-March 2000, which enables employees to take time off to look after their underage children. On November 1 of the previous year, there was an additional legal claim if there are official school or class closings. This has been asserted 558 times so far, the government said on Saturday. A total of 32,000 people have been looked after so far.

Image: APA (Techt)

The special care period was extended three times and – as Minister of Labor Martin Kocher and Family Minister Susanne Raab (both ÖVP) emphasized in a broadcast – also improved. If the reimbursement of costs by the federal government was initially only 33 percent, it later rose to 50 and ultimately to 100 percent.

In 2020, 15 million euros were budgeted for this, and in 2021 an additional 2.5 million euros will be available. So far, a total of almost 9 million euros has been paid out for around 6,000 applications. A total of 28,000 people were released (73 percent women, 27 percent men), who in turn were able to look after around 32,000 people – mostly children.

In view of the catastrophic situation in Yemen, a country with civil war, the Austrian federal government wants to provide three million euros from the foreign disaster fund for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is active on site. A corresponding decision is to be made in the Council of Ministers on Wednesday. Austria is helping to “alleviate the great need”, said Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) on Friday according to a broadcast.

Image: APA (AFP)

Yemen is “going through one of the most serious humanitarian crises in the world. 80 percent of the population need humanitarian protection and assistance,” said Kurz. Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler (Greens) specifically points out in the joint broadcast that two million children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition and that the help is “vital”. For Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP), the aid funds are “extremely important”; the population in Yemen is largely defenseless in the face of the pandemic.

The World Bank estimates that three quarters of the population in Yemen live in poverty. Then there is the civil war, a collapsed economy, cholera, scarce drinking water, floods and the impending famine – not to mention the corona pandemic.

The UN is already talking about the worst humanitarian crisis in the world in the impoverished country. More than half of the roughly 30 million inhabitants already do not have enough to eat. Last year only around 1.6 billion euros was raised for humanitarian aid from the UN – twice that would have been necessary. A donor conference is planned for Monday.

The epidemiologist Eva Schernhammer will recommend the government on Monday not to announce any easing of the corona measures for the time being. The situation is “very complex” and it is not possible to predict further developments. Further openings could only be announced with a clear conscience if the number of infections remained stable and the certainty that “it will stay that way” and that it will not worsen by taking measures, she said to the APA and insisted on faster vaccination.

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The government will evaluate the situation on Monday with experts, opposition and state representatives and then decide on how to proceed. Business, sport and culture have recently massively pushed for further openings from mid-March – but the number of infections has risen significantly after the easing three weeks ago. The seven-day incidence per 100,000 inhabitants is already at 150, the estimated effective reproductive number of 1.11 is clearly above the critical value. And in the meantime the highly contagious N501Y mutation has spread widely.

The occurrence of the more dangerous mutations – especially the British, the South African had been contained quite well – is also one of the factors for the head of the Department of Epidemiology at MedUni Vienna that make the situation much more difficult to assess than in the first wave. In addition, the measures have constantly changed – “hard” lockdown, relaxation such as classroom teaching in schools, FFP2 masks, etc.

Extensive testing – which Schernhammer very much welcomes – makes things more complex: This also led to an increase in the number of new infections reported daily. “At some point it should level off” – you don't know when, however, and you don't know how far the higher number of cases can be attributed to the testing and how far, for example, to the virus mutations. In addition, there is the equally incalculable influence of immunity: The estimates of the number of people who are immune from a disease they have suffered are between seven and 30 percent.

“The situation is very volatile, it is impossible to predict in which direction it will change,” stated Schernhammer. This means that the wish of representatives of culture or tourism for planning security – i.e. a specific opening date – cannot be fulfilled. “It's hard to be sure when you should.” Since “caution is the mother of the porcelain box”, one could only recommend the government to wait before announcing any easing. “We can be happy when what is open can remain open,” said the epidemiologist.

To name an opening date, you would need “a pretty good cushion of security”. But this will only be achieved through vaccinations. This would have to be “significantly accelerated”: “The topmost principle should be vaccination as quickly as possible,” pleaded Schernhammer for intensive efforts to obtain more vaccines.

It makes sense that the risk groups were vaccinated first. This at least reduced the risk of the intensive care units being overloaded – even if the number of intensive care patients is currently as high as it was in mid-October at around 260. A “ray of light” is there for Schernhammer that the average age of the newly infected has fallen significantly, from 56.7 years at Corona peak times to 39.9 years now.