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Piastri’s stance has knock-on effects for other teams

Piastri's stance has knock-on effects for other teams

LONDON, Aug 10 (Reuters) – Oscar Piastri’s rift with Alpine has also forced a change of plan at Williams and could have a knock-on effect around the Formula One paddock.

While the main focus has been on Renault-owned Alpine and McLaren, who both want the 21-year-old Australian to drive for them next season, tail-enders Williams have had to reassess their next step.

Alpine’s original plan was to loan their reserve, and last year’s Formula Two champion, to Williams for at least a year and possibly more until he returned as Fernando Alonso’s replacement.

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The principle was the same as when Mercedes placed George Russell for three seasons at Williams to learn the ropes before bringing him back as team mate to seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Talks were so far advanced that the Australian had a seat fitting at Williams and a contract for 2023 was drawn up between the two teams, with Alpine having already agreed on Piastri’s salary.

Then Alonso decided to race for Aston Martin next year and Piastri, offered the Alpine seat, said no — with a McLaren deal apparently more tempting. read more

Piastri would have replaced Canadian Nicholas Latifi at Williams, the only driver on the starting grid who has yet to score a point in 13 races this season, alongside British-born Thai Alexander Albon.

Latifi brings sponsorship and could potentially retain the seat, with many of the potential replacements lacking such financial clout.

With Alpine currently fourth in the championship and Williams last, the seat spurned by Piastri is the most attractive.

If Alpine do not take McLaren’s soon-to-be-discarded Australian Daniel Ricciardo, then they may be in the same market as Williams.

One possibility who stands out is current Formula E champion and 2019 Formula Two title-holder Nyck de Vries, a Mercedes F1 reserve who has already taken part in Friday first practice with Williams.

De Vries, 27, is also looking for a seat for 2023, with Mercedes pulling out of Formula E after selling their championship-leading team to McLaren.

Williams have 21-year-old American Logan Sargeant on their books, with team boss Jost Capito saying last month that he saw the F2 driver as a prospect for the future, but it may be too early for him. read more

The future of Mick Schumacher, currently with Ferrari-powered Haas, has yet to be determined while China’s former Alpine academy driver Guanyu Zhou is having a solid first season at Alfa Romeo.

Alfa, run by Swiss-based Sauber with former Renault team boss Fred Vasseur at the helm, have 18-year-old French F2 prospect Theo Pourchaire on their books as a talent for the future.

Beyond that there are racers looking for a way back into Formula One and others, such as India’s Jehan Daruvala, hoping for a door to open from the junior series.

“I’ve had all sorts of people (calling),” Alpine principal Otmar Szafnauer told Reuters this week. “Some of the guys in the junior formulas, some of the Formula E guys. Maybe eight or 10.”

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Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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US

Jury in Alex Jones defamation case begins hearing testimony on punitive damages

Jury in Alex Jones defamation case begins hearing testimony on punitive damages

Aug 5 (Reuters) – Lawyers for parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting began presenting evidence on Alex Jones’s wealth as they seek punitive damages on top of $4.1 million awarded by a Texas jury for the US conspiracy theorist’s false claims that the massacre was a hoax.

Forensic economist Bernard Pettingill on Friday testified on behalf of the parents of slain 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, who say they suffered years of harassment after Jones spread falsehoods about the killing of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, 2012.

“He promulgated some hate speech and some misinformation but he made a lot of money and he monetized that,” Pettingill said, describing Jones as a “very successful man.”

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A 12-person jury on Thursday said Jones must pay the parents $4.1 million in compensatory damages for spreading conspiracy theories about the massacre. That verdict followed a two-week trial in Austin, Texas, where Jones’ radio show and webcast Infowars are based.

Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis testified that Jones’ followers harassed them for years in the false belief that the parents lied about their son’s death.

Jones sought to distance himself from the conspiracy theories during his testimony, apologizing to the parents and acknowledging that Sandy Hook was “100% real.”

Jones’ company, Free Speech Systems LLC, declared bankruptcy last week. Jones said during a Monday broadcast that the filing will help the company stay on the air while it appeals.

The bankruptcy declaration paused a similar defamation suit by Sandy Hook parents in Connecticut where, as in Texas, he has already been found liable.

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Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Howard Goller and Mark Porter

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US

Mistrial denied as jury weighs damages against Alex Jones in Sandy Hook defamation trial

Mistrial denied as jury weighs damages against Alex Jones in Sandy Hook defamation trial

Aug 4 (Reuters) – A Texas judge denied Alex Jones’s motion for a mistrial on Thursday as jury deliberations summarized in a defamation case over the US conspiracy theorist’s false claims about the Sandy Hook mass shooting.

The mistrial request followed the disclosure during the two-week-long trial that Jones’s lawyer accidentally sent two years of the US conspiracy theorist’s text messages to the plaintiffs.

Federico Andino Reynal, an attorney for Jones, told Judge Maya Guerra Gamble that attorneys for the plaintiffs should have immediately destroyed the records. An attorney for the parents, Mark Bankston, used the texts to undercut Jones’ testimony during cross-examination on Wednesday.

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Jones, founder of the Infowars radio show and webcast, is on trial to determine the amount of damages he owes for spreading falsehoods about the killing of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012 .

Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of slain six-year-old Jesse Lewis, are seeking as much as $150 million from Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems LLC, for what their lawyer has called a “vile campaign of defamation.”

Heslin told jurors on Tuesday that Jones’ falsehoods had made his life “hell” and led to a campaign of harassment and death threats against him by people who believed he lied about his son’s death.

Jones previously claimed that the mainstream media and gun-control activists conspired to fabricate the Sandy Hook tragedy and that the shooting was staged using crisis actors.

Jones, who later acknowledged that the shooting took place, told the Austin jury on Wednesday that it was “100% real.”

Gamble issued a rare default judgment against Jones in the case in 2021.

Free Speech Systems declared bankruptcy last week. Jones said during a Monday broadcast of Infowars that the filing will help the company stay on the air while it appeals.

Jones faces a similar defamation suit in Connecticut state court, where he has also been found liable in a default judgment.

The Sandy Hook gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, used a Remington Bushmaster rifle to carry out the massacre. It ended when Lanza killed himself with the approaching sound of police sirens.

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Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Amy Stevens and Howard Goller

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US

US lawmaker Walorski, two staffers die in Indiana car crash

US lawmaker Walorski, two staffers die in Indiana car crash

WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (Reuters) – US Congresswoman Jackie Walorski and two members of her staff died on Wednesday when the vehicle they were traveling in collided head-on with a car that veered into their lane, police in Indiana and her office said.

Walorski, 58, a Republican who represented Indiana’s 2nd congressional district in the US House of Representatives, was mourned by President Joe Biden and her colleagues in Congress as an honorable public servant who strived to work across party lines to deliver for her constituents. The White House said it would fly flags at half-staff in her memory of her.

The congresswoman had been traveling down an Indiana road on Wednesday afternoon with her communications chief, Emma Thomson, 28, and one of her district directors, Zachery Potts, 27, the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office said.

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“A northbound passenger car traveled left of center and collided head on” with Walorski’s vehicle, killing all three occupants, the sheriff’s office said. The driver of the other car, 56-year-old Edith Schmucker, was pronounced dead at the scene, near the northern Indiana town of Nappanee, it added.

Confirming her death in a statement shared on Twitter by House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, Walorski’s office said: “Dean Swihart, Jackie’s husband, was just informed by the Elkhart County Sheriff’s office that Jackie was killed in a car accident this afternoon.”

Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) speaks as US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar testifies to the House Select Subcommittee on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, October 2, 2020. J. Scott Applewhite/Pool via REUTERS

It added: “Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. We will have no further comment at this time.”

Walorski was a lifelong resident of Indiana, according to her official biography. She served on the House Ways and Means Committee and was the top Republican on the subcommittee on worker and family support.

Prior to her election in 2012 to the House, Walorski served three terms in the Indiana legislature, spent four years as a missionary in Romania along with her husband and worked as a television news reporter in South Bend, according to a biography posted on her congressional website.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, said he and Walorski “may have represented different parties and disagreed on many issues, but she was respected by members of both parties for her work on the House Ways and Means Committee on which she served.”

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House, said in a statement that Walorski “passionately brought the voices of her north Indiana constituents to the Congress, and she was admired by colleagues on both sides of the aisle for her personal kindness.”

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Reporting by Rami Ayyub, Eric Beech, Dan Whitcomb, Costas Pitas and Frank McGurty; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio

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Categories
Technology

Apple drops mask requirements for most of its corporate workers – The Verge

Apple drops mask requirements for most of its corporate workers - The Verge

People await the start of a product launch event at Apple’s new campus in Cupertino, California, US September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

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Aug 1 (Reuters) – Apple Inc is dropping its mask mandate for corporate employees at most locations, the Verge reported on Monday, citing an internal memo. (https://bit.ly/3oJ3EQN)

This comes even as COVID-19 infections in the United States have been on the rise with the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the Omicron variant accounting for more than 90% of infections, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

These subvariants have significant mutations from the earliest versions of Omicron and protection from vaccines wanes over time.

“Don’t hesitate to continue wearing a face mask if you feel more comfortable doing so,” the report quoted Apple as saying in the internal email. “Also, please respect every individual’s decision to wear a mask or not.”

Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment outside regular business hours.

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Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu

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