SUZANNE CORDEIRO/ Getty Images

• Staff working for YouTube Music protested on Friday in Texas over a return-to-office requirement.
• Cognizant workers said most were hired to work remotely and a quarter were not even based in Texas.
• “It’s unfeasible for me to move back to Austin,” one worker now based in Florida said.

More than 40 contractors working for YouTube Music workers protested Friday outside Google’s office in Austin, Texas, against a return-to-office order.

The workers were calling for management at their employer Cognizant, a major contractor for YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, to create a return-to-office policy that is “fair” and “flexible.”

Cognizant workers are paid an hourly rate close to $19 an hour, according to Alphabet Workers Union-CWA, whose members say is not enough to cover the cost of relocating, commuting, and childcare that working from the office will entail.

The workers were notified in November they would have to all start working from the Austin office from February 6, Axios reported. But a majority of Cognizant’s workers joined the company remotely and nearly 25% are not based in Texas, the union said.

“The upcoming return to office date threatens the livelihoods of workers who do not live in the Austin area,” Alphabet Workers Union-CWA said in a statement.

Greg Mobley, a subject-matter expert at Cognizant and union member, called the mandatory notice to return to office on February 6 “abrupt,” in a video shared on the union’s Facebook page.

Florida-based Mobley, who joined the company two years ago, said: “It’s unfeasible for me to move back to Austin, especially with the rising cost of living and no assistance from Cognizant or Google to relocate.”

Neil Gossell, another YouTube Music contractor employed by Cognizant, said: “No workers should be paid so little that they cannot afford to go back to work in the office, and no worker should be forced to return to the office when it is clear we can effectively accomplish our work from home.”

When asked to comment, a Cognizant spokesperson told Insider an impending return to office “has been communicated to them repeatedly since December 2021,” adding it was “disappointing some of our associates have chosen to strike” over it.

The spokesperson added: “Associates working on this project accepted their employment with the understanding that they were accepting in-office positions, and that the team would work together at a physical location based in Austin.”

The spokesperson added: “Cognizant also wants to make clear that individuals who want to pursue alternate jobs where they may be able to work remotely have the option to do so.”

Google workers also staged protests on Wednesday and Thursday in both California and New York over pay and amid the recent layoffs after the company decided to cut 6% of its workforce, or 12,000 employees.

Approximately 50 employees protested over low wages outside a Google store on Thursday in New York, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the protests, minutes after parent company Alphabet released its fourth-quarter results. It followed a protest that took place the day before at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.

Some of the protesters in California, which included dozens of contractors, denounced what they called “poverty wages and no benefits,” according to Bloomberg.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

US Department of Defense

• The F-22 secured its first air-to-air kill by downing the Chinese surveillance balloon on Saturday.
• The Raptor fired “one AIM-9X Sidewinder missile,” bringing the balloon down off the South Carolina coast.
• The Defense Department has begun recovery efforts for debris with the US Navy and Coast Guard. 

The F-22 got its first air-to-air kill taking out the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, which spent the better part of the week floating above the United States and Canada at 60,000 feet. 

“This was a PRC surveillance balloon. This surveillance balloon purposely traversed the United States and Canada, and we are confident it was seeking to monitor sensitive military sites,” a Department of Defense official said in a press release, noting that officials from the People’s Republic of China claimed the balloon was a “weather balloon that was blown off course.” 

The balloon went down over the Atlantic Ocean off the South Carolina coast Saturday afternoon after an “F-22 Raptor fighter from the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, fired one AIM-9X Sidewinder missile,” per the DOD press release.

It is believed to be the F-22’s first air-to-air kill, according to Defense One. 

—AirTrack (@aircraftrack) February 4, 2023

The F-22 fired the missile at an altitude of 58,000 feet while the surveillance balloon was between 60,000 and 65,000 feet, per the DOD. The balloon landed about six miles off the coast in 47 feet of water, and recovery efforts for debris have since begun with the assistance of the US Navy and Coast Guard. 

“F-15 Eagles flying from Barnes Air National Guard Base, Massachusetts, supported the F-22, as did tankers from multiple states,” the Defense Department stated in its release. “The Navy has deployed the destroyer USS Oscar Austin, the cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the USS Carter Hall, an amphibious landing ship in support of the effort.” 

Brandon Wade/Reuters

• An Ex-Googler described being laid off 16 years after he started as an intern.
• “Google has been my one and only career,” Joel Leitch wrote in a LinkedIn post.
• Parent company Alphabet cut 6% of its workforce in January – or 12,000 employees. 

An ex-Google software engineer who was laid off 16 years after starting as an intern, described coming to terms with losing his “one and only career.” 

“Two weeks ago, my entire team was impacted by the Google layoff,” Joel Leitch, who held the role of tech lead across both the shopping and payments projects at Google, wrote in a LinkedIn post on Saturday.

“It was a complete shock to me and I am still perplexed as to why Google would let go of so many experienced, smart, talented, gritty, high-performing employees,” he continued.

“It has been a slow process to come to terms with my new reality as Google has been my one and only career,” Leitch said. 

According to his LinkedIn profile, the software engineer first worked at the tech giant as an intern in January 2005, before joining another tech company from January to June 2006, and going back to Google in July of that same year after graduating from the University of Waterloo. He was with the company until he was laid off. 

“It was an absolute honour to have had the opportunity to work there for so many years. The things that I will miss most are the people and the relationships built,” Leitch wrote in the post. 

Leitch and Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours. 

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, sent a memo to staff on January 20 announcing the company was laying off 6% of its workforce – around 12,000 employees. 

Pichai said that he took “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.”

Leitch isn’t alone in taking to LinkedIn after losing his job in the layoffs that have swept the tech industry.

A Microsoft software engineer who is on an H1-B visa said she wondered where she’d be living after losing her job, while a Google employee of 11 years wrote that he and his wife stared at each other in “disbelief” when they learned they’d both been laid off from the company.

Gerald Martineau/The The Washington Post via Getty Images

• The federal government is providing states with $350 billion to spend on highways to alleviate traffic congestion.
• The US has some of the widest highways in the world, but some states are planning on expanding them.
• But economists have been saying the same thing since the 1960s: more roads often just leads to more traffic.

Some of the widest highways in the US have more than 20 lanes — and traffic is still getting worse.

Last year, the federal government enacted an infrastructure law, providing states with $350 billion for highways. Even though more lanes often just means more traffic, a number of states, including New York, Texas, Oregon, and Maryland, are considering highway widening projects to ease congestion.

But new highways will hurt the communities they cut through and the climate in general.

Here are some of the widest highways in America — and why widening them won’t solve the problem.

Since the 1960s, highways helped define America. In 2018, there were over a million miles of highway across the country, costing the federal government $105 billion annually.Oakland Mayor Lionel Wilson opens the John Williams Freeway, Interstate 980, in California in 1985.

Robert Stinnett/MediaNews Group/Oakland Tribune via Getty Images

Source: The Guardian

At times, highways that have been built have specifically harmed minority communities. For instance, in 1967 in Nashville, officials added a bend to Interstate 40 to ensure the highway went through a predominantly Black neighborhood rather than a white one.Tennessee State Rep. Harold Love, Jr. stands on an overpass over I-40, Monday, July, 19, 2021, near the site of his family’s former home on the north side of Nashville, Tennessee.

John Amis/AP

Source: Los Angeles Times

More recently, protestors have fought a $9 billion expansion of the I-35 in Austin, claiming it is discriminatory.Nighttime traffic rolls into downtown Austin along Interstate 35 in a time-exposure from the highway overpass.

Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images

Source: Texas Standard

Since the 1960s, new highways have forced out about 1 million people from their homes. The majority of these residents have been Black.The Van Wyck Expressway while under construction in New York in 1950.

FPG/Getty

Source: The Guardian

And highways are hard to ignore. In Los Angeles, one section of the I-405 is 14 lanes wide.Work continues on the 405/73 carpool connector road in Costa Mesa, CA on Tuesday, December 20, 2022.

Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register/Getty Images

Source: PolitiFact

In Atlanta, there are sections of the I-75 that are 15 lanes wide.Traffic flows in and out of downtown Atlanta on the Interstate 75/Interstate 85 Connector, Thursday, May 19, 2016, in Atlanta.

John Bazemore/AP

Source: PolitiFact

And then there’s the I-10, also known as the Katy Freeway, in Houston. At certain points, the I-10 is 26 lanes wide.Traffic backs up on a freeway on September 5, 2017 in Houston, Texas.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Source: New York Times

In 2008, the Katy Freeway was extended at a cost of around $2.8 billion. But instead of helping with congestion, traffic actually increased substantially from 2011 to 2014 as more vehicles used the additional lanes.Traffic moves along Interstate 10 near downtown Houston, April 30, 2020.

David J. Phillip, File/AP

Sources: Bloomberg, The Guardian

As early as the 1960s, economists were saying more roads only meant more cars — widening highways doesn’t work. It’s the theory of “induced demand,” which basically means congestion rises to meet new capacity.Only the sign of the Colonial Manor Motel remains as crews made room for construction of the Interstate 70 expansion project on July 24, 2018 in Denver, Colorado.

RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Sources: New York Times, The Guardian

But new highways kept getting built. Between 1993 and 2017, roads increased by 42% in the country’s largest 100 cities, while population growth was only 32%. Traffic delays still rose by 144%.Automobile traffic jams Route 93 South, Wednesday, July 14, 2021, in Boston.

Charles Krupa/AP

Source: Curbed

But sometimes states don’t have a choice. For instance, in Texas, the state constitution requires funding to be used on highways before other forms of transport.A $301 million highway expansion in Irving, Texas due to be completed by the end of 2023.

John Moore/Getty Images

Sources: Bloomberg, The Guardian

Right now, America could be at a crossroads. Last year, the federal government enacted an infrastructure law to provide states with $350 billion to be used for highways.The 405 Freeway in California during rush hour traffic.

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

Source: New York Times

Some environmental organizations were dismayed by the law. This was because, of the $1.3 trillion put aside for transport, only 20% was for transit while 80% went to highways.Stephanie Pollack, deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, in 2019.

Steven Senne/AP

But President Biden’s administration showed a gentle indication for its preferred spending. 

Stephanie Pollack, deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, sent a memo to her staff telling them to encourage governments to first look at fixing current roads before laying new ones. 

Source: Wired

Even so, some states including Oregon, Maryland, Texas, and New York are pushing forward with the status quo. They’re looking to re-widen highways, including the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.Vehicles drive along the Brooklyn Queens Expressway in 2021.

Mark Lennihan/AP

Source: New York Times

And the I-270 and I-495 in Maryland, which will cost around $11 billion.Traffic flows along interchanges that link I-495 and I-270 in Maryland.

Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Sources: New York Times, Washington Post

Wider highways mean more vehicles and more pollution. Across the US, transportation is already responsible for 27% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.Construction on the I-66 in Virginia in 2021.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

For comparison, the agricultural industry is responsible for 11% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: EPA

Some states and cities are looking at alternatives. In Los Angeles, an expansion to Interstate 710 was abandoned in 2022 after the chief planning officer noted the city didn’t see “widening as a strategy” for the city.Traffic moves along the 710 freeway in this view looking north from the Willow Street overpass.

Scott Varley/Digital First Media/Torrance Daily Breeze via Getty Images

Considering Los Angeles is known for its congested highways, this was a big deal.

The decision was made after another recently completed project in Los Angeles only temporarily eased traffic before it increased again.

Source: New York Times

In Portland, young climate activists have been fighting against a $1.2 billion plan to widen the I-5 in a section which runs through a neighbourhood called Albina, a historically Black neighborhood.Heavy traffic in Portland on the I-5.

Greg Wahl-Stephens, File/AP

Its air quality is already so bad local scientists have recommended that local school children don’t play outside.

Source: Bloomberg

So, what’s the answer? Matt Turner, an economics professor at Brown University, noted if you want more cars on the road, add more lanes. But that’s not what most people want.An aerial picture taken on August 26, 2021, shows trucks, cars, and other vehicles sitting in traffic due to road construction on Interstate 5 as they transit through the Tejon Pass from the Grapevine in Kern County, California.

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

Sources: The Guardian, New York Times

On the contrary, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said: “Connecting people more efficiently and affordably to where they need to go is a lot more complicated than just always having more concrete and asphalt out there.”Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty Images

Buttigieg has publicly backed prioritizing fixing existing highways over building new ones.

Sources: New York Times, Bloomberg

Los Angeles is looking into potentially using railways to transport freight to lower the burden on highways.Traffic on I-5 in California through the Tejon Pass in 2021

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

Source: New York Times

While in Colorado adopted a new transport regulation in 2021 that directs transport planners toward projects designed to lower pollution, like cycle lanes and more bus routes.A cyclist shares dangerous cycling route between West 32nd Avenue from Applewood to Golden, which has been described as a Bicyclist’s Freeway because it is the primary route for cyclists from Denver to prime rides in the Golden area.

Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Mass transport is part of the answer — and it works, too. When Seattle focused on buses and light rail from 2010 to 2017, the increased use of public transport meant traffic decreased, even as the city grew by more than 100,000 people.Contactless payment with ORCA card (One Regional Card For All), to access all public transportation, Seattle, Washington.

Kevin Schafer/Contributor/Getty Images

Source: Curbed

But despite the advantages, it also comes down to money, Ben Holland, an urban design and land use expert at clean energy non-profit RMI, told The Guardian. Right now, most roads are toll-free and are government subsidized.Traffic going eastbound on the Pennsylvania Turnpike proceeds through the electronic toll booths in Cranberry Township, Pa., on Aug. 30, 2021.

Keith Srakocic, File/AP

Source: The Guardian

While there’s no easy answer, states and the federal government need to think creatively about how roads and public transport are paid for. One option is a congestion charge — charging people for traveling at peak times.Traffic backs up at the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge toll plaza on August 24, 2022 in Oakland, California.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The charge would aim at prompting people to travel at different times and only those who needed to travel at peak times would pay the fee meaning traffic would be eased and wider motorways wouldn’t be necessary.

It’s worked in London and in Stockholm.

Source: The Conversation

Other options include more express bus lanes, cycle lanes, walking bridges, and light rail. Basically, people need affordable options to get them out of cars and off the roads.A light rail station on March 12, 2020 in Seattle, Washington.

John Moore/Getty Images

Source: New York Times

“This is a make-or-break moment,” Holland told The Guardian. “How the states use those highway funds will basically determine whether we meet our transportation emissions goals.”Interstate 278 passes over the New Jersey Turnpike on its way to the Goethals Bridge on October 20, 2022, in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

Source: The Guardian

A day before a U.S. military jet shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the country’s Atlantic Coast on Saturday, Colombia’s military confirmed a sighting of an airborne object similar to a balloon flying over its territory.

Colombia’s air force issued a statement on Saturday providing limited details concerning a possible balloon its air defense system had located Friday morning.

U.S. military officials on Friday said another Chinese balloon was spotted somewhere over Latin America but did not specify its location.

According to the Colombian air force statement, an “object” was detected over its territory at an altitude of 55,000 feet that had entered the South American country’s airspace to the north moving at an average speed of 25 knots, or roughly 29 miles per hour.

The statement added that the object exhibited “characteristics similar to those of a balloon,” and that the air force monitored it until if left the country’s airspace.

“It was determined that it did not represent a threat to national security,” the statement added.

No other official confirmation of unidentified balloons flying over other Latin American countries has been issued as of Sunday.

In recent days, however, balloon sightings have been made in Venezuela and Costa Rica by multiple social media users.

The saga of the downed Chinese spy balloon off the U.S. coast captivated public attention for days, and was widely seen as worsening U.S.-Chinese relations.

(NewsNation) — Navy divers are working to recover pieces of a Chinese balloon shot down off the coast as officials warn people not to touch any debris that may wash ashore.

The suspected spy balloon first entered U.S. airspace on Jan. 28. It was acknowledged by government officials Thursday, a day after commercial flights were temporarily halted at the airport in Billings, Montana, where people on the ground saw the balloon seemingly loitering high above the city.

There were more sightings of the balloon as it made its way across the Midwest and into the southeast before it was shot down off the South Carolina coast.

About 2:39 p.m. EST on Saturday, an F-22 fighter jet fired a missile at the balloon, puncturing it while it was about 6 nautical miles off the coast near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, senior defense officials said.

The debris landed in 47 feet of water, shallower than officials had expected, and it spread out over roughly seven miles and the recovery operation included several ships. The officials estimated the recovery efforts would be completed in a short time, not weeks. A salvage vessel was en route.

Navy divers arrived not long after the balloon was shot down and began working to recover pieces of it.

Officials are warning those on the North and South Carolina coasts they should not touch any debris that washes ashore and should instead report it to local authorities.

Chinese authorities claim the balloon was not being used to spy and was a meteorological instrument. U.S. officials have rejected that claim. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to travel to China on Friday but canceled his trip due to the incident.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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