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WORLD   US   POLITICS  
Iran war Israel strikes: Live updates
- Israel's defense minister said on Friday that Israeli attacks on Iran "will escalate and expand." Israel Katz made the comment in a statement noting that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "warned the Iranian terrorist regime to stop firing missiles at the civilian population in Israel." "Despite the warnings, the firing continues — and therefore (Israeli military) attacks in Iran will escalate and ...

Source: bostonglobe.com
US  
Juries take lead in push for child online safety
- WASHINGTON -- For over a decade, US lawmakers have promised guardrails for children on social media. They've grilled the chiefs of Meta, Snap, YouTube, and TikTok about the dangers of their sites. They've introduced dozens of child safety bills. Little has come from the noise. But this week, two juries held social media companies accountable for harming young users. In Los Angeles on Wednesday, a jury decided in ...

Source: bostonglobe.com
US   POLITICS  
US Senate passes funding package for Homeland Security that excludes ICE
- House of Representatives still needs to act before funded agencies such as airport security can reopen, CNN reports The US Senate has passed legislation that will finance most of the Department of Homeland Security but withhold funds from ICE and part of Customs and Border Protection, the office of the Senate Democratic party leader, Chuck Schumer, said in a statement. The agreement would fund DHS components such ...

Source: theguardian.com
POLITICS  
Trump's signature to appear on paper currency, says Treasury
- March 27 (UPI) -- The signature of President Donald Trump will appear on future paper currency, according to the Treasury Department, which said the move was in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States. "There is no more powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J. Trump than U.S. dollar bills bearing his name, and it is only appropriate that this ...

Source: upi.com
US   POLITICS  
Anthropic wins reprieve against US DoD ban, buying time for contractors to assess AI supply chains
- Companies working with the federal government have more time to reassess their exposure to the company's technology and prepare for potential policy whiplash. The Pentagon's attempt to brand Anthropic a supply chain risk was "likely both contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious," a US federal judge wrote in a ruling halting a ban on use of Anthropic's products in defense contracts. In granting Anthropic a ...

Source: cio.com
Mexico's navy says two boats ferrying aid to Cuba are missing
- The Mexican navy said Thursday that it was searching for two boats transporting humanitarian aid for Cuba with nine crew of different nationalities on board. The vessels set sail last Friday from Isla Mujeres in Mexico's southeastern state of Quintana Roo and were due to arrive in Havana on Tuesday or Wednesday this week, the navy said in a statement. It said that there had been neither "communication nor ...

Source: digitaljournal.com
POLITICS  
US federal court upholds Trump detention with no bond policy
- News , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons US federal court upholds Trump detention with no bond policy A US federal appellate court On Wednesday upheld the Trump administration's practice of detaining undocumented immigrants without bond, reversing a lower court decision amid increasingly overcrowded detention centers and administrative courtrooms. The decision aligns with a US Court of Appeals for the Fifth ...

Source: jurist.org
US   POLITICS  
Cherfilus-McCormick gives first public defense against stolen COVID fund accusations
- By and Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick's legal team presented her first detailed public defense against allegations of "extensive misconduct" during a six-hour House Ethics Committee hearing Thursday evening. The Democratic lawmaker is also facing criminal charges alleging that she stole Covid relief funds after the state made a $5 million overpayment error to her family's healthcare company. Both the ...

Source: miamiherald.com
Whale freed by rescuers after days stranded on Baltic coast | World News
- Rescuers were locked in a race against time to save the struggling mammal - which had become entangled in nets off the north German coast. A humpback whale that was stranded in shallow water off the north German coast has been set free by rescuers. The whale had been stranded for several days on the Timmendorfer Strand, a popular resort town on the Baltic Sea coastline, with several rescue attempts made amid fears ...

Source: news.sky.com
US   MARKETS  
What could cause mortgage rates to drop this April?
- After touching below 6% in February, mortgage rates have been climbing back up for the better part of March, driven by a confluence of economic and geopolitical pressures. In turn, the average 30-year mortgage rate is now sitting at about 6.25% (as of March 26, 2026), further lessening affordability for potential homebuyers in an already less-than-ideal economic landscape. This recent rate uptick hasn't just driven ...

Source: cbsnews.com
US   POLITICS  
Senators Demand to Know How Much Energy Data Centers Use
- In a letter sent Thursday morning, Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley press the Energy Information Agency to mandate annual electricity disclosure for data centers. Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren and Republican senator Josh Hawley are urging the US's central energy information agency to provide better information on how much electricity data centers actually use. In a joint letter sent to the Energy Information ...

Source: wired.com
US   POLITICS  
'ICE Has Been Lying for a Year' About Being Allowed to Make Courthouse Arrests
- US congressional candidate Brad Lander is demanding a congressional investigation and civil rights actions on behalf of hundreds of people who have been "illegally abducted" at immigration courts across the country after the US Department of Justice admitted it has been relying on a lie put forward by federal immigration officials as it defended agents' arrests at courthouses. Jay Clayton, the US attorney for the ...

Source: commondreams.org
From Laurel Hubbard to sex testing in five years: why the Olympics U-turned on transgender rules
- The IOC's shift in position on trans women in elite sports is seismic, but new president Kirsty Coventry is reflecting a changed political climate By any measure, it amounts to one of the most astonishing U-turns from a governing body in modern times. Four and a half years ago, the International Olympic Committee was lauding the appearance of the first transgender weightlifter, Laurel Hubbard, at an Olympics , and ...

Source: theguardian.com
Netflix Hits Customers With a New Price Hike, Following Other Streamers in 2026
- Another year, another Netflix streaming price hike. After last raising prices in January 2025 , the company is implementing increases on all three plans for US subscribers. As Variety first reported, updated rates went live on the streaming service's  plan help page on Thursday.  A Netflix spokesperson confirmed to CNET that the new pricing goes into effect immediately for new customers, and in the coming ...

Source: cnet.com
US   POLITICS  
Reports: Trump admin. again seeks to prosecute NY AG Letitia James
- March 26 (UPI) -- The Trump administration is again seeking to prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James after a judge threw out its case against her and grand juries twice declined to indict her last year, according to reports. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte is accusing James of alleged homeowners insurance fraud, according too documents obtained by CNN , NBC News and MS News . Pulte ...

Source: upi.com
WORLD   POLITICS  
Trump confirms May visit to China after Iran war forces delay to landmark trip
- Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. US president says he's visiting Beijing on 14-15 May Removed from bookmarks will meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on 14-15 May, more than a month later than initially planned. The US president was scheduled to visit China on 31 March but postponed the trip after launching a war against Iran ...

Source: independent.co.uk
BUSINESS   TECHNOLOGY  
Supreme Court Significantly Narrows Liability for Contributory Copyright Infringement
- Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment , No. 24-171 Yesterday, the Supreme Court held—in an opinion joined by seven Justices—that contributory copyright infringement requires inducement of infringement or provision of a service tailored to infringement, squarely rejecting broader theories of contributory infringement liability. BACKGROUND Cox Communications is an internet service provider ...

Source: jdsupra.com
Brother and sister are charged after an explosive device was found outside a Florida Air Force base
- FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A man who fled to China after leaving an explosive device outside MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa has been indicted along with his sister in Florida on federal charges, and their mother has been detained pending deportation for overstaying her visa, a federal prosecutor said Thursday. Alen Zheng, 20, and Ann Mary Zheng, 27, were charged Wednesday in separate federal indictments. ...

Source: apnews.com
Iran starts to formalize its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz with a 'toll booth' regime
- FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Iran appears to be setting itself up as the gatekeeper for the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important artery for oil shipments. The move could cement Tehran's de facto chokehold over the crucial waterway and formalize its ability to keep its own oil flowing to China. Iranian communications to the United Nations maritime authority and the experience of ships transiting the ...

Source: apnews.com
Sperm whales help one another give birth, new study finds
- Scientists saw a sperm whale giving birth. And then things got weird On July 8, 2023, whale biologist Shane Gero was on a boat off the coast of Dominica when he realized something "strange" was going on. A group of sperm whales known as "Unit A" that he and his colleagues were tracking appeared to be floating calmly near the Caribbean Sea's surface. "That's not the kind of behavior you normally see," Gero recalls. ...

Source: scientificamerican.com
Two men arrested over Jewish charity ambulance attacks released on bail
- Men released on bail over Jewish charity ambulance arson attack Two men who were arrested over the arson attack on Jewish charity-owned ambulances in north London have been released on bail, the Metropolitan Police has said. Four Hatzola ambulances in the car park of a synagogue in Golders Green were set alight in the early hours of Monday, in an incident being treated as an antisemitic hate crime. The men, British ...

Source: bbc.com
US   MARKETS  
Fannie Mae to accept first cryptocurrency-backed mortgages
- March 26 (UPI) -- Fannie Mae on Thursday agreed to begin accepting mortgages that are backed using cryptocurrency. The mortgages will be offered by Coinbase and Better Home & Finance, which said the creation of what it calls a first-of-its-kind cryptocurrency-backed mortgage product could allow more Americans to afford homeownership. Although there are companies already offering mortgages backed with crypto-assets, ...

Source: upi.com
U.S. is one of three countries to vote against U.N. resolution calling slavery a 'crime against humanity'
- UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans "the gravest crime against humanity" and calling for reparations as "a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs." The resolution also urges "the prompt and unhindered restitution" of cultural items — including artworks, monuments, museum pieces, documents and national ...

Source: nbcnews.com
POLITICS  
Maduro appears in court as judge weighs whether Venezuela can pay his legal costs in trafficking case
- NEW YORK — A US judge pressed the Trump administration Thursday about its basis for barring Venezuela's government from paying former president Nicolás Maduro's legal fees in the drug trafficking case that has put him behind bars in New York. As Maduro and Cilia Flores, his wife and codefendant, looked on in beige jail uniforms, his lawyers argued that the United States is violating the deposed ...

Source: bostonglobe.com
US   POLITICS  
Memo: Classified documents at Mar-a-Lago related to Trump's business
- March 25 (UPI) -- A 2023 Justice Department disclosure to Congress revealed that President Donald Trump had documents so secretive that only six people had received copies among classified documents he kept at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after he left office. The disclosure was part of former special counsel Jack Smith's report on his investigation into Trump, which has not been made public. Elements of the ...

Source: upi.com
US   POLITICS  
AP report: Justice Department settles lawsuit from Trump ally Michael Flynn for $1.2 million
- WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has settled for roughly $1.2 million a lawsuit with Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser to President Donald Trump who pleaded guilty during the Republican's first term to lying about phone conversations with a top Russian diplomat but was later pardoned. Court papers filed Wednesday do not reveal the settlement amount, but a person familiar with the ...

Source: pbs.org
POLITICS  
Four killed in latest US attack on alleged drug-smuggling boat in Caribbean
- The United States has conducted its 47th attack on an alleged drug-trafficking vessel, this time killing four people. Wednesday's announcement brings the total number of people killed in the boat-bombing campaign, dubbed Operation Southern Spear, to approximately 163. US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, described the attack as "applying total ...

Source: aljazeera.com