news
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Chinese spy balloon did not collect information, says Pentagon - BBC
www.bbc.com Chinese spy balloon did not collect information, says PentagonThe balloon floated across the US early this year before being shot down off the South Carolina coast.
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Supreme Court says 1st Amendment entitles web designer to refuse same-sex wedding work - NPR
The court ruled 6-3 long ideological lines that the First Amendment bars Colorado from "forcing a website designer to create expressive designs speaking messages with which the designer disagrees."
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Supreme Court blocks student loan forgiveness plan - NPR
The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down President Biden’s plan for federal student loan forgiveness, meaning millions of federal borrowers will not see their debts decreased or erased.
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The US government is awarding $1.7 billion to buy electric and low-emission buses - AP News
apnews.com The US government is awarding $1.7 billion to buy electric and low-emission busesThe U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding $1.7 billion in grants for buying zero- and low-emission buses. The money goes to transit projects in 46 states and territories, including Seattle and Washington, D.C. The grants announced Monday will enable transit agencies and state and local gover...
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3 works in translation: History and literature intertwined
It is easy to act as if fiction and history were separate. But they cannot be completely divided. Jenny Erpenbeck's \<em\>Kairos \</em\>and Oksana Lutsyshyna's \<em\>Ivan and Phoebe \</em\>help readers connect with time past.
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Titan sub implosion: US Coast guard launches investigation into disaster - BBC
www.bbc.com Titan sub implosion: US Coast guard launches investigation into disasterIt is currently in its initial phase and efforts to recover the wreckage of the sub are ongoing.
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New news feeds! NYT and WSJ
I'll keep the post brief this time!
I have added New York Times and Wall Street Journal magazines to the auto pull pipeline.
Occasionally, some of the links might be kind of janky due to using archive links but overall should be better than having to fuss with soft paywalls and login prompts.
https://fediverse.boo/m/nyt\_news https://fediverse.boo/m/wsj\_news
Let me know if there are any other magazines you want me to set up!
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Pill for Obesity Has Wall Street Salivating - WSJ
The Ozempic craze has captured the national imagination, along with that of Wall Street.
The financial potential for drugs that lead to significant weight loss isn’t hard to grasp. If even a small portion of the 40% of Americans who are obese get on these medications, the companies that offer them could be looking at massive blockbusters.
But to target the millions of potential patients, manufacturers need to offer more than just weight-loss data. Things like price, convenience and access are also important. For now, Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and its sister drug, Wegovy, as well as Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro (which is approved for diabetes but not yet for obesity) are expensive—costing over $10,000 a year—and are only available as injections.
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Supreme Court to Rule on Affirmative Action, Student Debt and Where Gay Rights and Free Speech Intersect - WSJ
The Supreme Court is heading into the final stretch of its current session, the first with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on the bench. While no single case has elicited the political tension that swelled last session after the leak of the court’s historic decision eliminating a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, a number of cases with major social implications will be decided between now and the end of June. Here are the most important cases on the docket and brief accounts of some important opinions the court has recently issued.
Affirmative Action in College Admissions Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College
Gay Rights and Free Speech 303 Creative v. Elenis
Student-Debt Relief Biden v. Nebraska Department of Education v. Brown
Political Redistricting Moore v. Harper
Online Speech Counterman v. Colorado
(and more, cases listed in article)
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This Bull Market Is Just Getting Started, Traders Bet - WSJ
Everyone wants a piece of the new bull market.
Traders are piling into bullish options bets that would profit if the recent stock rally continues. There has been a flurry of trading tied to continued advances in everything from artificial-intelligence stocks to smaller, economically sensitive companies and regional banks.
The activity suggests the dour outlook with which many investors began the year has softened as the S&P 500 has rallied 13%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has soared 29% in 2023, on track for its best start to a year since 1983.
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Cyberattacks on hospitals 'should be considered a regional disaster,' researchers find - NPR
When hackers attack a hospital, it can be deadly. But doctors and patients at nearby hospitals suffer, too, according to a new study from the University of California San Diego.
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After its march toward Moscow, what's next for Russia's Wagner Group? - NPR
The fate of the private military company is unclear, especially after it was credited with delivering Russia recent gains in the country's war against Ukraine.
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SpaceX Targets $150 Billion Valuation - WSJ
SpaceX is seeking to increase its valuation to around $150 billion in a new sale of employee shares.
The Elon Musk -led company is planning to reach that valuation by selling shares at $81 each, according to a person familiar with the effort. In December, SpaceX launched another sale that valued the shares at $77 each, assigning the company a value of roughly $140 billion.
SpaceX, founded by Musk more than two decades ago, is the busiest rocket launcher globally, handling missions for commercial-satellite operators, NASA and other government agencies.
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IBM Nears $5 Billion Deal for Software Provider - WSJ
IBM is close to a deal to acquire software company Apptio for about $5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, in a move that would bring the technology giant greater automation capabilities.
Apptio, owned by private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners, provides tools to help companies keep track of the software and services they use and better manage costs. The business has counted financial giants Allstate and Bank of America among its clients, according to its website.
The parties are in advanced talks for a purchase that could be finalized over the weekend, the people said, assuming the negotiations don’t fall apart at the last minute. It isn’t clear whether the purchase price includes debt.
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Step inside the world's only nuclear-powered passenger ship — built in 1959- NPR
The Nuclear Ship Savannah offers a snapshot of a nuclear future that never quite came to pass.
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Supreme Court rules against Navajo Nation in Colorado River case - NPR
www.kunc.org Supreme Court rules against Navajo Nation in Colorado River caseThe Supreme Court has ruled against the Navajo Nation in a case centered on the tribe’s rights to the drying Colorado River. The tribe claimed it was the federal government’s legal duty to help figure out their future water needs, and aid them in using their rights. But in a 5-4 decision, the justic...
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Florida once again has a giant African land snail problem - NPR
The state is moving quickly to destroy the snails before the snails destroy Florida's crops. The snails contain both male and female reproductive organs and lay up to 500 eggs at a time.
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Where’s the Recession We Were Promised? - WSJ
The 2023 recession is missing in action. At the end of last year, economists were more convinced than they’ve ever been that recession was on the way, but it refused to arrive. Now investors, economists and Federal Reserve policy makers are giving up on the idea, expecting the economy to be (a bit) stronger and stock prices and bond yields to be higher.
Why aren’t we in recession? Is it still on the way? And could it be that the recession forecasts perversely helped us avoid recession?
The recession didn’t arrive because we had two pieces of surprising good news. First, energy prices dropped, helping support demand, as Europe secured supplies to replace Russian gas more easily than expected.
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3M Reaches $10.3 Billion Settlement in ‘Forever Chemicals’ Suits - NYT
www.nytimes.com 3M Reaches $10.3 Billion Settlement in ‘Forever Chemicals’ SuitsThe deal followed an agreement by Chemours, DuPont and Corteva to pay $1.19 billion to help resolve claims that the chemical manufacturers contaminated drinking water across the country.
The chemical and manufacturing giant 3M reached a $10.3 billion settlement on Thursday with U.S. cities and towns over their claims that the company contaminated drinking water with so-called forever chemicals used in everything from firefighting foam to nonstick coatings. Under the sweeping settlement, 3M said it would pay out the money over 13 years to any cities, counties and others across the country to test for and clean up perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, in public water supplies.
3M, which is facing about 4,000 lawsuits by states and municipalities for PFAS contamination, did not admit any liability. The company said the settlement covered remediation to water suppliers that detected the chemical “at any level or may do so in the future.”
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Secret Navy sensors detected a possible implosion around the time the Titan’s communications failed - NYT
The U.S. Navy, using data from a secret network of underwater sensors designed to track hostile submarines, detected “an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion” in the vicinity of the Titan submersible at the time communications with the vessel were lost on Sunday, two senior Navy officials said on Thursday.
But with no other indications of a catastrophe, one of the officials said, the search was continued.
The data from the sensors was combined with information from airborne Navy P-8 surveillance planes and sonar buoys on the surface to triangulate the approximate location of the Titan, one of the officials said. The analysis of undersea acoustic data and information about the location of the noise were then passed on to the Coast Guard official in charge of the search, Rear Adm. John Mauger.
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Nearly half of US honeybee colonies died last year. Struggling beekeepers stabilize population - AP News
apnews.com Nearly half of US honeybee colonies died last year. Struggling beekeepers stabilize populationA new survey says America's honeybee hives just staggered through the second highest death rate on record, with beekeepers losing nearly half of their managed colonies. But using costly measures to create new colonies, beekeepers are somehow keeping afloat. Thursday’s University of Maryland and Aubu...
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Higher Interest Rates Hit Home Prices Again - WSJ
U.S. existing-home prices posted their biggest year-over-year decline in more than 11 years last month as rising interest rates continued to weigh on the housing market.
The national median existing-home price fell 3.1% in May from a year earlier to $396,100, the largest drop since December 2011, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.
Existing-home sales, which make up most of the housing market, increased 0.2% in May from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.3 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. May sales fell 20.4% from a year earlier.
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U.S. Offers India Drones, Jet Engines to Lure It From Russia - WSJ
WASHINGTON—India is expected to purchase state-of-the-art U.S. drones and jointly produce jet-fighter engines in a multibillion-dollar deal designed to wean New Delhi off arms purchases from Russia.
The purchase is expected to be unveiled Thursday in Washington as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the White House on a high-profile visit that includes a formal state dinner. New Delhi had long sought some of the U.S.’s most advanced weaponry and equipment, but Washington was reluctant until now to share such sensitive technology because of India’s past, and continuing, purchases of Russian military gear.
The switch to greater cooperation stems from India’s strategic importance in the U.S. campaign to counter China, as well as American interest in stifling Russian influence in developing nations. India, despite U.S. pressure, has stayed neutral over Moscow’s war in Ukraine and refrained from United Nations votes to condemn Russia’s action and declining to join sanctions.
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Additional automated news feeds added!
Hi news readers,
Just a quick update for you all, I’ve already seen some of you have found the new magazines and have subscribed, thank you!
If you haven’t seen them yet, I added npr\_news, bbc\_news, and cnn\_news magazines. All of the content on those magazines are automatically pulled from those publishers every hour at the top of the hour. There will be a large influx of posts on there initially as it has to populate everything it finds but it should quickly match the pace that the journalists release articles. I believe all 3 magazines should be past that initial influx of posts.
Like I said in my last META post, I still intend to manually curate news links for this magazine but I wanted to provide you guys some dedicated magazines for these sources that get updated frequently.
I intend to add some more in the future, let me know if there are any specific requests for me to look at setting up. I’m hoping at some point we’ll be able to set up a multi-magazine that contains the posts from everything.
Links to communities: @news @npr\_news @bbc\_news @cnn\_news
P.S. it could also be cool to set up dedicated tech or gaming magazines that pulls content from various sources too
- lohrun
- www.bbc.com Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg agree to hold cage fight
Earlier this month, Meta showed staff plans for a text-based social network designed to compete with Twitter.
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The U.S. Population Is Older Than It Has Ever Been - NYT
The median age in the United States reached a record high of 38.9 in 2022, according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau.
It’s a rapid rise. In 2000, the median age was 35, and in 1980, the median was 30.
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China’s Cloud Computing Firms Raise Concern for U.S. - NYT
In the digital cold war between the United States and China, American officials are increasingly turning their attention to a new target: Chinese cloud computing giants.
Over the last 18 months, the Biden administration and members of Congress have ramped up their exploration of what can be done to address security concerns about the cloud computing divisions of Chinese tech behemoths like Alibaba and Huawei, five people with knowledge of the matter said.
American officials have discussed whether they can set tighter rules for the Chinese companies when they operate in the United States, as well as ways to counter the companies’ growth abroad, three of the people said. The Biden administration has also spoken with the American cloud computing companies Google, Microsoft and Amazon to understand how their Chinese competitors operate, three other people with knowledge of the matter said.
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America’s Top Fast-Fashion Retailer Tries to Shed Its Chinese Image - WSJ
Shein, the China-founded ultrafast-fashion retailer that has become a favorite of young American consumers, is making an effort to reshape its public image, including addressing American lawmakers’ concerns about the origins of its cotton.
Shein is now the top fast-fashion retailer in the U.S. by market share. As the popularity of its rock-bottom-priced clothes—think $5 tank tops and $6 sandals—has soared, critics have battered it over alleged copyright infringement, textile waste and questionable labor practices.
At the core of Shein’s challenge is a hot-button political issue. Western lawmakers have pressed Shein to address whether it sources cotton from China’s Xinjiang region, where the U.S. has accused Chinese authorities of committing genocide and of using forced labor in its repression of mostly Muslim Uyghurs, allegations Beijing denies.
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Fed’s Powell Says Interest-Rate Pause Is Expected to Be Temporary - WSJ
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank was likely to raise interest rates in coming months after officials held them steady last week to study the effects of their previous, rapid increases to combat inflation.
“Nearly all [officials] expect that it will be appropriate to raise interest rates somewhat further by the end of the year,” Powell said in testimony prepared for deliver to a congressional committee Wednesday. “But at last week’s meeting, considering how far and how fast we have moved, we judged it prudent to hold the target range steady to allow the committee to assess additional information and its implications for monetary policy.”
Powell’s discussion of the economic outlook, prepared for the House Financial Services Committee, was almost identical to comments he made at a June 14 news conference.
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Fierce backlash in Beijing to Biden likening Xi to a dictator comes as he hopes for a thaw - CNN
www.cnn.com Fierce backlash in Beijing to Biden likening Xi to a dictator comes as he hopes for a thaw | CNN PoliticsWhen President Joe Biden referred to his Chinese counterpart as a dictator late Tuesday in California, the response from Beijing was swift and angry.
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Amazon is accused of enrolling consumers into Prime without consent and making it hard to cancel - AP News
apnews.com Amazon is accused of enrolling consumers into Prime without consent and making it hard to cancelThe Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon for what it calls a yearslong effort to enroll consumers without consent into Amazon Prime and making it difficult for them to cancel their subscriptions. In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, the agency a...
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US approves chicken made from cultivated cells, the nation's first 'lab-grown' meat - AP News
apnews.com US approves chicken made from cultivated cells, the nation's first 'lab-grown' meatChicken grown from animal cells, not from slaughtered birds, can now be sold in the U.S. The Agriculture Department issued approvals Wednesday to California firms Upside Foods and Good Meat to sell the products, known as “lab-grown” or “cultivated” meat. The meat is grown in steel tanks, using cells...
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Could Russia really play nuclear roulette in Ukraine? - BBC News
www.bbc.com Could Russia really play nuclear roulette in Ukraine?Steve Rosenberg looks at how discussion of the use of nuclear weapons has crept into Russian media.
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Paris explosion: More than 20 injured after blast - BBC News
www.bbc.com Paris explosion: More than 20 injured after blastFour of the injured are in a critical state after the blast in the historic Latin Quarter, police say.
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Hey @news subscribers, I'm adding some automatic news feeds in new magazines!
Hey @news subscribers, just wanted to let you know I'm still planning on throwing links I find interesting on this magazine still.
That being said, we have NEWS about the instance! (I know, I know, the pun sounded better in my head)
I'm starting to set up some content aggregate bots but I'm giving them their own dedicated magazines for people to subscribe to. The first one I have set up is @npr\_news All you have to do is subscribe to the magazine as per usual and the bot should populate the magazine with new news stories every 2 hours.
To start with, I only have the bot cross posting stuff from NPR's general news feed. I have a list of candidates I'm looking at for additional articles to pull in: Climate, Economy, National, Science, World, National Security, and Wages. I didn't want to enable all of those feeds at once and drown out the magazine so I'll slowly add one at a time in.
All of the posts will be tagged accordingly: [Article Name] - NPR [News Category] e.g.: The search intensifies for the missing submersible as underwater noises are detected - NPR [National]
I will likely spend some time adding AP News, NYT, and WSJ magazines with their own bots as well. Please let me know if there are any additional publications I should consider or if you have any feedback!
- lohrun
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American Companies Are Hostage to the Whims of TikTok - WSJ
Smothered in a special sauce, the “Keithadilla” was a breakout hit for Chipotle Mexican Grill in the first quarter. It also gave the company indigestion.
The twist on Chipotle’s traditional quesadilla was invented by a popular TikTok food influencer as an off-menu “hack.” Soon, the Mexican fast-casual chain was overwhelmed by custom orders. The item took longer to make and its mix of ingredients flustered workers, especially when the sauce—a combination of sour cream and chipotle-honey vinaigrette—ran out. When some staffers refused to make the off-menu item, customers began posting angry reviews online.
Chipotle faced a decision: Give in to the whims of TikTok or risk losing business. The Keithadilla is now a permanent menu item. “We want to be at the pulse of culture,” said Chris Brandt, the chain’s chief marketing officer.
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U.S. Tracked ZTE, Huawei Workers at Suspected Chinese Spy Sites in Cuba - WSJ
WASHINGTON—During the Trump administration, U.S. officials reviewed intelligence that tracked workers from the Chinese telecom giants Huawei Technologies and ZTE entering and exiting facilities suspected of housing Chinese eavesdropping operations in Cuba, according to people familiar with the matter.
The intelligence contributed to suspicions within the Trump administration that the telecommunications companies might be playing a role in expanding China’s ability to spy on the U.S. from the island, according to people familiar with the matter. It couldn’t be learned whether the Biden administration has pursued that line of inquiry.
While neither Huawei nor ZTE is known to make the sophisticated tools governments would use for eavesdropping, both specialize in the technology needed to facilitate such an operation, such as servers and network equipment that could be used to transmit data to China, the people familiar with the matter said.
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In Hosting Modi, Biden Pushes Democracy Concerns to the Background - NYT
President Biden has declared “the battle between democracy and autocracy” to be the defining struggle of his time. But when he rolls out the red carpet on the South Lawn of the White House for Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India on Thursday morning, Mr. Biden will effectively call a temporary truce.
In granting Mr. Modi a coveted state visit, complete with a star-studded gala dinner, Mr. Biden will shower attention on a leader presiding over democratic backsliding in the world’s most populous nation. Mr. Modi’s government has cracked down on dissent and hounded opponents in a way that has raised fears of an authoritarian turn not seen since India’s slip into dictatorship in the 1970s.
Yet Mr. Biden has concluded, much as his predecessors did, that he needs India despite concerns over human rights just as he believes he needs Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and other countries that are either outright autocracies or do not fit into the category of ideal democracies. At a time of confrontation with Russia and an uneasy standoff with China, Mr. Biden is being forced to accept the flaws of America’s friends.
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Summer solstice brings druids, pagans and thousands of curious people to Stonehenge - AP News
apnews.com Summer solstice brings druids, pagans and thousands of curious people to StonehengeDruids, pagans, hippies, local residents and tourists gathered around a prehistoric stone circle on a plain in southern England to express their devotion to the sun. Or to have some communal fun. They stayed and celebrated at Stonehenge on Tuesday night and greeted sunrise on Wednesday which is the ...
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Church of England clergy asks for a pay raise for the first time in history - NPR
The United Kingdom has been struggling with a cost-of-living crisis since 2021. Clergy members are asking for a 9.5% pay hike that would begin in April 2024.