Apple Inc. said that it removed Meta Platforms Inc.’s WhatsApp and Threads from its China apps store after an order from the country’s internet regulator, which said the services pose risks to the country’s security. The order comes on the heels of a cleanup program Chinese regulators initiated in 2023 that was expected to remove many defunct or unregistered apps from domestic iOS and Android stores. The action against the American tech services comes as the U.S. government is taking steps toward a ban on TikTok, the hit video app from Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd. U.S. politicians have also ..read more

Israel launched a retaliatory strike against a site in Iran late Thursday night (early Friday morning local time), U.S. officials confirmed to several media outlets, though an Iranian official has downplayed the attack as a “failed and humiliating” drone strike. ABC News, CBS News, NPR, and others have cited unnamed U.S. officials in reporting that one or more missiles were launched by the Israeli military at Iran. Citing two unnamed U.S. officials, Bloomberg News reported that Israeli officials had warned U.S. officials earlier on Thursday that it planned to attack Iran in the next 24-48 ho ..read more

New York police removed a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Columbia University on Thursday and arrested more than 100 demonstrators, including the daughter of a prominent Minnesota congresswoman. Several students involved in the protest said they also were suspended from Columbia and Barnard College, including Isra Hirsi, who is the daughter of Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Omar had questioned Columbia’s president, Nemat Shafik, at a hearing Wednesday in Congress about the school’s targeting of pro-Palestinian protesters. WATCH: Rep. Omar questions ..read more

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina formally requested on Thursday to join NATO as a global partner, a status that would clear the way for greater political and security cooperation at a time when the right-wing government of President Javier Milei aims to boost ties with Western powers and attract investment. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The request came as NATO’s Deputy General Secretary Mircea Geoana held talks in Brussels on regional security challenges with visiting Argentine Defense Minister Luis Petri. Geoana said he welcomed Argentina’s bid to become an accredited partner in the ..read more

A Covid-19 patient with a weakened immune system incubated a highly mutated novel strain over 613 days before succumbing to an underlying illness, researchers in the Netherlands found. The patient, a 72-year-old man with a blood disorder, failed to mount a strong immune response to multiple Covid shots before catching the omicron variant in February 2022. Detailed analysis of specimens collected from more than two dozen nose and throat swabs found the coronavirus developed resistance to sotrovimab, a Covid antibody treatment, within a few weeks, scientists at the University of Amst ..read more

In the last week, highly anticipated songs by Drake and Taylor Swift appeared to leak online, sparking enormous reactions. Massive Reddit threads spawned, dissecting musical choices. Meme videos were created simulating other rappers’ reactions to being dissed by Drake. The rapper Rick Ross even responded to the song’s bars about him with a diss track of his own.  But there was one big problem: neither Swift nor Drake confirmed that the songs were real. In fact, loud contingents on social media claimed that the songs were AI-generated hoaxes, and begged fellow fans not to listen to them ..read more

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Under the Bridge. On the evening of Nov. 14, 1997, 14-year-old Reena Virk was invited to a party near the Craigflower Bridge in Saanich, a suburb of Victoria, British Columbia. She never returned home, and was later discovered to have been ruthlessly beaten and killed by a group of her peers. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Based on late author Rebecca Godfrey’s best-selling 2005 book of the same name, Hulu’s new true-crime miniseries Under the Bridge dramatizes the before and after of Reena’s brutal murder, which sent shockwaves throughout Canada. T ..read more

Guitar legend Dickey Betts, who co-founded the Allman Brothers Band and wrote their biggest hit, “Ramblin’ Man,” has died. He was 80. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer died at his home in Osprey, Florida, David Spero, Betts’ manager of 20 years, confirmed. Betts had been battling cancer for more than a year and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Spero said. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “He was surrounded by his whole family and he passed peacefully. They didn’t think he was in any pain,” Spero said by phone. Betts shared lead guitar duties with Duane Allman in the original Allman ..read more

Bonny Barker and Emily Hunt have gained an online following making videos about Taylor Swift, turning a fun side hobby to a full-time career. They discuss the community their channel has fostered, why Swift and her music mean so much to them and their supporters, and what it was like to get noticed by Taylor herself ..read more

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is investigating a day after outages impacted 911 call service in at least four states.  Outages affected citizens’ ability to call 911 statewide in South Dakota as well as in parts of Nevada, Texas and Nebraska for hours on Wednesday evening, in some cases leaving people without the ability to immediately connect to 911.  [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “We are aware of reports of 911-related outages and we are currently investigating,” the FCC posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. In Texas, Del Rio Police Department blamed its ou ..read more