Apple said it had removed Meta’s WhatsApp messaging app and its Threads social media app from the App Store in China to comply with orders from Chinese authorities. The apps were removed from the store on Friday after Chinese officials cited unspecified national security concerns. Their removal comes amid elevated tensions between the U.S. and China over trade, technology and national security. The U.S. has threatened to ban TikTok over national security concerns. But while TikTok, owned by Chinese technology firm ByteDance, is used by millions in the U.S., apps like WhatsApp and Threads are n ..read more

A third panel of potential jurors will be questioned Friday in Donald Trump’s hush money case, drawing jury selection a step closer to completion in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president. After a jury of 12 New Yorkers was seated Thursday, lawyers are now expected to turn their attention to picking alternates who can vow to set aside their personal views and judge the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Thursday's court proceedings demonstrated unpredictability in the jury selection process of such a high-profile case, with two jurors who had been seated a day earlier be ..read more

A lottery ticket worth $150,000 sat inside a Michigan woman’s purse for a month, and she didn’t even know she had won. Jennifer Horton, 41, of Mount Pleasant, bought a Powerball ticket at the Marathon gas station on East Pickard Street in Mount Pleasant and matched four white balls and the Powerball -- 16-31-34-47-65, PB: 10 -- from the Jan. 20 drawing. She won a $50,000 prize, but thanks to the Power Play, that total was multiplied to $150,000. “I buy Powerball tickets every once in awhile,” Horton said. “I don’t usually play the Power Play, but when I was purchasing my ticket, the worker sug ..read more

The Biden administration on Friday imposed sanctions on two entities accused of fundraising for extremist Israeli-occupied West Bank settlers who have harassed and attacked Palestinians, as well as the founder of an organization whose members regularly assault Palestinians. The Treasury Department announcement comes as the West Bank has seen some of its worst violence perpetrated by extremist settlers against Palestinians since the war in nearby Gaza began. There is also friction between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose far-right government has reacted a ..read more

Emergency room health care workers at a Detroit hospital went on an anticipated strike this week over frustrations related to labor and long wait times. Health care workers in the emergency department at Ascension St. John Hospital walked out of their workplace on Thursday, April 18. Doctors, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners who formed a union said earlier this month that their contract negotiations had been fruitless for months. The strike that followed this week was anticipated by both sides of the issue. The union said earlier this month that a strike was likely due to a breakd ..read more

The American envoy to the United Nations called Friday for countries armed with atomic weapons to pursue nuclear disarmament as she visited the atomic bomb museum in Nagasaki, Japan. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who became the first U.S. cabinet member to visit Nagasaki, stressed the importance of dialogue and diplomacy amid a growing nuclear threat in the region. “We must continue to work together to create an environment for nuclear disarmament. We must continue to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in every corner of the world,” she said after a tour of the atomic bomb museum. “For those of ..read more

Jury selection in the hush money trial of former President Donald Trump is set to resume Friday following a frenetic day Thursday that eventually saw all 12 jurors and one alternate sworn in after two previously seated jurors were dismissed earlier in the day. One of those jurors was excused Thursday after expressing doubt about her ability to be fair and impartial after aspects of her identity were disclosed and a second seated juror was removed following concerns over the accuracy of his answers to questions about whether he had ever been accused or convicted of a crime. Five more alternates ..read more

A Nigerian chess champion and child education advocate is attempting to play chess nonstop for 58 hours in New York City’s Times Square to break the global record for the longest chess marathon. Tunde Onakoya, 29, hopes to raise $1 million for children's education across Africa. He is playing against Shawn Martinez, an American chess champion, in line with Guinness World Record guidelines that any attempt to break the record must be made by two players who would play continuously for the entire duration. Onakoya had played chess for 42 hours by 10:00 a.m. GMT on Friday. Support is growing onli ..read more

The United States told the Group of Seven foreign ministers on Friday that it received “last minute” information from Israel about a drone action in Iran, Italy’s foreign minister said. Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who chaired the meeting of ministers of industrialized countries, said the United States provided the information at a Friday morning session that was changed at the last minute to address the suspected attack. Tajani said the U.S. informed the G7 ministers that it had been “informed at the last minute” by Israel about the drones. “But there was no sharing of the attack ..read more

Sometime in the next few days or even hours, the “miners” who chisel bitcoins out of complex mathematics are going to take a 50% pay cut — effectively slicing new production of the world’s largest cryptocurrency in half. That could have a lot of implications, from the price of the asset to the bitcoin miners themselves. And, as with everything in the volatile cryptoverse, the future is hard to predict. Here’s what you need to know. WHAT IS BITCOIN HALVING AND WHY DOES IT MATTER? Bitcoin “halving,” a preprogrammed event that occurs roughly every four years, impacts the production of bitcoin. Mi ..read more