Featured Articles in National News

Pornhub to block access in 13 states as age-verification laws expand across U.S.

(The Center Square) − Pornhub will soon be inaccessible in 13 states after lawmakers passed a slurry of restrictions for social media and other internet sites. The bills require certain age verification measures for websites hosting adult content. A total of 16 states – Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Read More…

ABC News Settles Trump Defamation Lawsuit for $16 Million, Issues Apology

ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million to a “presidential foundation and museum” and $1 million in legal fees as part of a settlement with President-elect Donald Trump in a defamation lawsuit, according to court documents filed Saturday. The lawsuit was sparked by comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos during a March 2024 broadcast. Read More…

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Venice is watching tourists’ every move

(CNN) — They’re watching you, wherever you walk. They know exactly where you pause, when you slow down and speed up, and they count you in and out of the city. What’s more, they’re tracking your phone, so they can tell exactly how many people from your country or region are in which area, at which Read More…

Tracking who gets vaccinated is vital for public health, but it’s raising privacy concerns

For years, California and other states have collected detailed personal data from those getting immunizations to ensure children received the required shots. With the rollout of coronavirus vaccines, experts say the collection of names, addresses, birth dates and other information will be vital to tracking the safety and effectiveness of products that were developed in Read More…

Disney’s legendary studio head steps aside as shift to streaming gains momentum

Entertainment legend Alan Horn is scaling back his duties with Disney company. The 77-year-old executive is stepping down as co-chairman of Walt Disney Studios, but will remain on as the company’s chief creative officer. His partner, Alan Bergman, will run Disney’s studio content as the sole chariman, effective Jan. 1. These executive shifts come less than two Read More…

CHINA USED STOLEN DATA TO EXPOSE CIA OPERATIVES IN AFRICA AND EUROPE

Around 2013, U.S. intelligence began noticing an alarming pattern: Undercover CIA personnel, flying into countries in Africa and Europe for sensitive work, were being rapidly and successfully identified by Chinese intelligence, according to three former U.S. officials. The surveillance by Chinese operatives began in some cases as soon as the CIA officers had cleared passport Read More…

Former Virginia congressional candidate arrested for ‘extremely disturbing’ plan to kidnap 12-year-old girl, police say

A Virginia man who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2018 and admitted to being a pedophile and white supremacist was arrested for kidnapping a 12-year-old girl, according to local authorities. Nathan Daniel Larson, 40, was arrested last week in Denver during a flight layover from Fresno, California, according to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department. Larson was on Read More…

Who Is Xavier Becerra? Meet Biden’s Health And Human Service’s Secretary Pick

President-elect Joe Biden has named several key appointments to his health team, including the nomination of Xavier Becerra to the role of Secretary of Health and Human Services. If confirmed, Becerra will be the first Latino to hold the position. Becerra comes to the Department of Health and Human Services as the 33rd attorney general of California and the Read More…

Google billionaire Eric Schmidt on AOC’s claim billionaires are a policy failure: She doesn’t see the situation clearly

Recently, there has been much debate about whether billionaires should exist, an idea popularized by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But to former Alphabet executive chairman and investor Eric Schmidt, who is worth more than $17 billion, the idea that extreme wealth is a moral failure is reductive. “We would probably all be better off spending more time understanding Read More…

Peru’s Congress selects centrist lawmaker to be new leader, nation’s third president in a week

LIMA, Peru — Peru’s political crisis appeared on the verge of resolution Monday as Congress cleared the way for an elder statesman and consensus candidate to become the country’s third president in a week. People waved the nation’s red-and-white flag and blared horns outside the gates of Congress as Francisco Sagasti of the centrist Purple Read More…

Typical person yanked $12,000 from 401(k) during coronavirus pandemic: Vanguard

Retirement savers appear to be taking advantage of relaxed rules around 401(k) withdrawals during the coronavirus pandemic. The typical 401(k) investor pulled $12,000 from their account in the form of a “coronavirus-related distribution,” according to a new Vanguard analysis of its client data. This figure represents the median withdrawal — in other words, the amount right in the middle Read More…

Looting, skirmishes follow peaceful protests over police abuse against Black people and killing of Walter Wallace Jr.

After an evening of peaceful protests in the wake of the police killing of Walter Wallace Jr., tensions flared between officers and demonstrators Tuesday evening, and scattered looting broke out in several areas of the city, prompting police to request that residents of West and North Philadelphia, Kensington, and other areas remain indoors. Police and demonstrators Read More…

Ghislaine Maxwell deposition unsealed after court ruling

A court document containing detailed information about Ghislaine Maxwell and her relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unsealed on Thursday morning in New York just moments before a court-imposed deadline. This document, an April 2016 deposition, is among about a dozen long-awaited Maxwell files that have been unsealed, with the first filing involving Epstein accuser Virginia Read More…

Fed chief Jerome Powell calls for more coronavirus stimulus spending

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday called for more government spending to support the nation’s nascent economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Both the central bank and Congress should continue their aggressive efforts to shore up the economy even though employment, consumer spending and other key measures have rebounded from their collapse in the Read More…

DeVos calls for schools to offer in-person, supports bill co-sponsored by TN senator

Department of Education Secretary Betsy Devos has issued a letter to the public stating “schools must be open for in-person learning” as an option for parents. Devos, nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate in 2017, expressed her support and the support of the President for a bill which would provide scholarships to families Read More…

USPS’s operational changes are causing some trucks to travel across the country with no mail

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told senators Friday that the cost-cutting fixes he has made to the U.S. Postal Service transportation system were designed to improve service. “The only change I made, ma’am, was the trucks leave on time,” said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Friday. But an investigation by Scripps station WTVF in Nashville Read More…

Chinese hospitals aborted late-stage pregnancies and killed newborns as part of a campaign to purge the Uighur culture, report says

Hospitals in Xinjiang aborted late-stage pregnancies and killed newborns as part of China’s mission to erase Uighur culture, a doctor who worked in the region told Radio Free Asia on Monday. Since 2016, China has interned at least 1 million Uighurs in hundreds of prison camps, which it euphemistically calls “reeducation centers,” where Uighurs are forced to abandon their heritage Read More…

Massive warehouse explosion rocks Beirut, causing thousands of injuries and widespread damage

BEIRUT — A “colossal” explosion that rocked the port area of Lebanon’s capital Tuesday, killing dozens of people and injuring thousands more, happened at a warehouse where tons of ammonium nitrate were being stored, the prime minister said. “I will not rest until we find the person responsible for what happened, to hold him accountable Read More…

Saudi Arabia, With China’s Help, Expands Its Nuclear Program

WASHINGTON—Saudi Arabia has constructed with Chinese help a facility for extracting uranium yellowcake from uranium ore, an advance in the oil-rich kingdom’s drive to master nuclear technology, according to Western officials with knowledge of the site. The facility, which hasn’t been publicly disclosed, is in a sparsely populated area in Saudi Arabia’s northwest and has Read More…

Virgin Galactic debuts design of future Mach 3 high-speed aircraft, signs deal with Rolls-Royce

Virgin Galactic  is making strides toward its goal of creating high-speed commercial aircraft that operates a little closer to Earth than its existing passenger spacecraft. The company revealed the initial design of the commercial passenger airplane it’s creating that’s designed to fly at speeds in excess of Mach 3 — faster than the average cruising speed of around Read More…